Kolcutta and the 4th

Hey!

We arrived to Kolcutta (in English Calcutta) yesterday morning and had no problem finding the place we'll be staying at for roughly the next month! The room isn't much (we're paying 200 rupee or the equivalent of 4.5 USD/night for Mike and I), but its good enough for a good backpacker's room! A lot of volunteers have stayed here over the years and theirs a good amount of graffiti on the walls. Unlike what you would expect, much of it actually very uplifting creative and enjoyable. Although there are other poems and phrases that you can tell have been written by people high as a kite on something! Its interesting.

Yesterday we went to orientation to start volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity (MOC) at Shishu Bhavan (the charity orphanage). So many volunteers showed up that we can each only work one shift/day (either a morning or afternoon). It was neat to sit around and socialize with all the volunteers who are from all over the world. There's a substantial amount of Spaniards so its great to be able to practice my Spanish again! After orientation we hit up McDonald's with a few friends from the US to celebrate the 4th of July! Then went out to a western rooftop restaurant for a drink or two.

Today was the first day of actual volunteering! We woke up at 5am so we could be ready to walk down to Mother House for daily mass at 6am, a little breakfast and socializing and went out for the day to our respective locations. I decided to work with in Nabo Jibon which is a house for the mentally and physically handicapped. It took an hour to get there, two buses and a short walk to get there. Its run by the Brothers of Charity who are mainly all Indian nationals. We hang out with them, wheel them around in their chairs if they can't walk, sometimes dance if they're up for it, and play cricket (or try to). Lunch seems like it will be a daily adventure as some have better skills than others when it comes to feeding themselves. Some who can eat on their own try to help out the others who can't, which is a sight to see in itself!

I have the morning shift so the afternoon has consisted of lunch with a bunch of other volunteers, catching up on some much needed laundry (by hand) and other odds and ends.