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Today began with a conversation with Mom and Dad, my favorite way to start the day. Then breakfast and some newspaper reading. I have never particularly enjoyed Sudoku, because I am awful at it, but I have been trying recently, and I may be getting better, or I may be getting worse, either way I enjoy them. Then I left for the orphanage run by the Missionaries of Charity. I went by rickshaw with the gate keeper from SWI, and I came home alone! My first experience in India alone, and I did very well, if I do say so myself.
At the orphanage there are orphans and children who are sick and need special medical attention. It is also a place where pregnant women can come, deliver their babies and then leave the baby if they are not able to care of it. There are 40+ (a rough estimate) children ranging from newborn to 15+. When I arrived I was taken to a room towards the back with the older children, ages 7-12. They were in the middle of some sort of school lesson being taught by one of the older orphans. They were all sitting in neat rows of plastic red chairs. When we entered (the Sr. and myself) they said good morning in unison and then came and touched our toes! After this the Sr. left and the children began to speak Bengali at me. I of course, did not understand, until one boy shouted sing!! I laughed at this request, slightly embarrassed and try to communicate that I wanted them to sing to me. After a few minutes they began to understand and sang me a few songs. They were standing, smiling and singing what I think were probably hymnals. It was really quite adorable. Then I sang a short version of “I am a Little Teapot” which brought more laughs then anticipated; but all in good fun. The children sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”, after which I taught them all the body parts I could think of in English. They taught me a few in Bengali, unfortunately, none of which I can remember. Then it was time for breakfast. While they ate, I helped one of the women (whom I assumed is employed by the orphanage) to feed some of the babies out front. There were 4 cribs on the patio in front and there were 3-4 babies in each crib. Some of the babies were sleeping and there were flies crawling all over them. Later in the day I saw cribs with sleeping babies with fly nets atop them, which I thought was an ingenious invention. After breakfast the older children turned on music and told me to dance!! I started stepping side to side, and they followed exactly what I did. Then I stepped side-to-side, and front to back. They caught on very quickly and before I knew it the whole room was dancing, clapping and laughing. Then I taught a few of them how to play (oh gosh, I don’t know what to call it, I will describe it: when two people stand facing each other and clap their hands together to a song, little girls play this all of the time, well anywho) a clap hands game. They enjoyed this and I played with each of them as fast as they could. Then we sat in a circle and played “Down by the Bay”, a hand clapping game, then I found a clean rag, and we played musical rag. You passed the rag around the circle while the music was on, and if the music turned off while you were holding the rag you were out. I am still amazed that anyone understood any of my explanations for any of the games. As the day went on there was lunch, more games, the hokey pokey, and English words. It was great to play with the kids, even though the language barrier was difficult at times, and their circumstances were heartbreaking. Children always remind me of humanity’s resilience and ability to endure.
Then in the afternoon, after my solo auto ride home (which I am very proud of!) I dinked around SWI and poked my head in on the meetings that were taking place. There was an HIV/AIDS training for SWI staff happening in Bengali and a training for NGO’s involved in a platform for girls education on data collection/analysis also in Bengali. Lunch was ordered out, which was my first Indian take out experience. The lunch was in a box, which was about the size of a personal pizza. There was a plate of rice and lots of other food in bags tied at the top with rubber bands. There was mutton, vegetables in spices, dal, a sweet sauce and a sweet doughnut hole shaped dessert. It was very good, I split my rice with Fr. Herman though because it was more rice then I could eat.
Then I spent some time reading in the sun sitting on the steps before Susmita, Barnali and I went to the book fair. There is a book fair visiting Raiganj for the weekend. They bring in books from all over India and sell them at booths in a field just down the road. Street vendors set up all around and it is generally a good time. I, as many of you know, am addicted to books, so it was an especially exciting event for me. Many of the stands didn’t have English books, but the ones that did were sure to dig them out and show me. I bought two books, one by Amitav Ghosh and another about Indian family dynamics-both fiction. Father joined us about half way through. After browsing the books for a while, we had some food from the street vendors. We had pooch-ka which is these crunchy shell things, filled with something that did not contain meet, but did contain spices and then dipped in lemon water. They were surprisingly good. I also had grilled corn, which is corn husked and put directly onto a grill. It tastes much different then corn on the cob, but is very good. On the walk home (Father had left early) we went to Barnali’s house and had tea. She lived in a very nice apartment close to SWI. We had tea, biscuits and watched Spiderman in Hindi. It was a lot of fun. Then I back to SWI, had dinner, and fell asleep very early.