As our time comes to a close here in Kolkata we have all began to reflect on our journies while at the same time anxiously anticipating our return home.  I know that we are all sad to leave this place, but excited to return home to family, friends, and loved ones.  At times like these, moments of transition from one experince to another, I often think about how it could have been otherwise.  We are extremely fortunate to have been able to come on this trip and thankful for all of the support that we have received from everyone back home.  This trip has been a not too subtle reminder of the privilege that we come from and has daily caused us to be thankful for the lives that we have and the flexibility these positions grant us.  If this trip has shown us anything it is that our lives could have been otherwise.

It can be tough witnessing such poverty, knowing full well that we can escape it at any moment, that our trip has an expiration date.  For the people we have come here to serve this is their life and for the most part they do not get to leave.  It does not seem fair.  It is not fair.  We do not have to settle for this.  My hope for the trip was that people would see that.  I think people have, and despite the constant bombardment of death, disease, filth, and utter poverty we all remain strangely positive and as motivated and convicted as ever.  The world does not have to be divided between those who have and those who have not.  The many people we have worked with are living examples of that.  They are doing the work necessary to make this a reality.

Through our work, we have met some incredible people who have dedicated their lives to this work, whether it be at Freeset, Brother Xavier's, Loreto School, or Mother Teresa's.  These people have taken advantage of their positions of priviledge and dedicated their lives to helping those less fortunate.  Their work is admirable, inspiring, and encouraging that a better, more equitable, future is possible.  They are living proof that it can be otherwise.  They remind us that one day the world will be otherwise.  So instead of looking at all of this chaos in despair we can look with encouragement to the future.  There is a lot of work to be done.  Today seems like as good a day as any to start.  As we continue this work and head back to our lives in the U.S. it is important to always remember that it could be otherwise.

-Jerry

Otherwise

Jane Kenyon

I got out of bed

on two strong legs.

It might have been

otherwise. I ate

cereal, sweet

milk, ripe, flawless

peach. It might

have been otherwise.

I took the dog uphill

to the birch wood.

All morning I did

the work I love.

At noon I lay down

with my mate. It might

have been otherwise.

We ate dinner together

at a table with silver

candlesticks. It might

have been otherwise.

I slept in a bed

in a room with paintings

on the walls, and

planned another day

just like this day.

But one day, I know,

it will be otherwise.