Not Easily Forgotten

Some things in life are not easily forgotten. Like the time my mom, brother, and I got in a car accident when I was 7 but no lives were taken. Angels were there. Or the time a ball hit me in the mouth and I lost three teeth. Believe it or not, angels were there. 

Then there was the time I followed Ms Leishimi on the bike and was supposed to meet her at Umbi's house. I coasted down the hill like I always do, prayed at the bottom, and was on my way. Then suddenly the bike stopped working out of no where  as if it ran out of gas. And there was no one around. So I got off my bike and began to kick start. And I did it again and again and again. And no success. I tried revving the engine while kick starting like I saw the guys doing. No luck. Again and again I tried. Nothing. I prayed for the bike. Nothing. And then... Angels came. All the class 9 and 10 girls just so happened to be picking flowers with Ms Chandona a little ways off. And I heard the joyous shout of "Sir Kam!!" That they always say as if they haven't seen me in weeks. It's always nice. "What happened to your bike?!?" They yelled. "It won't start!" I yelled back.

And so they quickly came to my assistance. And that's how we spent the next 15 min trying to start the bike. We did more laughing than anything else. The girls shielded my bald head from the sun, gave me tips,  tried to start the bike themselves, and eventually told me to just turn around and come back home. Then a Garo man came and also tried to start the bike. But to no avail. Then we pushed it up a small hill as I rode down and tried to kick start. To no avail. Then the girls finally convinced me to just take the bike back; they would help me push it up the biggest hill ever in meghalaya that we decided to settle and build a school upon. My Lanta.

So we began the journey. I felt extra bad for Ms. Leishimi because I had no way of contacting her and I knew she was probably waiting for me at Umbi's house wondering "where is sir?" Such a pickle. 

Pushing the bike was easy at first. I told the girls some stories and we all laughed. When we got to the hill, we took turns taking sides of the bike and we pushed that bike up the hill slowly but surely. It was soooooo funny. The girls tried to convince me to let them push by themselves since I was so tired. But I couldn't do that to them. As we pushed and pushed and made progress, I screamed, "you're all 21st century, independent women! And don't need NO man!" (Side note: I told them soon after that they should actually get married some day) They wanted to call the guys for help but no one was listening. We could do this. And we pretty much did. We made it about 3/4 of the way or more. Then Suban and Paul came to our aid. And of course, after some time, Suban was able to start it and rode it up the hill. It was so fun. We walked the rest of the way. Joked. Laughed. Like we always do. 

I really enjoyed my time with the girls. We laughed so much, we prayed together, we encouraged each other, and we made memories. That are hard to forget. The kids are hard to forget. I won't forget them. I mean how could forget the time when angels came to your aid? 

Hallelu