No Bus to Kalumkala

So this morning caitlin and i got up early to meet up my friend lorenzo who works daily at Nabo Jibon. we heard that there was mass at 6:45 at Nabo Jibon and tried to make it to mass. We caught a bus as Espanada to another bus stop which usually have a bus to Kalumkala but today being a sunday morning and going on a different bus time we couldn't find a bus that was heading that way. We stood in the area for about 30 minutes asking several buses that came by but none was headed that way. A man nudge at my bottle of water I just bought, still sealed and said "Pani, Pani". I figured... why not, he must just want a little bit. He was eatting some crackers/biscutts and had a cup of Chai in his hand. I was hestitate even giving him some but... hey charity comes back to you, in one way or another. But I thought he was going to just pour some into his mouth but he fully put his mouth around the seal and their diffinately was some biscutts backwashing going on. I looked at catlin and she just gave me this face... it was priceless. Although I wasn't going to ask for it back it didn't even offer it back... the man just walked off and placed my water on the sidewalk across the street from me and kept on going on with his day. It was quite and interesting experience. Rather funny for me, but weird at the same time. I never et a thankyou or anything when I do something here. Which kind of bugs me because I dont' want the beggers to rely on begging and just think it's how they make a living. The other day I was by the movie and some kid wanted some ice cream.. I figured, its ice cream who wouldn't. So I bought him a cone of ice cream and he looked at me and motioned me for a bigger scoop.. a double scoop and just made a face like; what's this? Anyways, I just went on with the day but it just left me very unsatisfied. With the lifestyle of beggers here on the streets of Kolkata. They really depend make their life around this occupations. There's desinated territories where beggers can be; a new begger can't come into sudder street without the other beggers okay it. It's really weird how it all works but it's how they live and they have some system down. You wake up in the morning and the same begger is at your door... speaking perfect english. I just don't know what to think sometimes. Anyways... back to my story..... Nabo Jibon. Needless to say, we were stuck there! So I figured this is the few occasion I wouldn't mine taking a taxi so I called for a taxi. I asked for the rate before I entered into the taxi... 150 rps... I remembered my ride to pick up caitlin at the airport was abouty 200 rps and it was a 45 min ride ... we were headed maybe 5 minutes from where we were at already so i told him no... he begin to drop the price quick as I walked away but i went straight to a different taxi driver and said 100rps? No problem... and we hopped in. When we got to Nabo Jibon we were a bit late to mass but it still was an amazing mass! It was mainly in Banglai. There was a beautiful homilee and wonderful music being sang in Bangali with tribal drums and this interesting keyboard thing. After mass we had breakfast with the MC brothers. There was only Caitlin, Lorenzo and I there that early. Everone else showed up after breakfast. After breakfast caitlin and i helped get some of the paitents from downstair cleaned up, unclothed and ready for potty training. Nabo Jibon is a site for the sick and destitue boys... most of which are a lot older probably in the 20s-30s. When we were finished with helping out the other volunteers still haven't arrived and it wasn't time for the street children to come in yet so we went back into the room upstairs and just sat and read India's newpaper! All I got to say is the paper here is CRAP! It's probably about the worst lies I've ever heard in my life. I honestly felt my 6 years old cousins can lie better than the newpapers. They exagerated everything and repeated everything numberously. The newpaper was fully of media stuff. It was more like a magazine on the latest hollywood and bollywood stars. Some twisted views on other countries politics, and what suprised me most (also Caitlin) was how horrible the newspaper displayed women! I just wish someone smacked a little Theology of the Body into the media! I took the paper to bring back to the states for some scrapbooking but let me put in one example of the aritcle i read. Here's word per word....


Men like blonde bombshells
There is a clear simple logic working here. Men like to mate younger women as they tend to be more healthy. And a clear indicator of health is physical attractiveness and hair. INterestingly, blonde hair turns brown with age. So when men prefer blonds, they are unconsciously attempting to mate with younger women.

Men sexually harass women because they are not sexist
In a competitive environment, men are usually abusive and intimidating. So when they extend the same behaviour towards women, theyare only being natural, and not sexist. In other words, they are not discriminating between men and women..... etc.



Anyways, the newpaper here blew my mind away and I sat in awe for several minutes afterwards. I couldn't grasp how they could protray this as truth! There were sooo much more crap in that newspaper that i decided to leave out because this blog is public but I'm seriously in disbelief. Caitlin and I both couldn't believe how can someone grasp this as truth... the title of the article in and of itself was Truths About Human Nature.
Okay, well i'm getting really side tracked today. Today when the street children came it was a lot of fun. Like usual they want you to give them a piggy back ride and than we played some soccer. It was so much fun overall and I think Caitlin enjoyed the time being there with the children. I really love the energy the chidren have and how joyful they were being there. One of the street children had a fleshwound in his head and another had his foot banaged and was missing 2 toes. It didnt keep any of them from smile and having fun. We passed out biscutts and the cutest thing would happen.. this one kid brought a little plastic bag and carried his biscutts in. Some kids hid the biscutts in their pockets and tried to get back in line for four more biscutts. They did some trading of biscutts and ... I dont know what. but it was fun to watch. One of the kids learned somehow the word "bastard" and kept going around saying "you bastard!" I couldnt believe what he was saying but I realized he liked the reaction he was getting so I told him to stop once ... and than ingored him, and he kept going around to other english speaking person saying it. Kids will be kids to get a reaction and get away with it. As soon as he thought I was going to tell an MC brother it just shut him up quickly. At Nabo Jibon they have amazing Jackfruit trees! really big jackfruits! Caitlin and I got to try one fresh off the tree and it was AMAZING!!! It made me think of my family and sara. ... I love jackfruit! And jackfruit chips. The children then got fed... sitting out on the dirt with their metal plates and cups. Once they were finished they were sent back to the families while we washed their dishes and joined the MC brothers for lunch! Well, that was our sunday! I think tonight will be another low key night. Caitlin's stomach feels better today and she had a big lunch. So it was probably a one day thing yesterday. tonight Caitlin and i are going to do a prayer hour in the hotel room and than probably try to find osme ice cream to make some rootbeer floats! That's the plan... we'll see if it follows through. Anyways, I miss everyone and continue to keep us in your prayers! Love you all! God bless you always always!

Tuan