a grief

-an entry from my journal

We made arrangements to have a driver for the day to take us around and show us the sites of Mumbai.  Where we are staying is a good distance from the main city. On our way to one of the sites we got stuck in traffic and came to a complete stop for about a minute or two. It is wet outside and the rain was coming and going.

A young girl of about 8 came to our window and started making hand motions to my husband in the front seat as if she wanted food. She begged at his window for as long as she could and then came to my window. I thought, “no, don’t come to my window, it would be too heartbreaking for me to ignore you.”  She did and rubbed the water droplets from the window that the rain left behind and pressed her forehead and hand up to the glass and peered in. She begged at me and made her gestures of hunger and all I could do was look straight ahead and pray. 

i have not done the research or have any statistics about child labor but i imagine it is quite common here in india. i have been a witness to it too many times on my visits here. i have heard that the age for children here in India to drop out of school and start working for the family is age 10.

age ten people!

think of a ten year old you know and imagine them working to support the family with food and daily needs. i have even seen younger kids here and in other parts of India already begging and working hard to feed themselves and it is heartbreaking. when i was a kid i had to look after my younger siblings while my mom worked two jobs. it was a lot of responsibility and i felt like i had to grow up fast but it's nowhere near the kind of responsibility and struggle that some of these kids have to undergo.

at our hotel now we have young kids working housekeeping. i have been approached when going to the mall or walking on the beach by kids who are beggars and look like they have gone to hell and back. they walk up to you and tap you on the arm repeatedly and sometimes all you can do is look them in the eye and pray they will make it through the year, the week, or even the day.