Testing the waters

So I realised the other day I haven't posted in a while. I am pleased to report everything is still amazing and the team is still going strong. So much has happened in these past weeks, the time is just flying by, it's hard to believe I've been here 3 weeks already! At the same time, I feel really settled and am starting to see BMS Guesthouse as my home now.

We are all pretty used to the way of life in India now. From the food to the people to the crazy Kolkatan roads. Food-wise, it's still curry (no surprise there!) but, thanks to a dare, I've now become accustomed to eating meals without the aid of cutlery. As I said, it started as a dare, but when I realised how much more chicken I could get off the bone...well, how could I resist?

The BMS staff are all really friendly - getting to know the guards at the gates and the cooks and cleaners - and we are slowly (very slowly) starting to learn bits and bobs of the language. Not quite up to conversation standard yet but just you wait!

As for the roads...well they are generally pavements for us now. We walk in the roads with cars beeping around us, day by day growing more oblivious to their noise. We have found a favorite form of transport in the shape of an auto-mobile - or a tuktuk as some people may know them - and a journey to park street, a big road with lots of western shops, is 6 rupees each, that's about 7p.

Auto-rickshaw

We started going to Little Sisters of the Poor home for the elderly on Friday nights and serving food. It's only a half hour job but it's really lovely chatting with the old people as we go round dishing out. One week ago now, we had our first day at Freeset. Freeset is a business making t-shirts, bags and a few other things besides. about 13 years ago a family came to Kolkata and decided that the sex trade was one of the biggest problems that needed to be combated, and that it was a business. So their logic was: fight trade with trade. They set up Freeset to employ women who are currently working for the sex trade, give them a better work, better pay, and brighter prospects for the future.

Little Sisters Building

Unfortunately Freeset doesn't allow photography so I don't have any pictures of that area of our work.

Unlike Hatibagan Mobile School, which is from 8-12, Freeset is a full days work, from 9 to 5. We were given a tour around their two buildings and then had some chi (a traditional Indian tea) with Steve, the man who would be our 'boss' and tell us what we were to do.

We were put to work making a fireplace, sawing bamboo and setting it on fire, which is not a light task in the heat and, as you can imagine, we were far from grateful for the 'warming glow' of the bonfire we'd made. after a few hours of this we went and had lunch and then recommenced work,scraping paint off window pains and wondering why on earth they hadn't put tape round the edges before painting the frames.

After three hours of this painstaking manual labor its fair to say we were all ready to go home. Nonetheless, we decided we would start working two days a week at Freeset rather than only one. In the end I think I enjoyed the manual labor. Somehow, the more you sweat, the more good you feel you're doing.

The most recent project we've tested (last night) is Entally Girls hostel. We went in for only half an hour and pretty much just played games and sang songs with the girls, ages ranging from, I think, 6-16. It wasn't my favorite project but a bit of fun anyway.

Right now we are at the tail end of the latest festival. Apparently, the many cows and goats we have been seeing over the past week are now being slaughtered and sacrificed and it's becoming hard not to see every piece of meat or red stain whenever we decide to go for a stroll.

We have tried out 3 different churches now and still have one or two to go before we decide on a church to make our own for the next 5 months. In my case, I thought the first was too big - they do sermons in 8 different language all in different parts of this massive building, and I think all at once! -, the second was too small, ironically called Big Life, but the third was juuuuust right :) Still, I'll hold my horses till I've tested the waters in all the churches in the local area, then I'll make my decision.

We've had some tough times but nothing too trying on our team bond and the laughs far out-number the tears. The next 5 months are going to be epic, not gonna lie!

Traffic, Curry and Fireflies

So I've been in Kolkata one week today though it feels much longer. We've had a few particularly hot days but, save from the first two or three nights, it's actually been getting a little cool when I try to get to sleep. On the way from the airport to the BMS Guesthouse, where I am now staying, we got our first real taste of Indian driving. To be honest I think Indian drivers must be so much better than us in some ways, for example, they seem to have no particular rules, weaving in and out of each other, racing for gaps in between vehicles. However, they still manage to avoid each other to the nearest centimeter! They must be so intensely and permanently alert, unlike many English drivers.

Taxi

Our first meal was slightly awkward using a fork and spoon rather than a knife. This proved to be a real hindrance when it came to the little balls of chicken which were rather more bone than chicken. We tend, in our mealtimes, to now avoid the chicken unless we are quite sure it is absolutely boneless. As we'd been told, there is curry for every meal except breakfast, or rather, several different types of curry. most of them are actually pretty tasty :)

We've started doing bible studies in the evenings after dinner, using the book Storylines, given to us by BMS. It's great fun when it comes to reading out the bible stories, allocating parts and attempting all the ridiculously tongue-twisting names of places and people that seem unnecessary to point out, and yet still occur many times in every chapter. Aside from that I feel we are slowly gaining a greater understanding of the Big Book.

My section of the wall :)

Been to a number of shops now and bought ready-made clothes, fabric 'packs' which are the materials for complimentary trousers, top and scarf which we then took to the tailors where we were measured up ad got out salwar kemeezes 3 days later. And just yesterday we went to the fabric shop where they had the most beautiful patterns and most stunning colours! We just wanted to buy them all. We did get invited round the counter which was awesome. We just picked out whichever fabrics caught our eyes and had them all spread across the counter in an array of colour.

Our good Salwar Kameezes

Beautiful fabrics

Really selling it!

I have gone outside within the grounds of the guesthouse most nights to see the fireflies and glowworms. We first encountered them on our first night when we had slept all through the day after the flight and could not sleep. We ventured outside and sat on the plastic chairs in the garden. Suddenly one of the others said 'Look at that!' and we looked and saw a little green light in the grass blinking on and off, moving among the grass. After that night I went out each night and eventually found a spot in the long grass by the shed where many lights were blinking all at once. The most wonderful part, however, was when some of the lights took off into the air around me. A bit like Avatar, just a hundred times less impressive. Beautiful nonetheless.

BMS Guesthouse (the old building)

Two days ago we started work at the Good News Children Education Mission School and were picked up outside the gates of the guesthouse just after 8. We were met by a chorus of voices all calling 'Auntie! Uncle! Auntie!', which is what the street children are taught to call people, I guess, when they are begging. Some of the children ran down the steps and grabbed hold of our arms and hands and clothes, wherever they could get a grip, and pulled us up the steps of the bus, telling us where to sit and then jumping up on our laps.

School room

The school is a small room raised a couple of steps in a little courtyard. On out first day there were about 50 children ranging probably from 2 to 10 years of age. The order of the day goes songs first, then a prayer, then we read a story. After that is break followed by the main lessons. The children are split into three groups: older, middle and younger. The older ones do maths, more complicated sums, while the middle group do easier maths and numbers Bengali into English, including the spellings. The younger group recites the English alphabet and the words that go with it, e.g. a for apple, and numbers up to 10. They all sit on the floor and have lunch together, curry would you believe, and playtime before and after the meal.

Lunch time

Queue for the slide

An Indian game

Curry!

The children are so beautiful, each with such a separate personality and all with big eyes and gorgeous smiles. When the bus dropped some of the children home it felt a little strange because they would get off onto the pavement and sit down because that was where many of them lived. At our stop they all waved goodbye, hand reaching through the windows, calling 'Bye Auntie! Bye Uncle!' On Tuesday we attempted to teach the younger children's lesson which consisted of much repetition and trying to make the pictures we made the night before understood. We had read the story of creation and so were teaching things like day and night, land and sea, people, plants and animals. All in all I don't think it went too badly :)

Milk and biscuit break

First time teaching

Reciting the alphabet

Teach and repeat

Human climbing frame!

Gorgeous faces

Love all around

Making friends

I am really looking forward to trying out all the other projects we will have a chance to help out with such as Freeset. I would like to try as many as possible until I can find one my heart sets on, where I expect I'll spend most of my time.

It's Diwali today so we are all looking forward to the sparklers and the lights and the general excitement of such a big festival!

Diwali temples

Lights everywhere!

Sparklers!!!

Team Kolkata

All the team xxx

The journey begins!

Standing in the airport, waiting for the other 3 to arrive, the months ahead still seemed rather surreal. I felt as though it would all happen in blocks of time, little sections, rather than everything in one. It was difficult to get my head around the realization that once I got on that plane, I wouldn't see people at home again (in person) for half a year, the longest I've ever gone without seeing my family.

My parents, my younger siblings: Elena and Archie and my boyfriend, Connor, came to see me off at Gatwick on Monday. Pictures were taken, presents, cards and letters exchanged and goodbyes were said. But everyone delayed for longer and longer until I just wished we could go, and have it over and done with. The wrenching away is what hurts the most, after that the journey begins!

The plane journey was EPIC. At least,  the first one was. The latest movies, big meals and a complimentary blanket. After 8 hours of top entertainment, we arrived in Dubai. A rather beautiful airport but also rather big. We were headed for gate 119 for our connecting flight to Calcutta. The gate numbers ranged to 260 when we stepped into the terminal and later on signs appeared for gates up to 360! we rushed down probably the entire length of the building down those walk-along conveyor-belts you get in airports, just hoping that our gate existed and that we'd get there on time.

An hour later we were taking off from Dubai on a slightly less extravagant flight on out way to the bustle and the heat.    

Everything I've Missed Out So Far

My name is Naomi (but most people call me Nim) and I am 18, fresh out of sixth form and ready to see the world! At least I think I am. A long time ago I decided I wanted to go on a gap year after college, no matter what. I always wanted to travel, to experience different cultures, to adventure into the unknown. So This year I applied to BMS Action Teams.

I travelled from Littlehampton to Birmingham for a Contact weekend where applicants would be interviewed, tested and scrutinised in order to decide whether everyone would work and serve well abroad. We were given a list of 5 countries to choose from and rate 1 to 5, 1 being the country we wanted to go to most. Mine were as follows: 1 - Peru, 2 - Uganda, 3 - The Middle East, 4 - Lebenon and 5 - India.

So months later I found myself training with BMS for four weeks preparing to go out to work in the slums of Calcutta. In India. Fortunately I have begun to grow fond of the idea of living in India and am toying with the possibility that I was wrong all along and India is, in fact, the perfect place for me to go.

Min-y-don is a name all action teamers should fear. An 'activity' camp in Whales where the primary aim is to beat down the teams, helplessly led into the clutches of the docile-looking countryside, and to break them apart. The idea being; if you can't cope in Whales, how on earth will you cope in India? Fair enough I suppose, but all the same we came back battered and bruised, worn down and out but triumphant as our team was now stronger than ever.

Now I face the next 6 months with Harriet, Ellen and Josh. All wonderful people, there's no denying. But the temperatures are high, the bugs are buzzing and as of Monday, the work begins!