Is it that time already?

In a week tomorrow, I will be flying out of Kolkata. Who would've thought?

A few things have happened in the last week - things have eased into something resembling a rhythm, which is going to make it harder to leave (I love domestic routine.... Secretly).

Before I left for India, I was set some challenges by the girls that I mentor back home in New Zealand. I unintentionally fulfilled one of those challenges, which was 'Go out dressed in a sari and with full makeup". On a whim, Gita decided that she was sick of the fact that I don't wear makeup ("Why you is this pale face?") and decided to paste me an inch thick like a Hindi soap star - complete with a bindi (called a thil - 'till' - in Bangla) and a dot of black eyeliner paint for a beauty spot. Completely inspired by this time, she dug out my new sari and ordered me into it, before parading me down the road to the bazar (market) with a couple of her friends. A 20 minute walk each way. In 35-degree heat and high, HIGH humidity. Despite the blatant stares and inappropriate comments. Oh well, at least I got the opportunity to wear the thing. Remind me not to get orange next time.

Chris and I also got the opportunity on Friday to go with Jane from the team here to another suburb called Girish Park, and visit her work Love Calcutta Arts, as well as the lovely and ubiquitously-popular Freeset, who make organic, fairtrade bags and t-shirts - and who run tours on Fridays. Freeset was our first stop - the day started with all the women gathering in the building's courtyard for singing and prayer before beginning work or counselling or training (all three are given by the trust to every worker) at ten. We were lead through the different rooms and up narrow sets of stairs to different rooms and introduced to some of the women and what they all do. It is a wonderful place and I thoroughly recommend including the tour to anyone travelling through Kolkata, although having been in a homestay and away from much Western contact for the previous few weeks, it felt weird to be so firmly 'othered' by being toured around with a bunch of other Pakehas in this gorgeous and tightly-knit community. Nevertheless, I was won and couldn't resist buying a tshirt before leaving. We also ran into an old friend from the New Zealand Baptist scene - Steve Pound, who coordinated my first short-term mission trip to Fiji five years ago! He and his family have been living in Kolkata for a couple of years now and working with Freeset. Accidental Aotearoa connections in India? Excellent.

The rest of the day was spent being shown around Love Calcutta Arts and the cool stuff they do. Think, one floor of guys designing and making portable, hand-operated water filters that can be used in a natural disaster (and even purify water from the Hooghly without any chemicals), and another floor of lovely ladies making bedspreads from recycled saris, stationery, beautiful cards and books, all eco-friendly and very, VERY easy on the eye. We got to spend a couple of hours working there too, folding paper to go into a new order of diaries. Please check out their website - unfortunately you can't order much stuff in small doses, but if you know a busines that needs things like journals for corporate packages or something similar, these guys would be excellent and very worthy.

There's also been a bit of puja (worship, festival) in our neighbourhood this week - from Saturday until today has been Shibtalapuja, which is a celebration honouring the goddess Shibtala. She brings health and wellbeing, and part of the festival also can involve atoning for sins (if you feel like you've been particularly bad). This involves putting on your best clothes and red paint on your face, making a number of processions as a group from the local temple to the closest pond or water source and splashing around a bit, then on the third trip to the pond completely dunking yourself in the pond, then moving back to the temple like this: take a couple of steps forward, then lie down face-first on the ground and draw a half-circle in front of yourself with a stone while other people sprinkle you with water. Repeat until you are back at the temple - however long that may take. After this, there are three days of celebration and general hullabaloo. Good fun, but often times like this are when family drama or fights happen, which, in high density housing, become everyone's business whether they like it or not.

Anyway, all in all a mildly busy, but satisfying week. Nearly all the kids who have befriended us have gone away to one of their family villages this week - they'll get back on Thursday though which will be nice. Secretly I'm a little bit happy for the increased peace and quiet.

We will leave our host family on Friday night, stay at the Team Centre, then on Saturday morning head out to Jharsuguda in Orissa (Odisha) to see some friends of Chris's family who run an orphanage there. Looking forward/mildly terrified of taking the train, although we've booked sleeper class tickets for the overnight journey back. We'll get back on Wednesday and I'll fly out that evening! How scary!

So, I guess I'm signing off for now. I'll try and post again before skipping the country!

Much love,

Me