A New Day

Yesterday I had every intention of writing a post, but by the end of the afternoon I was to tired and annoyed to write anything that would have been semi-positive.
My day started out with an alright walk to Mother House to volunteer. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that any non-indian women here get stared at all the time (as in as soon as you step out of the door of your hotel) and not just stared at, but turn around, walk backwards to stare at you. Not only that, but the men will deliberately attempt to brush you or grope you (as in veer across the street to touch you. Not exaggerating).
So, in the morning with the usual stares (usually not harmful, but annoying) on the walk, on guy on his bike who rode past me staring at me and turning so he could keep staring even after he passed me, stopped and kept staring until I got closer then again started pedaling staring at me. To the point that I was hoping he would crash his bike, because I would have laughed and kept walking past him, maybe stared at him laughing (yep, it was bringing out the beast in me yesterday)! Normally I just ignore it and dodge the men trying to touch me, but yesterday it was really getting to me!
It was super busy at the dispensary yesterday as everyone who hadn't shown up all last week due to the celebrations, came yesterday, so when we left around 1pm the room was still full of people for the sisters to see. On top of it I was really tired, so even more tired by the end of the day.
We met a couple of the other girls who are volunteering and went with them for lunch. Leaving lunch a well dressed man walked pasted me and reached out and grabbed my ass.... not just a brush by touch but reached out and grabbed. Then on the 45min walk back to our hotels the streets were packed as all the kids were just getting out of school, people finishing work etc. So had to dodge more people then normal. So, by the late afternoon I was done.
A nap and a shower later felt much better and met up with Maria for dinner. We had a nice dinner and a good laugh about how hassled we get and how our "husbands" always seem to be MIA!
Anyhow, enough ranting. Today again am super tired so decided not to volunteer today as I really don't want to get sick since I still have a couple more weeks to go of volunteering. So had a bit of a sleep in and quiet morning. Will meet up with Maria later and go walk around some more.
Oh, I don't think I wrote about Sunday. Sunday afternoon we went on a walk to all the sights where Mother Theresa was when she first started her work here in Calcutta. It was really interesting and nice to see all the places. It started at 2:30 and we didn't finish until after 7pm. Then after promptly getting lost on our way back, hiring a motor rickshaw, who was going to charge us 80Rs (we were quite far from where we needed to be) then decided to pick up a few more people on the way so when we got a bit upset about he finally only charged us 24Rs instead!
Anyhow, things are good and I am going to find someplace quietish to read for a bit I think.

Today is our day day 2 off! The volunteers at the dispensary get every Thursday and Sunday off as that is when the dispensary is closed! This afternoon we are going on a walk to the sites Mother Theresa went to! It's a pilgrimage/prayer for the sisters and but the volunteers can participate and just go for the walk or join in the prayer. Should be good to see all the sites!
Yesterday we piled into the back of a truck (big truck) with boxes of blankets, medications, cooking oil, and biscuits and drove an hour to a village on the outskirts of Kolkata. The sisters go to this village every Saturday to provide medications, and minor treatments as there is no hospital in the area. The people walk from 3 different villages to line up. They get there at 5am in hopes of being seen.
We set up in a church courtyard and they close the gates at 10am so they are able to finish the day at a reasonable time. Yesterday wasn't to bad due to it being the last day of Diwali celebrations.
I was working with Sister Margaret (the head Sister) to hand out medications for moms and babes. Everyone wants something for cough and fever, then diarrhea. Alot of the babies are very tiny and malnourished. But there are a few that are very healthy!!
In the village they have no clean water. The church we were at used to have a water pump, but something happened and the brothers who run it have not been able to maintain the pump. Sooo, they get their water from a green, scungey pond where they also bath, wash their clothes, and grow fish in to sell. Needless to say, alot of stomach problems due to it.
I think there was about 400 people who came yesterday. Normally they can see upwards of 1000 people. The sisters also hand out cooking oil as the families cannot afford to buy oil. The oil helps with adding much needed fats to their diet. Also biscuits and glucose are handed out for the same reasons as many of the children need food more then anything else. The blankets that get handed out are for the small children and babies as it is starting to get colder at night and by December it is quite cool at night apparently and many of the babies/young children end up dying in their sleep during the night as they have very few, if any clothes.
We are so lucky in developed countries, and most of us don't even realize it!
I have one more week here in Kolkata then off to Mumbai!

Day After

Ok, first a couple important things:

1. I keep forgetting to mention that my guest house is directly across the (very narrow) street from a muslim mosque. So at 4am every morning I am blasted awake by prayers over a loud speaker...

2. So far I have managed to avoid getting really sick. A few small episodes of stomach cramps and mild diarrhea but nothing major.

3. I have pictures but the internet is pretty slow here so will upload them as soon as I can. Most likely not until I get to Australia the middle of November.

4. I think that's about it. Aside from not getting much sleep, things are good!

So yesterday being Kali Puja (the Diwali festival here in Kolkata) the streets were pretty busy last night. Well, more it was fireworks, firecrackers, drumming, and music (some good, some not so good) all night and into this morning. Mark took my friend Maria (whom I volunteer with) and I on a tour around to a bunch of different sights. We went to the Krishna temple, which is the largest temple here in Kolkata and is made all of marble. The various gods are dressed in hundreds of diamonds (the temple is surrounded by security guards) and very ornate.
After we walked around through the streets looking at all the lights, candles and flowers decorating everything. Mark then took us to his families house where we met his parents and sister. His mom gave us each a plate of Bengali sweets which she and his sister made. Most of them are pretty much pure sugar. Super sweet. They are served with puffed rice which is actually really good and not sweet (well, some of it is)!
Then Maria and I jumped into a cab, Mark explaining to us how to know how much to pay (you have to double whatever the meter says) and making sure we were planning on going straight back to our hotels. He was a bit worried we might want to go to the Disco (club) which really isn't very safe for foreign women.

The trip back to the hotel was uneventful. Trying to sleep last night was not the easiest due the the fireworks and drums and music going all night and into this morning added onto my 4am wake up prayers. So needless to say, a little tired today.
I woke up this morning with a bit of an upset stomach but it seems to have settled. Maria on the other hand is not feeling well at all this morning. She has been up since 6am with a very upset stomach. We are thinking the homemade sweets are to blame :( A combination of way to much sugar and who knows what else!!

Had some sad news today. My sister-in-law (soon to be sister-in-law) had a miscarriage the other day. She hemorrhaged quite badly and is in the hospital right now. My brother said the bleeding has stopped so that is very good. They are both pretty heartbroken as they were really excited about having a baby. :(

Anyhow, I really need to do some laundry today as I am on my last clean clothes. Will do my laundry and head out to walk about this afternoon.

Diwali

Happy Diwali! The streets are semi-quiet here today but will pick up in a couple hours for Diwali celebrations... Everything is being decorated and there is music playing along the streets (more like blaring). I can't remember the name of the Goddess but she is quite feared here by Hindu's. One of the Sisters at Mother Theresa House explained the story behind the Goddess to us today. So the abbreviated story is that she is decorated with the heads of all her lovers she murdered. Her foot is her husband whom she stepped on when he tried to stop her from leaving to kill a lover. Her face she is sticking her tongue out as she did this when she realized she had stepped on/killed her husband. She has 4 arms as can reach in many directions. Very abbreviated...
Anyhow, today was general medicine day at the dispensary. Basically, people showed up and told the sisters what was bothering them and then we just found whatever medication to give them for the problem. There are boxes of meds for stomach, fever, pain, liver, cough, etc. So, if someone had stomach problems then you just find something for the stomach (pariet, panto, tums, whatever). It's a bit weird to just give whatever when you are used to having to assess people in depth and then decide what the best option is for them! Oh and the best is the numerous "digestives" or "all in one" meds... there are medications that with one pill it is for your Heart failure, high blood pressure, kidney disease, and liver disease!! Fantastic!
Also, gave a few injections for pain (volteran).
We were finished pretty early (as only those who are muslim showed up today due to Diwali) so we had a tour of the children's house to see all the different wings- newborns, older babies, toddlers, and children with physical and mental disabilities.
This afternoon spent a couple hours walking around with one of the other volunteers, a nurse from Portugal.
Tomorrow is a day off for volunteers so will go do some sightseeing and try to wash some laundry!!

Mother Theresa

Today was my first day volunteering with the sisters of charity. Yesterday afternoon I went to register (they do an orientation every m-w-f for new volunteers). Because I am a nurse they wanted me to work in the Dispensary (clinic handing out meds basically) at Shishu Bhavan (one of the children's homes). It is mainly street people who come in for medication refills. They also have Specialists who come a few times a week to see patients. Today was the pediatric neurologist. It was a busyish morning as it was my first day so learning everything. Pretty easy/basic but many of the medications have different names so everyone is constantly trying to figure out what we need to be giving! The sisters go through everything and explain the medications ect to the clients so the volunteers just have to dispense everything. There are 5 of us working there. 3 of us are nurses and the other 2 are med students.

Tomorrow is Diwali (sp?) which is a Hindu festival. There are actually 2 festivals in the next 2 days I think the second one may be a muslim festival but am not sure about that! Anyhow, Diwali is a very, very important festival here. All the the stores, hotels, homes are all decorating with flowers and lights. Will make sure to take lots of pictures!!

Yesterday was a bit of a touring around day. I changed hotels in the morning then met Laura and friends Mark and Harry to head to Baland. Baland (I'm sure I will have spelled it wrong) is an hour train ride from Kolkata and is a little village on the river. The train takes you through a bunch of villages, rice fields and banana plantations. The Indian train system is a bit of an experience so was very helpful to have a couple local people with us even though Laura has been here numerous times and know the system, for me it would have been a bit confusing!! Thank you Alysha for recommending I wait until I've been here for a little while before jumping on the trains here!
Baland is a quiet village with no taxi's or rushing vehicles ect. On the train we met a man who decided he wanted to tag along with us. We were heading to the Basilica (church) so he jumped in the motor rickshaw with us and kept showing up or waiting for us everywhere we went. He was pretty taken with Laura and I not being Indian. Somehow we finally managed to loose him as he was a little bit pushy.
Anyhow, the church was really nice and has a school/orphanage attached to it. After leaving the church we grabbed some lunch and headed for a boat ride across the river to see an old palace there (built in 1841). Aside from the mosquitos/bugs the boat ride was nice and relaxing. On the way across the river we saw a huge fish of sorts (similar to a sturgeon maybe?)!
The palace was beautiful and very relaxing. It is a muslim holy place and for different muslim festivals 100's of people will go there apparently.
By the time we got back to Baland and had some chai tea, I was starting to get really tired (still a bit jet lagged). So, combining being tired, on a crowded train, in heavy, humid heat, combined with the smells of burning garbage, incense, sweat, body odours, urine, and manure (the everyday smells here) it made for not feeling to hot on the train ride back to Kolkata! Thankfully I was able to have a bit of a power nap, despite the noise and josteling of the train and felt back to normal by the time we got into Kolkata!
All in all it was a nice relaxing day. Nice to get out of the constant rush and noise of the city.
In the evening we met up with a couple of ladies (whom Laura knows from previous trips) who come from outlying villages to work doing henna ect to try and make money to feed their families and keep their kids in school. One of the children needs to have an appendectomy but they need 6000 Rs to do the surgery (approx. $110 which is ALOT of money here). Hopefully she is able to get the money needed. They have an appointment with the Dr today so will see later what he has to say.
Today is a chill day. Am going to head to the Sister's of Charity (Mother Theresa mission) this afternoon to sign up to volunteer for the next week or so!!

Bonde Hair and Missing Husbands

It's been a few days since I've been on internet so this may be a long one!! My second day in Mumbai I spent touring around the city. Went to a temple, a couple gardens, one of the laundry areas (all the laundry in the city from hotels, hospitals etc gets sent to outdoor launders), the fishing area where the terrorists who bombed mumbai a while ago landed (apparently one of the women who lives there told the police when they arrived but they ignored her as she was just a poor fisherwoman...), then the gateway to India. In the afternoon I took a one hour boat ride over to the Elephant Caves. On the boat met a young Indian family (two couples and a baby) who sat next to me and wanted pictures with me. They wanted a picture of me holding their baby (he was around a year old) but he was a bit freaked out to be held by me. Eventually he came and sat beside me and wouldn't look at me but kept reaching over to hold my hand and look at my white fingers!
At the Elephant Caves you have to climb a bunch of stairs to get to the caves. At the bottom I had stopped to get my camera out and set down my bottle of lemonade(which I had just bought and had one sip out of) when one of the hundreds of monkeys ran up and snatched it and ran off to try and drink it! Freakin' monkeys!
As I was leaving the caves I ran into the family again and they wanted a couple more pictures. While they were taking pictures, a swarm of young boys crowded around wanting to take pictures. Eventually I had to make a dash for it or I would have been stuck there all night with people wanting to take pictures.
Every man/boy wants to know if I am traveling "single". This is pretty common here as it's very unusual for Inidan women to travel alone. Sooo... my "husband" has been in various places from back in Canada working to at the hotel as he didn't feel like doing whatever I happen to be doing. If I say I am single I will be in big trouble as I will then not be left alone AT ALL. Depending on how persistent the person is, helps me decide whether my husband is in Canada or meeting up with me shortly!
Friday I flew to Kolkata. Fairly uneventful. We were loaded onto the plane and then sat and waited for an hour before the pilots finally showed up!
When I arrived in Kolkata it had started to rain, so by the time I got out of the airport with my bags and prepaid taxi receipt it was a downpour (the type the leaves the streets flooded within 20 minutes). Of course my rain jacket was buried somewhere in my bags so I was completely drenched just from crossing the road to get my taxi! Then, when I finally got my taxi, he didn't know where I needed to go and couldn't speak english. Eventually I broke down and called the guest house (which I'm sure will show up as about $100 for the 1min 35sec phone call but needed to happen!).
Finally I arrived at the guest house. The room was about the size of a small prison cell with no windows and just a bed (which I'm pretty sure I've picked up some bedbugs from :( not nice) and a shared squat toilet and shower. But for 230 Rs (just under $5)/night you make do until you can find something better!! Which I did!
Yesterday morning a met a girl from Spain who is here doing some work with a small NGO in one of the Islam slums here. She invited me to come with her yesterday even though they weren't going to be doing much. 6 of us went and we stopped at one of the private hospitals along the way to pick up some medications pay for a procedure one of the children had. We spent the morning and early afternoon visiting the families and having many pictures taken!
In the early evening we met up with a friend of hers (from previous visits) and he took us to one of the parks where we had a view of Howrath Bridge (very famous bridge here)!
Today I moved into a new hotel!! Thanks to Laura. It is much nicer with my own shower and toilet!!!! It costs "alot" 995Rs/night (about $20/night) but I think I can afford to pay more then $5 night!!
Oh, just a sort of funny/could have been not good story. This morning I woke up having to pee really, really badly. So into the toilet I went. It's not an easy task trying to squat over a whole, not pee on yourself or your clothes, and trying not to step in anything from other people. So while I was squatting there trying to pee, my foot slipped sending me into a one legged very low sideways squat as I tried to regain my balance and not go falling backwards or forwards (both of which would have been fairly unpleasant!). Somehow I managed and recovered my balance without a mishap! I'm not sure how the women here do it with the long sarees!!!
Anyhow, more in the next day or two!

Bollywood

Ok, so I arrived in Mumbai Tuesday afternoon. The flight was great. I slept the whole 8 or 9 hrs (which resulted in my ankles being ridiculously swollen from not moving). No hassles at the airport. Met Joshua from One! International to give him a suitcase of supplies for the school. Found my prepaid taxi (with Joshua's help) and headed to my hotel! Complete, full on craziness. There doesn't seem to be any real rules for driving here, except that you honk for everything! Honking seems to mean, I'm in front of you, I'm behind you, I'm beside you, I'm going to pass you, don't cross the road, hurry up and cross the road... and so on. We made it to the hotel with the cabi only hitting one bike (he was too slow walking in front of the cabi, and he was forewarned with a honk...).
Being seriously jetlagged (it's a 12.5hr time difference) I had a nap then headed out to find some dinner and walk around a bit. While on my walk I was pounced on by a Bollywood forgein extras recruitment dude. After alot of persuading (and he did help get a group of beggars away from me) and introducing me to a few other people who where going I decided, why not! Let's go Bollywood!
Yesterday morning we met ( a group of 20 of us) and were bused of to Bollywood headquarters. Filmistan Studios (yep, it's called Filmistan). After being dressed in cocktail gowns, we were sent to hair and makeup. Let's just say my hair has never seen so much hairspray (I've had to wash it 3 times) and backcombing resulting in not the best look ever. Then makeup which again was tons of bright blush and eyeshadow.
We then spent the rest of the day standing looking serious or happy. The acting was incredibly dramatic and bad. The whole thing is filmed with only 1 camera and many zoom ins for the "a bit more emotion" look! Finally we got to jump on the bus at 9pm for 1.5hr bus ride back to our hotels!
Today, no Bollywood. Just a bit of exploring and tomorrow I head to Kolkata!
xo

October 16, 2011

So I have decided that the easiest way to keep in touch with everyone while I am away is to write a blog. I promise I will try to keep this updated at least every couple days while I'm gone!

I am right now sitting in the Vancouver Airport waiting for my flight to take my to Mumbai India via London!! I think the flight is a bit delayed but nothing to long. I will be in India for a month traveling and volunteering then am heading to Australia for a month to see friends!! So excited!

The last few days have been non-stop. I was away at work until 4 days ago and so have had to cram having to get everything done for my trip in the last 4 days. I'm so tired right now, I can't wait to get on the plane so I can sleep for the next 8hrs, maybe even the whole 10hrs, flight to London!! I have an 8hr layover in London before I head the final 8ish hours to Mumbai. Can't wait to see my friend Steve aka #5 while in London!

Anyhow, nothing to exciting at the moment! Will update when I get to London.

xo