Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Cups for Tea


Blog readers may recall that my sister recently took a trip to India and Sri Lanka. Although her schedule was busy, she promised me she would look for something related to 'tea' to bring home to me. Ever since we were children, she's known that I've been crazy about 'tea parties'. She traveled many places during her month there, and didn't really focus on finding me something for tea until near the end of her trip. By then they were in a large city and Judy and one of the ladies she was traveling with set out to find me my gift. Alas, the large shops and their tea items were compared to WalMart! No dice!

Judy and her family were staying at the home of a pastor and his family near Pune, Maharashtra, India. The pastor's wife offered to help them with their search and went to their own kitchen cupboards to find some tea cups. The pastor, being of a helpful sort, was pulling things out of the cupboards saying "What about this? Or this?". "Oh no," said the pastor's wife. "That's a mug! You don't drink tea out of a mug." Then she found these darling yellow cups with a simple and colorful Indian design. Perfect! "We'll send these to Judy's sister."

I am delighted, but feel badly that their own cups were sent to enhance my own personal teacup collection. A gracious THANK YOU to Pastor and his Wife. I will treasure them --- and the story of how they came to be mine. And a little gift is on it's way back to Pune --- from me to you. Thank you so very much for YOUR gracious hospitality.

4 comments:

  1. What unique tea cups, and all the more precious because of the spontaneity of the gift from strangers. Thanks for sharing the story!

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  2. What generosity!

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  3. Pune holds a special place in my heart, not because I've been there, I haven't; rather because my grandmother was raised from a young child through her teenage years there. Her dad was the director of the Adventist publishing house many, many years ago. Thank you for sharing.

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  4. That's a neat story. My husband is Indian. I'll have to ask his parents to bring me back a tea set next year when they go back. They always ask what I want and I never thought about that.

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