Walked 40 minutes to Chabad in the pouring rain for lunch. Ate with some TBT friends and a thousand Israelis.
During lunch an older Australian man named Bernie got up and started talking about how he wound up at Chabad. Apparently, he was wandering around the streets of Kathmandu on Friday (his first day in the country), lost, when a young Nepali man kindly showed him the way. As Bernie and this guy were walking, they struck up a conversation. He discovered this friendly young man was originally from India. And is now in art school. And works as a shoe shiner. And has three siblings. And lives in a slum(Is this sounding familiar yet???). After Bernie was finished I asked him if he remembered the guy's name. "Hmm, something with an S," he said, thinking. "Sanjay?" I asked.
"Yes, yes! Sanjay, that's it!" he replied, excitedly. "Umm, did you by any chance buy him groceries for his family?" "I did," he said, smiling (seemingly proud of his kindness). "Do you know him?" I didn't have the heart to tell him what had almost definitely happened. "Oh, I just met him and he showed me around as well," I replied.
He didn't need to know the real Sanjay story!
gotta be honest, I also bought food for a kid (younger than Sanjay) when I was in Kathmandu. And that was after I'd been in Asia for months already. kinda knew what was happening but so tough to say no. keep strong
ReplyDeleteit's such a weird feeling and hard to get over...know it myself. In the end i just keep telling myself i'd rather err on the side of giving than not, even if personal requests are usually not the best channel for it...it's so hard to be cold when confronted.
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