Prem Dan: Day 4

We have our hope in Jesus. 

We have our hope in Jesus.

That all things may be well,

That all things may be well,

That all things may be well,

In the Lord. 2X

We thank we thank we thank you,

We thank we thank we thank you.

We thank we thank we thank you from our hearts!

We thank we thank we thank you,

We thank we thank we thank you. 

We thank we thank we thank you from our hearts.

We love...

Well miss...

That is our morning song routine.

On the last day of volunteering at the homes you are to step forward and be sung to. We did not join that party. We sang to others but did not put ourselves on display. 4 days doesn't need to be recognized.

On the walk in this morning I decided to walk alongside the nameless Irish dude. He is an older, greying gentleman who chivalrously gave me his umbrella when the rain started. He is a high school economics teacher and, what we would call, a VP at a school just outside of London. He is volunteering for a month of his summer holidays. He was here 15 years ago, has volunteered with the missions of charity at an orphanage in Romania and now has returned to Kolkata. His greatest desire is to bring a group of students on a missions trip, ideally to Kolkata. It seems like mission trips are not very common in his area. He teaches at a public school. We chatted about the work I do, about how an Ontario public school board supports a three month immersion program and how local public schools send groups of students on mission trips to Central American and African countries. I told him the process I went through and encouraged him to keep trying. I also told him the first group that goes is key. Not everything will be perfect, people will likely get sick, but the key is that you have people who, despite the negatives, can speak about the trip positively. Then the idea will sell itself each year. Another uplifting and enlightening conversation. The joy of travelling? People.

Much of today was routine but I did learn more about how laundry is done. There is a big step I was not previously aware of: before the laundry goes to the first bin I wrote about previously, it is put in a huge pot above a flame. The laundry is essentially boiled. A lady stokes the fire and keeps it burning with garbage. My job today was to use a stick to remove the boiled laundry from the pot, put it into a bucket and carry the bucket to the first washing stage. When that was done I carried a bucket of laundry upstairs to the line and was quickly recruited by the short local ladies to stay and hang laundry.

I approached today with the goal of doing medical stuff. Yesterday when Amelie told me of the lady with the huge wound on her head, everything in me wanted to see it. I aligned myself with the appropriate people and after laundry I found myself helping out with injuries. I sure didn't know what I was in for. We removed gauze and bandages on multiple open wounds, cleaned them, iodized them and re-bandaged. Most were open cancer-flesh-eating wounds or leprosy. I realized today that unless a steel stomach is something you can develop, I could not actually be a doctor as I once thought I could. I handled 13/14 wounds no problem but one leg wound made me a wee bit woozy. If you want to know more, ask. I shan't explain here. I went outside for 3 minutes and was good. When I returned I actually did all the work for the lady with the massive head wound. I used the scissor-like tongs and put gauze on it like on M.A.S.H. and cleaned the wound, used iodine, cream and re-bandaged it. The sister was a most helpful teacher. The patient was incredibly brave and despite such a large open wound being treated, she didn't flinch or avoid or cry at all. And she is not on strong meds. I LOVED this part of the morning!!!

The rest of the day was routine: I hung out with my thumbs up people and developed a little bit of a handshake between the three of us. A lady kept calling "auntie" (to me) to go over to her because she wanted to give me hugs etc...it was super cute.

I discovered new fun upstairs today. The second floor is similar to the first so I ventured into the sleeping quarters and was greeted with an "¡hola! ¿Como estas?" from across the room. This Bengali woman, Monika, knew some conversational Spanish: super fun.

There were two ladies working on sewing upstairs as well. They live outside of the home but come and sew from 8-5 every day. They were funny ladies. One was 17, sews every day and does not go to school. The other was older and was so cute as she tried to speak English. As usual, conversation quickly went to the fact that I was tall and as per usual: ended with laughter.

I have done a lot of laughing over the past four days. As James McDonald says, attitude really is everything. I am glad Prem Dan was chosen for me. It brought me joy, learning and helped collaborate my life experiences.

I am now writing this from a pew in St. Paul's cathedral in Kolkata. It is a massive, magnificent church (except for the rat that just ran across the sanctuary's marble aisle) and a 45 minute walk from our hotel. It is peaceful here and it is a good way to end the Kolkata experience (as we fly out early tomorrow morning). I have never really sat in a pew outside of formal church services, but being here I can understand why people come here for peace and solace. I get why Kevin came to the church when Marv and Harry (the Wet Bandits in Home Alone) were after him ;)

The Kolkata experience is nearly over. Perfectly timed. Perfectly placed. Important and meaningful. It was good.