adjusting

It is early Saturday morning (3:30 India time) and I'm awake so I'll write. T and I decided that we were going to go to 6a.m. mass on our first day but that's a long way away yet. We are 9.5 hours ahead here so it's dinner time back home; I still shouldn't be wide awake after sleeping. The heat, time change, significant travel schedule, I daresay my/our age, and my full-throttle living before I left Canada, has really kicked me/us in the butt here. Teresa spent the weekend in the States visiting a friend and I landscaped on Friday and Saturday and we both landscaped on Monday before flying out on Tuesday. We are both lethargic and tired with no desire to explore. And we aren't loving the heat.

Friday we slept a lot, watched movies and chilled in our room. At 2:45 we needed to somehow prepare for the stifling heat and embark on the 5 minute walk to the Mother House for orientation, registration and assigning of homes. Thankfully, we made it.

There were a bunch of University students from Spain, and some Japanese and South Koreans at registration. We were met by Keevan, a student at Notre Dame in Indiana. He's a lovely soul who was pumped to hear we were from Canada as he is from Scarborough! He is here as part of a university program. He reminds me completely of a former IBlock student of mine (who I also met up with in India four years ago), Joseph Kim. Keevan briefed us on what we needed to know; be silent in the houses, cover your knees and shoulders and focus on the residents, not other volunteers. He asked us where we wanted to go: T hadn't thought much about it, but I knew what I wanted. Four years ago T was at a home for disabled teenage girls, Michelle (another travel buddy last time), was at Kalighat (the home for the destitute and dying) and I was at Prem Dan (a home for older women). I wanted Kalighat and, possibly, to go back to Prem Dan after 3 or 4 weeks. T and I decided to try to go to the same place. We told Keevan what we hoped for. He said Kalighat was pretty full but it would be up to Sister Margaret. We patiently waited to be seen/assigned. When we approached Sister Margaret (who speaks limited English as she is, I believe, South Korean), Keevan told her our wishes. In broken English she muttered "many people Kalighat. 80 beds. Prem Dan 300 beds. Need people". She repeated much of this but then, without us saying a word, filled in our volunteer card for Kalighat. I was surprised and excited.


We start on Saturday morning.

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