Iced Mauve

Hi Everyone! I can't believe how fast time is flying! I feel like we just got here yesterday yet I find myself becoming much more comfortable with the city, the Call to Prayer no longer wakes me up at 4 AM, I know how to navigate around and I am getting the hang of haggling. On the other hand, you can never be completely comfortable in a city like Kolkata for many different reasons. I am never surprised by what I see here. Just yesterday as I was walking to the train I saw a heard of over 200 goats being hearded down Sudder Street with taxis honking all around it.

Yesterday was the first day people started going to afternoon sites. Most of us are either going to Kalighat or Daya Dan for the afternoons.

The site that I have spent my time at is Shanti Dan, which is home to over 200 women with mental illness. Most of these women were taken off of the street or from jail. In India, similar to the US (but on a much larger scale), people who are homeless with mental illness are arrested and jailed because they are seen as a disturbance. Once they get to jail there is no hope for them to get the treatment they need. Luckily in the US there are places to help with this, but Shanti Dan is one of the only places here. Most of what volunteers do consists of simply spending time with the women because they rarely get positive, individual attention. The masis, who kind of have a nurse/caretaker role, do not give much attention to the women and when they do it is usually in the form of corporal punishment. There is also a home for children who are half orphans as the sisters say, which means they have parents but either a parent is sick or dead or divorced so the parent cannot care for the child. The sisters are also in the process of building a home for children with HIV/AIDS on the compound.

Shanti Dan is such a nice place to be at because it is a little removed from the city and the women are wonderful and always great you with a smile. Once we get there I grab my nail polish and baby lotion and I never make it far before a woman takes my hand and requests a mani or pedi. At first I wasn't so sure about doing nails all morning and wanted to do something more stimulating with the women because most of them sit or sleep all day, however as the morning went on I realized how much the nail painting, massages and smiles are to the women. Almost all of the women speak Bengali and were very surprised and responsive when I said the very few Bengali phrases I know, but beyond that there is not much verbal communication between us. However, this does not mean that we still do not communicate because the physical communication that happens when I am massaging these woman's feet and hands (using the technique that my mom did on me when I was little) is deafening. There are so few times at home when I give someone my complete, undivided attention whether it is because I am distracted by my phone, computer or future task but with the women, they have my full attention and the connection between us is very powerful. They joke with me and even bring me tea during their tea time. Before, the women would repeat "tea, tea" when it was time for the volunteers to take our tea brake but now they want to keep me around for theirs. One of he most powerful moments on Saturday was when a women, Anjali, who I massaged earlier that day came up to me before I left, grabbed my hand, made me sit down in front of her and started to squeeze my arm. At first I didn't get what she was doing but then she worked her way down my arm and started to massage it, and them the other one. I was so overwhelmed by her gesture that I almost cried. Iced Mauve has now become my favorite nail color because it makes the women so happy and reminds me that no matter what material goods people have, loving attention is one of the most valuable things in life.

Tonight we are going out dancing to continue my birthday celebration and tomorrow we are heading to the Sabera Foundation.

Thanks for all of the comments- we LOVE sharing them during our nightly reflections! Thanks for all the birthday wishes too! It was a birthday like no other, complete with boys from Brother Xavier's singing "Happy Birthday" and flaming chocolate.

Namaste,
Rachael