Go tell it on the Mountain

One of the nice things about living in this apartment is you meet lots of different people in the lift. Most just nod or say hello, others strike up a conversation. This is always cut short when you reach your floor. Normally this is as far as it goes. But there's one particular Korean lady who's spotted me a couple of times, and also the kids, and eventually she'd found out what number flat we live in, and told the kids her number (191) and said she'd invite us up for tea. They passed the message on and I admit I didn't give it another thought...

Fast forward to Monday afternoon. The internal phone rings and Rod answers it. It's often very difficult to understand people on the internal phone, that's because the main people who call us on it are the security guards, who are generally much more fluent in Hindi than they are English. Rod's having trouble as usual...repeats 191 and courier, can't work out why they're asking him, and says I'll get my wife. I'm assuming the voice on the phone said wife, because if he can't follow the conversation, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to. But it transpires the call is not from the front gate about a courier to 191, but from the Korean lady in 191, and she'd like us to come up to tea this afternoon.

So when the kids get home from school we walk up the four flights. I stand outside her door, and cannot fail to notice the plaque on her door. Lots of people have plaques on their doors, usually bearing their name. This plaque says Korean Emanuel Church. The Korean lady answers the door and welcomes us inside. It transpires her name is Esther and she speaks very little English. She offers me coffee or Korean tea. She has no English tea, and as I don't really like coffee, I take Korean tea. I've never tried it before, but I can tell you it tastes like the tea at Chinese restaurants, of almost nothing. She also offers a plate of melon and orange segments, which are much tastier indeed.

So now we try to have a conversation. It's a bit stilted, because of her limited English, and to be fair, my non-existant Korean. The first question: What was my name, and the names of my children? The second question: Where did I come from? (Actually that's always a bit tricky, because I'm Australian, but I came to India from Britain. Sometimes this question is asked by someone who is expecting a simpler, one country, answer.) Her third question: Are you a Christian? Now, this was a bit of a curveball, because the usual third question is how long have you been in India? But I can't say it was unexpected...the plaque on the door was a bit of a clue. Now I don't have any problem with people practicing their religion, but I don't really see why I need to explain my beliefs to people over my first beverage. I say I was brought up a Catholic, but I don't practice anymore. She looked at me in a perplexed fashion, and I wondered if I'd offended her. Did that make me worthy of extra attention? Would I be worth more points to bring back into the fold? Then she replied "Mother Theresa", or would have, if she had been able to pronounce her "th's" and her "s's". I nodded, and thankfully the subject was dropped.

We got onto less dangerous ground, and found we had a number of things in common. We both had two children, hers almost exactly the same age as mine. We were both housewives in India, accompanying our husbands who came here to work. There were a few differences, of course. I've never been a member of the Korean Symphony Orchestra or a missionary.