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!