Calcutta Day 3 - July 30, 2010

Himadri with 3 of CSS's clients

We were picked up this morning by staff from CSS India to head out to their office in the outskirts of Calcutta. 2 years ago, I also visited CSS India, so I was eager to see the founder Himadri and catch-up. I was excited for Grace to meet another amazing man – just a normal man, a humble man, changing the lives of 24,000 individuals and their families. Today was also an opportunity to see our 3rd teammate Rob who has been working with CSS the past few days to help them implement a new software program to support their operations.

CSS is a microfinance organization that has grown to 24,000 loans, 95% of which are to women. The organization has taken the profits from their work to build and continue to support 2 orphanages – a boys home and a girls home. Many of the children are kids of the clients that CSS’s microfinance serves. Some kids have parents, others have single parents, grandparents, and others have none. It’s sad to see these precious, beautiful faces who have gone through so much. For those whose parents are still alive, I could not fathom the thought that the parents would opt to send their child to an orphanage in order for them to have a better life, albet it is true, but must be so difficult.


We visited the 2 homes where the children put on some short performances which were beautiful (and we also had to put our own horse and pony show on too.. which American children are not raised to do… and therefore was not so beautiful), and play with the kids. I left the girls home a sweaty mess as I played some soccer, volleyball, badminton, duck duck goose, and monkey in the middle. I had visited both of these home on my first visit 2 years ago, and it was really neat to some of the same faces that had grown taller and older.

We also had the opportunity to visit some of CSS’s clients and the projects they are running and growing as a result of the loans they have received. One woman had a snack stand, another a couple of sewing machines, farm animals, crops of fruits and veggies, stitching, and others. It was neat to be able to interact with them – language was a bit difficult – but being able to even give a thumbs up and them nodding in response and smiling was a pretty neat feeling. Himadri helped interview the clients and it was neat to hear how they’ve been able to build up their businesses and support their families through a simple loan.

After we made it back to the Y, we hit McD’s for a McMaharaja burger (chicken bigmac), fries, and soft serve. I was disappointed that they don’t have applie pies here – in East Asia, the apple pies are still served fried increasing the taste tremendously. Oh well.

 

When we finally made it back to our room, we once again had some water problems. Innovation took over as we tried to problem solve how to get water. We’ve captured the drama all on my flip cam so I’ll post it on the blog. It’s probably (guaranteed to not be) not all that entertaining for you but it was for us. Do us favor and turn off your shower while your shampooing /lathering and save that water.