Go Beyond

   Prem Dan and Kalighat Homes | Kolkata, India

   One of the most important things that volunteers assist with at Mother Teresa’s homes is serving meals and washing dishes. Every meal consists of rice plus something else like vegetables, or fish, or potatoes — but, always rice. Lots of rice! The rice is prepared in large cooking tubs and stirred with a spatula the size of an oar. It’s quite interesting to see the process. At Prem Dan, most of the residents sit expectantly in the courtyard while we prepare their plates. At Kalighat, all wait patiently on their beds. Some can feed themselves, others need assistance, but everyone looks forward to meal time.

   With a few exceptions, the residents eat without the use of utensils. Using their right hand, they skillfully scoop up a handful of rice plus whatever. Now, eating with your fingers is not as easy as it sounds. The first time I visited Bangladesh in 1999 and had to eat with my fingers I made a mess of things. But, meal by meal, I developed a measure of skill and managed to keep myself nourished. Some of the residents are unable to eat with their hands because of injuries or arthritis or missing fingers, so they manage to use a plastic spoon to feed themselves. These guys look as awkward trying to use a spoon as I did trying to use my fingers, but they manage.

   Once the residents finish eating, we collect their metal plates and cups and begin the task of washing dishes. What’s interesting is that the residents will not give up their plates until they have licked them clean. Today, I watched one fellow who was clumsily eating with a spoon. He consumed everything on his plate except for a single grain of rice. Because of that single remaining grain of rice, he would not surrender his plate to me. So, I patiently watched as he tried to coax that last grain of rice onto his spoon. He pushed and chased it around his smooth metal plate until he finally managed to get it onto his spoon and into his mouth. He smiled as he swallowed this last little morsel and then surrendered his plate and spoon.

   I’ve been thinking all afternoon about the man in pursuit of that final grain of rice on his plate. This scene is not unusual at Mother Teresa’s homes. These guys who have lived lifetimes on the streets do not waste a thing. It’s interesting that these men who have lived with nothing at all waste nothing at all. They are grateful for every nourishing morsel they can consume. How different they are from me. I have much and waste much. Too much food ends up in my kitchen garbage disposer. And, I stuff too many leftovers in Tupperware tubs where they lie in anonymity in a corner of my refrigerator, never to be reheated again.

   My beautiful Mom often tried to get me to eat everything on my plate by telling me about starving people in other countries. She was right about the starving people, but I still did not eat everything on my plate. The guys who live at Mother Teresa’s homes remind me that I am blessed and that I need to be a better steward of all that I have. I am determined to do a better job of living each day with the same kind of gratitude as these men who are unwilling to waste even a single grain of rice.