The Foreign Service Journal, June 2010

J U N E 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 29 learn that many children in Amer- ica have their own bedrooms, whereas at their home in India the whole family lives in one small room. FromNew York they traveled to the West Coast, visiting museums and tourist attractions like Disney- land and Universal Studios, as well as enjoying the wilderness of the Sierra Mountains. These two girls from extremely poor families came back loving Henri Ma- tisse and Pablo Picasso. They spoke with equal enthusiasm about their experience cooking and serving food for the homeless people who daily crowd into San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church. This care extended to America’s homeless was a strong contrast to what they have experi- enced in their village. The girls also shared Indian culture with American chil- dren, performing classical and Bollywood dances, singing and playing the piano in several preschools in New York and Cali- fornia. Parvati told me that the peo- ple they met “held our hands and asked us to teach them our dances and asked where they could find our Indian clothes. They asked about our lives in India. We told them that our public schools have 100 children per class, no comput- ers, playground, or even a ball to play with. We sit on the floor in rooms that have no doors and windows. The children welcomed us as guests and cried when we left. They did not want us to leave.” Neither girl wants to live in the U.S., for both are de- termined to become doctors serving their own commu- nity. Yet after a brief pause, they both agreed it would be great to go to the medical school at the University of California (Davis), a place they visited during their tour. When asked what impressed them the most about the F O C U S When I told Asha and Parvati that their visas had been approved, they burst into tears even as they laughed with joy.