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!
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