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!