A Reflection by Melissa:
Today I stepped on a needle at Sari Bari. Obviously, it wasn’t my best case scenario in any way. After pulling the needle out of my foot, I sat in the office (but the cry of pain when it happened alerted the women that something was up). Rohima, one of our managers came into the office with me. Really, i wanted to be left alone. I wanted to take care of my foot the way i wanted to, and I didn’t want to pretend that it didn’t hurt that bad, and I didn’t want to cry in front of Rohima. But I didn’t get what I wanted. I got so much more. We started digging through the medical box, looking for what how to clean and bandage my foot. (just so you’re not too concerned, the needle went in deep, but hardly bled).
Rohima literally washed my foot. This is a culture where feet are considered very dirty and shameful. She washed my foot. I still kind of can’t believe it, and I had to fight the urge to pull my foot away from her. She washed my foot. So gently, making sure I was taken care of. An expression of love. We put some ointment on, and she put a couple band-aids on too. It was humbling. It was beautiful.