Stories of Kindness from Around the World

My friend Jenny from Germany spent some time traveling in India.  She loved the country so much that she always got pulled to it.   While there, she stayed with Leela, her friend who was Indian.  Aside from the gazes that she got as a foreigner, Jenny always had language problems.  It was so difficult for her to communicate and converse in this new environment and culture that had so many subtle differences from her own country.

One day, a strange thing happened.  Along with Leela, she went to visit an orphanage.  All the children there were tiny; each one fell somewhere between the ages of fifteen days to one-and-a-half years old.  

After some initial hesitation, Jenny slowly went to the kids and sat beside them.  After some time, one of the kids smiled at her. Her mind relaxed a little, and she immediately was drawn towards that child. 

She slowly held the child and started singing a rhyme in German.  The small child continued to smile and started repeating after her. The words that escaped the little mouth were much different from those that Jenny hummed, but the rhythm was the same.  Jenny sang a little more and the child repeated it again.  On and on they went. 

Wanting to join in all the fun, another kid went up to Jenny and started humming the rhyme.  They shared a million smiles together.  

Noticing Leela's eyes on her, she blurted an explaination straight from her heart: “See, I don’t have language problems here. We speak, we communicate!”

And she continued on with her rhyme as if not to disrupt the child’s smile.

That day, it was amazing for Leela and the others in the orphanage to see such a heartwarming, language-less connection.  In that moment, she understood: We're all simply human, and we have the ability to connect with each other.  it's simple, and comes from deep inside.