Day 5 - Calcutta: Missionaries of Charity

Today Jane and I woke up bright and early and headed to Mother Teresa's organization - Missionaries of Charity (MC). Thank you so much for your prayers - finding a cab in our neck of the woods at that hour is a near impossibility, but He provided a way. The streets were so empty and quiet- it was so surreal when just hours before and a few hours after the streets will be packed with all sorts of creatures and sounds and smells.

The cab took us to the "Mother House", where Mother Teresa lived and now also where her body lies. Inside, we found an international melting pot of people, ready to roll-up their sleeves to help the poor. It was amazing to see how people, young and old, from all walks of life and from all parts of our world, were drawn to Calcutta by the life Mother Teresa lived, all to help the poor around us. I met a couple of girls from Taiwan (2 were from the town my dad grew up in!) and played translator at one point. Never thought that would happen, especially not in India of all places.

So in the Mother House, we signed up to volunteer at Shanti Dan, a home for mentally disabled women. Then all of a sudden we all began to sing some song, and then read a short statement, a gated door drew up, and then we were all out the door. Everyone seemed to know what to do - many people have been volunteering there for days, weeks, months, maybe even years, and people just seemed to know what to do... so we followed along.

As we stepped out of the Mother House and onto the streets, we were greeted by the sounds of prayers being chanted on the streets, and men of all ages dressed in white, kneeling in neat rows in the middle of the street of a typically busy road. Today was a Muslim holiday. We had to walk through them to get across the street to catch the bus - it felt a bit uncomfortable, but we didn't have much choice. It was quite the scene - I mean, it wasn't just 5 or 6 of us wandering, it was a group of maybe... a hundred or so. After we crossed over, we hopped onto the public bus. Thank God for people who knew where and how to get where we needed to go. Buses in Calcutta are funny - most of the time, they don't stop, they just slow. So good luck getting on and off. Thankfully, we made it in one piece!

We arrived at Shanti Dan and met the head sister running the show there - sister Mary __. She was this little Japanese lady who was indeed... running the show. She was the most efficient and resourceful person I've ever met. So there were 2 things that needed to be done that morning... 1) clip the finger and toenails of the women; and 2) put together these paper hats with tissue flowers attached for the women to use in a surprise holiday performance the sister wanted to put on for another staff member. I got tasked with putting together the crafts... Jane got the privilige of cutting nails. What was amazing was that there was no question as to: "are you comfortable doing that? Are you okay?" It was a... okay... here's a need, now you go and do it. Thank you for your help.

So we separated and started our work. She gave me a small roll of packing tape, some old cardboard boxes, scissors, some posterboard, and a bagful of pink tissues designed to unfold into flowers. She gave us some instruction, but the main one being, you only have one roll of tape so use it wisely. As I sat there thinking through how much easier it would be if we had more tape (like scotch tape or clear packing tape) or rather, something seemingly as simple as Elmer's glue or rubber cement, I was again reminded of how lucky and privileged... and how wasteful I am. Then we watched the sister teach a small group of the women the dance. I was impressed. I don’t think I could have even done that, although I can’t even follow easy step aerobics routines so why am I not surprised. After a tea break, one of the women grabbed my hand and sat me down. Not being able to speak the language, I just sat there and held her hand (as she stroked mine), smiled at her, and said some simple things in English. She just kind of smiled back. She was really cute – I wish I could have had more meaningful conversation but I suppose the human touch was sufficient. She was happy.

Later in the evening, Jane and I headed back to the Mother House to see her tomb. People were paying their respects at her grave. We learned of her life in the small museum documenting her life history, and we visited the small, tiny room that she lived when she was alive. It was a humbling experience to be where she roamed and slept. – the tiny quarters, the simple life. As we walked up to her room, other sisters were just doing their daily thing – hand scrubbing their clothes, cutting vegetables in preparation for dinner, and just living their lives. After that, we headed back to the orphanage, had a delicious instant noodles dinner and called it a night.