Hello, another mass emailing. Just letting you know we are preparing for re-entry!!! Over the next couple of weeks we will be scanning for apartments and jobs.
This is our final week in Calcutta, then we go to Thailand, then home.
We have been working in a place called Nirmal Hriday, or as the locals call it Kalighat. It is a home for the destitute and dying. Nirmal Hriday means pure heart, and it is where Mother Theresa began her work, and subsequently began the Missionaries of Charity. There is a beautiful tribute to her and her work here in the city.
Calcutta has been an incredible experience for us. We both were very surprised by how much we like it here, and that we are not the only white folks in town. Especially after all of the horror stories we have heard....many of them are true, (slums, poverty, disease, etc.) but still it has a good vibe for travellers (most are volunteering). I can see why folks return year after year, and stay for months at at time. Calcutta not only has an interesting street culture, but it is very inexpensive, with average hotels ranging from 3 -15 dollars a night. Alan and I decided to blow it out ( i.e. no cockroaches), and spend a whopping 13 dollars/night. We are living on Sudder street, sort of the main drag for beggers, drugs, child prostitution, and tourists...coincidence? I think not!
Our meals are quite cheap too, costing us something like 2 to 3 dollars combined, but boy, do we miss fruits and vegetables. You could not pay me to eat the produce here!!! So, the average day is like this, wake up at 7 am, walk to the subway so we arrive to work by 8am. We work every day (except Thursdays) until noon. The work is hard, and there is a lot of it. We do patient care, laundry, wash dishes, and pass out medications. Sometimes I work with the sisters helping them learn about medicine and wound care (most of them do not have any medical training).
Alan has managed to overcome his initial fears of patient care, and is really taking to it. It is lovely to watch in action, as he is a real natural. I wonder if he got it from his mom, who was a nurse when she was alive.
Most of the time, our beds stay full (roughly 100 inpatinets). The men and women are kept in separate wards, but the beds are separated by nothing. Not even curtains between patients, so maintaining dignity and privacy is a real challenge (not to mention the germs!). Patients die routinely, and honestly I feel it is a blessing for many of them.
The hospital population comes in off the streets, kids found in dumpsters. folks ailing and found down on the sidewalks, and others. The rescue team goes out and finds these folks, then picks them up under the armpits and knees and carries them in. Sometimes they are driven in by taxi; today I finally saw their "ambulance" (more of a glorified tourist bus). Alan made an interesting observation, asking how they knew who to pick up, as many of our patients look the same as the folks we walk by every day sleeping on the streets. They all look sick, and probably many of them are, and seem to need care. Maybe the experienced workers are able to see something that we just did not.
Each day we walk these streets with our emotions running wild. Had we not travelled for so long in Central and South America, I do not know if I would have had what it takes to be here. We have become immune to many things i.e. flies on our food, the smell of human excrement on the street, and the filth! It is so difficult to describe the everyday life here, the sadness, the joy, the smells (good and bad), sounds, and most of all the sights (human drawn rickshaw drivers, hash dealers on most corners, and the children)! Somehow, through all of this madness, we have determined that this is one of the richest and most moving experiences of our entire trip.
Last Thursday, on our day off, we decided to join some of the other volunteers and go visit a leper colony. Though the World Health Organization claims the occurance of ths disease has gone down dramatically, I was astonished to see how many inpatients there were. Each week tens of people go for screening, and on average 3-6 new cases are admitted per month.
For the patients in remission, Mother Theresa has provided continued treatment, housing, and jobs (cobblers, farming, making linen etc.) for them. Some go on to have families, and live within the confines of the colony for the rest of their lives. They earn a small wage for their work, but mostly, their lives are with purpose. It was heartwarming to see the faces of these guys as they proudly showed off their handiwork, and the patients that were still actively receiving treatment. They were moved that we would even go to visit them, as many of their families and community have abandoned them. It was really neat to look into their eyes and exhcange "Namaste".
It is so tempting to stay a little longer here, Alan and I really like it so much, and feel so useful doing this work. Today we picked up our final ticket, to Bangkok, where we will visit a work friend of mine from California. Then home!!!!!!!!! We will be making more entries in our blog, with pics too. Remember to check out www.vcarious.com and "peevees big adventure".
Going to head out into the streets now, today is sort of a fun and annoying festival called HOLI where local people go crazy for 2 days splashing water, paint, and colorful powders all over the city, tourists especially. We've had to shower midday to clean ourselves up, and I think we are going to make it into the local newspaper. I will keep you posted.... wish us luck out there!!!!!
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