Chai, Chappattis & a week in Kolkata (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Chai, Chappattis & a week in Kolkata

6:59am Thursday 2nd April 2009

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Namaste!

Thought for the day: it’s boiling [imagine living inside an oven]. The roads are so hot that it seems my flip-flops will melt and stick to the tarmac. It’s impossible to go barefoot in the sun. You wake at 3am just as sweaty as you are in the middle of the day; you take a cold bath and two seconds later are as hot/dirty as before. We’ve had some fabulous storms in the evenings though – the whole dormitory lights up pink and the rain just plummets to the ground beneath rumbles of thunder. It hits the ground with a hiss of steam, making my glasses fog up. Such a vicious climate for so many who live on the streets; it has averaged 39 degrees this week, and is set to get higher.

Village dispensary is always my favourite day of the week. We begin by packing up the big truck and leaping in the [open] back with all the medicines and sacks of rice. This week we were sitting on the rice, bouncing around in the back, praying the rosary and attempting to thread a garland for sister [MCs utilise every available minute]. I love the journey so much - it’s amazing how just a couple of hours out of the city you see blue sky, greenery and a life far removed from the pavements of Kolkata. We pass lots of little bazaars, fish markets, fields and the requisite cows. It’s equally amazing the crowds of people waiting for us, standing under the hot sun; sick and weary. All you can see is masses and masses of people – seemingly never-ending queues of coloured sarees [next time you moan about the NHS ...] We set up our tables and begin. I was working with Sr Marguerite – Oma’s right-hand woman. She was in Rwanda for 10yrs and is a tough cookie. Her stories are incredible – if you’ve seen “Hotel Rwanda” you’ll have some idea [her passport has bullet holes through it]. Anyway, I was filling up bottles of medicine and packets of tablets – “10 of this, 15 of that, quick quick!” It’s non-stop from 9am-3pm and there were some bugs out there which loved to sink their gnashers into my ankles! By the time we pack the van up, we’re always sweaty, hungry and exhausted. On the way back we eat biscuits and chatter, ready to unload everything again at Shishu Bhavan. Such a complex world we live in – how Kolkata has KFC, McDonalds, Pizza-Hut and a thriving economy, yet 2hours away in rural Bengal, people queue for hours and hours to access the essentials. You can understand the lure of the city for them, but these are the people we need to target [operation Dick Whittington?] Again, I remind myself – it’s 2009 and people are starving in one corner of the world whilst others stuff themselves to death with supersize fries.

Some days I return home and think to myself, only in Kolkata could I have done such things! One of the most entertaining this week was making two charts for dispensary; one entitled “Ante Natal exercises” and the other “minor ailments of pregnancy.” I became very adept at drawing pregnant women in sarees. Sister wasn’t too amused when I complained that constipation was difficult to depict! Another amusing moment was sister having a serious conversation with a doctor when she had glitter all over her face. This was my fault [most things are!] because I’d got sparkles over her table, she’d touched it and then her face. I spent two days cutting out tiny purple letters and sticking them on dispensary boxes - a labour of love indeed. To vary my tasks, Sr Beattina, the sister in charge of the handicapped ward, asked me to paint a playhouse for the children. Apparently I’m Shishu Bhavan’s artist in residence, and it was fun to do, even if I did get sunburnt whilst working on the roof.

Yesterday was General Dispensary; always a busy day. People queue outside Shishu Bhavan all night, with a variety of conditions – from scabies to dysentery, leprosy and TB. It is quite a complex procedure getting everyone in and seen by the right people, but somehow, [as most things in India] – there is organisation beneath the chaos. Unfortunately one man vomited all over my foot. I was registering people, which is quite difficult with limited Bengali. Of course, they all thought I could cure them, so produced X-Rays and prescriptions, and open wounds ... when I’d only asked their name!

Need I reiterate how wonderful it is to be back? It’s such fun being in the dormitory with the gang. Time really flies here. One moment it’s 4.30am and the alarm is bleeping, and the next it’s 8pm and you’re ready to fall fast asleep [which I do, mid sentence, often]. Nowhere do I feel so alive, so exhausted, so dirty, and so incredibly happy. Today is our day off, and I started the day with mass, followed by laundry. Sr Joann was hanging her sarees at the same time, and we were chatting over the terrace. It’s little things like that which make this home ...

So now, I will leave this air-conditioned cyber cafe behind, and return to the blazing heat of A.J.C Bose Road.

Until next Thursday ...

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