Kolkata.

Here we are. For those of you with short attention spans, I apologize because I really feel the need to explain what life is like right now, and all that has happened. I can try to point-form it, which will go against everything inside of my English major self.

April 17. Wake up at 5:30, grab a 6 hour bus to Delhi. At 4, hop on the Delhi-Kolkata 24 hour train. Meet cool people hanging out in sleeper class.
April 18. Arrive at Howrah station. First blurred view of Kolkata through the windows of a taxi. Meet some Sisters at the Missionaries of Charity, get directed to an area called "Sudder St." (Our new home).
April 19. Volunteer Orientation with the Missionaries of Charity. Head to a Cricket match (Kolkata vs. Mumbai) with Felix and Sean (two Canadians from the train ride). Kolkata wins!
April 20. First day volunteering. Wake up at 5:30 after getting home from Cricket at 1 am. Head to Mass with the nuns, volunteer breakfast, bus down through the city to Daya Dan in the morning. Daya Dan is an orphanage mostly for children with physical and mental disabilities. Have lunch. Head to Kalighat (Home for the Destitute and the Dying in South Kolkata) to work from 3-6 pm. Head home for dinner.

So needless to say, after day 1 we were exhausted. The trick is going to bed early, and skipping mass when you're tired. But any way you cut it, they are long days. Last week I was working at Daya Dan and Kalighat with Eli. I have now started teaching at the Gandhi Welfare Centre in the afternoons, which is a school run for street children. The kids are hilarious but crazy. I switched there because they are really short on volunteers, whereas many people want to work at Kalighat because it was the first home started by Mother Teresa.

Daya Dan is a beautiful place. There are two sisters there who just glow with joy and love for the kids. We make beds, do laundry, and Eli and I teach a class with 4-5 girls. I normally teach Pompa and Sonia, while Eli teaches Puja and Gungun. Gungun is non-verbal and more severely
handicapped and really just loves to smile, play with toys, and make everyone laugh. After class we feed the kids, many of whom cannot feed themselves. But they have such vibrant personalities. Raju is a boy I've hung out with a bit. He has such an attitude, but if you dance around shaking his arms and making funny faces he'll totally crack a smile.

Kalighat has a pretty heavy atmosphere. It is a profound experience to work there as you essentially become a servant for dying men. They still have great dignity and there is a wonderful mutual respect between many of the men, volunteers and sisters there. I was left feeling quite useless there as I have no nursing training, I can't speak Bengali or Hindi, and I was the new guy. But I'm glad I had a week there.

The Gandhi School has 70 students, all of whom leave class (a mat laid out on the floor), and walk into their home, the street. Some of the students have families. None of the students are accustomed to having to sit still in a classroom environment. To get to the school on Monday (yesterday), I was told to go to Central station and walk west. After asking around I eventually noticed a sign on a chicken coop denoting "The Gandhi Welfare Centre - Missionaries of Charity." I walked in behind the caged area, in between a slum area of huts and a small building. I wondered where I was headed. After only about 10-15 steps however, a women sitting outside a door motioned for me to go inside this plain steel door. Hmm. Sure enough, when I went through I saw a couple of mats on the floor, a couple groups of children huddled around with little slates and pieces of chalk, and Alberto - a Spanish volunteer who is now my colleague I suppose.

The first week flew by, and I am so amazed that this is what our life looks like right now. We sleep in Modern Lodge, take city buses/subway to these various homes, hang out with other great volunteers on Sudder St., and we spend time with tons of cool children. Kolkata is a fun city. We are surrounded by interesting places to walk around, cheap restaurants, and about 15 million people. I am being humbled a lot. I find myself accustomed to the harsh realities of life here, and the book "City of Joy" helps put things back in perspective. The heat and humidity are becoming more bearable, or maybe it's because this internet cafe is air conditioned.