Communist Strike

Yesterady July 8th was one of the weirdest days here in Kolkata, India. I know this is my first blog since I've been back. I honestly been meaning to blog about my travels in India which was amazing but never got around to it because all that's been going on. Well Cornia arrived at 3 am yesterday morning which was a suprise to me because i thought she told me midnight the next day... minutes after Briana would leave, but appartently not. I recieved a phone call from Sara at 2 in the morning telling me that corina was at the airport waiting for me. So I had her take a taxi back to sudder and i stood out on the streets for a while until she arrived. The streets of Kolkata is so quiet at night, total opposite from the day time. I saw some of the locals and just sat around talking to them waiting for Cornia to arrive at Sudder. I wanted to wait outside because first off, I didn't think the taxi driver will know exactly where hotel Maria was at and secondly I was sure that the drive would try to rip her off. Well A taxi pulled in around 3 and turned on its brights and so I couldn't really tell if anyone was in the car. So I told Bundu (my friend) to stop the taxi and see and ask... since it drove pass me although I stood in front of it. He told me the person in the taxi was headed to fairland lodge. I figured it wasn't corina because she wouldn't even know the name fiarland lodge. I stood in the middle of Sudder street by hotel maria and minutes after that last taxi passed I saw a blonde gal walking down the streets towards me... Yeah, it was Corina. She was in that last taxi. He drove her away from me because he probably figured I knew the relative price of the fare and although Corina pointed me out to him he said it wasn't safe to stop here and kept on driving away from me down sudder and ended up talking her into paying 750 Rps or so... almost 4 times more than what she should of paid. I went after the driver as soon as i found out with some of the locals but... he took off before Corina even told me. Frustrated but... what can you do. Many of the taxi drivers here will rip you off... you just got to expect it and know the relative price. They'll give you a fake chart that they typed up themselves with the more expensive fare... so you also have to know what the real chart looks like.

Well we got Corina checked in and had to get up for mass in 2 hours. So I tried to sleep as much as I could but was laying awake for abouty 30 minutes thinking about the taxi driver. I dont know what it is but I get so pissed at the taxi drivers, I always tip generously here in India, sometime giving a 100% tip or more but when someone tries to cheat me out of something just because I'm a foriegner I don't buy into it and dont' tip at all and even more so I get really mad. Anyways, I got to bed... and it was a horrible night of sleep. Two hours in a stiff hard bed, since I didn't planned that corina was coming in on a day when Briana was still there. Our room is a three person room so I gave Corina my bed and paid for a dorm room which the beds in the dorm room of hotel maria is pretty much sheets on wood. So we walked the streets that was so famaliar to me that i've been away from for a while... the same street that briana would walk for the last time this year towards mother house. Mass was great... althought I'm positive that we forgot to say the profession of faith , after the homily but... eh. It was so nice being in the Mother House. It was so nice seeing all the sisters and several of them going out of their way to say hi or wave hi although they were in the middle of a conversation with someone else. It was just so welcoming to come back and feel as if I was missed and having some of the MC sisters ask me about my trip and telling me welcome back, or where have I been. I didn't realize that they would even notice if I left for a week since there's over 350+ volunteers. So I was extremely happy right from the start. During breakfast I introduced Corina to Sr. Karina. A moment I've been longing for... I"m actually not sure how Sr. Karina spells her name but ... for some reason I've been spelling it with a K. Well after breakfast sister sat us down and told us some horrible news/sad news. She told us that she wanted all the girls volunteers to head back to their hotels for today and stay within their hotel for the day. Today (yesterday, the 8th) was a labor strike for the communist party. Sr Karina told us that in the past two previuos years there has been bus bombing, after they've bomb the bus it forces the people out of it and the bus and some people would get stoned and it's especially not safe for a foreign girl to be in that situation . 2 years ago a volunteer was on a bus that was bombed and the year afterwards she returned to work with the MC and during the same strike her bus was bombed again. So unluckily it had happened twice to her but thankfully that was all that happened. The bus was bombed so it was out of service. Which sounds like the bombs are only small enough to ruin the axle or something to slow down the bus. But earlier this year in feb/dec during the same strike someone was killed (i dont think it was any volunteers) but because of so the Sr. wanted to send all the girls back to the hotel and advise the guys that if today they feel as if they needed to catch up on anything else that its a good day to take off. Well.... it was extremely sad news for Briana because it was her last day volunteering and she wanted to go to Shishu Bahavan and say her good byes and take some pictures of her work. The strike began at 8 and she had 30 minutes till than she her and Corina left to Shishu and Briana said her goodbyes and headed back to our hotel. I figured, because of the lack of volunteers today and because how much I missed Daya Dan because of my traveling and not being able to work that i'd go to Daya Dan regardless and just pray for protection and guidance. So I hopped on the bus to Manictala. When I got on the bus it was the weirdest feeling ever... it was so empty! Usually people are fighting a seat and it's so packed that people would have to stand but there was barely anyone on the bus! I sat praying my rosary for safety on my journey. It seriously was just nerveracking being on the bus. I got off the bus at manictala and someone even more stranged and errie happened. Not a single autorickshaw was running. Although they sat across the streets in the autorickshaw, none of the rickshaw drivers would pick us up and they just laid in their seats and took off the day. The street was empty. No cars, no horns, no rickshaw! I couldn't believe it. I started walking down the street to Daya Dan since there was no rickshaw running. It was several blocks away and on my walk there i ended up walking by a manula rickshaw driver. He had an empty rickshaw... I looked over out of curiosity and we made eye contact.... but he didn't say anything. He didn't ask "rickshaw?" NOTHING! Instead he kept on walking. As weird or nice as it would usually be on any other day... it just freaked me out yesterday that I wasn't bugged by a single rickshaw driver, the roads were dead empty, and no horns. So after a long errie walk, i finally got to daya dan. It was so nice to be back everyone on of the sisters at Daya Dan welcomed me back and told me i was missed and kept asking how much longer will I be here. It was a really comforting feeling. I love being at daya Dan. Because of the strike schools were close so the students from Daya Dan that would sometime go to actual schools were here at daya dan and some of the school kids came to daya dan also. There was on me and one other guy here to teach a big group of students, so we made it art class today. Art class is usually on saturdays but the sisters wanted something for all the students to keep busy and it was simple and interactive for all since they were all at different learning levels and it would have been impossible to teach otherwise. I led music class at 10 and had Megha help sing since Mongol was sick that day. After the day's work, I took my break at the end of everything. I spent it in a room with sr. Christalata and she told me a lot about the children at Daya dan. We talked about how the children were dropped off, and which children do we know about their parents. I found out a lot about the mental, retardation, and physcial difficulties of many of the children I worked with. How many of them won't live pass to age 20 and sadly to hear that the students I work with specifically, Mongol and Megha, were dropped off as a child in front the Shishu, MCs house and there are no records of their parents but they suffer from a disease that deteriorates their muscles and that's why they're so skinny and can't walk and will forever be in a wheel chair. They suffer from no mental problems and are such brillant kids but Sister told me they more than likely won't live pass the age 20 because Sisters had a child that had the same problems that they suffer from and three years before he died his muscles in his mouth stopped working and he was unable to talk and then after 3 years his heart muscle gave out. He passed away earlier this year and sister told me that he was as smart as Mongol and Megha when he was younger. It was the most devastating thing for me to hear. I love them with all my heart and want to show them how much they're cared about. I want to be their pernament teacher because the teachers here comes and go, none that they feel stay long enough for them. I want to see them suceed in reading, math, and gramar and be able to get jobs to help others. They're so precious to me and makes me so sad to hear that they may never be able to experience the most simple things that I take for granted. A teacher that stays with me, being able to walk, to go outside whenever I want and to do which ever I please. I hurts me to know that I can't take any of their sufferings that already they've suffered so much, and continuously will suffer and even more so when they get older. It hurts me to know that I can't take a glimsp of that. I feel so unworthy sometimes because of all the things I take for granted. Things that children loves to do... to recieve, and to experience. Sr told me that little Piya will never be able to walk due to some retardation problems in mental and phsycial connection to her legs and told me about Prince one of my students and how he was when he arrived at the doorstep of the MCs house. I was so privilleged to have this opportunity to learn more about the children I was working with and it gave me a greater love for them and the sympathy was not only for them but for my life... for how much I have to learn and grow in. For the lack of love I show althoguh I have so much grace and love given to me. My shift ended at Daya Dan and I took the metro back to Sudder. I was extremely happy the Metro was running because i didn't want to take the bus back.
During the evening we spent the evening going to wherever Briana wanted to go. It was her last night and she was leaving here at 9:30pm for the airport. We went to NewMarket to the ATM because she needed to get some money out for rent and some last minute things such as a taxi cab and whatnot, but because of the strike all the banks ATM were closed. New Market itself was really errie to be in. More than half of the stores stands were closed and the ones that were opened didn't want to bargin at all. We were told that the ATM at the airport was be open although all these ATMs were closed. Later that evening, Briana wanted to go to a resturant called moulin rouge which apparently was really good, so we did just that and got ice cream after dinner. I got back to the hotel and arranged a taxi driver for her and took her to the airport. Sadly the ATM wasnt open. But it wasn't a problem I'll pay for her rent and taxi ride since I don't have any worries about it returning since we go to the same school and all but it was just SOO weird at the airport! Usually when I walk out of the airport there are sooooo many taxi drivers asking and nagging at you if you need a taxi driver. But yesterday there wasn't a single yellow taxi in sight. The only cars that was at the airport where arranged business cars and the drivers stood by the exit holding the sign with the persons name. Or cars of family members in India but no taxi drivers. I couldnt believe it... it was just such an interesting day. Something I wasn't use to for surely but a creepy experience. I don't think I've ever been so aware about my surroundings. Everything that passes me every person that looked at me or anything that touched me.

Today was a much better day, After waking up with only 2 hours of sleep and not getting back from dropping Briana off at the airport and in bed till past mid night, a thursdsay (volunteers day off) felt AMAZING! I slept in till 10:30am and then skyped & email. Did laundry... since i was totally out of clean clothes, and have been eating in between all that. That's honestly all i've done today but it was nice just catching up on nessesary things to do. I don't know when I'll have time to blog about my travels in India, but honestly it was amazing. Darjeeling is spectacular and breathtaking. The most beauitful sight i've see in nature... the Himalayas foothills and mountain are so peaceful and stunning. Over at Varanasi it's very centered around the GANGA! The ganga in the evening is so beautiful and there were some amazing temples. As for PURI... I LOVE THE BEACH! It was crazy cool! So relaxing. I diffinately will have to find some time to talk about my travel time here in India and the crazy stories I have.... here's some things that may keep you on the edge of your seat until I find time to blog about it; Caitlin ran full on into an autorickshaw, the effects of Malaria pills and minimum amount of sleep, umm...I lost my bag with my video camera-picture camera- jounral and most importantly passport, camael or camael rides on the beach, Massive rain, crazy boat ride tour guide as we cruised the Ganga....etc. Anyways Traveling was fun! And the glimps of what i listed should really stir up some curiousity for everyone.
Well, I'm home safe in Kolkata and will try my best to blog daily but there's been lots going on for me here and I don't know how often I can find time to blog. But I did start writing in a journal since I've been traveling and it's practically filled!

Well, I send everyone my blessing. Please pray for Briana's flight she should be arriving in the States in a couple of hours and pray for Caitlin's travel she heads home this saturday and of course keep Corina and I in your prayers as we continue on trying to find Jesus in Disguise and strength for all trials and challenges while we're here!