Vatsalya Stories: Sugan Chose Lisa

On the SalaamGarage trip to India in September 2009, Lisa was moved like I rarely ever see. Everyone who travels with SalaamGarage gets to choose the story they are going to tell but for Lisa, it was she who was chosen.
Lisa Field-Elliot and Eduardo Sciammarella, 2 of the 10 participants on the India project, chose to report on the Women’s Self-Help Groups that Jaipur, India based Vatsalya.org runs. None of us knew how amazing and life changing this program was till we experienced it.

Lisa describes what it was like when she met Sugan: “She put her arm around me and called me sister. She gave me a beautiful Rajasthani dress, that may take her up to six months to replace, because she wanted me to wear it when I came to visit her home.”  Lisa adds, “Sugan knew that we are the same. We are women. We are mothers. We are curious seekers of beauty and connection. We enjoy laughter and tea. We want only the best for our children. We care for our homes and want to be useful outside them. Our hearts are open.”

“It only took a moment, an afternoon, for Sugan and I to really see one another. To see ourselves, reflected back, in the simplicity of who we are. What I learned from my time with Sugan in the rural Indian village of Shampura, is that, at the bottom of things, we are the same. That our stories collide in a meeting. My story about Sugan is as much about myself as it is about her. It is about connection, being seen, and helping a woman, a sister, realize her potential in this world.”

For more of Lisa’s beautiful and breathtaking words, please read about her visit to the Durgah Sufi Shrine in Ajmer India at her blog entry called “Thread”

Lisa Field-Elliot’s blog Doorwaystraveler
twitter.com/doorwaystravelr

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 12:00 am. It is filed under India 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.