Chronicles of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

Hello everyone! I'm so thankful that you are keeping up with my time in Kolkata! It helps me feel like you are on the journey with me, and I truly love that!

The last few days have been crazy! My last post brought you up to speed through Tuesday. Wednesday morning, I went to Kalighat again. Still heartbreaking, but somehow, it gets easier. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. I sat with one woman, Meenu Das. She was refusing to eat. One of the sisters kept trying to get her to drink but she refused. When the sister told her that she will die if she does not eat or drink, Meenu Das told her that she wants to die. My heart just fell to pieces. She's maybe 40 years old and so thin. I'm sure she's in constant pain. She does not have the strength to keep herself in a chair, so the sisters use what resources allow- they tie her into the chair with a scarf. Sometimes the knot gets so tight and she sinks so low that she cries out in pain from the restraints. If I were in the same situation, I can guarantee I'd be asking the Lord to take me home in short order. Another woman there, Mina Das, has been one whom I've sat with several times. She needs help eating and she has some wounds that require bandaging so I have interacted with her often. On Wednesday, a doctor from Kolkata and a doctor visiting from the States examined her to try to determine why she is wasting away. They both feel that it is either from TB or HIV. Not a fun way to end your life here. I'm continuing to pray that they encounter the Lord before they depart.

After Kalighat, I came back and worked on some administrative stuff here. In addition to my role working as a nurse at the hospital and volunteering at Kalighat, I have been asked to devise a general schedule for future nurses arriving here as well as compile pre-arrival information for nurses and a management plan for better organization of the nursing wards. All that to say, I spent some time on Wednesday afternoon jotting down some thoughts about those areas. At 4:30 pm, Rachel came upstairs and told Whitney and I that we had to plan a whole day's worth of activities to do with the kids the next day (explanation in next paragraph) and let Philip (one of our coordinators) know what we were doing before 5 pm. I love last minute. I'm so flexible. *grins* We worked up a little spontaneous plan and at 5 pm, we (Rachel, Whitney, Midhuna, and I) clued Philip in on the plan and then left for the movie theatre to see a Bollywood movie (all in Hindi). It was a relatively predictable movie so I understood most of it without even speaking the language. :-) While we were there, we also enjoyed tomato chili/cheese popcorn and samosa! Yum!

Thursday, I began the day with devotions at the hospital where Pastor Joshua talked about the fear of the Lord. I need so much more of that in my life! I still struggle to understand the Lord's love for me, but I've contemplated the aspect of God as my friend far more than I've contemplated what it is to fear the Lord who makes the mountains melt like wax before Him! Pastor Joshua made the point that "the day we lose the fear of the Lord, we are lost. Everything becomes routine. On the whole, we are far too casual with God." Bulls-eye. It's true. I am far too casual with God. It's too easy to talk about "how God led me" or "what God spoke to me" or even who God is. I should speak of all of the above with a bit of fear and trepidation. Should I even contemplate obeying Him? For the love-- He is GOD!!! He is not JUST my friend. He is the Creator. His is the name that is above every other name. All this to say, my prayer for us today is that we would know the fear of the Lord, which is the BEGINNING of wisdom. All remaining wisdom stems from this heart attitude and understanding.

After devotions, I left with a small group for a few hours at a program called Stars. It is an offshoot program affiliated with the hospital where children from the slums are taken to a building where they are fed and taught school for free. We had a chance to sing and dance with the kids, teach them a Bible story, and simply love them and give them a chance to practice their English. :-) Their "school" was directly across the street from a neighborhood sewer and the small number of lightbulbs that illuminated the inside of the building lasted about a half hour before the power was cut off, but the experience was wonderful. The kids are so sweet. They all call us "Aunty" and every one of them wanted his/her picture taken.

The children made the sign for "I love you" and used it as a handshake to greet us! :-)

Beautiful eyes.
These kids are so gorgeous!

Praying for their lunch.

So happy to take pictures!

We came back from Stars in the afternoon and Whitney, Rachel, Janna, and I decided to go on an adventure to a large local market nearby. This market, called New Market, contains EVERYTHING. And I mean everything! Goats. Chickens. Scarves. Shoes. Fruit. Jewelry. Clothes. You name it, they've got it. It had a smell similar to the Beltrami County Fair, but all in all, it was a GREAT time. When you first go to an eastern country market, you first feel as though you are in the midst of a feeding frenzy. Every man surrounds you and wants to guide you to his store for a "great price, sister". Not to be cynical, but come on! I'm a white female from the US. You're not going to give me a great price at all! :-) Anyway, once we managed to escape some of our "market guide" stalkers, we got to the market experience that I DELIGHT in. We got to go from shop to shop and sit down with the men, have chai, and talk to them about their lives. I spent over an hour talking with a Muslim man named Alim. Another man named Lucky "Pepsi" was also a delight to talk with. I love eastern culture for this reason. Shopping equals long periods of time in conversation and developing a relationship. Seriously love it.

This morning, we got up at 4:55 AM so that Orijeet and Bablou (one of the drivers for the hospital whom we LOVE) could take us to a local slum. To be honest, the majority of the city is very poor to me, so I wasn't sure if a slum could be that much worse than what I see day-in and day-out. I don't think I truly took it all in. I cannot really wrap my head and heart around the fact that people work long hours to make $1 or $2 per day and live like the people I saw today. My sense of justice and fairness says that if you work hard, you should be able to make enough money to provide for your family. But, this is not the case in many countries around the world, India certainly being one of them. I looked at those beautiful faces and was humbled by the realization once again that "this could have been me. I could have been born into this." Lord, what do I do with all of this??!??!

After seeing the slums and a lesson in Hindu idols by Orijeet (they make clay statues of their gods and throw them into the river in Kolkata, which is an offshoot of the Ganges river. Because the Ganges is considered holy, Hindus believe that any river connected to it helps the gods get back up to heaven) we stopped for chai at a local shop. I am SO going to miss this! I could drink 52 cups of this every day and I am barely kidding! It's incredible!

We got back to the volunteer centre where we stay (it's called Hope House and it's about 1/2 a block away from the hospital) and tried to go back to sleep for a bit, but it was futile. SO, I had a long talk with Orijeet, saw pictures of his family, and then went to surgery. I saw a cleft palate surgery, an ORIF (open reduction internal fixation) of a fractured elbow, and a cataract removal. I enjoyed the surgeries, but I enjoy the staff there way more than the surgeries. I have become good friends with 4 of the staff in the surgical department. Let me introduce you...

Anfusa

Israel

Rebecca

Sushma

Sushma and I are planning on going shopping together next Sunday (the 20th). I'm pretty excited about that. These staff members are so wonderful. I wish you could all be here to meet them. Pretty sure you'd fall in love with them just as I have.

After surgery central, I spent some quality time with Whitney and Orijeet in the office talking about Indian culture. Some things I learned from Orijeet (and a few other tidbits about India/Kolkata that I've picked up over the last two weeks):

• Child marriages still happen, though not officially. Kids that are 4-6 years old are not unheard of. Sati, Hindu women throwing themselves/being thrown into their husband's funeral pyre (though illegal officially) also still occurs in places.
• The mothers of the groom traditionally do not come to the wedding.
• Hindu engagements can break up on the basis of a lack of astrological matching.
• There is a going dowry rate the woman's family pays to marry men with certain careers. The groom's family can demand property, money, possessions, etc. in order to bless the marriage.
• Widows are typically not allowed to attend weddings. It is thought that the woman's bad karma killed her husband, so she would only bring bad luck to the marriage.
• Everywhere you go there are talisman to ward off evil spirits. Seeds hanging from shop fronts. Posters of the Hindu gods. "Holy smoke". (Orijeet claims we stole that phrase as well as "Holy cow" from India. *grins*)
• Determing the sex of a child before it is born via ultrasound is illegal in India. If this practice were allowed, female children would be aborted. When a woman bears a female, the family is disappointed and believes it is the woman's sin that has cursed the family with a female (who will cost dowry to marry off, will not continue the family name, and will not provide care/security in old age).

After the discussion with Orijeet, Rachel, Whit and I set off to finish our shopping and find the post office so Whit could send her postcards. I think it's hilarious because nothing ever works normally in these countries. The post office is open until 5:45 pm to get stamps, but you cannot have your envelope endorsed (postmark) by the post office unless it is during the morning hours. (if you do not have it endorsed before placing it in the mailbox, people get into the mailboxes and steal the stamps to resell them). So, Whit got the stamps, was told to go over to another counter to get the postmark, and that counter told her that he could only postmark it in the morning. Mission not accomplished. Welcome to the third world system. Anyway, we did manage to finish our shopping and then Rachel wanted to try McDonald's new addition- chicken mcNuggets. Yes, I did say NEW addition. A little behind the times. So, we went in to order and they were, of course, out of chicken nuggets and they charged Whitney double despite her protests. *shakes head* What do you even say? :-) When we returned from dinner, Philip told us that McDonald's here has only recently reopened after blowing up. Yes, blowing up. Some think it was sabotaged. Some think there was some sort of gas leak. Either way, it blew up a few months ago and a poor soul outside faced death by McDonalds. Where are we???

Me, Orijeet, and Whitney

Now, I'm back updating my blog, trying to keep my lungs clear (I heard from one of the staff members here yesterday that one day in Kolkata is equal to smoking 5 cigarettes in terms of damage to your lungs... I guess these 17 million people and the astronomical number of cars with no emissions requirements really do a number on the atmosphere!), and thinking about bedtime before another early morning investigating a food distribution program organized by the hospital.

Whew... long update. If you're still reading, you really love me. Thanks for that. :-) I appreciate each of you and your continued prayers. God is at work!