A Month Already Past!!!

This morning we went back to the MC Sisters and played with the kids again. I think that I’m falling in love with about 20 children...uh oh. They got really excited when they saw us coming this time and started smiling and jumping up and down. They brought a book over to me that was in English. It was a book that had pictures of different objects with the correct word in English. I said each word and they repeated it after me. I was quite impressed. They had lots of the words down pretty well, and others they tried really hard to pronounce. Imagine a bunch of little children trying to sound out hippopotamus when they barely know the alphabet...Yeah, pretty cute. Then as soon as I finished the book, one little boy said, “hokey poky” and stuck out his arm at me. So I got the idea and we did all the songs like last time except this time we taught them more words like “put your finger in, put your finger out"...and shoulder and toes and ear and so on... Father also gave us some little bouncy balls to take to them. That entertained them for quite awhile.

A couple of days ago, we went to a stone quarry. It is a very serious health concern for the workers as well as the nearby village communities. The dust is so terrible. After about 10 years of working in the dusty environment, many workers’ lungs get filled with so much dust; it contributes to their likelihood of contracting tuberculosis. Only a few of the workers have a rag or handkerchief over the nose and mouth to protect them. Andrea and I both had our scarves over our faces the whole time so that we didn’t breathe the heavy dust in. Father really wants to get some masks distributed to the workers and nearby children and he’s hoping to do a research study on pregnant women living near the quarry to see how the environment is affecting newborns.

We are getting much closer to the other workers here at SWI especially Manasi (my ‘boss’ and friend). I just learned more about her life and upbringing. She is an extremely exceptional person who has fought the system to become as successful as she has. She grew up in a small village - almost a half hour drive to school. (Only one bus ran per hour and usually dropped her off half way and she had to walk the rest of the way.) Manasi was able to go to college and now has her master’s degree in social work. Her father works for a local pharmacy and also works a second job to ensure that his children get an education. Manasi has 2 younger sisters and she is contributing a good chunk of her paycheck as health coordinator to pay for her youngest sister’s education and tutor. (Many of the teachers make it so that the students have to hire private tutors in order to pass the class, which makes it pretty much impossible to get an education without a private tutor. The teachers are the ones who are also hired as tutors...understand?) Most likely she won’t be able to marry because she has no brothers and the responsibility of the family falls on her because she is the oldest. Right now her little cousin lives with her parents, her aunt lives there and also her grandmother. She is a very determined, hard-working and dedicated worker and student. Her story and her life have been very inspiring to each of us.

Next week we are traveling to Darjeeling because we have the week off for Durga Puja. This is the biggest festival of West Bengal. It started a few days ago and lasts for about 10 days. It’s somewhat similar to the Christmas season back in the states (students go home on break to be with their families, new outfits are given as gifts, and there are lots of lights and special traditions). There is also what is called Kali Puja, which happens in November. Scott tried to have his students explain the different celebrations to us in English class as an activity but we still have some questions. Main point is it’s a huge celebration.

I realized that I have written a fair amount about my experience but not too much about the smaller things. Things like the food...we eat a ton of rice, chicken, curry, dhal, mutton, vegetables, fruit, eggs, fish and different kinds of flat bread. Indians don’t snack like Americans do, although they take way more coffee breaks…and I love it!!! :) The coffee is instant coffee; we are still trying to learn the right mixes of coffee, milk powder and sugar. Scott has it down pretty well. The food is tasty, although many times quite spicy. They sneak in chilies to all kinds of things. We also occasionally have hard-boiled eggs in curry sauce. There is a great variety of fruits…papayas, pomegranates, guavas, bananas, apples, pineapples, grapefruits, mangoes…they always serve the fruit at the end of the meal kind of as dessert (with all 3 meals).

I have seen some incredibly beautiful sunrises and sunsets. This morning on our way to Mass the sun was like a bright red ball of fire in the sky. The sun rises at about 5:30 and it is dark by about six. When we leave SWI around 7:30 it always feels so much later than it is. We usually are in bed around 9:00.

Oh yeah and here’s a story for you…I woke up the other day with a bad rash on my right arm. I knew it wasn’t heat rash because I’ve had heat rash off and on the past month and this was much different. So when I woke up yesterday it looked much worse and began to itch a whole lot more; Father got concerned and wanted to take me to the doctor to check it out. Turns out…ready for this…there are hundreds and hundreds of mosquito bites on my one right arm!!!!! I’ve been getting random mosquito bites here and there but nothing like this. It turns out what had happened was that when we stayed in a hotel we didn’t bring the little plug in oil to kill the insects and I must have had my arm against the mosquito net while I was sleeping and the bugs just went to town without me knowing it! Lesson learned…don’t go ANYWHERE without the bug oil killer!!! Seriously, in about the size of a dime, I have about 10 bites no joke, especially on my knuckles. Kind of gross but thank goodness it's only mosquito bites! Oh yeah and the best part is, we didn't even have to pay for the doctor visit! Man, Father has connections all over the place!!! :)