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.
