NAMASTE, Ryan checking in. Kolkata is the type of place that kicks you in the balls and slaps you in the face upon arrival, then gives you a big bear hug and tells you it was for your good and you walk away grateful.

We are starting to notice a trend here….our best and most memorable experiences are when we are serving others. I think it is largely due to the joy of shedding our entrenched selfishness for awhile and through that special lessons are learned and memorable experiences that are initiated. Another large contributor to our enjoyment of these experiences is the people, and Kolkata (or Calcutta whichever you prefer) was no exception. This place rarely attracts tourists but rather attracts volunteers from all over the world and these are the people of the best kind. These are people that I love: the people that have an open mind and a huge heart.

As many of you know, the only reason we came to Calcutta was to
work with the Missionaries of Charity (the MCs), the organization that was founded by Mother Teresa. How inspiring it was to work with a byproduct of that great woman.

When you first get to Calcutta the immense poverty slaps you in the face and shocks you. Everywhere you look you see people sleeping on the street. The first day after our arrival we located the ‘Mother House’ which is the volunteer operation center and the actual convent where Mother Teresa lived. We were assigned to work at two different places. The first was, our morning assignment, at Perm Dan a hospice for the severely sick and dying. The second was our afternoon work assignment at Daya Dan which was a ward for disabled children that have been abandoned due to their disability.

We started our first morning (and continued to start this way about half the time) attending mass at the Mother House at 6am. Our hotel was a 30 minute walk to the Mother House, so therefore we were getting up around 5am. We then would have a volunteer breakfast,
consisting of a piece of bread and chai (In India nothing is done or
accomplished without first having a cup of chai). After our volunteer breakfast we would pray this prayer in anticipation of the day that lay ahead of us:

“Dear Lord, the great healer, I kneel before you, since every good and perfect gift must come from you. I pray give skill to my hands, clear vision to my mind, kindness and meakness to my heart. Give me singleness of purpose, strength to lift up a part of the burden of my suffering fellow men, and a true realization of the privilege that is mine. Take from my heart all guile and worldliness that with a simple faith of a child, I may rely on you. Amen.”

Then it was off to Prem Dan. Prem Dan is in the middle of a giant slum and the walk there is quite interesting. I quickly realized that the place I was staying (the place where I first noticed all the people sleeping on the street) was actually the nicer part of town. I don’t think Jamie or I spoke a word on that walk through the slum that first day. We arrived at a huge cement building that looked more like a prison than a hospice due to all the barb wire on the walls. We knocked on the giant iron door and it opened to reveal a large courtyard filled with the patients of the hospice. As we walked through the yard, the men were touching their two hands together as if they were about to pray and then they would raise it up to there foreheads which means NAMASTE in Hindi or “I see the divine in you” – which I love that and I think it is quite possibly the coolest greeting I have heard or seen when you stop to think about it. Some of the men would stretch their hands out to shake your hand. As you begin to look around, you immediately notice why these people are in there: men ranting in their craziness, a man with boils all over his
body, open wounds, missing limbs, severely malnourished bodies, the old, the blind, and oh my goodness the feet were always messed up…they were always missing at least toes or a half a foot or a whole foot. Our first task was to wash all the clothes and then subsequently wash the entire grounds of the hospice. This was easy work because it was brute work, something that does not take much mental or emotional effort. After that we were expected to go tend to the men (I only say men because we were only allowed to work with the men), now comes the hard part. The first day I was assigned the task of changing the clothes of a man who had pooped all over himself…what a introduction…thank you! I know have a new definition for the worst smelling thing ever. But I grew to love this time because this was the time when we could show love to these men and try to ease their suffering and, sometimes, give them honor in the face of death.

After I got over my silly worries and focused on the task of serving
these men at any cost…the fear and worry melted away. I spent a lot
of this time shaving men’s faces. After a couple days I learned that
often I couldn’t even give them a decent shave because the blades were so dull, so everyday after that I brought my own razors and left them there and bought more the next day. After that time, we would feed the men lunch. Again on the first day I was put to task on a Indian man who just lost his eyesight and was still quite disoriented. I was instructed to feed him (okay no problem!) but he would not accept the spoon of food I offered him. I quickly realized that it wasn’t the food he didn’t like, but the spoon. So I took a handful of the rice concoction and offered it to his mouth, saying ‘EAT BABA’ (Baba is a respectful term in Hindi). He subsequently opened his mouth revealing a severe lack of teeth, and the ones left over were sharp, discolored and sticking out every-which-way, and I shoved my hand partially in his mouth and dropped the food. We continued this process for about 30 minutes until he was full.

After some schooling from an old German pastor, named Helmut, who has been volunteering there for 9 years I learned that the Indian people
love to rub coconut oil all over there bodies. He told me to buy some coconut oil and rub it on the bodies of the really sick men (that is one thing I never thought I would do!). The next day, I started by applying
coconut oil to a man in his last days, bed ridden and so thin he looked
like a skeleton with skin. I could instantly tell how much he appreciated it. He would slowly motion to where he wanted me to apply the oil. You see this man was a street beggar probably most of his life (and most of the men in there were), so an act of love like that was most likely a big deal for him. But I would argue that it might have
been just as big of deal for me; it wrecked me, it humbled me but then
lifted me up at the same time. After that gentlemen, I oiled up a lot of other men (man that sounds weird) and a ton of feet – the same feet which had repulsed me so much upon my entry into Prem Dan.

In the afternoons, we would work at Daya Dan the home for the disable
children. The kids were adorable yet clearly handicapped. Many of the
kids suffer from cerebral palsy or some severe form of down syndrome.
Some of the kids were completely paralyzed and where more reminiscent of a vegetable than a functioning human. But you can see God in every one of those kids, even the ones that can barely move…you can see it in their eyes. One of the most significant tasks of my work there everyday was feeding the children. Now I don’t know how hard it is to feed a baby, but I am guessing that it is more difficult to feed a disabled child. Coming from a guy that sometimes has a hard time feeding himself, the task of feeding these babies was extremely difficult. On the first day, it took Jamie and I about 1 hour and 30 minutes to EACH feed one child. After feeding time, we would help clean dishes and more clothes. Then it was time to visit with the kids. Again, this was the best time because we got a chance to connect with the children and show them that they were loved. My favorite was a girl named Sonia, she had cerebral palsy and a mild form of down syndrome, but she was so happy. When I would sit on the ground, playing with other kids, she would slide on the ground behind me and put her hands on my back and yell ‘MONKEY’ in between the giggles (insinuating a monkey on my back) .

What an experience!

I don’t know quite how to fully describe what I experienced in Calcutta and I have yet to fully grasp how much it changed my life. But I know that it humbled me and I have discovered a quiet strength, beauty and peace in it. I have learned the importance of serving our fellow brothers and sisters in their suffering and need, and the cool thing is that one does not even need to come to Calcutta to do it. Their are plenty of people in our backyard that need our help.

I wanted to leave you today with some words from Mother Teresa that I enjoyed:

Mother Teresa: “Give Jesus your heart to love and your hands to serve. Be his light, His fire of love amongst the poor. This love begins at home, for the poor are in our own families. The means are to be simple. ‘Give them always a happy smile; give them not only your ears but also your heart. We will never know how much good just a simple smile can do. We tell people how kind, forgiving and understanding God is. Are we living proof? Can they really see this kindness, this forgiveness, this understanding alive in us?”

“God still loves the world through you and through me today” – Mother Teresa

Until next time my dear friends. I truly miss every one of you and I think of you all often. Thanks for tuning in and reading my babbling…it still makes me feel like I have a connection with everyone I miss so much back at home.

Ryan

P.S. On a much lighter note, I wanted to share some cool things with you.

1. We had the pleasure of meeting Marie Miller, who was a fellow volunteer in Calcutta, and she is a very talented musician. She put on a acoustical show for us on the rooftop of our hotel one night and it was something that I won’t forget. But I wanted to share with the link so he can check out some of her music she is really talented:www.mariemiller.net

2. We also met this cool guy from Texas named Jason Hinojosa, he saved me and Jamie on our first day when we had no idea what to do. Anyway, he has been volunteering for months with the MCs and he is a writer. If you want to check out his stuff here is a link to his writing blog: www.jasonhinojosa.wordpress.com

3. Finally, if you still do not have an accurate picture of Lucky Rabbit Films and what they do and how talented they are you need to check out their new reel it highlights all of their recent work: http://vimeo.com/channels/luckyrabbitfilms

Oh yeah, and check out the photos page for pictures of Kolkata too!

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