Pictures from the land of dancing lostness

These are pictures from when we got lost yesterday (or the day before or whenever). Frederick was with us, but I think he was running around the street trying to figure out how to get to Kalighat... oh yeah and yes the big green thing is actually an island in a traffic circle... the *perfect* place to wait around when you're trying to figure out where you are...



Rhomann (Ro-man) from California

Karuna from Canada

Kat from Iowa

Ceci (Cecilia) From Mexico


Me from the US (I think I'm up to 15 states lived in for at least a month now.)

more to write about

So much to write about...




Dogs...
Dogs here break my heart and warm it... almost all of them have this cute mutt smile that makes you want to go up and hug it. Letting its raspy toungue lick your salt stained face. They all look related and probably are... you can hear packs of them play at different times in the day and night...

And then you can hear their cries.

We aren't sure what they're from, whether against man, machine or beast, but almost every night you can count on them. Cries that cause you to peer out your window, wondering if its even safe for you to step out.

And then you can see their wounds.

Wounds that are mortal. Chunks of skin torn off. Maybe from a hot muffler pipe or the axle of the car they were sleeping under as it rolled away. Maybe from the moped that side swiped it, or perhaps aimed. Maybe from the boot of a man disatisfied. There's one puppy that I watched slowly die over a week of my passing by. It had a 3 inch diameter hole just below its rib cage. A hole that I believe revealed part of it's stomach. It was relatively healthy the first day, save the hole that seemed somewhere between surgical and haphazard. and over the week it got thinner and thinner, till a skin bag of bones was eating through the trash. Now I don't see it anymore.

And then you can see their breath.

You walk by so many dogs throughout the day, that the ones sleeping always make you wonder if they're dead. Usually I pause look for a breath, as if I could do something if it didn't breathe. You don't always see a breath, but you can never be sure. When you do, though, it's glorious.

Photos and stories

Best steak ever...

Hadam and I went to OLY bar on park street because he had heard about a mean steak... it was the best steak I've had ANYWHERE in the world and so now Calcutta is the home of the best steak in the world just as Athens has the best Pizza in the world (Coumas). Our trek to find the place was long... we went completely around it (Park street bends and we went to the wrong leg of the bend).



This is just a beautiful sight that I saw as I was walking to the ATM today... (the exchange rate is really nice right now... we got about 500 more ruppees for the same cost in USD that we had a few weeks ago). All the natives were trying to figure out what the Foreigner was doing... (of course on my walk I was offered some "nice grass" and some "good hasish" numerous times... GAHH LEAVE ME ALONE!)



These pictures are from the my walk to my first orientation yesterday... we got stuck in the middle of a wedding party on the street... a whole entourage was trekking through the narrow street (marquis street?) and it was crazy trying to get through them... but I took out my camera and took a few shots... then these guys wanted their picture taken so I took one... (they wanted more but I was late to work).

India is amazing... I love it, and it also breaks my heart so much and so often.

Hurt knee and Hot tea

So somehow yesterday I hurt my right knee to the point that I can't bend it more than 95degrees without a severe pain... It was at Kalighat that I hurt it, but I can't recall exactly what happened. I'm hoping it will get better with time (I think it will). Last night was another Taize prayer meeting, though this time at the Motherhouse (last time when I gave my testimony it was at a college).

And because of my knee, I had to sit on a bench, which was very distracting, because the benches are farther from seeing the monstrance and from hearing the sisters. So I did my best to keep up with evening prayer, and then Taize prayer (in toto circa 1.5 hrs) But I realised while praying the part that body position has to play in prayer. Without being able to sit comfortably or shift my position I was continuously distracted by various small things. The dirt that builds up under my nails in record time and the dirt that builds up on your skin were favourite spots of my attention. They're still astounding to me, that you could take a shower and within a few minutes if you scratch your skin, you'll find that you've become dirty... the pollution is amazing.

Oreintation yesterday went well... I'm still learning about all the centers, so it's hard for me to answer specific questions, but I do my best and I try to find out answers as I'm asked... I feel very incompetent but also I'm answering a need that I'm happy and honored to fill.

Today I hoped to get to morning prayer, but I slept through my alarm, and when I discovered what time it was, I decided to take the morning off, since being exhausted is not the name of the game... and with a hurt knee, maybe its a clue that I need some more rest. I think I'll take tuesdays off more frequently... though maybe I'll work in the afternoons.

A Chai tea man

A very odd cultural thing in India that I'm slowly adapting to is drinking Chai... usually served between the temperatures of extremely hot and boiling, Indians drink it 24-7. It's supposedly suposed to help with the heat... and slowy I'm beggining to crave the sweet hot tea when I'm sweating. If you go to a shop like the one above you get the added fun of getting to smash the small clay pot when you're done... they aren't glazed so you can't clean them.

Random thoughts

So I'm getting much more brown already... my skin is several shades darker and its only been twoish weeks... so I wonder how much more dark I'll be when the summer ends...

I work mostly on the roof doing laundry... since I'm a returner everyday, I end up on the roof since I have the beginnings of expertise in laundry drying. But between the humidity and the streams falling down my face, its a wonder the clothes dry at all. My feet are slowly adjusting to the roof tiles... its almost a spanish tile, though it very long sheets. But just before 10 my feet get too hot and I have to put my sandals back on.

The sandals I avoid wearing as much because I keep getting blisters from them... the bane of most foreigners in Calcutta... blisters from sandals. i'm slowly learning how to wear these new sandals and reduce the number of blisters, and hopefully soon I'll have think enough skin that it won't matter.

Poo is a very common sight, smell and touch sensation in the laundry business... and if I wasn't doing this for the reasons I am, I'd want to vommit everyday. On the roofs, most poo has been cleaned off already, but sometimes we catch some clothes that have been dried with poo on them...

Cleanliness in clothing is not up to american standards, though we do wash the patients clothing everyday, almost every piece of clothing has some blood stains, poo stains, other bodily fluid stains, or their respective causes.

This morning we got on a bus to Kalighat, that for some reason also had people going to shanti dan on it... it turned out from conversations with the other passengers that they weren't going to Kalighat... though the conductor said we were...
so we got off at john bosco circle and took a taxi... and like most taxi's we got a ride... though not as bad as usual... usually they go twice or more the distance... this time it was only a short bit farther (about 10-20 rupees more than we could have paid probably).

It's a bit odd speaking Hindi, because there are sometimes several ways of saying the same thing, and not everyone uses or knows the other ways... for example... I asked "Kalighat kaha sei?" to a guy on a bike, and he couldn't figure out what I was asking (where is Kalighat?)... it's possible though that he only spoke Bengali... but that's semi-odd.

Frederick from Sweden

Now we're about to head to a pizza place... (they have dominoes and pizza hut here, but I refuse to go to those) one of my friends is wanting pizza... (Frederick from Sweden) So a large group of us is meeting at JoJo's (a juice parlour that everyone knows) to go from there.

got them up...

Garr... well I tried to upload 4 pictures and only one of these was what I wanted... the last one... I got a prize with my Mango juice... a "sparkling" glass... Someone else got some shampoo with their rum... and other give aways include a tennis ball with some cadbury's chocolate... crazy giftting ideas...

some pictures

Kat and I after getting off the bus today from Kalighat, and ready to trek home... (at this point we didn't know where we were, but we knew we were on the right street... maybe)

(so I was going to add more pictures, but I keep running into problems... :-) )
Ciao,
Edward

Out on the Town

From earlier today before I went to evening prayer...

a few of my friends playing music in the streets with a local. After I took some pictures the local wanted money... which I'm coming to learn is one of the worst things you could ever do in Calcutta... give someone money. There's a difference from Business beggars and the truly poor. The business beggars make more money that most of the honest working Indians, the truly poor almost never beg (AND ARE NOT ON SUDDER STREET[where most foreigners stay] OR OUTSIDE THE MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY HOUSES). Those beggars at those locations are the business beggars and on Sudder street run the business of begging like a Mafia, only a few families control the whole street and they "deal" with any intruders. (They have a system where they ask you to buy them something like cereal for their child, and then they resell it back to the shopkeeper unopened for a large cut of the money). Pretty sick.

Giving money to beggars just promotes an industry that doesn't get poor people out of poverty but instead makes the "Mafia" and the rest of the Business beggars richer. If you want to ever give money in calcutta, give it to a NGO or the Missionaries of Charity... it will go to helping those in real need.

So I'm pretty sure I'll be sick tomorrow...
There's this restaurant that I love to go to because the people there get more and more excited each time I come... it's an Urdu restaurant. that serves some really good tasting Kabobs, meat with spicy sauce drink and bread for really cheap (26.50 or I think you can say chay(pronounced Shay)-bees ruppees pajas paces; paces are the cents in India).

The problem however, is that the kabob wasn't cooked all the way through this time... though I think it's precooked a bit...

so I'm going to take some of the Norflox as a preventive measure tonight and tomorrow.

Also, at the sweets shop that I stop by, the owner was telling me that I said their greeting (a salaam val le kum; may God's peace be upon you, I think is the rough translation) very impressively (Bahut acha; very good). Which is probably why I get so many joyously shocked faces when I say it. (By the way when I spell Urdu or Hindi it's probably wrong, the words I write are phonetic devices more than written language.)

I think I have almost all the numbers down... enough that someone can understand me at least. (they have a new name for EVERY number from 1-100)
1. Ek
2. Do
3.Teen [Theen (pronounced with a short h)]
4. Char
5. Panch
6. Chay
7. Saat
8. Aat
9. Nao
10. Das
11. Ekaro
12. Barra
13. Theeda
14. Chowda
15. Pandera
16. Solah
17. Sattraah
18. attraah
19. Uniees
20. Bees
30. Thees
40. Chalees
50. Pajas (25 is Pajees)
60. Saat (look at 7... its spelled the exact same but pronounced slightly differently... Sa-athr (with a very very short hr)
70. Satar
80. Aees (or Ashi, in bangla I think)
90. Nobee (or Noboy, in bangla I think)
100. Ek(one) Soh (hundred)
1000. Ek Hazaar

Testify about the Testimony

Picture from earlier in the day of my testimony

So I keep getting people everyday who come up to me and thank me for my testimony (aka, my secret mission)...

It's very humbling but also somewhat dumbfounding. Both for the same reason... It was really God that they're connecting with, that's what really touched them, that's the only thing that can ever touch someone. Only truth, beauty and goodness can bring a person to joy. And for those, there is only the One.

I was told by one of the sisters the reason that I was asked to lead orientations was because of how slowly I spoke during my testimony. I thought about that for a bit and realised that's one of the reasons I felt that it went so poorly, because I took so long...

The hallway where we hung out just before a few talks including my testimony

THEN, I saw God's hand... I had prayed so much for God to use me, hours upon hours of prayer (and I had some others praying for me also) that God did just that! He took me aside and went through me against my desires and will (which was exactly my desire, because I desired a much different testimony and style of speech, but who am I to know what is needed to touch someone, so I desired that God do what He needed to do and how He needed to do it.).

God used a slow and clear pattern of speech to reach the most people... there was a sizable number (if not majority) of English as a second language people, so the slow and clear pattern was enormously helpful (I didn't really understand that until tonight when a French girl was thanking me and when I responded she couldn't easily follow my speech since I was speaking much faster than I had Thursday night.)


It's funny how smart God is! :-) I like it a lot!

A bit after dinner which was after the hour prayer, the movie and the talks (the guitarist is really good... we all sang the Red Hot Chilli Pepper's song City of Angels, I was shocked to hear Americans, French, Brits, Indians and Spaniards sing the song together)

More photos from the celebration!

Happenings

the secret mission was a success, though I felt I completely messed it up.

But God works through whatever He's given, and many people said they were touched by my testimony... It's interesting to see His power work, when we try so hard and know how badly we do, we truly know that all good must be from Him alone.

A Sister that wasn't even there last night at the volunteer's day, thanked me... which is a really weird feeling... being thanked for my testimony from a Sister, who heard about it through another Sister...

Also, I've been asked to attend the orientation again today, in hopes that I can learn it well enough to start giving them. (I've only been here for a two weeks... and they want my help! Crazy!)

But I must be off... to go to orientation!

God bless you all!

It's a time of Celebration for the Missionaries of Charity!

Earlier this week (two days ago?) four sisters celebrated their 25th anniversary as Brides of Christ, yesterday a group of sisters gave their Marriage vows(final vows) to Christ, and today three gave their engagement vows (first vows) .

The celebration over the weddings last night was amazing, from a beautiful cheerfulness, to beautiful trimmings that were made from simple items. The brides' families were present, from the US, Africa, Asia, Europe and places between. It was gorgeous to see the beauty on their faces and on the faces of their families.

Learning

(I've edited this because I don't think you could see the pictures... originally posted: Monday, May 22, 2006 4:10 PM)







I'm trying to learn Urdu (or at least I think I'm learning urdu... apparently hindi people understand my Urdu, so it may be Hindi or a hybrid of the two... I'm learning it from a shopkeeper, who dreams of going to the USA. He and the local Muslims love that I'm trying to learn it.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day that I complete my "secret mission" (well it's a secret to everyone but me, a sister and about five others, in the sense that other people don't know about it and it's not something that would come up in normal conversation.)

I'm both excited and scared.

I'm excited for God to use me, and scared that I'll get in the way (I have this nagging tendency to do that).

Removed calendar

I removed the calendar at the bottom of the page (still left a link)... but since we're pretty much staying put, I think the extra loading time is not worth having it on the page... We'll just post new info on the blog.

So if any of you want to know... when I'll be in san antonio... I'll arrive August 14th at 1020pm from Minneapolis/St. Paul, and I'll leave for NYC August 20th at 612am...

So if anyone wants to get a ride in, I'd love it... I miss my Bike so much!

Long Haired Hippy

So Having long hair has a benefit and a drawback that I've discovered so far...

First, the benefit is that the Indian girls think I'd be more handsome if I cut it. Which means that I have no intentions of cutting it anytime here. That's not a situation I want to worry about anytime soon.

Second, the draw back is that everytime I walk somewhere I get asked if I want Hashish (is that how you spell it?) AKA Pot, Mary Jane, Marijuana, etc. I walked through "New market" a tourist trap area and within 30 minutes I got asked 12 times... and several store owners who misunderstood that I was asking for Lychee started to walk me to some "good hasish". Hung would love the Lychee here... very good... though I think a bit over priced at 40 rp/kilo (I got it down to 35, but I think the shopkeeper didn't give me a full kilo).

sickness...

So I was grabbing my gut at Kalighat today (I've had mild problems with my intestines lately, nothing horrible enough that I thought it important, but a doctor that works at Kalighat saw me and started asking me questions... then he told me to pickup some electral and norflox tx. (Take three Norflox, one each day for the next three.) The norflox is apparently (I think I understood him) an antiseptic, antibiotic and etc. That will kill practically anything that could be attacking my intestine... (parasite, bacteria, infections of other sorts). I'm not sure if I understood right, but I plan to investigate more. It was 65rps for 10 pills. The electral was 11.5 rp a packet (I got two) and one packet fills one liter. (it's an electrolyte solution that is "based on W.H.O. Formula." Which if it is, I can make it much cheaper, since the who formula is sugar, baking powder, and salt. (I can even add my own flavouring).

The doctor thought it was very important to get rid of this now... so I'm going to. :-)

Edit... more info on WHO Formula

RECIPE A household method of meeting the WHO Formula according to the booklet I put together (I don't know where I culled the info from):
1 liter water ("obviously, this should be disinfected")
10 g (2 teaspoons) sugar
2.5 gr (.5 teaspoon) salt
2.5 gr (.5 teaspoon) baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

New recommendations from the official WHO website...
http://www.who.int/child-adolescent-health/New_Publications/NEWS/Statement.htm

Sodium chloride	2.6
Glucose, anhydrous	13.5
Potassium chloride	.5
Trisodium citrate, dihydrate	2.9

What is ORT? from (http://www.rehydrate.org/dehydration/treatment_plans.htm):
ORT is the giving of fluid by mouth to prevent and/or correct the dehydration that is a result of diarrhoea. As soon as diarrhoea begins, treatment using home remedies to prevent dehydration must be started. If adults or children have not been given extra drinks, or if in spite of this dehydration does occur, they must be treated with a special drink made with oral rehydration salts (ORS). The formula for ORS recommended by WHO and UNICEF contains:

• 3.5 gms sodium chloride
• 2.9 gms trisodium citrate dihydrate (or 2.5 gms sodium bicarbonate)
• 1.5 gms potassium chloride
• 20 gms glucose (anhydrous)

The above ingredients are dissolved in one litre of clean water. WHO has recently recommended a change in the complete formula, replacing 2.5 gms of sodium bicarbonate with 2.9 gms of trisodium citrate dihydrate. The new formula gives the packets a longer shelf life and is at least as effective in correcting acidosis and reducing stool volume. Packets containing sodium bicarbonate are still safe and effective.

Something really interesting:

Can the solution be made with dirty water?
The benefits of fluid replacement in diarrhoea far outweigh the risks of using contaminated water to make up oral rehydration solution. In situations where it is difficult to boil water, mothers are advised to use the cleanest water possible.

Beauty

If you ever come to India, don't run through a toll booth without paying.

They have bored teams of sharpshooters.

New #44

There's a new #44.

But two things could have happened.
1. he got moved to a different house
2. he got moved to a much bigger House, with room for us all.

Cleanliness

Zach(Australia), Nadine(France) and I... after going to the Shiva and Durga temple (Durga has tons of personalities, Uma, Parvati, Durga, Kali are all the same woman in different temperments) we got soaked as we walked up the marble stairs to the temple... so all we could do is laugh, we definitely couldn't run :-) The temple was gorgeous on the inside, and I would have loved to take pictures of how one culture turns a space into a place of holiness using very simple methods, but I couldn't... no cameras (or bags) allowed in.

Gonzalo from Argentina

So yesterday was the first day of monsoon...
Luckily it was only a precursor (so far) and not the full onslaught.

But it made me realise something... my standards of hygine are drastically reduced.
I'm fine with living with rats, showering in my toilet, eating in places that wouldn't even get a chuckle from an US health inspector, and walking barefoot in (effectively sewer) water up to the knees...

Me in the street water... its actually not past my knees, I'm just on my knees, it's about mid shin high right here... The internet shopkeeper who took this photo for me wanted to play with the foreigner, and being good sport I got on my knees, though he wanted me to recline like I was on a beach... all the natives got a good laugh over this and the subsequent throwing of the shopkeeper into the water ;-)

The shopkeeper

Prices

I;m going to occaisionally post prices of things I've discovered(or others have informed me) in Calcutta for future reference and for those who want to travel here.

Water... 1 ltr 10-14rp
Water... 2 ltr 15-20rp
Saree... cotton basic 150rp
saree... cotton hand printed 300rp
saree... cotton very nice 900rp
saree... silk 1000-2000rp
dinner (1 dish + bread + drink) 23-100+ rp (most around 45-60rp)
bus fare... 4-6rp
metro (subway) 4-6rp
Taxi 20-300 (IN CALCUTTA USE THE METER and hope you don't get taken for a ride, the meter reading times 2 is the approximate cost, but they also have a conversion card in each taxi).
housing dorm 70-80rp
housing double room 100-300rp/night
housing airconditioned (60-200 US dollars)
Shirt male... 35-160rp
Shoes... circa 200rp(not sure on this one... probably very high)
have your laundry done by someone else... 10 rp a piece (this is from a friend who says it's probably high...)
Laundry soap... not name brand. 20 rp for 1 Kilo
Laundry soap... Name brand 50-90 rp for .5 Kilo
Ice cream (bar on a stick) 5-10 rp (they're about half the size of US ones)
Ice cream Cup 20-30 rp
Ice cream popice 1 rp (I think)
Ice cream cone 15-25 rp
Soda 12-15rp (at a restaurant)
Soda plastic bottle 20 rp (at a store, I'm not sure on this one, it might be more)
Mango Lassi (or any flavour) 15-20 rp
Internet 1 hour 15-20 rp (there are 10 rp places, but rumor is they're really slow).
Phone US 3-7 rp/min
Tuk Tuk 30-50rp (only rode twice in agra)??
Taj Mahal 750 for foreigners
Botanical Gardens (in howra across the river from Calcutta) 50 for Foreigners (5 for natives)
Most temples Free

Changing blog time to india time

I'm going to change this blog's settings from CST to india time...
(it might not work for all the past blogs, but it should for all the new posts)

Sick

So I'm a bit sick.

Last night (friday) during the last decade of rosary at evening prayer/adoration, I got rapidly more and more sick. At the last few hail Marys I went from Kneeling to all fours (I had almost passed out as the blood rushed from my body), to sitting, and having to leave after the last Hail Mary... because I felt as if I was about to vomit and that my intestines weren't doing so well.

After using the hole that's known as a toilet in most of the non-western (and some areas of the western) world, and trying to figure out what happened and if I could make it back up the stairs or if I should remain, I returned to adoration, but sat in the back against a wall.

So I decided it could be a few things... one, malaria or some other disease (ironically, I take my malaria medicine on fridays), two, It could be exhaustion from the heat and work or three, it could be my diet. So I decided to take the day off and eat better.

Holiday and not so much

So today is a holiday for the Ghandi School (according to the only other person who goes to breakfast at the Motherhouse and who goes there also) and the holiday continues until monday.

I'm still not sure I believe that the Ghandi School exists. And many people also doubt it's existance. Nobody knows where it is, and it took me asking almost every volunteer to find just one other person. But if it does exist, I'm going to love it, I expect. I love teaching. I love helping others learn. And I especially love teaching kids.

This afternoon I'm going to find out more about what I'm going to do on this top secret mission... (the one I can't talk about because I don't know if it's appropriate to yet). And I think I'm going to love it emmensely! God is SOO good to me. Always abundant in grace and always driving me to holiness. (It's a good thing too, because I don't have a license and I suck at driving; both spiritually and automotively.)

I worked out our rough budget yesterday, and currently it comes out to 300 rp a day between the both of us (which will go to our cheap rent of 100rp a night, our dinner usually about 100rp, our transportation which comes to about 35 rp a day and some spare change, 65rp, for the internet or a small lunch or snack or such)... which means, if we don't want to add more money from our personal accounts, we'll have to stay in Calcutta, or fast when ever we can to save money for trips or nice things like snacks or more detergent. I imagine that I'll have to put in more money for myself. But luckily it won't be too much.

Also it's completely doable, and we will easily survive.

I was going to add some pictures, but I apparenly left my camera at my room.

Also, THERE ARE MANY MEN HERE WHO ARE SCUM. EVERY woman I've talked to has been grabbed at least once, and most have been grabbed repeatedly at various parts of their bodies.

Lord, please protect your daughters, and help your sons to protect them.

Appreciation

So today as I was heading to Kalighat I was told that Kat was going as well... so I made the decision to face the fear between us head on. And God answered my prayers of the last few days and sent graces between us. After being initially apprehensive to my approach she was calmed to find out that I didn't plan to be here right now, and that I had hoped to avoid her.

We talked a little and the air is definitely not normal, but I don't expect it ever to be. But at least now the fear has been vanquished by the Light.

Today at Kalighat, I realised how futile my efforts are. I can do nothing but smile, caress, massage, wash dishes, launrdy, prepare food, etc. But Kat has a gift that I envy, and began to really realise today that I respect and cherish. That of healing. She can do something that I can never hope to do, prolong someone's life, make it more comfortable, and possibly heal. I can't express how thankful I am for her being here. It's almost overwhelming, to the point that when I think about it, I have to stop and think of something else, or the two tears that are forming would turn into torrents. I'm so happy that she's brought her gifts to serve these people I love. And that she can do something so amazing, puts words out of reach.

Thank you, Kat.

And thank you Lord, for answering my recent prayers. You are an amazing God who can overcome every obstacle. Whose graces overflow.

(Edit... see: http://sirhair.blogspot.com/2006/05/kats-in-india.html to make more sense of this post...)

other blog

don't forget to look at my other blog if you're interested about other things that I don't post here...

http://sirhair.blogspot.com

Fun in Amsterdam

There were alot of churches... none were open and most were museums.