Goodbyes

631pm
22.12.8
Goodbyes

Sunday Morning I headed to Shishu to pick up my paints/brushes and to talk to sister about the painting. I explained to her how it would take about a week to dry, and then how the girls would cleanit, varnish it and apply the photos.


(Where it will sit for a week)
I did some research on varnishing and it seems that since I'm doing it so soon, the varnish will actually merge a little with the paint. Which is okay, since this is not a piece of work that I expect to be in a museum, or ever of interests to the field of art restoration.

After talking to her, I headed to where Van suggested she needed help.


And I found myself dealing in the blue market of powdered milk.

Along with some other "workars".


A German and Britisher...


Van (an american from Penn but living in Boston).


And of course Sister who was a French Swiss, but whose name I'm at a loss for. Sister graced us with her vocation story, which was funny, fun and quite beautiful. She had run for so long from Calcutta and Mother Teresa, that when she finally came to Calcutta, she ended up in a jail (for sleeping on the street). And then Mother came to pick her up. The cops placed her in Mother's care until her flight back to Europe, and Mother put three sisters on the job to keep her from running away. Something she still tried to do repeatedly. And this Mother did, because, as she told the three sisters, "this one has a vocation, but doesn't know it yet, so don't let her get away!"

Another cute aside was that when she met Mother for the first time, she dodged Mother's blessing, and was a little rude to her. Which Mother reminded her about, when the two were flying to Africa together after she became a sister.

After helping to bag 600 milks, I headed to have lunch with Sharlot. Who is a Calcutta friend from my first trip, and who is actually (it turns out) a Muslim convert.


We ate lunch at Mocambo, and had the fish steak sizzler.


Which also came with the exact same (aside from the restaurant name in the lower right had corner) placemat as Peter Cat's.


But the sizzler was much much better than Peter Cats, and I think I'm in love with Bekti fish.

Today, I went to Mother house for the volunteer breakfast, and then to Shishu to talk to the girls and ensure they knew what was up. Then I came back to Motherhouse and did my morning prayer. As I went downstairs to the tomb to say goodbye to Mother, I discovered a priest who was preparing for mass. I asked if I could join, and he said yes! So got to receive Jesus for my trip! Viaticum! Only not for my final journey (hopefully).


When I returned to sudder street, I saw that the hostel was still not done with it's Christmas preparations.



Which makes me wonder how decked out they'll be.

After my final lunch with Anni, I said bye to a few friends. Including Sunelal, who is an Indian friend from my first trip, and who promised me that he would get to 400 push ups (in a few hours) a few days before I left. (He was at 300 about a week ago when he promised.)


Not only did he do 400, but he made like 435! With two days to spare!

I also got to say goodbye to Hano, a friend/dormmate of Michelle and I, from the August.


And then I said good bye to Sudder street. Which was remarkably similar to not saying goodbye.
656pm