India 2017: oops we did it again

If I must be honest, Teresa and I were pumped to wake up this Tuesday morning knowing it was our last day in India. The heat and noise are far from enjoyable. We've enjoyed butter chicken, naan and ginger noodles for the past two dinners as well as fresh pomegranates for dessert. Food is good! We enjoyed our final breakfast. We decided to go out on a limb and try boiled eggs and toast. Our choice did not disappoint. We were excited to pack up our hotel room (sidebar: one thing I didn't write earlier was we moved rooms 6 or so times). Even after we left some clothes etc...we failed at our attempts to minimize and go home with less. Silly Loyal and Freeset purchases. We lived the high life and booked an Uber trip to the airport. This driver was a wee bit aggressive: too much so. We did get there safely so that's a plus. The airport and hour and a half flight were uneventful. It wasn't my favourite flight ever but I managed. Flying over Nepal made my ...

This post is a smorgasbord of thoughts that didn't quite fit in other posts during our five Indian weeks: Many mornings we see bicycles with live chickens go past. There are 15 or so chickens on each side of the back and sometimes front wheel. They're alive. Pictures are from a Google search My mom likes vintage country decorations. She likes the old milk canisters. It was neat to see such tin canisters being used in India and, similarly to the chickens, being carried on bicycles. They are not used for mill, however. I saw no milk in India during my entire stay. I learned that you need to specify between rickshaws. We regularly referred to auto rickshaws as just rickshaws but that actually refers to human drawn carts. If you read the traffic blog or have any inkling on how traffic in this country works, the billboard posted by a transit authority of some sort is hilariously ironic: "Safety first. Safety next. Safety always." Celine Dion is liked here. ...

Three precious four year old girls at my New Light school, Jhinuk, were drawn to me, and I to them. For those concerned about equality out there (which, hopefully, is all of you), I did give love and attention to all the littles. I did shoo these three away at times and I did draw others in. Yet, humanity is not a story of perfection, time was not dissected equally and these three took another little piece of my heart (throw back to my Calvin College life and the Janis Joplin theme that may or may not slightly or overtly resemble (can you overtly resemble something?) the end of the previous sentence). Sadly, I have no photos. I understand and respect this rule, but if I had been allowed to capture their stunning faces and endearing personalities, they'd be in frames at home before school starts in a few weeks. The last child that drew me in like these three did was a boy, Marlon, in Belize in 2005. The first of the girls is Sangita. When Teresa and I first visited this school ...

Because of our impromptu ultimate lesson at the boys home, we were late for Kalighat. Neither of us were overly troubled by this as we essentially just needed to say farewell.  We arrived at 4:25, right as dinner was being served. We hopped right in and did our thing. This gave us just enough time to interact with the ladies and the massi's. We put ladies to bed, gave them bed pans and fed ladies for the last time. To me it was not any different than any other day; it was not iconic, special or memorial. We only told one massi it was our last day. I suppose this is one of the joys in serving here; it isn't about you. You fulfill a role, attend to needs and contribute but rarely are you as an individual and your precise skills game changers. Volunteering at Kalighat was humbling in that regard. Margaret, the massi we connected with the most, made us each a bracelet and gave us a warm good-bye to "10 number and 5 number" (every single day I wore jerseys wi...

Monday brought with it some goodbyes as it was our last day in India.  We spent the morning with the little people. Today was a holiday for some people somewhere so Teresa's children did not have school, but mine did. Teresa and her teacher joined my class. We started with regular meditation and the singing of the anthem. Again, I was enthralled with the norm here. These children have to first stand with eyes closed for a 4+ minute song and then sit, cross-legged, eyes closed and straight back for another 5-10 minutes of music. They're 3-6 years old. We continued with crafts. Teresa and I were on cutting duty and we quickly had eager helpers. It quickly became chaotic as it turned into a craft the children received, as opposed to participated in. Teresa and I took to entertaining the littles. Teresa quickly had the tiniest girl asleep on her lap. I read stories in English but used the pictures to review colours, letters and words. We worked on nursery rhymes, ...

For Sunday afternoon we decided to explore. We walked through back alleys, slums, busy streets, over railroad tracks and in torrential rains. As always, it was neat to explore the real India. I'm relying on pictures to tell the stories for this blog. In short, we began by exploring back streets. It was clear we ventured to territory where few foreigners travel as we were often quite the spectacle. We garnered much attention. As per usual we saw few females. It may have been appropriate to be afraid when in these obscure streets, with no clear exit, prominently populated by men. Sorry moms, there was zero fear and negative trepidation. Harsh trading is right. Notice the lady in between the auto rickshaws sifting through the garbage. When travelling I love the butcher culture: I find it an intriguing mix of biology, sustenance and our desire at home to pristinely hide reality. My brother Daryl was a butcher at Schomberg IGA back in the day and although he was regularly covered ...

Our time in India is winding down. We have just booked flights for Tuesday: we're heading to Nepal for a week. After 5 weeks here, we're okay with our decision to spend one elsewhere. Today we hung out with the little people. We were then going to go and visit the boys home that New Light runs so we sat in the office reading. The plan was to leave at 4:30 or so. At 3:30 the office administrator told us that there was no one available to take us. We were secretly excited but I was also disappointed as I really want to visit this home but we are running short on time. We took this extra gift of time and decided not to go Kalighat. We picked up our pictures from 8th Day and laid low. On Sunday I took the opportunity to visit Prem Dan, the home I volunteered at 4 years ago. I went to the volunteer morning thing at the Mother House for the first time since our first week. I recognized absolutely no one. I suppose that speaks to the overall turnover at this place. I lee...

Following the first leg of our Freeset tour, we moved on to part two. Literally moved. Down the street. Liz stayed in the original building and Chokla took us. We followed the main periphery road of Sonagachi, heading deeper to the middle of this sub-culture. Note: most pictures are from the Freeset website or a Google search. Some I took in the Gateway kitchen. Before moving on I think it is important to note that Freeset, similarly to Loyal, has near 100% retention after 16 years. Some of their original ladies still work daily, the rest who are alive are involved as they can be; a strong testament to the organization. We entered a building called the Gateway: appropriately named as it is on the main street entering Sonagachi. (Sidebar: it also reminds me of when my school's grade 11 service trips would have pizza at Salvation Army Gateway before the street walk). This building is four stories high and a flat roof where folks can sit. It has an open area in the...