Losing your way is sometimes the best way of finding something new

0 months to go. We’re down to just 2 weeks.  It has taken all of us by surprise. At least, it has done me. Not long ago we still had a whole month left and now we don’t even have 20 days! I do regret not going out as much in the earlier days as temperatures are winding up to the 30s and humidity continues to rise, sapping our energy and drive.

Despite this, I think we have actually managed to start getting more variety into our day to day lives. At church two weeks ago Harriet and I met a Pastor who is involved with a school in the slums. He left us his number and we decided to contact him and visit the school.

The younger class

Raja, one of the teachers, picked us up from the Guesthouse at 8am. If I had thought the room at Hatibagan was small…! These children – about 30 in the first class, 50 in the second and 75 in the bible study – all managed to squeeze into one tiny room, about 6 metres squared. We sang some songs for them and I told them the story of the prodigal son. That was the first time in a long while that I have told a story without reading it off something. It was nerve-racking but really great to do some story-telling again.

The tiny school room

We learned a lot about the slums before the second class started, talking to the teachers, one of whom used to be a student himself and had gone on to get his degree at university. The second class were all younger and we taught them simpler things like the alphabet and numbers.

There was one girl in this class whose face was covered in a yellow powder. The teacher told us some of the girls in the slums rubbed turmeric into their skin to make it look whiter. So they would look beautiful. So we want to be browner, they want to be whiter. Something wrong with this picture?

We are hoping to go to all of their Sunday activities on the last Sunday before we leave.

A few days ago we took a trip on the Metro to find and Art Gallery one of our new friends at Freeset had told us about. It took us until we got to the other Metro station to realise that we really didn’t know where go from there. We came out at the wrong gate, went left, turned back down the same road and then back up it again when we were certain it was in fact the wrong way. I asked four different people in four different places which way to go.

In between leaving the Metro and arriving at the art gallery (finally) we found some peaceful (in Kolkatan terms) gardens, an impressive university campus and a photography exhibition which I absolutely loved. All in all, it was a great adventure.

We have taken Benjamin Frances upon his offer to take us out to some villages for Medical camps. Out in these rural parts of India, I counted out various sized and coloured pills and tablets that the people were prescribed by the doctor who was travelling with us. I greatly enjoyed these two trips, seeing the line grow as more villagers caught wind of what was going on. Even those with nothing wrong with them were given some vitamins because everyone wanted to go away with something.

The other village we went to, the people there were doing a sports and games evening which we joined in with. Sorry to say but I did not win the needle and thread race. We also performed The Prodigal Son in a few very awkward scenes. I played the youngest son and the villagers seemed to love it so all is well.

After the main event we were asked to come to a house to pray for a little boy, about 3 or 4 years old who could not speak. While all the other people gathered around him and started muttering prayers over his head, I knelt down and took his hand and looked him in the eyes and talked to him. He was so wide-eyed. I was glad when I let go of his hand and he reached back down and took a hold of it again. We haven’t heard anything about that yet.

Last of all, the 8^th of March brought Holi, the festival of colour. Us four and a few friends from Freeset ran around Sunnogatchi (not entirely sure how to spell that but that is where Freeset is based) and threw paint powder and mix at people and had randomers come up and rub colours into our faces and arms.

There was red and green and blue and purple and silver and black and yellow and gold…and PINK. Pink seemed to overwhelm all else. Harriet and I wore shower caps as our hair is lighter and the dye can stay in for months after, even on the skin. Thankfully, I scrubbed up pretty good but Ellen will most probably still have a pink streak in her hair when we arrive at Gatwick.

Next weekend we are taking a train ride up to Darjeeling. I can't wait! My next blog will probably be a few days before I leave India. Scary times.

Unfortunately, no photos yet as the internet has been pretty bad the past few days.

When everything starts moving faster...

For a good few weeks before Christmas, at school, the children spent their time practicing songs, dances and a play for a performance in front of their parents at the end of the year, so teaching was put on hold for a bit. We continued going on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and helped out with washing the children and dressing them in their uniforms, doing songs with them, playing and keeping them in line. We also made some costumes for them to use in their play. At the end of the performance the children were each given a nice warm jumper and two little goody bags with a mixture of snacks and useful bits and bobs such as toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap.

We have come to know some of the children very well; their names, personalities, traits. We have given a good many of them nicknames too! It was somewhat difficult to say goodbye to our new friends from the streets and not know whether they would survive the winter. 

On Monday, on our first week back at work, we were back at school. The vast majority of the children we know were back. Some have now got siblings in the school - of whom they are very proud and show off all the time - and some have moved up in education, leaving Hatibagan. We went back again on the Thursday and started teaching. It was hectic but I enjoyed every minute. It is so much fun using games and props to teach them, even if you have to repeat a word 20 times before they get it!

I have really enjoyed all the manual labor we have been doing at Freeset. Closer to the Christmas holidays we were able to work more closely with the women, helping with packaging and printing, getting more of an idea of the production line and how it works. We spent one day tagging along with a large group from New Zealand and visited two other companies doing the same sort of work as Freeset. Inalogics and Connexions which both make products using old saris. The things they produce are really exquisite.

Whilst on holiday we found out that BMS (the company who sent us out here) is ordering us all T-shirts for tour - which is the third part of my gap year adventure - and they are ordering them from Freeset! So we will see if we can be involved in their manufacture. Since the holiday we haven't been back to Freeset, but we are hoping to go later on this week.

On the Tuesday we went to another branch of the Good News Children Education Mission; the baby centre. We left BMS around 8 as usual but got back around 5:30 rather than 12. There was always at least one baby crying, but some of them were so incredibly adorable when they smiled and laughed and giggled when you tickled them, the crying didn't really seem like such a challenge. We fed, changed, calmed down and played with them. At nap-time we played cards and then dropped them with their parents.

Wednesday felt very rewarding to me. If you consider yourself squeamish, you might want to skip this chunk.  Harriet and I decided to volunteer for the day at a branch of the Mother House, Mother Theresa's work. We went to a home/hospital where the sick and injured came. Once we got there we were told to just go and help, use our initiatives and decide what needed to be done. There was a lot going on, it was difficult to take it all in. We started by helping with the laundry and when that was finished we had already separated and both went whichever way we thought needed help. I talked to some of the women (there are separate men and woman sections).

After this I helped hand out Chi (tea) and helped the women move around. I took a lady to the toilet which was pretty hard as we had to drag her in a (wheel-less) chair and do everything (except her business) for her. After this I think I quickly settled into a state of acceptance that I was going to have to cope with things that might otherwise be embarrassing or horrific in my eyes.

We looked after one woman who could barely move and had become incontinent  so we had to clean her up a few times. She really was a skeleton with paper-thin wrinkled skin draped over her arms and thighs. The skin over her shins was tight and shiny and closely resembled an uncooked Cumberland sausage. There were terrible hollows sucking in around her hips and she felt brittle enough to break when we moved her.

Around the building volunteers and sisters were treating burns and wounds. A sister was dabbing at a glistening white, red-streaked skull where the top of a woman's scalp had come completely off. Another lady had no eyes and slits for a nose, shiny skin over her face as if she had been burned. It was hard to see the sadness in one of the women there who had lost family members and was very ill. She spoke good English and tears welled in her eyes as she told me that sometimes she just wonders if she will ever be well and if there was really any hope for her.

This has probably been the hardest project I have done so far, but at the same time, the most like the India I had expected, and also the most rewarding. Some of the stuff I wrote about isn't very nice to read but I really want anyone who will listen to know about some of the things that are going on where I am living.

Now, we have all registered to work at some of Mother Theresa's homes 2 days a week. Harriet and I are working mornings at Shanti Dan, a home for mentally disabled girls and women. I only work with the girls. Josh and Ellen are working at Kalighat, the home for the dying and destitute. It is very much like Prem Dan and I expect they'll be seeing some nasty things in the weeks to come, as well as feeling useful and needed.

It's getting busy now and we only have about two months left. I am looking forward to coming home so much, but at the same time I don't want to waste a day. It's leaving me feeling a bit confused for sure, but I am still enjoying living in India to the max.

A-going to Goa

After all the Christmas celebrations were over, we set out for Goa for our holiday. We had booked a night train and would be travelling for three days, stopping off in Mumbai on the way to change trains. As we were trying to keep a handle on finances, we decided to go Sleeper class, one off the lowest possible class. The journey was interesting to say the least. People selling Chi and nuts and crisps and chains and toys and socks and who knows what else, going up and down the isles calling out their wares. Men dressed as women sauntering up and clapping at you, demanding money. There were even people that came and settled down on our beds in the middle of the night!

Still, the journey was pretty fun, playing card games and catching up on our diary writing. Best of all was hanging out of the doors, looking into the wind until our eyes streamed and gazing out at India as it flashed past.

We had a nice hotel room and spent New Years Eve having dinner down on the beach. 

And throughout the holiday we went swimming, sunbathing, paragliding and trekking. The temperature inched towards 40 degrees C and I was grateful when we finally got back to the cool winter air of Kolkata. Of course, now that we've been back in the cold for a while I wish it could warm up again :)

And of course you can't forget all the wonderful English food. Aaaaaaaaah fry-ups!

All in all we had a pretty good holiday but I can say for sure that I'm glad it wasn't any longer. It's so exciting to be back in Kolkata, looking for new projects and starting back at the old, making the most of our last two and a half months left in India

A Christmas Far From Home

So on the run up to Christmas we were all preparing ourselves for the homesickness that was bound to come when the big day arrived and our families were still half-way around the world. Christmas has always been such a family orientated time for me and spending it away was, truth be told, very difficult.

This, however, was eased by the face that we got to dress up in a slightly different way. We went down to a small shopping mall with Anu, our supervisor, and each picked out the most beautiful Saris. Beautifully coloured flowing material, metres long, that we wound round and round ourselves, pleating at the front. Walking down the street on Christmas day all dressed in our Saris and Indian jewellery certainly turned a few heads!

Posing with the Domino's Pizza Delivery man

Thankfully, Josh chose a rather more gentlemanly outfit than a Sari.

 As tradition compelled us to have a Christmas tree for our celebrations, we put our heads together and thought of a creative, low-budget and eco friendly way of doing this. The product was truly magnificent and we were most proud of our success. Then we decided on a 250 rupee limit with which we could buy each other presents. The limit worked both ways though, and it was decided that we could spend not one rupee over, nor under the limit. This led to some interesting gifts of biscuits in wrapping paper.

We also got our Henna done by an Indian woman but after she had finished it we managed to get our hands on some henna and decided to give it a go ourselves. This was the outcome:

Anu invited us up to her house for dinner. We were put in charge of the salad...

Our Christmas present to Anu was a Sari blanket made by women at a business called Connexions that we went to visit a few weeks back. The blankets are made out of 6 layers of Saris and despite all the detailed hard work that is put into them, the women are able to make one in just a few days. Connexions does the same kind of work as Freeset. Giving women in the sex trade the option to get out of a life of selling their bodies.

Christmas didn't  feel like Christmas. But we managed to stay on top by seeing it as a glorified day off and by Skyping all our families. Seeing my family gave me that little seasonal flavour I was missing.