political protest

Teresa and i enjoyed our regular restaurant breakfast: boiled eggs and toast. We enjoyed the Mother House breakfast as long as we could (plain bread and bananas) but then our senses got the best of us: we are paying for the hotel breakfast anyways. Because hotel breakfast starts at the same time as the volunteer gathering, we can not do both. We now eat at the hotel, don't meet with the other volunteers every morning, and head to Kalighat on our own.

As we emerged from the hotel after breakfast Teresa remarked about the lighter traffic. I hadn't really noticed. We waited for a bus. As we did so I recognized a fellow volunteer hail a cab. My face likely betrayed my thoughts: idiot, take the bus, it's so much cheaper. When a classic yellow cab stopped, he waved us over, recognizing us in return. I asked teresa if she wanted to take the cab and got a confident "no" in return. He was insistent and said something about buses not coming. I headed over, an extra 50 cents or a dollar wouldn't kill us. Teresa followed.

We got in and I thanked him. He told us public busses weren't running today because there was a scheduled protest/rally where the minister of something or other was going to speak. I still have no idea what today's rally was for but I do know I recognize the lady who was going to be there: her face is everywhere in this city. We told him we had no idea and he seemed surprised: "weren't you at mass this morning?" Nope nor were we at the am meeting. Volunteers were told that because of this they could choose to take the day off (which we can do anyways). This made some things click: less road traffic, fewer volunteers walking by as we ate our breakfast and the Missions of Charity ambulance being loaded up with nuns (it drove them to the homes).

We continued on our way and didn't worry about how we'd get home; we'd figure it out later.

The man who hailed the cab is a native Indian. He spent the first 35 years of his life in Mumbai but, with his family, has since lived in Australia, Singapore and, currently, Brunei. He has four children. The world is a small place: his second eldest child, a daughter, will be starting at York this fall. When I said that's where I went, he was floored. He's never been to Canada. 

At 9:30 Sister Andrianne told us that if we need to get back to Mother House then we need to go in the ambulance with the other sisters at 10 because no busses are running. We opted not to as we could take the metro/subway instead. Other volunteers took that option. 

Fridays are cleaning day: there is more work on Fridays. Because of this political schmazz there were fewer volunteers and I thought this was great. I think the number of volunteers compared to residents/work is grossly overwhelming, which is fine, but today's lower numbers were a nice break. It was good to have some solid work to do.

When we first got there I helped make many of the beds as they had all just been wiped down. Throughout the morning I was with some patients as they got their dressings changed, conversed in fluent Bengali with others, did some Physical Therapy, administered medication, hung laundry on the roof, fed a lady and cleaned tables and benches.

I learned that people were going to begin marching from all areas of the city at around 10 (which is why the sister said to leave in the ambulance then) and converge between 12 and 1. Basil, teresa and I opted for the metro. As we were about to get on, basil informed us that we were getting off one stop before the main gathering place: that's how close to this we were. The metro was going to be packed. 

It was.

I have never, in all of my travels, been in such a tightly packed space. No other transit or concert experience compares to this subway ride. Thankfully I am grossly tall here so I got some 'untouched' upper air. Poor short people: the stench of b.o. and proximity of nose to other armpits might have been too much for me. I understand now how people get trampled to death during Black Friday sales etc...had this mob had reason to move, someone would have been sacrificed.

This protest seemed to have affected most of the city. In fact, public busses did not run their routes but they were full of demonstrators.

(the flags associated with the protest)

Teresa and I did not have a desire to crowd chase and see the action first hand. We were quite content to sit at the window of Domino's and enjoy people watching while eating our pizza. It's the little things.