The Swing of Things

Well, it's really already starting to feel like real life here, which has been a good thing. We have the daily routine of going to the Mother House in the morning, having bread a banana, and chai, reciting the Physician's Prayer, then off to our respective places. At Prem Dan, the German priest Helmut has asked me to work with a specific patient who cannot walk very well and complains of pain in his left leg. Upon questioning some people that work there, I have found out that there is nothing that is known to be wrong with his legs, and they claim that he is having phantom pains. He speaks pretty decent english, though it is so quiet and he has a thick accent which makes it difficult to hear the first time. The man is badly burned over much of his body, including most of his face. He has a glass right eye, as the eye was scorched and rendered useless. It is Helmut's and my belief that this has put him in a severe state of depression, as it is very difficult for many people to look him in the face. While I do everything I can to help, making him do physical therapy against his will, massaging his leg, etc., he is unfortunately giving up psychologically, which is something that makes healing and the chance of recovery slim. I cannot imagine what it must be like to have nothing left, be badly burned and feel like I am not even capable of taking care of myself. On top of this, there is most likely nothing for this man to return to or have hope for in this world. Yesterday, while I was preparing to feed him (he is capable of eating on his own, but always refuses to eat when food comes around, so I bring food to him anyway and give it to him), he released himself while still in bed, and asked for a change in clothing. From here I took a different approach than the accomodating one I had in the past. Instead of cleaning him up right there, I told him that we had to move him now and wash him off, which he doesn't like because he says it hurts his leg. When I did this, he was not happy, but afterwards he ate his food on his own, kissed his hand and touched my cheek. This has taught me how there are some times when people act like they want to be pampered, but truly appreciate being held to the standard of everyone else. This is something Russel calls "tough love," and has to do this all the time at Kalighat, the home for the dying and destitute. I pray that by working with him each day and being in being persistent, he is able to pick himself back up and gain the strength to continue on living.

Indian Food

So I got destroyed by the food over here yesterday and ended up taking today off. It is so delicious...but I got a really bad headache and my digestive system was very upset with me. Some of my team members have been experiencing similar discomforts. Hopefully my body will adjust to the dishes over here so I can live in comfort once again. Team India/Bhutan, India Medical, and our team all had a joint worship session on the roof of a guest-house last night. Both of the other teams leave today so we will be the lone team here in Kolkata. India medical is wrapping things up while India/Bhutan is just getting started. Keep all of us in your thoughts!
-Jimmy B

Pictures!

I've begun to put up pictures of our adventures in India, though they upload rather slowly... Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055678&l=1ddf0&id=56902083

Prem Dan

Alright, so Prem Dan. It's split up into a guy's side and a girl's side, where guy and girl volunteers work, respectively. Corey, Natalie, and Ashley go here as well, though I'm the only team IndiaBang guy, so I'll describe where I work assuming that it's about the same for them. We meet at the Mother House in the morning (7 if you're just meeting for breakfast, 6 if you're going to mass), then we say the Physician's Prayer, sing a song, and go on our merry way. The bus to Prem Dan is right across the street and is about a 5 minute bus ride. Prem Dan is located near a slum, so there are lots of very poor people around the sidewalk and streets. The first day, a gal in front of me was walking with her water bottle loosely in her hand, and a kid came and snatched it right from her and ran away. Once inside, girls and guys split up. i drop off my things in the volunteer room, and first thing is to wash clothes. This takes around a half hour and consists of several volunteers in an assembly line, washing, rinsing, and hanging clothes to dry. Next is sweeping and washing the floors of the place. Next is a fifteen minute break, then back to work to feed everyone. I met a man from Germany named Helmut, who I think is a doctor. He had me feed someone with epilepsy. And I'm running out of time so I have to go, but that's about it. After this we're done for the afternoon and head back home. More to come later.

-Loren

Daya Dan

So Haera, Katie, and I are working at Daya Dan, which is a home for disabled children. For me at least, these are my favorite kids because they have such a passion and contentment for life. I have worked with these kids last summer at a camp so I have a pretty good idea of how to work with them. Well in Daya Dan, lets just say that it is the complete opposite of that. Being a nursing major, a understand a lot the physical limitations that many of these children have. Unfortunantely, the hired helped called the masis' are not as accepting or willing to work with those limitations. Watching some of the children have food shoved down there throat makes me so angry and powerless. There is not much I can do about this so I am working on trusting the power of God's love and healing for these children. I know that his heart is breaking as well and I just need to trust that he is in control of the situation. On the positive side, we did actually have a sweet techno party with the kids! All of the kids were dancing and laughing...it was absolutely beautiful. It is in these situations that you remember that these kids are still being loved and are more fortunate right now then they would be on the streets. It is so evident that God is stretching our team right now in so many ways and I know for myself it is to learn that God has the more power than medicine and knowlede to heal his loved ones.
Please continue to be in prayer for us that God will shape our hearts into ones that are completely obedient to his will for our life.
Mandy

Kalighat

I have worked a few days at Kalighat so far, and thought some of you might like to know what it is like there. Russel and I are the only two from our team that work the morning shift there, and there are about 20-25 others that join us at 8am. The first day Russel and I went there a young man had passed away, and since the workers there already knew Russel they asked us to take is body to the crematorium. That gave me an idea of what Kalighat will be like for the next 3 weeks pretty quick. When we first arive every day (after catching bus 45B from the mother house) we walk for about 10 minutes to Kalighat, which is ironically located adjacent to the Kali temple, which is the temple where Hindus worship the godess of death (Indiana Jones anyone?). When we enter in we go right to work serving each person breakfast, and many of them need assistance. The house is split up into male and female wards because of the nature of care that is performed. After meal time, we bathe those who have not had a bath in a few days. This is quite a task because more than half of them must be carried across the home into the room where they are bathed. We then dress them and carry or help them walk back to their beds. I would say that there are about 40 males and I cant really say how many females because I dont frequent their ward. Other tasks include dressing wounds such as burns or open sores, and this is mainly done by volunteer nurses and there is one bengali doctor. We also pass out medicine that has been prescribed to each patient. We then serve them lunch at around 11:30, which is usually the standard rice and curry, although they had fish the other day.

It is hard work, and I have decided to take the afternoon shift off for a few days to rest and read. I talked to a missionary that works there with us and she urged me to consider taking it easy the first few days because she has seen people get sick from working to hard. I have realized how tired I really am from travel and dont want to push it too hard. More of my team (about 7 others) work at Kalighat in the afternoon. So far serving these men has been gratifying, but challenging. The challenges come mostly from the language barrier. I want to talk with many of them to hear their stories, but a lot of them only speak Bengali or cannot speak at all. Today one man would not eat and coughed very violently when I gave hime water to drink. It was hard to see him this way because he is very unhealthy, and couldnt respond when I asked him questions.

Tomorow is a day off so we decided to see Prince Caspian! Keep us in your thoughts as we continue to serve at Mother Teresa's homes. We love and miss all of you.
-Jimmy B

The Adventure Begins

So I think what Jimmy said about battling to stay awake implied that we were winning that battle... we weren't. We looked like the walking dead, sauntering down the streets of Kolkata in our American clothing styles looking like, well, a bunch of foreigners. So far everything is much better than I expected, with an air conditioned room that actually stays cool! It's pretty hot and humid, but also not as bad as I thought it would be. The air is breathable (not much worse than LA, which I guess isn't much of a standard...), and it gets somewhat cool at night. What I have found to be funny, however, are the things we take for granted in the USA that we never even think about as luxuries. We got cold water with our lunch today, which was AMAZING. Normally, all of the water is room temperature. We get a fair amount of tea as well, which is also hot, but very good. I'll have to bring some back with me, as I am very much a tea enthusiast over coffee.

Now to business. We start tomorrow at the Mother Theresa homes at 8 A.M. to 12 P.M., then again from 3 P.M. to 5 P.M. There are several different voluneer homes, which were described to us, then each team member got to choose which shifts at which homes to volunteer at. I have chosen Prem Dan in the morning, which is basically a hospital for the sick, and Kalighat, the house for the dying and destitute, for the afternoon shift. Hopefully my other teammates will put where they are going and what each home's description is. There are a few orphanages, only one of which men are allowed to work at. Anywho, wish us luck as we set out for our first day of work!

-Loren

Kolkata Day 1!

So apparently I am the first one to post on here, and what better time to do it than on our first real day in Kolkata! We arrived here yesterday at around 11am, and unfortunately our bodies felt like it was 10:30pm...a day and a half after our first plane departure. Needless to say it was a battle to stay awake yesterday, but we toughed it out and now we are getting oriented with the city and the Missionary of Charity homes today. Well, I have a ton of other things I could write about, but Russel is urging us to leave so I'm sure we'll make another post soon. Everything is going amazing so far, and God has blessed us with safe travels and comfortable lodging. Keep checking and we'll update again soon!!!
-Jimmy B

(Update)
We just finished up at the Missionaries of Charity for the day and I will be working at the Kalighat home, which is primarily focused on caring for the dying and destitute. This home was Mother Teresa's passion while she worked here, and its premise is to basically take those who are dying off of the streets and care for them. It gives them a place where they can be loved and cared for in the last weeks of thier life. I will be working two shifts, one in the morning and one in the evening. It will be hard work for the next three weeks for everyone on our team, so keep us in your thoughts :)