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Today was a good ay. I went to a village for a program with Sister Novena, Monasee, and another Sister. The program was about health and there were various speakers who presented on different issues. About 40 people came from the villages. The entire program was in Bengali, so I understood none of it. We left at 8:30 to drive to the village. The roads to the villages are only one lane wide and to both sides there is farmland. There is wheat, mustard, and rice paddy. The drive took about an hour, but we drove through many villages on the way. It was so interesting to see all of the materials the houses were built out of and there were farm animals everywhere. When we arrived at the village, we had to have the gate to the government building the program was being held at opened. Apparently when it is foggy people usually stay home until 11am, when the fog usually clears. Once the gate was opened, we unloaded the van and then all there was left to do was wait. We waited for people to come, there were 50 people registered and only 3 or 4 were there. Then there was a loud crash and a bark in the street. A man on a motorbike had crashed because of a dog running in the road. The man was very badly injured; he had hit his head, and had very bad road burn on his body. Within 30 seconds there was a crowd of 60 people surrounding him, everyone yelling something in Bengali. Someone called the ambulance and it took about 30-45 minutes to arrive. I asked one of the Sisters why we could not take him in our car to the hospital and she said that the police needed to make some sort of report. We continued waiting after that, and a few more people began to show up. Fr. Puthumai arrived, and shortly after we began the program. He brought with him chairs, because the village people were sitting on the floor and the SWI staff and program people were all sitting in chairs. He said that it is important to always think first about promoting the human dignity of the poor. That is a reason why the chairs were important, because that way everyone was equal. That statement was my first very large lesson of today. I think (remember this all happened in Bengali, so I’m not 100% sure my retelling is in any way accurate) that we began with a prayer and then the lighting of this metal tower that had a cross on top and was draped in marigold leis. The first woman who spoke was telling the village people what medical services were available and what medical services they needed if they were pregnant or if they had young children. This woman spoke for a very long time. Sister Novena would tell me every 15 minutes or so what was going on. Then Sister Novena took me with her; we walked down the road to one of the village family’s homes. The NGO’s that were putting on the program were providing lunch for everyone, and the village homes we walked to was where the food was being prepared. She introduced me to the villagers that were there, and they were very nice, smiling at me, and offering me tea and biscuits. Sister also taught me how to say hello and thank you in Bengali- hello is na-ma-scar and thank you is dough-no-ba (that is my phonetic spelling). Then we went back to listen to a man speak to the village people about local governing. Around that time a 10 year old girl arrived with her father and was instructed to sit next to me. She attends St. Xavier’s school and spoke perfect English! She was very talkative and helped to explain what was happening. She was the best translator I had the entire time. Then the other Sister and I went to have lunch. It was 3:30 by then and way past lunch time. One things about SWI is that meals are very structured. You eat breakfast at 7:30, lunch at 12:00, coffee at 4:00 and dinner at 8:00. So it was very late for us to be eating lunch. We sat on a bench and put our plates on a bench in front of us. The families that had prepared the food lived in houses that were made of sticks, brush and mud. It was so cool! The plates that we ate on were made out of leaves! The leaves were stitched together, and I kid you not, they looked exactly like paper plates, expect for the being made out of leaves part. The lunch was rice, dal, and spicy vegetables. There was also fish, but I still haven’t gotten up the nerve to eat any of the fish and I decided today was not going to be the day. Sister asked the family to make me an egg after I refused the fish. I was a little embarrassed, but eggs seem to be very common here, so I felt okay. The egg was by far the best thing I have eaten since I have been here. It was a fried egg, and they had cooked it until there was nothing runny. That is exactly how I like my eggs at home, I couldn’t have been happier. I didn’t eat my spicy vegetables, because they were too pungent, but sister didn’t eat hers either, so I felt okay about that. Then we washed up, said thank you and left. Back at the program there was a new person speaking. I sat down next to Pee-a(the short a)-lee, the 10 year old girl with the wonderful English. The new people speaking were three government officials/administrators. They were from the block level, which I think is like a region or district. They were very fervent. They were talking about sanitation. The village has little to no sanitation and they were encouraging people to put sanitation in their houses. I think by this they were referring to toilets. At one point in time Pee-a-lee laughed and looked at me, she said that the man was talking about me. He said, that the women in the first row (a Hindu village woman) was the same as me, we both had two eyes and a mouth, and we both deserved sanitation. She seemed to laugh at this, but I found it very insightful and comforting. It was the first time someone pointed out how similar I am to people here, instead of how different. After he was done speaking, it was time to go. The drive back was very foggy and the headlights gave me a headache. At SWI I took a nap, because my head hurt, and then Father came and got me for dinner. We went to a hotel next door to meet a friend of his who used to work for CRS and now works for an insurance agency. We had dinner in his hotel room, we had French fries, beens/peas, and tomato flavored lays chips for appetizers and then fry bread, dal and tiki (unsure on the spelling) chicken. The chicken was very spicy and later in the night I had a stomachache. We talked about my time here, what I wanted to accomplish, what I expected, and the differences between the US and India. It was very good conversation. The power went out while we were ordering, which is apparently quite normal in India. Father said it was surprising that the power had not gone out since I had been here. The first time the power was only gone for a few minutes and the second time only a few seconds. Later back at SWI I went for quickly to bed. My headache was very bad by then and my stomach had starting hurting. I was able to fall asleep (thank God!) and slept well.