Today: I did some rooftop laundry ate a mango (yummmmm) and some banannas. Then I took a taxi with Anna with a friendly boy our age who gave us a tour of the Don Bosco Ashyalaym. They take in hundreds of street children and give them vocational training or schooling. They also have 21 shelters "homes" for the children who run away from abuse or are orphaned. I am visiting one of these shelters tomorrow for a crash course in small english phrases for the new children. (and playing games)
Tomorrow: Visiting a leprosy colony a couple hours away then teaching at the Don Bosco Shelter in the evening.
Friday: Prem Dan, Motherhouse work with the older women then in the afternoon have a street food picnic with Anna at the Victoria Memorial. Don Bosco in the evening possibly.
Saturday: Prem Dan in the morning and Kali Ghat (Home for the Dying) in the afternoon. Then at night for 7 rupees we are taking a small bamboo boat to a large beautiful ghat down the river to view the Lakshima Puja.
Sunday: Prem Dan in the morning and I'm not sure for then evening maybe saying goodbye to the Don Bosco or Daya Dan children but I have to brave the ridiculous Kolkatta train station and catch a 9:30 pm train back to Varanasi. I'm excited though because my friend Hannah, from Japan, is sitting by me on the train and she is going to stay at Alice with me for awhile.
Monday: Arrive in Varanasi in the afternoon and see my brothers! I miss them all so much, but I think I will be very sad that Kolkatta is over because it's been a wonderful experience, I've seen and learned so much.
I'll put up pics from my trip when I get home to Alice and tell you all how the rest of the trip turned out but this is my schedule for the next few days if anyone is looking for specific things to pray for. Alright I love and miss you all!
Namaskar (Bengali)
Lisa
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Kolkatta Days 5-6
Enjoying everything.
Yesterday I worked at Daya Dan in the afternoon instead of going back to Prem Dan, with Publio (Brazil) and Emily (from the USA.) It's for severely mentally challenged young boys. They were really precious but very challenging. They suffer from several diseases and conditions like cerebral palsy, parkinsons, and mnay others I'm nto even sure. Some are very low functioning, I was feeding a few of them some fruity pulpy snack and I would put it in their mouth with a spoon and they wouldn't realize it was there and just sit there with it in their mouths and let it drip out. Very humbling but I'm glad I get to help a little bit. The children will pull themselves around the floor with their arms but they seem to be very happy. It was very fun trying to read to them, especially to this one little boy who would laugh every time I spoke it Spanish but not when I spoke in English...haha so cute. So I would try to translate the books into Spanish for him and he was cracking up. Pretty much none of them speak, not even Bengali or Hindi so they communicate with smiles and grunts and gestures (the older women also almost always communicate like this.)
I'm going to the idol dunking part of the puja down by the river this afternoon. I had to say goodbye to Yoshi and Publio because they are going to Nepal for a 2 week trek then coming to my school so yea!!! I also learned that I love lassi a fruit yogurt drink that' s ammmmmmmmazing! There is a chance to go the the leper colony on Thursday but I'm not sure if the train ticket extension will work out because I'm on the "waiting list." lame
The work with the older women is very difficult physically and mentally it has its rewards though. I'm having a very difficult time writing my experiences because this doesn't translate. I might not blog again until Sarnath unless I really feel like it because I feel like I need to let people know what's going on but I'm not sure what I'm even thinking so it's difficult and I'm not motivated because it feels like work.
Namaste
Lisa
Yesterday I worked at Daya Dan in the afternoon instead of going back to Prem Dan, with Publio (Brazil) and Emily (from the USA.) It's for severely mentally challenged young boys. They were really precious but very challenging. They suffer from several diseases and conditions like cerebral palsy, parkinsons, and mnay others I'm nto even sure. Some are very low functioning, I was feeding a few of them some fruity pulpy snack and I would put it in their mouth with a spoon and they wouldn't realize it was there and just sit there with it in their mouths and let it drip out. Very humbling but I'm glad I get to help a little bit. The children will pull themselves around the floor with their arms but they seem to be very happy. It was very fun trying to read to them, especially to this one little boy who would laugh every time I spoke it Spanish but not when I spoke in English...haha so cute. So I would try to translate the books into Spanish for him and he was cracking up. Pretty much none of them speak, not even Bengali or Hindi so they communicate with smiles and grunts and gestures (the older women also almost always communicate like this.)
I'm going to the idol dunking part of the puja down by the river this afternoon. I had to say goodbye to Yoshi and Publio because they are going to Nepal for a 2 week trek then coming to my school so yea!!! I also learned that I love lassi a fruit yogurt drink that' s ammmmmmmmazing! There is a chance to go the the leper colony on Thursday but I'm not sure if the train ticket extension will work out because I'm on the "waiting list." lame
The work with the older women is very difficult physically and mentally it has its rewards though. I'm having a very difficult time writing my experiences because this doesn't translate. I might not blog again until Sarnath unless I really feel like it because I feel like I need to let people know what's going on but I'm not sure what I'm even thinking so it's difficult and I'm not motivated because it feels like work.
Namaste
Lisa
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Kolkatta days 2-4.
Can I stay here forever? No way my mom would die but I really love this place.
This morning I woke up at 4:40 am, it was still dark and I saw Orion in the sky above my hostel. I was the wake up call for the older Malasian friend, Ming, who is leaving for Bangladesh today and a group of friend I met yesterday and had dinner with composed of a nice Brazilian boy named Publio and a bunch of Japanese people, one named Yoshi :) At dinner I ate with these friends and a very friendly girl from New Zealand, the crazy thing was she majored in Japanese and Publio knew Japanese really well! So I'm freaking in India and not understanding South Americans because of Japanese...THE JONAS BROTHERS! Most of the Americans I've met (very few) seem unhappy and not that friendly so I'm making a lot of foreign friends instead.
I did my first volunteer work at the Sisters of Charity, Mother Teresa's "mother house." I requested to work at the Kali Ghat also know as the Home for the Dying, but I ended up getting placed at Prem Dan which means "Gift of God." Prem Dan is a long term recovery home for several hundred chronically ill, mentally ill, physically disabled and/or abused men and women. I work with the women only and the first few hours we did laundry, in a 18 person assembly line, I enjoyed carrying the wet loads on the head up a few flights of stairs so I could overlook the Kolkatta ghetto skyline. I looked over the wall of Prem Dan and saw 3 small children teaching themselves from books, this must be their, it was a little sad but that's not exactlythe right feeling it was something between sad and hopeful and beautiful. Maybe not a between, perhaps more of a mixture. Then we had a chia break (of course, can we initiate this into our culture please.) Then worked for a few more hours giving massages to the women feet, hands, and arms, as well as feed them lunch and cleaning up lunch. We also had to put all 187 patients in their beds, most can walk but some can't so we lift them into their beds.
I'm seriously thinking about extending my train ticket a few more day because of the way everything worked out I will only get to volunteer for 5 days and that not really going to be long enough I can already tell, plus it's really refreshing meeting English speakers and get to taste new foods and see new things since I've mostly stayed in Sarnath until now. I have to go because I'm meeting some people at some place I can't exactly remember so walk around and experience the Durja Puja...it's going to be CRAZY! I'm excited, and really happy people the people in Kolkatta and generally a lot friendlier than Varanasi people, they don't hassle you and say hello and smile a lot more. We are walking to some shrines and after that I'm not sure what happens so I'll tell you later.
Oh yea and mo: tell grandma I went to Mass it will make her happy :)
I love and miss everyone and by the time I'm back at the school my time in India will have met it's half way mark, bitter sweet. I will be so sad to leave but I am still counting down the days to see friends and family at home. Plus it will be Christmastime, which I though of today because I bought Sara's Christmas present!
This morning I woke up at 4:40 am, it was still dark and I saw Orion in the sky above my hostel. I was the wake up call for the older Malasian friend, Ming, who is leaving for Bangladesh today and a group of friend I met yesterday and had dinner with composed of a nice Brazilian boy named Publio and a bunch of Japanese people, one named Yoshi :) At dinner I ate with these friends and a very friendly girl from New Zealand, the crazy thing was she majored in Japanese and Publio knew Japanese really well! So I'm freaking in India and not understanding South Americans because of Japanese...THE JONAS BROTHERS! Most of the Americans I've met (very few) seem unhappy and not that friendly so I'm making a lot of foreign friends instead.
I did my first volunteer work at the Sisters of Charity, Mother Teresa's "mother house." I requested to work at the Kali Ghat also know as the Home for the Dying, but I ended up getting placed at Prem Dan which means "Gift of God." Prem Dan is a long term recovery home for several hundred chronically ill, mentally ill, physically disabled and/or abused men and women. I work with the women only and the first few hours we did laundry, in a 18 person assembly line, I enjoyed carrying the wet loads on the head up a few flights of stairs so I could overlook the Kolkatta ghetto skyline. I looked over the wall of Prem Dan and saw 3 small children teaching themselves from books, this must be their, it was a little sad but that's not exactlythe right feeling it was something between sad and hopeful and beautiful. Maybe not a between, perhaps more of a mixture. Then we had a chia break (of course, can we initiate this into our culture please.) Then worked for a few more hours giving massages to the women feet, hands, and arms, as well as feed them lunch and cleaning up lunch. We also had to put all 187 patients in their beds, most can walk but some can't so we lift them into their beds.
I'm seriously thinking about extending my train ticket a few more day because of the way everything worked out I will only get to volunteer for 5 days and that not really going to be long enough I can already tell, plus it's really refreshing meeting English speakers and get to taste new foods and see new things since I've mostly stayed in Sarnath until now. I have to go because I'm meeting some people at some place I can't exactly remember so walk around and experience the Durja Puja...it's going to be CRAZY! I'm excited, and really happy people the people in Kolkatta and generally a lot friendlier than Varanasi people, they don't hassle you and say hello and smile a lot more. We are walking to some shrines and after that I'm not sure what happens so I'll tell you later.
Oh yea and mo: tell grandma I went to Mass it will make her happy :)
I love and miss everyone and by the time I'm back at the school my time in India will have met it's half way mark, bitter sweet. I will be so sad to leave but I am still counting down the days to see friends and family at home. Plus it will be Christmastime, which I though of today because I bought Sara's Christmas present!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Bilbo said it best...
It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door, he used to say.
You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing
where you might be swept off to.Today I survived the Kolkata train station that serves millions of passengers everyday. It. was. insane.
I felt like a mute albino minnow in an ocean of Bengali speaking piranhas. I was trying for quite awhile to find the ferry next to the train station to go across the river, it shouldn't have been that difficult, I mean...look for the river right? Well unfortunately common sense (as well as your sense of direction and sense of sanity) are useless here. I found a hostel and there are a ridiculous amount of Japanese people in mine, it's like one foreign country to another. Cole would love it :) Why don't Americans ever travel to India? I have met 2 Americans in 2 months, and they were at the school for 10 minutes. Europeans love it though, in fact I have been invited to stay for free in Italy, Japan, London, Spain, and all over Switzerland! Score!
While I was practicing my Hindi script and talking to a friendly Japanese lady this old Malaysian man playing the tabla(s) [spelling? it's two small drums] ordered us chia and we got to talking about Philosophy, the Mind, and Music, honestly most of it was over my head. Or some of the time I couldn't concentrate because I was thinking to myself "There is a shirtless Malaysian tabla guru discussing with me the concept of the paradigm of simplicity on a rooftop in Kolkata." Focus! He was really smart though, it made me think about how my English is really slipping here, especially when it comes the Philosophical jargon, which is okay because I need that for one more year of school and then probably never again.
Okay I going to go buy some bananas, read my bible and try to sleep but will most likely fail because of mosquitoes and the noise of the city.
Namaste Dost!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Kolkata Approaching
While I'm there, the biggest festival of the year for Kolkata will be happening, the Durga Puja, that includes idol dunking, 24 hour worship, and a 9 day fast.
The Mother House. I'll start Friday morning and finish Wednesday.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
An Impromptu Tour
Kesav and No'rbu being a little shy and giving you a small tour. They are normally a lot crazier but were trying to act proper for the camera. Notice No'rbu's awesome football uniform; all the boys got these from Valentino for their morning work out sessions because before they were exercising in their pants.