Cal-cutting it

The last week has seen things bottom out a little bit. The other day I was walking down the street, sidestepped a taxi and suddenly remembered, "Oh, that's right - I'M IN INDIA!"

After recovering somewhat, I managed to get sick AGAIN - a matter of hours after updating this blog last Tuesday I managed to have a 'near miss' on the Metro train platform (no other information on the experience will be given, other than that it is colloquially known to rhyme with 'cart'), and things basically went downhill from there. I'm now on a course of antibiotics, and as of today I think things have come right for now. But it's been a frustrating course of events - I'm not used to being sick, and resent it even harder here for being one of the trademarks of a bideshi (foreigner). I haven't been as able to participate in communal activities, like meals, to the full level that I normally expect from myself. I have wondered if it's actually God trying to say something to me - the conversation would probably have gone like this:

Me: So, I'm sick... I'll have to sit around all day with my host family instead of, you know, REALLY getting into the slum experience... God, why can't you make me better so that I can be a bit more awesome? So that I can REALLY get out there and find out what it means to be disempowered and, you know, living in an Indian slum?

God: You're not already awesome?

Me: Well... No, the neighbourhood kids are beginning to think I'm boring because I can't run around much with them, I can't walk around visiting people, I can't do much at all except sit. Or sleep. I can't go anywhere!

God: Hmm. Doesn't that sound uncannily reminiscent of the concept 'disempowerment'?

Anyway, you get the picture.

Not much else to report this week - we went on a day-long silent retreat with the Servants team on Sunday at a Catholic school near the Team Centre on Dum Dum Road. It's the first time I've ever done one, and figured it would be a real challenge for such a stark, raving extrovert (haha). But it was actually wonderful and really restful. Meghan took me to Gorabazar to get some new clothes, as I was getting sick of washing and wearing the same two sets over and over again. I bought a beautiful, deep orange sari and took it home, full of hope that my host family would love it and think I was awesome and multicultural - after lots of emphatic gestures and broken Bangla conversation I discovered that they hated it! Wah-wah. But they then got out Chumki's best one and dressed me up in it (pity I didn't have the camera).

If you're in the praying way, Meghan from the Servants team here has been really sick on and off for a while now and it's really getting her down. The two guys, David and Kenny, have also been a bit shaky - health is really unpredictable here! The only ones who have stayed well are Steven and Jane, and their two wee kids who are five and three - maybe prayer that they stay in good health and good space would be a good call. Chris and I could also use some prayer as we continue to be in our communities, learn more Bangla and have more awkward cups of tea with lovely neighbours. It's all starting to feel a bit more homelike now, but we need all the God we can get :)

My love to you all, I hope y'all are thriving!

Chelsea x

Bideshi-trians

Good morning!

Well, where to start?

On Thursday, Chris and I moved into our homestay in Bediapara, which is one of the slum neighburhoods of Dum Dum, Kolkata. Our house is a tall, cinder-block structure which looks largeish from the outside, but is really mostly stairs on the inside. Meghan knows the family who live here quite well I think, especially the youngest daughter Gita, who's 16, and her 19 year old aunty, Chumki. We share the house with Chumki, her elder brother Binod (who makes signage for a job, and has a makeshift welding workshop/storage/bedroom space on the bottom floor), and their Takuma (grandmother), seven or eight aunties and uncles, Gita, and her mum, who live close by but hang out here during the day. Chris sleeps in a little room on the roof, and Chumki insisted that I sleep in her room, which also serves as the kitchen. The first few days have been a crazy mix of being taken around to visit all the family and neighbours (tea four times in an hour is quite something), being given impromptu Bangla lessons by most people we meet, playing lots of different games with kids in our street, being taught how to cook good roti, sleeping, eating and madly trying to adjust. It's been wonderful and exhausting.

Physically, both Chris and I are just about better - it took out host family a couple of days to really believe that we were too sick to eat a whole meal (their portions are HUGE), so they have been very kindly cooking us roti and giving us milder, vege based dishes, which is great. It feels really disempowering to be offered so much hospitality and not be physically able to take it! Meals are done much differently here - breakfast isn't really done, other than a nibble on any leftovers from last night's meal. Then lunch starts being prepared at 11ish, but isn't served til about half past two - and it's BIG, the biggest meal of the day. Dinner is usually a couple of roti and a simple aloo (potato) mix at about 10.30pm. Our meal clocks were completely out of whack already, so thankfully it didn't take too much adjusting to!

On Sunday, Gita and Chumki begged Meghan, Chris and I to come out with them to a Balloon Market. The girls got dolled up and we headed out to catch a couple of rickshaws, and then a ferry across the Ganga (the mighty but disgusting Ganges, which is beautiful late in the afternoon) to a shining temple complex, full of people milling around on the beautiful lawns and in our out of the temples, shrines and museum. We were taken on a tour by the girls of all the buildings, to the small-but-detailed museum, into the temple and to a giant statue of Ramakrishna. Which was lovely, but where was the balloon mart? It wasn't until we were sitting on the ferry, waiting to go back to Dum Dum, that Meghan figured out that it wasn't a 'Balloon Mart' that we were going to, but Belur Math! They had meant the temple all along, but we hadn't clicked. Still a beautiful way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and Gita and Chumki were stoked.

I guess that's it for now - I'm about to head out and look for some postcards for my students. They're actually surprisingly hard to come by!

Arohanui, we miss you all,

C and C

Nomoshkar!

So, here we are!
Reports of the first few days from a green Westerner: India is TERRIFYING. Chris and I have had a crazy-ish time over the last few days. Highlights include - Meghan from Servants meeting us at the airpot and wrangling us a cheap-ish taxi with her awesome Bangla (she's been here for two years and speaks it like a pro), the ensuing taxi ride through the filthy, crowded, darkening streets to Chowringhee, the central touristy district and setting up camp in what turns out to be Lonely Planet Kolkata's worst hostel, seeing the lights from shops and shrines shining late into the night, dodging taxis, hand drawn riskshaws (the only place in the world they are still used), auto rickshaws (like tuk tuks), RUBBISH, chai cups, beggars, cows (who cruise along the roads like vehicles) dogs, crows and the odd cat, going for walks and practicing Bangla on restaurant owners and shopkeepers... the list goes on.
Primarily in the good news department, the Servants team here have asked Chris and I if we would like to do a short internship with their neighbourhood! This is great - they had originally been hesitant about this, being a newish team. This would involve moving in with a local family in a homestay situation, and essentially taking the position of being a learner - learning the language, slum culture, customs - the whole shebang. Well, as much as one can cram in. So in the next few days we will move out from Sudder Street in the central city out to Dum Dum, which is the suburb that the team live in. We are off to go and meet the host famililes as soon as I am finished this post.
I am sorry this has been delayed - Chris and I have actually been really sick for the last couple of days and are only just finding our feet again. Not pleasant - you get so bored!


Our love to everyone, we miss you all.

Selamat Datang!

So, Chris and I have exited New Zealand. I am officially the furtherest from little Aotearoa than I have ever been. We landed last night in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at about 10.45pm local time (3.45am NZ time... Ouch!), and were picked up from the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) airport by a couple who are friends of Chris' parents - they have very kindly put us up at their house and taken great care of us. Today we adventured around Kuala Lumpur on buses and trains, looking, tasting, smelling and breathing the heart of one of Asia's biggest cities. I have to keep reminding myself that tomorrow's flight to Kolkata is where it all really begins, but today was a great warm up! Central Market (Pasar Seni) in Kuala Lumpur Central City was definitely a highlight, but the mosques, high rises (especially the Petronas - not Patronus - Twin Towers), shopping centres and street vendors all bustle with the aggressive energy that permeates every Westerner's reports of urban Asia. Poverty is pushed under the ground here, to make way for new, glitzy buildings and shopping centres - while of course, the world at the bottom of them is a very different story. Many of the beggars and sick people hang out near the mosques and temples, under overbridges and in alcoves. I have nothing to compare this sort of life to - New Zealand feels very far away right now. But with all luck, this snippet of time in Kuala Lumpur has been a wee 'practice' for our eyes and body clocks for the heat, sights and poverty of Kolkata. Or maybe not. We'll see!

I can't upload some photos right now - will hopefully manage to at some point when we reach India. Hopefully this post signals a new, more organised blogging beginning!

Love to you all,

Chelsea (and Chris)