My Daily Schedule Friday-Wednesday

I have been assigned to work two different facilities each day. In the morning I wake up and head to the Motherhouse where I attend Mass with the Nuns from 6:30-7:30, after mass they offer a small breakfast of white toast with jelly and green banana’s. From there I walk down the road and hop into a motor rickshaw which is a 3 wheeled vehicle that can carry anywhere from 1-6 passenger depending on how greedy the driver is (two is too many so six is just awkward). He drops me off at the bottom of a bridge over the train station and along the worst of the slums in Calcutta. I have about a 10 minute walk from there to the Motherhouse for the Dying and Destitute women.

As volunteers we have a lot of work to do. First we greet the ladies as they are being moved from their beds onto the sun porch for the morning. We strip all the bedding and proceed to wash all 180 sets as well as all the clothing the women wore the day earlier. It is a monumental undertaking and the entire volunteer staff works tirelessly on this task for about two hours every morning. It is very physical and very hot outside so I find myself grateful for being soaking wet.

Next is to serve the ladies their morning tea and biscuits, once that is done we wash all of the dishes and put them away.   Volunteers then have our morning tea break too and we gather to chat and rest for about 20 minutes.  It has been wonderful to meet so many amazing people from all over the world.

I move onto the porch and spend an hour interacting with the ladies. Yesterday I was given a bottle of nail polish. I spent the entire hour going about and meeting the ladies and painting their nail’s bright red. At first I was so intimidated as there are all kinds of levels of illness and diseases, but I would approach a women and touch her arm, look her in the eye and smile, tell her how beautiful she is, kneel down in front of her and ask her to allow me to paint her nails. Almost everyone accepts and this simple act gives the women so much happiness. Something so mundane an act as polishing their nails or rubbing moisturizing cream on their arms and feet (which are sometimes covered in scabbies and sores) it make them feel human and gives them a little piece of their dignity back. It’s very hard for me to talk about this experience and the things I am seeing and learning, their stories and suffering…I need time to process it all, but, I can say I am very humbled and honored to be allowed this time with them.

Last part of the morning is to serve the ladies their lunch. Yesterday I was assigned to spoon-feed a woman who can no long get out of bed. She was so tiny and thin that I could see all of her bones. Her smile being the biggest thing on her body and yet she was able to consume a man sized plate full of food. I was very proud of her effort. We finish off our day by washing all the lunch dishes.

We are done for the morning and I head back to the mission to shower and change my clothes so as not to contaminate the children. I eat lunch at the mission, rest for about an hour, write my blog and write in my journal before I need to head to work at the Motherhouse for orphan toddlers from 3:00-5:30.

The Mother house for Toddler children is about a half mile walk from the mission down a very busy, crowed street which is filled with vendors and families living there.

When I first arrive at the Orphan home I change all of the bed linens for the toddlers cribs. This is a room with wall-to-wall pink cribs in long lines filling a giant room. Once that is complete I join the toddlers in a playroom where I sit on the floor with them and we sing songs and tease each other and I tickle them and check them for lice. They all vie for the attention which I so willing share. Then it’s out to the playground for two hours of fun. It is during this time that I have fallen madly in love with two little boys named Prince and Altuna. I will talk about them later. 

After a long and silly playtime we bring the toddlers in and place bibs on them and feed them their dinner. I usually will spoon feed many of them as some are missing fingers or hands or have motor skill issues and some are just so thin that I want to be sure they eat. Then it’s potty time. My day is finished with the toddlers. They say to me when I leave…”tomorrow”? I say. “Yes”! They smile.

I walk back to the mission where I again shower and take a short nap before dinner.  Sometimes I sleep through dinner because I am exhausted physically and emotionally…but if I make it, it’s nice to connect with the other guest’s.  I am almost always in bed my 9:00pm but tending to wake every night at around 3am and can’t get back to sleep.  At 4:30am the mosque down the street starts their “call to prayer chant” over a PA system. It is so hauntingly beautiful that I find myself wanting to stay awake just to hear it.  Soon the birds start squawking and then the traffic, the sun rises and the kitchen cook bangs his pans to say breakfast is served. The day starts again.