Hola, que tal?

I'm going to share a poem that a friend shared with me before I left for India.  It seems to keep coming up in my experiences here and I want to give it to you all.

Grace
by Wendell Berry

The woods is shining this morning.

Red, gold and green, the leaves

lie on the ground, or fall,

or hang full of light in the air still.

Perfect in its rise and in its fall, it takes

the place it has been coming to forever.

It has not hastened here, or lagged.

See how surely it has sought itself,

its roots passing lordly through the earth.

See how without confusion it is

all that it is, and how flawless

its grace is. Running or walking, the way

is the same. Be still. Be still.

“He moves your bones, and the way is clear.”

I'm doing my first bit of traveling here soon.  On Tuesday, I will be leaving for Shantiniketan.  It's a town North of Kolkata that is home to Visva Bharati, which developed from the open-air school of Rabindranath Tagore, a very famous Indian poet.  It's mostly an arts college, so there are a number of art exhibits and museums there, as well as a deer park.  Mostly, I'm just excited to take a break somewhere peaceful and have a chance to really take a look at the culture of India in a place where my thoughts aren't constantly interrupted by the honking.  The name Shantiniketan means "peaceful abode," so I have some very high hopes for some quiet time.

Namaste,
Melissa

From which country?

Jeremiah and Devin, the last two of our group showed up a few days ago, so we are now complete.  Unfortunately, they've both been a bit sick the entire time they've been here so have been spending a lot of time sleeping and just hanging out at the hotel with us, but it has still been incredibly fun finally having the group all together.  And it's really nice having one person (Jeremiah) who's been here a number of times before.  He is a wealth of information, stories, and bits of knowledge.  In fact, having had a chance to grow brave in Kolkata already, he did something very sweet for me the night before last.  The group, minus Devin who was sick, was walking home from the New Market area when a Bengali boy walks past me and rubs my hand.  I thought nothing of it until he looked back at me with a smile and a smug look on his face.  Jeremiah heard me muttering under my breath and asked what had happened.  When I told him, he asked permission to "do something."  I gave it to him, of course, and he caught up with the Bengali boy.  Apparently, what he did (I didn't see, unfortunately)  was go up to the boy, grab his hand, and ask him if he liked holding hands with a white person.  Because, of course, that's what he was trying to do with me, right?  Well, the Bengali boy apologized to Jeremiah a number of times and Jeremiah had him wait and apologize to me as well.  It was definitely a nice feeling. 

Sunday was the Eid festival, marking the end of Ramadan for the Muslims.  The Muslim district of Kolkata was absolutely vibrant, which made my walk to and from the Mother House on Sunday most pleasant.  There was less vehicle traffic (meaning less honking!) and much much more foot traffic.  It was beautiful walking past the Muslim temple, which was absolutely full of Muslim men praying, and walking past all the men sitting in the street listening to passages being read over a loudspeaker.  We heard Sean Paul at least twice; these Indians have good taste in music.  It is wonderful to see so much unity and peace in the center of a city that never seems to stop.  The evening was even more vibrant.  We walked through part of the Muslim district, and it was lit up with Christmas lights, tinsel was hanging from buildings, there was festival games going on, and people had out humongous speakers blasting music.  A few Muslim men even got John McCartney (one of our group) and a friend of ours we met in Kolkata, Elijah, to dance with them.  And everyone was wearing beautiful new clothing.

Another thing that really struck me was the presence of women during the festival.  This was not so much the case in the Muslim district, but it was definitely obvious when I was near the Kali temple area (a Hindu area).  I have a feeling that has more to do with Durga Puja, which began today, but I really started noticing the day of Eid.  Anyways, there were far more women out and about than I have seen my entire time here, which made me incredibly happy.  The women here are absolutely beautiful.  I don't think that I've seen a single women who didn't have at least one very attractive feature.  And they all dress in the most elaborate outfits.  I really wish that they were out and about all the time.

This brings me to my next subject.  Since being here, I have had a number of conversations with Indian men.  The men here on Sudder St. are very friendly to foreigners, and for the most part are so in a way that doesn't make you feel singled out as a foreign women, which isn't true of other areas.  But I have yet to sit down and have a good conversation with an Indian women, aside from the conversations I don't understand with the women of Kalighat.  It's truly unfortunate that they have to close themselves off because of their gender.  Their toughness on the street is part of what makes them beautiful, but it also makes them hard to approach.  
Even the masys in the homes where I work are hard to approach.  A large part of that is language barrier, few seem to speak any English.  They are all friendly and smile at the volunteers and try to instruct volunteers in a friendly way.  In fact, we had a birthday at Sishu Bavan the other day and the masys were dancing and encouraging the volunteers to join in.  However, I think that it's hard to get out of the mindset of thinking of all Indian women as the tough women in the street pushing their way through crowds and keeping all their attention straight ahead.  
This lack of conversation, of course, is due mostly to my own inability to get past how tough these women look.  They intimidate me.  This is really something that I will be trying to work on the next couple of weeks, because I know these women have incredible stories to tell and opinions to express.  I just have to make an effort to get it out of them.

Other than that, things are still going well.  I am getting used to always being dirty and there is still the occasional stomach ache, but the city continues to grow on me.  Luckily, I don't mean that literally.  No mold yet.  YES!

Love and Peace,
Melissa

Brief update, sort of

So, a few things.

It's amazing how in a city whose 2005 census reported 13.2 million people (and that was 2 years, and couldn't possibly have counted all the people living on the streets), the one person you least want to see is somehow able to find you.

I got sick for the first time yesterday, but luckily it has already past.  It wasn't terrible, just generally achiness, a bit of stomach upset, and what felt like it could have been fever but may have just been the heat.

I continue to be slightly overwhelmed by the constant noise, so today I did one of the activities that our guidebook had recommended when you need a break from the city.  I went to the Oberoi Grand Hotel, a 5-star hotel just a couple of blocks from where I'm staying, and read and journalled for a few hours.  It was wonderful.  I got a break from the honking, listened to some terrible elevator music, enjoyed the a/c, and reflected without having my thoughts constantly interrupted.  I do love this city, but it was quite nice to be able to take a break.  And I think I probably did some of my best journalling today.

Also, I stopped by an optometrist office in hopes of getting an eye test appointment.  As it turns out, things like that get done much quicker here in Kolkata than in the States.  They did the test on the spot and they have their own lab, so I'll be picking up my glasses any time after 4 pm today.  I stopped in about 11:15 am.  I'm pretty amazed.  And it only set me back 1285 Rs (about $33.00 at an exchange rate of 39.4 Rs to 1 US$).  

I'm really loving meeting fellow travellers.  Such fascinating stories! 

Almost forgot!  I love working at Kalighat.  The women there are absolutely beautiful and so very joyous.  I think my favorite experience of Kolkata so far has been having a conversation with one of the women where I did not understand a single word she said.  But she talked to me for about 30 min and I smiled and nodded and it was a wonderful experience. 

Much Prem, 
Melissa

Halloo! Auntie! You want rickshaw?

I began volunteering on Tuesday, 2 days after I arrived in Kolkata.  The home that I am working at is called Shishu Bavan.  There are 2 sections to the home; one is for a few classes of toddlers where volunteers teach the children basic things like ABCs and basic mathematics.  I work in the 2nd section with handicapped children.  
I arrive each day at 8 am, which is the time when the children get their morning juice and the volunteers assist the sisters and the women who work there, called mashis, with this. Then, it is time to help the children with their excercises.  The 2 children who I have excercised with have both been girls with cerebral palsy, so their excercises have mainly been massaging their legs and arms and helping them bend their joints so they don't become stiff.  Usually the excercises are done pretty quickly and you have some time to just visit and play with the children, which is super fun.  There is a break, and we end the shift by changing and then feeding the children and visiting with them some more.  All of the children there are wonderfully sweet and I am definitely enjoying my work.  I had a bit of a hard time with the feeding the first day.  I ended up with food spit pretty much all over my pants and apron.  But I was already better on the 2nd day, so hopefully I will continually to get progressively better.
I plan to begin working an afternoon shift about 3 days a week at a home called Kalighat.  Here, I will be working with women with severe injuries and terminal illnesses.  I do admit, I'm a little frightened of what I'll see there, but I'm really looking forward to it as well.  I'll let you know more about that when I start working there.
The city of Kolkata is absolutely amazing.  There's so much going on here all the time.  It is really hard to get used to the constant noise, though, particularly the honking.  It seems like everyone here just assumes that no one else on the road has eyes.  They honk every single time they pass another vehicle, or pedestrians in the street.  I think I may have to get out of the city on my next break day (Thursdays) so that I can get a break from that.
Shopping has been my favorite experience.  You definitely have to be looking for something in particular here if you are going to go shopping.  Browsing is almost impossible, as there are constantly men coming up to you asking, "You are going to New Market?  What are you looking for?  You come to my shop?  Just look, no buy, just look.  What do you want?  We have.  We have everything, come to my shop."  It definitely makes it easy to find what you're looking for, but, like I said, makes browsing nearly impossible.  
The hardest thing to get used to in the city is the patriarchal nature of India.  Being both a foreigner and a woman is a difficult thing, and the constant staring is a little disconcerting.  My first day, I was completely oblivious to it because I was so fascinated by everything.  However, it is certainly not easy to ignore.  For myself, it has mostly just been staring and a bit of yelling from the men on the street.  I also believe that there is MORE honking when you are a women than there would be if you're a man.  A couple of girl friends have had some harder experiences, but we're all learning to deal with it in our own ways.  It's just another part of Indian culture, you can't really let it get to you too much.
Oh, and being woken up at 5 am by Japanese heavy metal.  Yeah, that's fun, too.  We moved out of the hostel where that was a problem this morning, though, so hopefully I'll be able to sleep later now.
And, yeah, that's that.  I'm sure there will be more soon though.
Love!