Kolkata

So much has happened in the past few days, it's hard to even know where to begin...

Last Friday, at 3 PM, Daniel and I made the walk from Sudder St. to Shishu Bhavan, the former home of Mother Theresa. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday the nuns there coordinate a Volunteer orientation. There is not a whole lot to this, as they hardly have time to train in detail the many people who come in and out to work for various lengths of time. Basically we just give them our name and nationality, and then we tell the nun at the table which of the several different houses for the sick we want to go to. Daniel and I had originally wanted to go and work at Kalighat, the home for the destitute and dying, across from the city's major Kali temple but it was full, so our next choice was Prem Dan.

Prem Dan is similar to Kalighat in that it is for adults and elderly people, but the state of their health is not so severe. Every morning, we get up at 5:15 along with the Muslim call to prayer that comes through the hostel window, and walk over to the Mother House for the mass and breakfast with all the other volunteers. That walk is probably one of my favorite parts of the day. It is still dark, and the city is only just waking up. The streets are not insane like they are during the day, but people are out waking up, washing, opening up there shops, feeding their animals, polishing their cabs, and so on. It's a part of life in India I had not seen before.

Mass at 6, breakfast at 7, work at 8. After breakfast we begin the 20-30 minute walk to Prem Dan. Just the walk itself was a really eye opening experience. For most of it you are just going through the streets of Kolkata, like any other streets, then you turn a corner and you come to the railroad tracks. These are slums, and some of the most destitute living in the city, aside from living on the sidewalk or in trash heaps. Prem Dan is right next to the Park Circus railroad stop. As we walk along the tracks though, next to the shacks and trash and animals, every one greets us with Namaste and clasped hands, children reaching out to touch us yelling "hello! hello!" It's a chorus of good will. I think that many of the patients in Prem Dan come from this surrounding area but not all.

When we get to the gates and enter the courtyard it's like coming into another world... it is relatively calm and clean and there are parrots and palm trees. All the men go to one side of the complex, and the women to another to start our day's work. There are a number of volunteers, who all stay for different periods of time. Some stay for 2 days, others have been there for 15 years. First we do laundry, all by hand. There is a lot of laundry. I really like this as a start to the day though. The work is satisfying and offers a chance to socialize with other volunteers and even some of the patients who might help out, though they only speak Bengali.

Then we go out to visit with all of the women patients, hang out with them, rub lotion on them, give them massages, or help them eat a snack. This is probably the most existentially intense part of the day. You become very personal with these women, many of whom are in pretty bad shape. There are wounds, missing limbs and digits, mental illness, swollen body parts, and very few teeth. It's amazing how small some of these women are, full grown but with the hands of a child, or arms the size of two of my fingers. Most of them are very loving though, and patient considering the fact that I don't really know what I'm doing. Today, after I had rubbed lotion on a woman's feet, legs, and arms, she reached down, touched my feet and then touched her head. This is a really great honor in Hindu culture. It is like saying that the most impure part of me (my feet) are higher than the purest part of her (her head). Of course I did the same in return for her, but I can't express how honored I was by that gesture. I think that Prem Dan is there for us as much as we are there for it.

After that is a chai break for the volunteers. I really like this part as it includes delicious milk tea, biscuits, bananas, shade, and sitting. Also, I get to see Dan who has been busy doing similar things but with the men. From the sounds of it they are a little grumpier than our ladies.

After that we serve a meal which is a pretty hectic time, making sure everyone gets a plate and water, that those who can't feed themselves get help, etc... then clean up. Buy this time it is 12:15 or 12:30 and the day there is done. In most houses there is a morning and afternoon shift, but Prem Dan is only morning. We make our way to the nearby main street, which is an adventure in itself given the tremendous mid-day traffic, and then share an auto-rickshaw with some people back to Sudder St.

After that the day is our own. We have lunch, walk around the shops, go to different sites, or just laze about the courtyard of the hostel with the cats.

I suppose our Kolkata life is starting to really take shape. It is nice to be in a place for a little bit, and not feel like we have to be going out, seeing and doing things. Sometimes it is enough just to sip chai on the roof for a few hours. In another week and a half we will be leaving Kolkata, for Varanasi we think. It was not originally planned, but so many people have spoken so highly of it we feel like we should really make the venture.