My family goodbye

For all the times I grumbled about my hard bed, cold bucket shower, and squirmed when cock-roaches crawled in the corners of the house, I started to have second thoughts about leaving Jodhpur when it was time to say good-bye to my host family. On my last morning they cooked me a huge breakfast and sat with me as we both shared our last thoughts, trying not to make the moment awkward. My host sister assured me we would meet again, and even though she was not engaged yet I was already invited to her wedding. I had to leave early in the morning to board my twenty-four hour train ride to Varanasi so my host mom called a special taxi for me, and before we knew it the driver was honking outside the front door. They helped me carry my bags downstairs and then before launching my last bag in the taxi I embraced each of them one last time. Once inside the taxi my host my reached for my hand and I could see she was shaking and her eyes were beginning to swell. The taxi driver looked back at us, but my host my didn’t let go, instead to patted my cheek, brushing the tears from my cheek as her eyes simultaneously brimmed over with sadness. I spouted out my latest Hindi phrase ‘I will miss you’ then she wiped her face with her sari and we waved good-bye as the taxi engine roared obnoxiously loud towards the main street.