Namaskaar, see how great this man looks.
I think it has been so long since I have written, I know there is so much to say.
I was sick all last week; it was a high fever that kept me glued to my bed most days. I feel like I have more energy to start this week, and I must make sure I am well for Nepal.
As you can imagine, I spent the entirety of most days in my lovely nighty, gliding through the day sleeping, reading, and eating toast. Of course I also had plenty of time to think.
What came up most, and what has repeated itself for sometime in Kolkata is that I feel privileged here.
Ironic to say I suppose after spending the past week cursing a city that gives me constant headaches, but I tell you after days that I spend with people here I can only feel lucky having spent that time with them.
I am often asked by people here and home, "how did that make you feel". I usually first try the words sad or good, but then I end up turning to
privileged. It made me feel privileged, they made me feel so privileged.
Ill share with you, I think the places that I enter to fill a need, have all become the places that fill something in me.
I feel privileged to live with a true Indian family. True in the Indian sense that they live a special life. Everything takes a bit longer, and everything is just a bit flashier. True in the sense of family as I have discovered from living with them for these months. They function with love and time spent together, but they also dysfunction, as we all do.
I feel privileged to be spending time with people who's lives are so precious and potentially nearing their end. I can sit with them and talk about their day, or just talk about nothing at all. I get to do their laundry, bring them food, and rub their feet.
I feel completely privileged to be able to enter only slightly into a community of women standing strong in Kolkata. Some that I see are still living in deeply woven poverty and they have yet to make the choice to step out of an industry that allows no freedom. I get to visit these women, and sit with them during a regular day of work in their lives.
I also then get to spend time with women who have now been on both sides. Women who know what it is to be bound, and now what it is to be free. I cannot fully comprehend the life changing decisions they have made, but I get to sit an do simple tasks amongst them.
I want to show you a few more pictures. These were the highlights of my week! After all my rest came such great reward.
This is at the very early morning Sari market.
It reminded me of a thrift store or a block-party garage sale.
And here are a couple of photos from the building that we spent one morning cleaning up. It still needs work, but it is a beautiful place. I can tell you that this building will so soon be a new place for women who want a new job, a new life.
And this is me wearing my "nice shirt", which is never actually clean or presentable. On this day it was extra gross from the cleaning in the morning.
I am going to Nepal for a week on Saturday with my team and few others which is so exciting. If you don't hear from me before then, just imagine me in a place that is a few degrees cooler and many mountains more beautiful.
thanks for waiting and then reading,
loves from this steamy city
our beloved's not dead,
but his highness instead has been utterly changed into fire;
so why not be utterly changed into fire?
