2/11

I spoke with M&D today for the first time in a week. It was great to see their faces and update them on all that has happened in the past few days. Even though I am not homesick, it is still nice to see them in the morning and tell them about the previous day. This way, when I come home it won’t be overwhelming to share my experience with them. I won’t feel as though I have changed and they are unable to understand the changes.
Today after class, Puthumai spent a few hours teaching Hannah and me about SWI as an organization. We learned about the steps involved in creating, implementing and reporting on a project. We also learned about the organizational structure (staffing, finance, etc) and the polices that regulate Indian non-profits. It was really interesting and informative. We also had Puthumai’s undivided attention for almost a complete 2 hours; he only answered his phone once! Which means that Hannah and I must be really important! ☺
I still wasn’t hungry today, I ate only a small portion of rice for lunch and a banana. Even though I have not been hungry, I don’t think I am sick. I just think that my body has had enough of rice and vegetables with spices, so it is going on protest. Unfortunately my body will soon learn that its feeble protests are no match for the unwavering insistence from many Indians that I eat more food.
After lunch Hannah and I went to the beauty parlor and had Mehndi done, or henna. We both have it on our left hands, and it took from 1 o’clock, until 4 o’clock! We had a lot of fun in the beauty parlor though, the women were all dressed in black pants and lime green t-shirts. At first it was a little strange sitting in a room full of Indian women dressed in Western clothes, when I am a Westerner dressed in Indian clothes. Even though the women didn’t speak English, we had fun joking around with them. They took quite a few pictures of us and Hannah and I joked that next week the photos will be large blown up advertisements for the beauty parlor. ☺ After returning home, we scraped off the dried Mehndi, a more difficult task than previously anticipated. Everyone who walked by commented on it and said we looked very nice.
It is Recollection tonight, which means that all of the Fathers go away. They leave at 7:30 in the evening and usually arrive back late the next morning. So we had dinner early. Hannah and I bought sausages in Calcutta (from a questionable sanitary sausage shop) and we wanted to cook them for dinner. We decided that with the Indian cooking methods available to us, that deep-frying them would be the best idea. Our first problem was deciding which container held the oil. We found one that looked like oil, but the bottle was not labeled so we were not certain. After requesting Puthumai’s assistance, we were on the right track to cooking our sausages. We lit the burner, which was also as adventure. Hannah lit it, and I hid behind a wall. Neither of us were certain whether or not the gas was on or not, we were both yelping and jumping around. Luckily the burner lit with no problem and our oil heated quickly. We plopped the sausages into the hot oil, at which point one of the cooks was in the kitchen, he laughed at us. Which happens often in India, but over time you learn to appreciate it. Someone can’t laugh at you, if you are laughing too, because then they are always laughing with you. While we were cooking sausages one of the staff members came into the kitchen to tell Hannah about her visit to the village in the next few days. He asked what we were cooking, and Hannah answered meat, while I answered chicken. Then ensued a large misunderstanding about what is meat and what is chicken. Puthumai later clarified this misunderstanding for us, saying that in villages, where meat is scarce, usually only mutton is referred to as meat. But needless to say, before the clarification, Hannah and I were having a hell of a time trying to explain ourselves. We both think that Mehndi has an side-effect of making everything especially funny, we have been laughing our asses off all afternoon. I had another discovery about English language misunderstandings today, Hannah asked me the other day for a word to describe the current condition of her hands. I told her clammy was the correct word. I realized today that she meant sticky and not clammy. The funny part is that for three or four days she has been using clammy as a way to describe her hands, when she really meant sticky. I have decided that this is quite a power to be able to control her understanding of English. A power I could use for good, or a power I could use for evil ☺
This evening I watched a program on TV about N. Eastern India and the militant groups and drug abuse there. India is such a large country and there are still so many parts of the country that I know nothing about. Even in Raiganj there are so many things I have yet to learn.
Then Puthumai came back from recollection, he read my blogs in front of me, which I hate; because it is so uncomfortable to have him read my thoughts while I am in the room. He knows that it bothers me, and probably does it because it bothers me. ☺ After he read my reflections on Calcutta, we had a discussion about poverty. He is helping me to understand the varying levels and kinds of poverty. The poverty in Calcutta is a visual poverty, you can see it very clearly; but the people in Calcutta are able to find work, they are able to survive. In the villages many people suffer silently, as they die from starvation and lack of other basic necessities. There is no survival there. In Calcutta, even though I know that the poverty is to a certain extent ‘decorative’ it is difficult to connect these logical thoughts with the gut reaction to the images I was seeing. In the villages I have experienced overwhelming generosity, and it is difficult for me to grasp the reality of such life threatening poverty. But that is the beauty of the village people; they have such generosity even though they literally have nothing. I know that there is a lot more understanding to come, as my time in Raiganj continues.