Wednesday evening, Sept. 23

Wow - have been pretty busy and just haven't had the brain power at the end of the day so let's see if I can give a run-down of the last few days! Last Sunday was the volunteer dinner at Prem Dan. It was a very nice evening - just good to spend time together, have fun, laugh, pray, sing and eat. I would guess there were about 50 volunteers there (I thought there would be more but... ). It started off with us singing some praise songs (mostly in English), then we listened to a Missionary of Charity priest talk about , well, I guess you'd say "letting God be the pilot" - you know, not telling God your plans but letting Him show you what He has in mind. It was good - in fact the entire evening was focused on that (well, like I said, the theme was "Make of your life something beautiful for God" - what could be more beautiful than to let your life be what He would like it to be?) Some of the talk was re-translated into Spanish by the sister in charge of volunteers who is from El Paso and speaks fluent Spanish. Then we had a skit - it was done by the volunteers who all volunteered spur of the moment, not really knowing what they were doing (Garrett was one of the volunteers!!!) It was a lovely story about these three trees who all had lofty dreams for their "lives" - what they would be when they grew up - but the course their "lives" actually took - narrated and acted out while being read (with pauses in the reading). We had some good laughs! After the skit, we went over to the chapel (by the women's section of Prem Dan) for an hour of Adoration. The sister explained what adoration is (I would guess that the majority of volunteers are not Catholic, some are not Chrisitan, some have no religious beliefs). It was a lovely time of the evening - there was some quiet live guitar music at times, some quiet live singing, some scripture reading and some thoughts of Mother Teresa's read and some just quiet. After that, we went back over to the room we were originally in for dinner - buffet with noodles, chicken, sort of like jo-joes and a variety of small candies for dessert. It was late when we got back to our room (well, late for me here - about 8:30) so close to 10 before I got to bed. Moving on to Monday, it was an eventful day! It started off with the fact that it was the last day of Ramadan and there are a lot of Muslims here (as is evidenced by the broadcast prayer times I have mentioned). Several of the stores were closed (including the one we usually buy our water in the mornings on our way to Prem Dan) and some roads were closed as the Muslim men were kneeling/standing with their prayer rugs and no one was able to pass in that portion of the road (vehicles or pedestrians), so we had a few interesting detours we had to take. We did decide that we would take the bus instead of walking - a really good decision as the buses were so empty, we actually got seats and no one was standing (unheard of!!!). But, a funny while we were waiting for the bus - a bird decided to go potty with Laura being the target of the moment. The bird was fairly accurate and luckily we had some tissue with us to help with the clean-up (while I'm on the subject, I shouldn't have laughed so hard at Laura on Monday when that happened as I was on the receiving end today as we were walking to the dispensary!). Our time at Prem Dan was normal - because of blisters on my right hand, I wasn't helping with the actual wash/wringing of the clothes but could again carry the buckets of wet clothes up the four flights of stairs to the roof for the ladies to hand it up. It was so sweet - when I first got upstairs, this one lady saw me and started dancing around in a cirlce with her arm in the air; she cam over to me, took my face in her hands, said something in Bengali and then kissed both my cheeks! On one of my trips downstairs, one of the sisters was squeeling, running and one of the massis was running with a broom stick - they were chasing a rat!! Oh, yes - this is not the first time this has happened. It was quite comical but they did not get the rat! The morning went fairly normal until about 45 min. before time to leave when the skies opened up, the lightning was flashing and the thunder cracking! I actually found it rather frightening - the thunder came almost immediately with the lightning and boomed and cracked so loudly!!! It was a bit daunting to think about heading out (fortunately we each had our ponchos and the lightning and thunder was slowing down). We did well in getting an auto-rickshaw and didn't have to go through flooded streets until the last couple of blocks when it was about ankle deep. I won't share what some of the stuff in the water was :-) . Time at the dispensary was good (as it was today) - we are getting familiar with some of the people who come in time after time to have their wounds cared for. They are so very appreciative!! Today a man reached down and touched both Laura's and my feet (very humbling!). Tuesday just seemed like an easy day (as do all the days we don't go to the dispensary in the afternoon) but it was emotionally draining as one of the ladies I particularly like was not doing well and we thought she might be dying (it had been a sudden turn of events). Laura sat with her all morning with the lady's head in her lap. Several people paused when passing and prayed for her. Her breathing was labored and she was unresponsive. She is still alive but as of the time we left today, her condition had not really changed. I seem to gravitate towards the ladies who are more isolated, those who are too sick to go out onto the "porch area". I will be sad to leave these dear ladies. We have only one more week here - I am so looking forward to coming home but will also be sad to leave this experience. Tomorrow is our day off. Don't know what we will do - it is the beginnning of the largest Hindu festival of the year and I believe it officially goes from Thursday through Saturday (3 days). There have been preparations for the past week with it seems a slightly different focus each day. There are temporary structures being built - according to the paper, some 1100+ around the city - for various purposes. There are supposed to be new construction codes to be followed this year but also according to the paper, they estimate that 67% of them are not to code (but they're not doing anything about them - the codes seem to be because most of them are terrible fire traps!). Anyway, the name of the festival is Puja (I believe) and I'll let you know how it goes! Well, must go back to the room and rest my tired body!! Blessings!