Sorry I missed another day of blogging, I was still in and out of stomach problems but you got to hear my amazing story!
Yesterday, when I woke up I thought I was feeling amazing! So I hurried the girls up and out of Hotel Maria to make it in time for mass. As soon as I arrived my stomach had other plans for me. I sat down and when I stood up for the entrance my stomach was gruggling and I ran to the bathroom feeling as if I was going to vomit. When I got to the volunteers room it was locked because it doesn't open for breakfast till around 7 and it's also a good way to encourage those that come a little early to go upstairs for mass,... but it wasn't working in my favor. I saw Sr. Melrose and she figured I needed to go to the bathroom because i was holding my stomach, so she brought me to a private room and I got to use the Sister's bathrooms! I felt special... but when I was finally in the bathroom, i felt fine.... frustrated that all that hasseling and leaving mass and finally in front of the bathroom and feeling perfectly fine. Well I went back upstairs to the chapel and sat outside and listened in on mass. Once again when I stood up my I felt like vomitting so I ran to the bathroom and this time I did what I had to do. I felt a thousand times better afterwards. But my stomach was still killing me everytime I stood up. After mass I went to the volunteers room and I honestly feel as if I finally am settled because I have so many volunteers asking me if I'm feeling alright and MC sisters checking up on me. Sr. Karina was hoping and asking if I would come at 3 to help lead taize and then 4:30 till 6 to lead choir practice. She soon realized I was feeling horrible and told me today I will stay at home and not go to Daya Dan. She told me wait till all the volunteers leave and she will get me a Doctor (one of the MC sisters is a doctor). After everyone left Sr. Karina was finding Sr. Michael (the doctor) and while I waited they were mopping the volunteers room. Sr. Druscilla was filling up the buckets or water and soap and getting the towels out and here I was sitting all lazy. So I got up and reached towards the towel. "You, sit!" Sr. Druscilla told me. Hahaha. I looked at her stubornly. I wasn't going to sit and watch her on her hands and knees mopping the floor while I'm lazy in the corner. So I grabbed for the towel and soaked it in soap water and began to mop. She came over and tugged at the towel from me with a smirk. "You are sick, today you rest.. you can come mop all next week" I told her... "I was good enough to walk to Mother House, I'm good enough to mop, plus when I'm croached over my stomach feels find. We were laughing and she was pulling at my towel trying to stop me and I was tugging back. It was a funny tug-a-war with lots of laughter and smiles. She gave up and let me mop for half a second and asked a different volunteer to take the towel from me. My friend Gemma came over and snuck up behind me and snatched the towel away from me. "Sorry, Sister's order" she said. I looked over at Sr. Druscilla and she just smiled with a smirk. I then got called by Sr. Karina to go see Dr. Sr. Michael and they took me into a private room at the Mother House where all the sisters eat their meals (which i was excited about because I was always curious what was behind there) and Sr. Micahel asked about all sorts of things. From what I ate, I'm able to eat, if I had diaherra, vomitting, and a lot of other stuff. She then subscribed me to A LOT OF MEDS! I need to take 5 different meds a day, some a couple times a day! The good thing is that it's not thypoid or malaria, it's just food problem. When Sr. Karina and Sr. Michael went to get the meds I sat in the room and was able to meditate upon a divine mercy image and do a chaplet in time before they get back. I've been praying something specifically since I've been here and when Sr. Karina came back the words that came out of her mouth blew my mind. I was in awe, and it brought me much comfort and consolations to my prayers. It something I choose not to share but it deffinately was an answer prayer for me. Before leaving the room I looked at all my meds and looked over at Sr. Karina and told her "Do I have to take these meds. I think as human we rely so much on meds. Can't I share in the joy of suffering with the passion of Chirst". Sr Karina said to me, "You must take the meds. I don't want to hear your philosophy". It was freak'n halrious and I just cracked up laughing. She told me she thinks just like me because she's been sick for a while and said the same thing and Sr. Michael made her take the meds. She told me "There are ways God grants you the Joy of Suffering. There are extraordinary ways and ordinary ways. In my case, it is an ordinary way because God also created the mind and the medicine to cure this and I must take it to get better, and the extraoridanry way if someone develope cancer that can't be cured God will grant them the grace to experience the joy although they suffer." She than popped out the pills I needed to take for the morning and mixed the powered whatever with water and made me drink and take them in front of her. hahaha seriously... it's great. It makes me smile.
I visited Mother's Tomb afterwards and on my way out a Carmalite priest stopped me and introduced himself (Fr. Marcel) and asked for my name. It was so neat seeing him in his brown robe or whatever you call it. It's just so amazing seeing all these different religious and holy order here in India. I've already met a Franciscan in his Blueish grey robe, and a St. James Brother in his robe and also a Loretto sister in her Habit, it's just SOOOO Beautiful! I wish I saw more religious and holy order men and women in the states walking the streets in their habits and vestments. Anyways, He was excited to see that I was wearing a brown scapular. He told me mine has been well worn (by the way: my brown scapular I wear on at all times and never take it off, only when it breaks... I shower with it on so after some time the words and image on it becomes worned off ) but he told me, "I want to give you a blessing and this week I'll try to bring you a new and better scapular." I was so excited and it was truly comforting and humbling. It will be amazing if he remembers to bring one for me but I'm not banking off it, i'm sure he's pretty busy.
When I finally got back to my hotel, the first thing I wanted to do was call Sara... while i was still able to sit up still. And of course it was really comforting to hear her voice and talk. Afterwards i went back to my room (around 12) and just laid low. Caitlin brought me toast for lunch and Brianna came back from her first day volunteering at Shishu Bahavan. By the way...Brianna LOVES it! She's really excited. But I slept from 12pm till 8:30 pm! And woke up here and there to take my meds. I had to take a C.R.S. packet that Sister gave me... ugh, it tastes like crap. Around 6pm, Dona, Carlan, and Mary (the irish gals) stopped by my room to see how I was doing, and it really made me feel happy because I was getting visitors while I was SICK! It was really thoughtful. At the time I still couldn't sit up and I felt horrible everytime I did. After they left I fell back to sleep sometime in between the time the left and 8:30 I ate an orange for dinner (not the best idea). Keep in mind all I had during the day was a banana from the mother house for breakfast, I only finished one piece of toast that caitlin brought me for lunch, and now the orange. Well, I awoke at 8:30 because Briana and Caitlin were going out to dinner and I tried to sit up but it wasn't working for me. Everytime I did... i felt like vomitting again. So they left without me and I just felt so lazy laying in bed all day so I sat up and ...... when I did the feeling came back and I ran to the bathroom and sadly vomitted again (second time that day.... 3rd time since I've been in India). It's gross and whatnot but honestly, it was the best thing that happened to me. I had fully engergy again and was able to stand without feeling like crap, and so I cease the opportunity to get work done. I had a pile of dirty laundry that haven't been washed for over a week and a half and was wearing the same pair of clothes since I've been sick (3+ days). As I was filling up the bucket of water (oh yeah, i did laundry in the bathroom because I was too lazy to go upstairs on the roof) but as I was filling up the bucket the hotel manager knocked on my door. I came out and he said... your sister is on the phone. WHAT?!?!?!?! My SISTER? I was blown away. I didn't know how she knew I was sick or to even get my number at Hotel Maria! I got on the phone and started talking and it didn't sound like any of my sister, but it sounded alot like my Aunt Ann. Anyways.... It actually was Sr. Karina calling to check up on me! How amazing is that! I felt SOOOO loved! Minutes after vomitting, and hours of feeling like crap. Finally when I'm able to get out of bed I got a phone call from Sister. She said she's been praying all day, and missed me at Taize practice and Choir practic. She was happy to hear I slept alot and I told her I prayed a rosary for her around 3 for Taize and Choir practice. She told me although we didn't have a guitar player, the Korean priest came down and helped with Taize practice and taught the harmony and they practiced accapella. And then for choir practice Sr. Karina lead as much as she could for the mass part accapella. Get this....... this will make you smile Michael G. But she sent a Sister from Shishu Bahavan that had a CD over there and Cd Player that had the song, blessed be your name. Sr. Karina said she realized the recording of Blessed Be Your Name was a recording from MICHAEL G!!!!!! How exciting is that! She said it made her think of you/me because I knew you and smiled and wanted to tell me that ... so I'm relaying the message back to you (M.G.). I sat and talked on the phone with Sr. Karina for a bit and she asked about a couple other things. She told me I shouldn't eat solid food for a day since nothing is settling with me right now, and drink plenty of fluids. I told her I feel lazy because I know I can do a lot of work if it was only the stomach pain but its the fact that I feel like vomitting when I stand up that kills me and make me not be able to do anything. Sr. Karina than told me, "Remember when you told me you want to share in the joy of suffering. This is your suffering, because you want to serve and be at Daya Dan and it is great suffering that all you can do is lay and rest, so offer it to go and share the joy of suffering as you rest." It was funny, cute, and made me smile. When I got off the phone I went back to my room .... and did ALL my laundry (totally against sisters order) but it was the one time I felt good enough to do anything so I took advantage of it......and than RESTED! Although I didn't sleep much at all last night because my whole sleeping schedule was thrown off by sleeping during the day... I finally fell as sleep at 4:30 not long after the birds, and the sound of the Mosse (I don't know how you spell it; the call for prayer... maybe it's Muslim, its horrible because I took a class on the culture of India right before I left and I forgot everything already). well.....i slept in this morning and woke up briefly when Briana and Caitlin got up for work, I encouraged them to go to Kalighat although they weren't assigned there but I knew there was mass there at 10:30 and I was able to help out when I randomly came without a slip so I told them give it a shot but they might get sent back. I told them look for my friend Zach at breakfast and follow him because he'll be going to Kalighat. Well, they returned at 9:30 and told me they were asked for the slip so there weren't able to work but they were excited that they were able to see Kalighat. We're all going to Daya Dan this afternoon for afternoon slip. I probably can talk Sr. Christalata to have Briana work there for a day and see the place and although Caitlin I don't have slips for the afternoon.... they've seen us there enough. We're going to mass at St. Mary's tonight at 6:30! To see this catherderal in India, I hear it's just absolutley beauitful on the inside, so I'm excited.
Well, I thought I'd blog so I don't freak everyone out about what's going on... continue to keep me in your prayers. I'm feeling better today but...... I also was feeling better last friday then something just hit me. So it's the stomach... please pray. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I send you may blessings and prayers with you also!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
A fever from Hell
Ok, I'm sure everyone was supprised that I didn't blog yesterday. Especially since I was doing sooo well on blogging everyday and not missing a day! But yesterday was a diaster!
Frist off... Everything did go well with picking Briana up from airport. Although Caitlin and I were completely exhausted because we woke up at 5 that morning for mass and didn't get back to the airport till pass midnight. Well, Briana came at perfect timing because it was pouring rain when she arrived. Lightening storms that lit up the sky and so the humidity wasn't so hard to bare for her first time in India. Although she said the first thing she noticed was the humidity... while here caitlin and I were sitting SOOO happy about how cool it was. haha. It's funny, because you really do become adjusted to the climate here. It's not as bad as it sounds. The temperture is usually in the upper 90's but it doesn't feel hot, it just feels extremely STICKY. For an example, you step out of the shower all nice and clean, and towel yourself down.... but you realize that you're still a little damped. Sooner later you realize it's not because you didn't dry yourself off well from your shower but rather because it's just really humid here and it's one of two things... your sweat or the condensation of the humidity.
Well when we got back to the hotel room, we ran into a few more encounters of cockroaches. Caitlin and I are getting more and more use to it now, remember back to our first encounter and how we had the funniest episode on how to kill it (you'll have to ask me to see the video of our first time trying to kill the cockroach, it's halrious) but now the extermination is a lot swift and quick. Anyways, when we got back to the hotel mine and caitlin's stomach was very unhappy! We woke up numberous times that night running to the bathroom. It's kind of ironic too because I remember telling caitlin during the day.... that she reached her week and half mark, which means that she's bound to have diaherra soon or get sick and surely enough. Well the next morning after a horrible upset stomach Caitlin woke up with a fever of 102.5 or something like so. When she first told me her temperature I thought she told me 105.2 and so Iwas freaking out all morning. I went to get her ice a resturant down the street and every hour I went to a different resturant asking for ice so her fever would go down. Honestly I was terrified! 105.2 is horrible! That's almost brain damaging! Typhoid is around 104.. something, and brain damage is 107. So when I thought she told me 105, I was thinking... give it an hour or so of ice and if it doesn't go down, we're rushing her to the hospital. Although Caitlin was walking around fine and making her phone calls fine, I just couldn't fathom 105 ' . I kept telling her, the fever will pass within a day or two, and you'll probably have bad diaherra for ... a week. I asked and checked to see if she got any bug bites but it was clear free. It's always right when there's a weather change that everyone gets sick. Because of how polutted the air is when it rains the first day or so it's just raining down all the crap onto you and you really have to keep your hair covered to not get sick and although we only walked from the taxi to the airport in the rain, that did the job to give us the fever. I also think the veg wrap we got for dinner before we picked up Briana gave us stomach problems because hours after eating it both of our stomach weren't feeling well. Anyways, I'm glad I was alright in the morning to be able to run around and get caitlin ice and bring her soup for lunch because right after lunch my fever kicked in. It hit 104.3' and I was miserable! I stomach was horrible and I had one of the worst fever i ever had in my life. Although it was as high as it was, i didn't think it was something to worry about yet unless if it didn't pass in a day or so. So I waited it off. I didn't have anything for dinner and laid in bed for the rest of the day. I felt so bad, because i wanted to be able to take care of caitlin because she was also sick and then I also wanted to show Briana around town because it was her first real day in Kolkata but I was a diaster! My head was extremely hot and although it was pretty cool outside for Kolkata (88') I was shivering cold and wanted to blanket up. I knew I shouldn't cover myself in blankets so I battled the shivers for hours and reminded caitlin that she shouldn't put covers over her otherwise her fever wouldn't lower. We took some IB profen and had a wet rag on our head here and there. When night came Caitlin's fever had pass and only her stomach was bothering her. As for me... it was still horrible. I don't know if anyone have seen me sick before, i know my parents and Sara have been there when I had a high fever but when I get sick.... I moan. hahah. Don't ask me why but I just do. I don't even do it conciously but it freaks the crap out of everyone that's around me and I did it all night last night. Caitlin kept getting up and checking on me and asking me if I want to go to the hospital. It's rather funny because I know it's just something I do and I can't really control it. I do it while I'm sleeping when I'm sick. "AHHHHHh OHHH AAWWWW" All night long. Caitlin said numberous times while I was moaning I threw in the words "THIS SUCKS... OAHHHA" hahaha which makes me laugh. I got up a couple times that night because of my stomach and I actually vomitted once last night but as bad as that sounds... it was the best thing that happend for me. Right after I did, I felt a thousand times better! Everything just cleared up, my fever went down and my stomach didn't feel as bad. It still feels like crap but it's so much better than what it was before. I had some toast this morning, bananan pancake for lunch and honey,bananan,cinnamon toast for dinner. It's getting better. I also picked up some meds for Caitlin and I at the pharmacy today for our stomach. I was determined to get better before 3 today because I wanted to walk Briana to the Mother House for her Orientation and also there was choir practice today at 4:30 and I couldn't let down the sisters and not show up. I'm the only one who teaches the songs to the volunteers and also am the only one who plays the guitar, or know the songs well enough to play the songs. So I was trying to get better before 3pm and a rosary or two did the trick. It's always such a great feeling being at the Mother House. It's just wide open and not all clustered and it's so clean! It's great! I always forget what the first time feeling is like but Briana reminded me again just as Caitlin did... it's a surreal feeling being here in Kolkata, India and then when you step into the Mother House its just this peaceful calming feeling. It's so comforting and you just feel so much love! It's such an amazing feeling! I got to say a rosary in front of Mother's Tomb and spend some time in prayers while Briana was at Orientation. Briana got assigned SHISHU BAHAVAN!!! Which I'm so excited for her and she's even more excited! Choir practice went well today I had to lead the first half of practice on my own because the sisters were still doing some orientational stuff. We went through more mass parts, ran through Blessed be your name again because there were new volunteers who showed up for practice, and than ran through As a deer and a song that was written by one of the sisters here at the Mother house that was dedicated to Mother Teresa, which will be our exit (send forth) song for mass next thursday. I'm really excited because there was a really big turn out for choir practice about 40+ volunteers and the songs are coming along VERY WELL! It's really rewarding to see the fruits of your work... although nothing is by my own will but by the grace of God that things can run as fluidly as they do. Anyways, today is a better day... I going to head back to the hotel and pray that i get a good night sleep because the goal is to be able to wake up at 5am for morning mass and get to work at Daya Dan. Well keep us in your prayers and especially for our health! Take care and God bless
Frist off... Everything did go well with picking Briana up from airport. Although Caitlin and I were completely exhausted because we woke up at 5 that morning for mass and didn't get back to the airport till pass midnight. Well, Briana came at perfect timing because it was pouring rain when she arrived. Lightening storms that lit up the sky and so the humidity wasn't so hard to bare for her first time in India. Although she said the first thing she noticed was the humidity... while here caitlin and I were sitting SOOO happy about how cool it was. haha. It's funny, because you really do become adjusted to the climate here. It's not as bad as it sounds. The temperture is usually in the upper 90's but it doesn't feel hot, it just feels extremely STICKY. For an example, you step out of the shower all nice and clean, and towel yourself down.... but you realize that you're still a little damped. Sooner later you realize it's not because you didn't dry yourself off well from your shower but rather because it's just really humid here and it's one of two things... your sweat or the condensation of the humidity.
Well when we got back to the hotel room, we ran into a few more encounters of cockroaches. Caitlin and I are getting more and more use to it now, remember back to our first encounter and how we had the funniest episode on how to kill it (you'll have to ask me to see the video of our first time trying to kill the cockroach, it's halrious) but now the extermination is a lot swift and quick. Anyways, when we got back to the hotel mine and caitlin's stomach was very unhappy! We woke up numberous times that night running to the bathroom. It's kind of ironic too because I remember telling caitlin during the day.... that she reached her week and half mark, which means that she's bound to have diaherra soon or get sick and surely enough. Well the next morning after a horrible upset stomach Caitlin woke up with a fever of 102.5 or something like so. When she first told me her temperature I thought she told me 105.2 and so Iwas freaking out all morning. I went to get her ice a resturant down the street and every hour I went to a different resturant asking for ice so her fever would go down. Honestly I was terrified! 105.2 is horrible! That's almost brain damaging! Typhoid is around 104.. something, and brain damage is 107. So when I thought she told me 105, I was thinking... give it an hour or so of ice and if it doesn't go down, we're rushing her to the hospital. Although Caitlin was walking around fine and making her phone calls fine, I just couldn't fathom 105 ' . I kept telling her, the fever will pass within a day or two, and you'll probably have bad diaherra for ... a week. I asked and checked to see if she got any bug bites but it was clear free. It's always right when there's a weather change that everyone gets sick. Because of how polutted the air is when it rains the first day or so it's just raining down all the crap onto you and you really have to keep your hair covered to not get sick and although we only walked from the taxi to the airport in the rain, that did the job to give us the fever. I also think the veg wrap we got for dinner before we picked up Briana gave us stomach problems because hours after eating it both of our stomach weren't feeling well. Anyways, I'm glad I was alright in the morning to be able to run around and get caitlin ice and bring her soup for lunch because right after lunch my fever kicked in. It hit 104.3' and I was miserable! I stomach was horrible and I had one of the worst fever i ever had in my life. Although it was as high as it was, i didn't think it was something to worry about yet unless if it didn't pass in a day or so. So I waited it off. I didn't have anything for dinner and laid in bed for the rest of the day. I felt so bad, because i wanted to be able to take care of caitlin because she was also sick and then I also wanted to show Briana around town because it was her first real day in Kolkata but I was a diaster! My head was extremely hot and although it was pretty cool outside for Kolkata (88') I was shivering cold and wanted to blanket up. I knew I shouldn't cover myself in blankets so I battled the shivers for hours and reminded caitlin that she shouldn't put covers over her otherwise her fever wouldn't lower. We took some IB profen and had a wet rag on our head here and there. When night came Caitlin's fever had pass and only her stomach was bothering her. As for me... it was still horrible. I don't know if anyone have seen me sick before, i know my parents and Sara have been there when I had a high fever but when I get sick.... I moan. hahah. Don't ask me why but I just do. I don't even do it conciously but it freaks the crap out of everyone that's around me and I did it all night last night. Caitlin kept getting up and checking on me and asking me if I want to go to the hospital. It's rather funny because I know it's just something I do and I can't really control it. I do it while I'm sleeping when I'm sick. "AHHHHHh OHHH AAWWWW" All night long. Caitlin said numberous times while I was moaning I threw in the words "THIS SUCKS... OAHHHA" hahaha which makes me laugh. I got up a couple times that night because of my stomach and I actually vomitted once last night but as bad as that sounds... it was the best thing that happend for me. Right after I did, I felt a thousand times better! Everything just cleared up, my fever went down and my stomach didn't feel as bad. It still feels like crap but it's so much better than what it was before. I had some toast this morning, bananan pancake for lunch and honey,bananan,cinnamon toast for dinner. It's getting better. I also picked up some meds for Caitlin and I at the pharmacy today for our stomach. I was determined to get better before 3 today because I wanted to walk Briana to the Mother House for her Orientation and also there was choir practice today at 4:30 and I couldn't let down the sisters and not show up. I'm the only one who teaches the songs to the volunteers and also am the only one who plays the guitar, or know the songs well enough to play the songs. So I was trying to get better before 3pm and a rosary or two did the trick. It's always such a great feeling being at the Mother House. It's just wide open and not all clustered and it's so clean! It's great! I always forget what the first time feeling is like but Briana reminded me again just as Caitlin did... it's a surreal feeling being here in Kolkata, India and then when you step into the Mother House its just this peaceful calming feeling. It's so comforting and you just feel so much love! It's such an amazing feeling! I got to say a rosary in front of Mother's Tomb and spend some time in prayers while Briana was at Orientation. Briana got assigned SHISHU BAHAVAN!!! Which I'm so excited for her and she's even more excited! Choir practice went well today I had to lead the first half of practice on my own because the sisters were still doing some orientational stuff. We went through more mass parts, ran through Blessed be your name again because there were new volunteers who showed up for practice, and than ran through As a deer and a song that was written by one of the sisters here at the Mother house that was dedicated to Mother Teresa, which will be our exit (send forth) song for mass next thursday. I'm really excited because there was a really big turn out for choir practice about 40+ volunteers and the songs are coming along VERY WELL! It's really rewarding to see the fruits of your work... although nothing is by my own will but by the grace of God that things can run as fluidly as they do. Anyways, today is a better day... I going to head back to the hotel and pray that i get a good night sleep because the goal is to be able to wake up at 5am for morning mass and get to work at Daya Dan. Well keep us in your prayers and especially for our health! Take care and God bless
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Reflect
There's nothing more exciting in my life than the joy I recieve from the Lord each day. So today's blog will be a reflection on the love and passion of Christ for us. Last night I was enlightened and filled with the love of Christ as I meditated on the life of our Lord, in front of the blessed sacrament in Adoration. The past few days, Caitlin and I have been lazy to get wake up early enough to make it to 6am mass at Mother House, and last night while praying in adoration God's love poured out abundantly upon me. It's nothing less or more than the love God's constantly has offered but my willingness to recieve and open my heart to the true presences of our Lord was different last night.
We prayed the Liturgy of the Hour, evening prayers with the Sisters and afterwards I had time to meditate up the life of Christ through the rosary. When I finished my mind began to spiral deeper and deeper into the Love of our Lord. I was thinking, in the old testement everyone believed, and didn't really question God's presences in the burning bush before Moses and many christians/jews still believe the truth of that passage, christians/jews believe in God speaking through the clouds (the voice of God) giving the commandments. We didn't have trouble believing this. I began to think... how, incredibly humble is our Beloved Lord, Jesus. God... the all powerful, omnipetient that created all things that are being now. Came now to be made creature-like; to become HUMAN! I couldn't grasp that for the longest time as I meditated upon the Eucharist. I couldn't think how that could compare to anything we possibly can imagine, it's like us creating an image, a painting, and choose to become made so lowly that what we are already (human) and rather become our creation (a painting). I couldn't fathom it. But yet our Lord, God didn't choose just to become any human... he choose to become a SERVANT of the world. To be amongst those of the poorest of the poor! He choose to be born in a mager, with straw beddings. Not a palace, house , not even a hostel or hotel. Our Beloved Savior choose to be amogst those that are most blessed, those of the poor. How many times have we heard in the gospel; to give to the poor? To be a servant? To LOVE!!!? Constantly Christ gives us the direction to serve and love those of the poor, through our love we show to those in need... His love will be given as a reward, filling our life with Joy. We will be judge on our love and never upon what we posses. We will be judged on how we love and who we love. Is it only those that love us that we return our love? What shall we ever gain if so? We're called towards a higher love and creature love, a love that demands nothing but an ourpouring of our self! A complete selfish love to our enemies, to families, neighbors and strangers among the poor. Today's Mother Teresa quote is "Intense Love does not measure, it just gives!" How often do we try to count the cost of giving? How often do we expect something in return? True love gives, and gives, and gives... we can't begin to love if we can't give without expectations. Our Lord, Jesus comes to us fully human and fully divine. He comes not as a king of Worldly possesions but a King of Love, a king of virtue, a king of the eternal kingdom that we all long for. Just TRY to imagine; Our Beloved Lord was being praised and glorified in the Heavens but CHOOSE to become human, to be among the poor, to be ridiculed, mocked, scurged, spit on, humiliated and crucified! By the same world He choose to come down upon. By the same world He created! By the same world, he came to show ULITMATE LOVE! And this is the reward he was given, by the world? Our sinfulness keeps us tied to worldly possesions. We seek to be praised, to be honored, to be loved, to be set above others in all the good we do. We (meaning I above all) lack the humility that God came to show the example for us to imitate. To love unselfishly. I continued to meditate upon this throughout adoration and it lead me to something profound. Although it's so unheard of, and so amazing that God would choose to become human... that's something almost all christians believe. But what do we here in the Gospel numberous times! In the old testement, it talks about the passover, and the sacrifice of the perfect lamb! It talks about the sacrifice and offering of Issac by Abraham. We are told Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophets, He FULFILLS the old testement. How is that God becomes the perfect lamb, and finish the sacrifice that Abraham was to offer? In the gospel of John, Jesus says NUMBEROUSLY "I am the bread of life!" Over and over, he tells us we must eat of this bread of life to have eternal life. Later on at the Last Supper he tells us again, This is my body given up for you as he took the bread and broke it... "do this in rememberance of me" He finishes the last cup of the passover as he hangs crucified on the cross and the guard gives him wine and vineger to drinks... then "it is consumated/It is finished" he gives himself totally to his bride, the CHURCH. I was profoundly strucked by the numberous times this initiation was done throughout the Bible. God tells us and gives us himself in the Eucharist. If we don't have the Eucharist apart of our lives now... his words in John "whoever eat of this will inherit eternal life" would be cut off for every generation after Christ's death. But no,... he leaves us his holy presences in the Eucharist. He takes form fully with all divinity in a, once again humbling form, of Bread and wine. As he did times before in the form of the voice in the cloud, as the burning bush, and as Human. Emmanuel (God with us), this phrase, this title of our Lord remains... God is STILL with us, and it BLEW MY MIND when I thought about it yesterday. You can ask Caitlin... because for an hour long I stared SMILING contagiously at the Eucharist. God is with us now and forever, through his insituation of the Eucharist. Just try to think about this... the same liturgy of the hour I was praying that evening is being prayed throughout the world! The same readings and gospel readings of the mass everyday that I hear is being said EXACTLY the same throughout the world. Same reading, that's insane! But here's the crazier part, that everytime a mass is being celebrated... heaven an Earth unites. It's not by the power of the priest for himself that transubstansiation occurs but rather by his offering of self to become a channel for Christ to work through him HEAVEN and EARTH is united. Think about this now... how many mass is being said every day, throughout the world! EVERY HOUR.... there's a mass being celebrated which means every moment of our life heaven and earth is united. Christ awaits us in the tabernacle throughout the world and God is with us, Emmanuel! I began to think ... right now is around 7pm my time and I'm adoring and praising God before the Eucharist, I started to think... "I know Fr. Jim and Fr. Qui Tac starts their morning with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament" "They probably are in front of the blessed Sacrament either right now (6:30am) or not long after or before" I started thinking how often do Caitlin and I get to share the celebration of the Eucharist at Mass and in Adoration and how often we must be united with our love ones at home that may be celebrating our Lord at the exact time. The word catholic means universal and how more true has it become for me as I experienced the communion of the east and the west being tied through the Blessed Sacrament.
On my walk home with Caitlin she immediately asked me... "you have to tell me why are you so joyful, you were smiling the whole time in adoration". And seriously I was, my joy even brought tears to my eyes. As I told her she only confirmed the beauty of the presences and offering that the lord give us. We started thinking and felt bad how we get so lazy to sleep in and miss daily mass... but God still awaits us. Giving us endless opportunites. He gives us options of mass at a different time, but yet we still missed it... and finally adoration. And when we were before Him, God's love welcomed us fully... without reserve. Without disapointment of the time we were to lazy to get out of bed, and asks of us for only one hour to talk to Him, to thank, pray, and ask! How beautiful. How beautiful!
After last night, Caitlin and I made sure we got up this morning for mass! It was hard... but we did it. We got to mass and when I walked upstairs towards the chapel Sr. Karina stopped me and said... Can you go back there and get dressed up to altar serve. "Oh, buddy.... altar serve?" I thought to myself. I've done it numberous times in states but I've seen how they altar serve here and it's just SOOOO beautiful and reverant. I didn't think I was worthy enough to do so. I needed to talk to a priest before mass to get direction on what I'm suppose to do, I didn't want to mess up! Today mass was special... there was over 130 novist and SOOOOO many MC sisters! We had 5 male altar servers, I was the inscent barrier, and we had two priest to celebrate the mass. To my suprise the reading today talked about Moses and the burning bush and it immediately filled me with Joy! The priest gave one of the most AMAZING homilee! Everyone was in awe! I was on the verge of tears. He gave one of the most beautiful compliments to the MC sisters... telling them that they are the closest things he has seen on earth to Jesus, by their living example, by their congregational rules, lifestyle, words they speak and their actions, truly imitate Jesus. He challenged everyone in the chapel saying that this is where saints are made, we are all called to be missionaries of charity whether it's religious or not. Our life must be made to become a mission and the mission is to give, love, and serve! Their is one example of a Blessed women that opened her self so fully to the Love of Christ where she conceived in her heart and in her womb Christ's Love.... and how did she respond? She went with great haste! We too are suppose to go with haste when Christ's love is with us! We must put our love into action! Hurry, hurry, hurry... he said. There is much to be done.
After mass I joined the volunteers downstairs and as I was walking downstairs the Novist were in the courtyard... all 100+ novist and they began to sing. A MC sister's feast day was today and she turned 91!!! She was blessed to work alongside Mother and after the Novist sang to her she gave the most beautiful speech. Telling us that we are to always remain silent until God chooses to use us. She used the example... that Jesus, only does what the Father tells him... we to are suppose to only speak words of Love, and act as the Father tells us. Let everything we do only become a reflection of Christ to the world! Breakfast today was even special, we had Mango JAM for our bread, and coffee. usually it was only bananan, bread and chai, but today we got all that plus jam and coffee and biscuts! It was great... although I didn't get any breakfast because I waited till the end and it was all gone. I had a different excitement and joy! I recieved a letter from Sara this morning that was in the Missionaries of Charities mailbox! I couldn't stop smiling and was sooo anxious to read it but didn't until everybody left the volunteer room. And as soon as they did I rushed over to Mother's Tomb to read... and truly Sara, you really do make me smile and it brought SOOO much comfort! So thank you gal! I miss you. (side note: A special hi from Caitlin to Ricky, She wants you to know you're loved.... she thinks about you constantly and knows you read this blog every day, so Hi! Pray for us).
Well, after everyone left to their first session, I stayed behind. I spent some time at mother's tomb and read my letter, than I helped Sister mop the volunteer's room, and sister asked me specfically to stay behind today because she wanted me to help with music for volunteer day next thursday. While mopping the floor the Sisters were so funny to be with. They were messing around with Joseph (it was his last day and he's been here for MONTHS!) but they were telling him they're stealing him and won't let him go, then Sr. Karnia did some werid but halrious kungfu moves, then locked Joseph in between the big main garage door that all the volunteer goes out of in the morning, and a gate on the inside. She closed him in and locked him. She took some pictures and it was just absolutely halrious to see Sr. Druscilla and Sr. Karina laugh so much. Everyone in the room was laughing, which was only 5 other volunteer and joesph but it was just so joyful! When all the other volunteers left Sr. Druscilla and Sr. Karina and I went over music. We spent all morning going through music! It was so great to hear the Sisters sing with me! We went through many Taize music and then music for mass. Than I was able to play sister one of the song I wrote that was inspired by this mission trip called Give till it Hurts... and it talks about "I thirst" which the sisters just absolutely love and tried to tell me I need to play it for mass, although I told them it's too upbeat and contempary, than they told me I need to play it for volunteer day... and it's something I can't keep to myself. She said it's God's song... you must share! hahaha! So, we'll see what's up. But they truly enjoyed it which made me happy! Well, I have to head back to the mother house at 3:30 to help lead choir practice. I'm also need to catch lunch sometime and than afterwards dinner and pick BRIANNA UP at the airport tonight! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... Caitlin and I are helping out with volunteer day (next thursday) and as you figured, I'm helping with mass music and taize and probably with music for the skit but I'm excited because Caitlin is doing artistic/poetic reading!!!! So that's exciting. We're meeting every day from now till next thursday the 26 of July. So it's great because it keeps us busy in the afternoon!
Well, for lunch Caitlin and I went over to New Market to Dominos Pizza... yes, it's kind of sad that we're here in Kolkata India but we're still going to Dominos but... seriously if you had Rice, Dal, and Roti or Nan everyday you'll switch it up at least one meal everyday and treat yourself! Trust me...you'd get bored although you say you won't. I had Rice, Dal or Curry all my first week thinking that this is amazing.... soon after, it just tastes the same and you want to switch things up! Anyways, we split a large pizza at Dominos and I wanted her to take give her name for the ticket stub this time since I was Mr Yuant last time I wanted to see if they'd get Caitlin right. When our receite came out ... Ms. Katen ordered a bbq chicken large pizza! hahaha.... Ms Katen! I love it! because now she can't just make fun of me for Mr Yuant... Ms Katen. I wonder what they'll call Brianna... we'll wait and see. It's a new game, cheap entertainment.... actually it's a price of a meal. Large pizza here is about... 4 dollars, which is more expensive than any other meal we order. ( side note: I'm sitting here next to Caitlin at the internet cafe and she just found out she got called for Jury Duty for the beginning of August, hahahaha.... I'm really sure she's very disapointed that'll she'll miss that, but I thought that was funny enough to share) Anyways back to the today. We had to get back to the Mother house by 4 because I was leading choir practice for Thursday's mass, Volunteer's day mass, which is apparently a big deal since Sr. Karina says it happens only once a year. Although i heard that before it was every month, but i guess they switched things up. Anyways, I have a friend Mamath, the rickshaw runner, and Caitlin and I always wanted to take a running rickshaw not nessesarily because we're lazy although that does play a big part, but after visit the village and hearing that the grandma with 2 children that are motherless and the Father is the only provider and he's a Rickshaw Driver/runner... i just realized that this is how they make a living. This is for some the ONLY source of Income. I think I'm more bothered by the beggers because they beg from everyday and don't try to improve their life while they have perfect english or are still in their prime, and when they recieve they're expecting it or as of today... the lady just grabbed my bottle and walked away. No thanks, no nothing.. even when I stop and go to a stand to buy some food and give it... there's not much thanks it's just a turn and walk away or a "is this it" face. I don't expect anything in return, I just want to know that I'm not making it worst for them and often I think that I am when I see how the don't care about what is given. On the other hand, the rickshaw driver begs for someone to use their service and when I came up to mamath today he had the biggest smile on his face! Even while he was running he was like... Oh you're such a good friend! usually a rickshaw to the mother house should cost about 40 Rps,... maybe 60 with 2 people but that's even generous. Well, Caitlin and I paid him 80 Rps and he had the greatest smile. It's was a fun ride, I felt weird and I really don't like taking a rickshaw like that because I always want to be in solidtary with the people or with the poor in India but it made me happy knowing that he was greatful and happy that I was using his service. I recorded it all on video! So you'll get to meet my friend mamath and also get to see the street that I walk every morning pass the slaughter house, trash pile, and muslim street, towards Mother House!
Choir practice today was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! i couldn't believe it! It was weird, I was leading the group for singing and creating harmonies for the songs. It was a little more challenging because I not only had to teach the notes, melodies, or harmonies to the volunteers but many of the volunteers where from different countries! France, Spain, Korea, Japan, ... etc. And several were challenged in the pernuctiation of certain words so I had to go through the lyrics. Today we only worked SOME of the mass parts. Our Entrance song for the mass is Blessed Be Your Name! And we spent over an hour practicing it. It sounds amazing!!! I was sooo proud of everyone. I just wish I could show everyone at home at how amazing the volunteers are! When we first started singing this song nobody even knew the melody and by the end of the hour they were singing with such great spirit! I'm in awe! I taught them other parts of the mass; Such as the Holy, holy, holy, Memorial Acclamation, Amen, and Lamb of God. IT sounds amazing! Anyways the Sisters are REALLY excited for the Holy Holy Holy. I think we're using the music from Mass of Creation... but I'm not sure if I'm right, but anyways... Sr. told me that throughout the whole time here they have only met one other person who could play the guitar part for that song and so they were sooo excited taht I could lead this for the mass. Also for the pass 2 years during Volunteer Day they've sang Lord I Lift Your Name on High for the entrance song and now they're really happy that they get to change it up and use Blessed be Your Name! I'm just really happy that I can be of help and use and that helping with Praise and Worship up in Bellingham and a little when I was at Life Teen is really paying off. Everything is just going stellar today! Truly we are all blessed! Through Christ we are made worthy and seriously it's nothing through our own powers or will do we do to deserve such grace and love but everything that God is makes it possible for us for us to recieve such love sooo abundantly! God calls out to us everyday and awaits us. In prayers, at the celebration of the Mass, in Adoration, and in service of charity to others He awaits to encounter our love for him and to give His love back to us. Make haste and go and spread the Love of Christ throughout the word! I love you all.
We prayed the Liturgy of the Hour, evening prayers with the Sisters and afterwards I had time to meditate up the life of Christ through the rosary. When I finished my mind began to spiral deeper and deeper into the Love of our Lord. I was thinking, in the old testement everyone believed, and didn't really question God's presences in the burning bush before Moses and many christians/jews still believe the truth of that passage, christians/jews believe in God speaking through the clouds (the voice of God) giving the commandments. We didn't have trouble believing this. I began to think... how, incredibly humble is our Beloved Lord, Jesus. God... the all powerful, omnipetient that created all things that are being now. Came now to be made creature-like; to become HUMAN! I couldn't grasp that for the longest time as I meditated upon the Eucharist. I couldn't think how that could compare to anything we possibly can imagine, it's like us creating an image, a painting, and choose to become made so lowly that what we are already (human) and rather become our creation (a painting). I couldn't fathom it. But yet our Lord, God didn't choose just to become any human... he choose to become a SERVANT of the world. To be amongst those of the poorest of the poor! He choose to be born in a mager, with straw beddings. Not a palace, house , not even a hostel or hotel. Our Beloved Savior choose to be amogst those that are most blessed, those of the poor. How many times have we heard in the gospel; to give to the poor? To be a servant? To LOVE!!!? Constantly Christ gives us the direction to serve and love those of the poor, through our love we show to those in need... His love will be given as a reward, filling our life with Joy. We will be judge on our love and never upon what we posses. We will be judged on how we love and who we love. Is it only those that love us that we return our love? What shall we ever gain if so? We're called towards a higher love and creature love, a love that demands nothing but an ourpouring of our self! A complete selfish love to our enemies, to families, neighbors and strangers among the poor. Today's Mother Teresa quote is "Intense Love does not measure, it just gives!" How often do we try to count the cost of giving? How often do we expect something in return? True love gives, and gives, and gives... we can't begin to love if we can't give without expectations. Our Lord, Jesus comes to us fully human and fully divine. He comes not as a king of Worldly possesions but a King of Love, a king of virtue, a king of the eternal kingdom that we all long for. Just TRY to imagine; Our Beloved Lord was being praised and glorified in the Heavens but CHOOSE to become human, to be among the poor, to be ridiculed, mocked, scurged, spit on, humiliated and crucified! By the same world He choose to come down upon. By the same world He created! By the same world, he came to show ULITMATE LOVE! And this is the reward he was given, by the world? Our sinfulness keeps us tied to worldly possesions. We seek to be praised, to be honored, to be loved, to be set above others in all the good we do. We (meaning I above all) lack the humility that God came to show the example for us to imitate. To love unselfishly. I continued to meditate upon this throughout adoration and it lead me to something profound. Although it's so unheard of, and so amazing that God would choose to become human... that's something almost all christians believe. But what do we here in the Gospel numberous times! In the old testement, it talks about the passover, and the sacrifice of the perfect lamb! It talks about the sacrifice and offering of Issac by Abraham. We are told Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophets, He FULFILLS the old testement. How is that God becomes the perfect lamb, and finish the sacrifice that Abraham was to offer? In the gospel of John, Jesus says NUMBEROUSLY "I am the bread of life!" Over and over, he tells us we must eat of this bread of life to have eternal life. Later on at the Last Supper he tells us again, This is my body given up for you as he took the bread and broke it... "do this in rememberance of me" He finishes the last cup of the passover as he hangs crucified on the cross and the guard gives him wine and vineger to drinks... then "it is consumated/It is finished" he gives himself totally to his bride, the CHURCH. I was profoundly strucked by the numberous times this initiation was done throughout the Bible. God tells us and gives us himself in the Eucharist. If we don't have the Eucharist apart of our lives now... his words in John "whoever eat of this will inherit eternal life" would be cut off for every generation after Christ's death. But no,... he leaves us his holy presences in the Eucharist. He takes form fully with all divinity in a, once again humbling form, of Bread and wine. As he did times before in the form of the voice in the cloud, as the burning bush, and as Human. Emmanuel (God with us), this phrase, this title of our Lord remains... God is STILL with us, and it BLEW MY MIND when I thought about it yesterday. You can ask Caitlin... because for an hour long I stared SMILING contagiously at the Eucharist. God is with us now and forever, through his insituation of the Eucharist. Just try to think about this... the same liturgy of the hour I was praying that evening is being prayed throughout the world! The same readings and gospel readings of the mass everyday that I hear is being said EXACTLY the same throughout the world. Same reading, that's insane! But here's the crazier part, that everytime a mass is being celebrated... heaven an Earth unites. It's not by the power of the priest for himself that transubstansiation occurs but rather by his offering of self to become a channel for Christ to work through him HEAVEN and EARTH is united. Think about this now... how many mass is being said every day, throughout the world! EVERY HOUR.... there's a mass being celebrated which means every moment of our life heaven and earth is united. Christ awaits us in the tabernacle throughout the world and God is with us, Emmanuel! I began to think ... right now is around 7pm my time and I'm adoring and praising God before the Eucharist, I started to think... "I know Fr. Jim and Fr. Qui Tac starts their morning with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament" "They probably are in front of the blessed Sacrament either right now (6:30am) or not long after or before" I started thinking how often do Caitlin and I get to share the celebration of the Eucharist at Mass and in Adoration and how often we must be united with our love ones at home that may be celebrating our Lord at the exact time. The word catholic means universal and how more true has it become for me as I experienced the communion of the east and the west being tied through the Blessed Sacrament.
On my walk home with Caitlin she immediately asked me... "you have to tell me why are you so joyful, you were smiling the whole time in adoration". And seriously I was, my joy even brought tears to my eyes. As I told her she only confirmed the beauty of the presences and offering that the lord give us. We started thinking and felt bad how we get so lazy to sleep in and miss daily mass... but God still awaits us. Giving us endless opportunites. He gives us options of mass at a different time, but yet we still missed it... and finally adoration. And when we were before Him, God's love welcomed us fully... without reserve. Without disapointment of the time we were to lazy to get out of bed, and asks of us for only one hour to talk to Him, to thank, pray, and ask! How beautiful. How beautiful!
After last night, Caitlin and I made sure we got up this morning for mass! It was hard... but we did it. We got to mass and when I walked upstairs towards the chapel Sr. Karina stopped me and said... Can you go back there and get dressed up to altar serve. "Oh, buddy.... altar serve?" I thought to myself. I've done it numberous times in states but I've seen how they altar serve here and it's just SOOOO beautiful and reverant. I didn't think I was worthy enough to do so. I needed to talk to a priest before mass to get direction on what I'm suppose to do, I didn't want to mess up! Today mass was special... there was over 130 novist and SOOOOO many MC sisters! We had 5 male altar servers, I was the inscent barrier, and we had two priest to celebrate the mass. To my suprise the reading today talked about Moses and the burning bush and it immediately filled me with Joy! The priest gave one of the most AMAZING homilee! Everyone was in awe! I was on the verge of tears. He gave one of the most beautiful compliments to the MC sisters... telling them that they are the closest things he has seen on earth to Jesus, by their living example, by their congregational rules, lifestyle, words they speak and their actions, truly imitate Jesus. He challenged everyone in the chapel saying that this is where saints are made, we are all called to be missionaries of charity whether it's religious or not. Our life must be made to become a mission and the mission is to give, love, and serve! Their is one example of a Blessed women that opened her self so fully to the Love of Christ where she conceived in her heart and in her womb Christ's Love.... and how did she respond? She went with great haste! We too are suppose to go with haste when Christ's love is with us! We must put our love into action! Hurry, hurry, hurry... he said. There is much to be done.
After mass I joined the volunteers downstairs and as I was walking downstairs the Novist were in the courtyard... all 100+ novist and they began to sing. A MC sister's feast day was today and she turned 91!!! She was blessed to work alongside Mother and after the Novist sang to her she gave the most beautiful speech. Telling us that we are to always remain silent until God chooses to use us. She used the example... that Jesus, only does what the Father tells him... we to are suppose to only speak words of Love, and act as the Father tells us. Let everything we do only become a reflection of Christ to the world! Breakfast today was even special, we had Mango JAM for our bread, and coffee. usually it was only bananan, bread and chai, but today we got all that plus jam and coffee and biscuts! It was great... although I didn't get any breakfast because I waited till the end and it was all gone. I had a different excitement and joy! I recieved a letter from Sara this morning that was in the Missionaries of Charities mailbox! I couldn't stop smiling and was sooo anxious to read it but didn't until everybody left the volunteer room. And as soon as they did I rushed over to Mother's Tomb to read... and truly Sara, you really do make me smile and it brought SOOO much comfort! So thank you gal! I miss you. (side note: A special hi from Caitlin to Ricky, She wants you to know you're loved.... she thinks about you constantly and knows you read this blog every day, so Hi! Pray for us).
Well, after everyone left to their first session, I stayed behind. I spent some time at mother's tomb and read my letter, than I helped Sister mop the volunteer's room, and sister asked me specfically to stay behind today because she wanted me to help with music for volunteer day next thursday. While mopping the floor the Sisters were so funny to be with. They were messing around with Joseph (it was his last day and he's been here for MONTHS!) but they were telling him they're stealing him and won't let him go, then Sr. Karnia did some werid but halrious kungfu moves, then locked Joseph in between the big main garage door that all the volunteer goes out of in the morning, and a gate on the inside. She closed him in and locked him. She took some pictures and it was just absolutely halrious to see Sr. Druscilla and Sr. Karina laugh so much. Everyone in the room was laughing, which was only 5 other volunteer and joesph but it was just so joyful! When all the other volunteers left Sr. Druscilla and Sr. Karina and I went over music. We spent all morning going through music! It was so great to hear the Sisters sing with me! We went through many Taize music and then music for mass. Than I was able to play sister one of the song I wrote that was inspired by this mission trip called Give till it Hurts... and it talks about "I thirst" which the sisters just absolutely love and tried to tell me I need to play it for mass, although I told them it's too upbeat and contempary, than they told me I need to play it for volunteer day... and it's something I can't keep to myself. She said it's God's song... you must share! hahaha! So, we'll see what's up. But they truly enjoyed it which made me happy! Well, I have to head back to the mother house at 3:30 to help lead choir practice. I'm also need to catch lunch sometime and than afterwards dinner and pick BRIANNA UP at the airport tonight! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... Caitlin and I are helping out with volunteer day (next thursday) and as you figured, I'm helping with mass music and taize and probably with music for the skit but I'm excited because Caitlin is doing artistic/poetic reading!!!! So that's exciting. We're meeting every day from now till next thursday the 26 of July. So it's great because it keeps us busy in the afternoon!
Well, for lunch Caitlin and I went over to New Market to Dominos Pizza... yes, it's kind of sad that we're here in Kolkata India but we're still going to Dominos but... seriously if you had Rice, Dal, and Roti or Nan everyday you'll switch it up at least one meal everyday and treat yourself! Trust me...you'd get bored although you say you won't. I had Rice, Dal or Curry all my first week thinking that this is amazing.... soon after, it just tastes the same and you want to switch things up! Anyways, we split a large pizza at Dominos and I wanted her to take give her name for the ticket stub this time since I was Mr Yuant last time I wanted to see if they'd get Caitlin right. When our receite came out ... Ms. Katen ordered a bbq chicken large pizza! hahaha.... Ms Katen! I love it! because now she can't just make fun of me for Mr Yuant... Ms Katen. I wonder what they'll call Brianna... we'll wait and see. It's a new game, cheap entertainment.... actually it's a price of a meal. Large pizza here is about... 4 dollars, which is more expensive than any other meal we order. ( side note: I'm sitting here next to Caitlin at the internet cafe and she just found out she got called for Jury Duty for the beginning of August, hahahaha.... I'm really sure she's very disapointed that'll she'll miss that, but I thought that was funny enough to share) Anyways back to the today. We had to get back to the Mother house by 4 because I was leading choir practice for Thursday's mass, Volunteer's day mass, which is apparently a big deal since Sr. Karina says it happens only once a year. Although i heard that before it was every month, but i guess they switched things up. Anyways, I have a friend Mamath, the rickshaw runner, and Caitlin and I always wanted to take a running rickshaw not nessesarily because we're lazy although that does play a big part, but after visit the village and hearing that the grandma with 2 children that are motherless and the Father is the only provider and he's a Rickshaw Driver/runner... i just realized that this is how they make a living. This is for some the ONLY source of Income. I think I'm more bothered by the beggers because they beg from everyday and don't try to improve their life while they have perfect english or are still in their prime, and when they recieve they're expecting it or as of today... the lady just grabbed my bottle and walked away. No thanks, no nothing.. even when I stop and go to a stand to buy some food and give it... there's not much thanks it's just a turn and walk away or a "is this it" face. I don't expect anything in return, I just want to know that I'm not making it worst for them and often I think that I am when I see how the don't care about what is given. On the other hand, the rickshaw driver begs for someone to use their service and when I came up to mamath today he had the biggest smile on his face! Even while he was running he was like... Oh you're such a good friend! usually a rickshaw to the mother house should cost about 40 Rps,... maybe 60 with 2 people but that's even generous. Well, Caitlin and I paid him 80 Rps and he had the greatest smile. It's was a fun ride, I felt weird and I really don't like taking a rickshaw like that because I always want to be in solidtary with the people or with the poor in India but it made me happy knowing that he was greatful and happy that I was using his service. I recorded it all on video! So you'll get to meet my friend mamath and also get to see the street that I walk every morning pass the slaughter house, trash pile, and muslim street, towards Mother House!
Choir practice today was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! i couldn't believe it! It was weird, I was leading the group for singing and creating harmonies for the songs. It was a little more challenging because I not only had to teach the notes, melodies, or harmonies to the volunteers but many of the volunteers where from different countries! France, Spain, Korea, Japan, ... etc. And several were challenged in the pernuctiation of certain words so I had to go through the lyrics. Today we only worked SOME of the mass parts. Our Entrance song for the mass is Blessed Be Your Name! And we spent over an hour practicing it. It sounds amazing!!! I was sooo proud of everyone. I just wish I could show everyone at home at how amazing the volunteers are! When we first started singing this song nobody even knew the melody and by the end of the hour they were singing with such great spirit! I'm in awe! I taught them other parts of the mass; Such as the Holy, holy, holy, Memorial Acclamation, Amen, and Lamb of God. IT sounds amazing! Anyways the Sisters are REALLY excited for the Holy Holy Holy. I think we're using the music from Mass of Creation... but I'm not sure if I'm right, but anyways... Sr. told me that throughout the whole time here they have only met one other person who could play the guitar part for that song and so they were sooo excited taht I could lead this for the mass. Also for the pass 2 years during Volunteer Day they've sang Lord I Lift Your Name on High for the entrance song and now they're really happy that they get to change it up and use Blessed be Your Name! I'm just really happy that I can be of help and use and that helping with Praise and Worship up in Bellingham and a little when I was at Life Teen is really paying off. Everything is just going stellar today! Truly we are all blessed! Through Christ we are made worthy and seriously it's nothing through our own powers or will do we do to deserve such grace and love but everything that God is makes it possible for us for us to recieve such love sooo abundantly! God calls out to us everyday and awaits us. In prayers, at the celebration of the Mass, in Adoration, and in service of charity to others He awaits to encounter our love for him and to give His love back to us. Make haste and go and spread the Love of Christ throughout the word! I love you all.
Comfortable in the classroom
Oh, i wish everyone was here to see the craziest eposiode of COCKROACHES last night! It was truly insane! Caitlin walked into the bathroom and there was a fatty cockroach no less than 2 inches and a baby cockroach. She flipped... it was actually pretty funny. I made her suck it up and video record the whole scene while I killed it, which was a funny scene in and of itself. We were the most pathetic, incompetient two terminators ever! I caught it in a bucket and was going to drown it in water but it crawled straight out of the bucket! These things can crawl vertically! It's insane. than it smashed it with a piece of cardboard and started stomping on it but someone it escaped and was just hiding in the corner watching me just on a cardboard. It was pretty pathetic but sooo funny, because we were screaming in the bathroom everytime we would see it run across the bathroom floor. I killed the baby cockroach no problem, it was the mama cockroach that was freak'n grody. They run SOOOO FAST! it's incredible. Well, anyways if you want to be entertained and get a laugh be sure to remind me to show you a video of us killing the cockroach in the bathroom. When the job was finally finished i flushed the cockroach down the toliet and rinsed out the whole bathroom. While Caitlin was in the shower, i remember seeing something run across our bedroom floor seconds before she freaked out about the 2 cockroaches in the bathroom, so i had to check our room before she came out otherwise she'd freak out even more. Believe it or not, there was a huge cockroach under her bed... i recorded it myself as I killed it. I still haven't told her and I don't think it'd be fruitful to tell her anytime now when she's in India but i can't wait to show her the video of this cockroach. When we woke up this morning Caitlin told me she saw a baby cockroach that snuck through our door.... and sure enough there was one. We were too tired to care about anything and I just smacked it with my sandal and went back to bed. We both sort of forgot about it until we confirmed that it wasn't a dream and there was one this morning. Well, that was the excitment of last night.
Today I worked with Mongol and we worked mainly on words. I gave him 18 words in a word box and created him fill in the blanks and a crossword puzzle. He really enjoyed the cross word puzzle and he learned some new words he never unstood before. I also taught him how seasons were created and the concept of "degree". And he also learned what a valley is. I finally feel as if teaching is something I'm actually good at. Mongol really respected me and was really happy about what he was learning, and most of the teachers here don't try to change things up too much because they want the student to understand it and fully grasp it but, i don't want to change things either I just want to fully explain it and also challegne the student. It's also really hard for when i feel as if sometimes the teachers are teaching the students the wrong thing... I'm the only teacher that is speaking English. The other teachers are from France and Austria. There's no problem with that but they teach the kids to pernounce the words incorrectly and I would often have to correct them, which kind of worries me, about long term english teachers. Usually the teachers would point out something on the map ... the 7 continents and Mongol would have to name them, but on the map there are already the labels and Mongol can read pretty well. So I drew out the map on the whiteboard and taught him 16 countries and oceans; and labeled them 1 through 16. On his paper I numbered it 1- 16 and gave him a word box of all the 16 countries and oceans I have listed in no particular order and he is suppose to name the numbers. He really enjoyed the activites and we ran through it once but wasn't able to fully do the activity because when I finally finishing making the activity it was Music class time. Mongol didn't want to leave to music class, he wanted to stay and learn more about geography with me. It made me feel really happy. He was enjoying what he was learning and it was something new that he already was familarized with but still it was a bit more challenging.
Today I saw that Amel one of the french teacher was using my lesson for Nisha, the matching the color lesson, that was drawn out as a coloring page of a house and had labels of colors for each items that needed to be colored in. Nisha really enjoyed it and love trying to match the colors and she stayed within the lines! Amel complimented me on the idea of this rather than just filling in a circle with the matching color. It made me feel happy because all the activities were still the same activities as what the students had to do but it was more fun for them and they really enjoyed doing it and also it challenged them to do something beyond what they were doing before. I was really happy at the end of class and felt as if I was helping the students.
Music class was great like always, I don't know what to tell you about it that I haven't but it just really makes me happy to see all the kids so excited and so filled with joy. I wish i can video record music class one day. They're so beautiful. Well, it's boarding time for Caitlin and I to get going... we're going to make it over towards the Mother House and see what there is to be done... maybe catheism or maybe something else, either way we're staying for adoration! It'll be great. It feels like I haven't been to the Mother House in forever so it'll be nice to pray in front of Mother's Tomb and be in adoration again! Anyways, Brianna comes tomorrow night and ... we're all getting excited! YAY!
Today I worked with Mongol and we worked mainly on words. I gave him 18 words in a word box and created him fill in the blanks and a crossword puzzle. He really enjoyed the cross word puzzle and he learned some new words he never unstood before. I also taught him how seasons were created and the concept of "degree". And he also learned what a valley is. I finally feel as if teaching is something I'm actually good at. Mongol really respected me and was really happy about what he was learning, and most of the teachers here don't try to change things up too much because they want the student to understand it and fully grasp it but, i don't want to change things either I just want to fully explain it and also challegne the student. It's also really hard for when i feel as if sometimes the teachers are teaching the students the wrong thing... I'm the only teacher that is speaking English. The other teachers are from France and Austria. There's no problem with that but they teach the kids to pernounce the words incorrectly and I would often have to correct them, which kind of worries me, about long term english teachers. Usually the teachers would point out something on the map ... the 7 continents and Mongol would have to name them, but on the map there are already the labels and Mongol can read pretty well. So I drew out the map on the whiteboard and taught him 16 countries and oceans; and labeled them 1 through 16. On his paper I numbered it 1- 16 and gave him a word box of all the 16 countries and oceans I have listed in no particular order and he is suppose to name the numbers. He really enjoyed the activites and we ran through it once but wasn't able to fully do the activity because when I finally finishing making the activity it was Music class time. Mongol didn't want to leave to music class, he wanted to stay and learn more about geography with me. It made me feel really happy. He was enjoying what he was learning and it was something new that he already was familarized with but still it was a bit more challenging.
Today I saw that Amel one of the french teacher was using my lesson for Nisha, the matching the color lesson, that was drawn out as a coloring page of a house and had labels of colors for each items that needed to be colored in. Nisha really enjoyed it and love trying to match the colors and she stayed within the lines! Amel complimented me on the idea of this rather than just filling in a circle with the matching color. It made me feel happy because all the activities were still the same activities as what the students had to do but it was more fun for them and they really enjoyed doing it and also it challenged them to do something beyond what they were doing before. I was really happy at the end of class and felt as if I was helping the students.
Music class was great like always, I don't know what to tell you about it that I haven't but it just really makes me happy to see all the kids so excited and so filled with joy. I wish i can video record music class one day. They're so beautiful. Well, it's boarding time for Caitlin and I to get going... we're going to make it over towards the Mother House and see what there is to be done... maybe catheism or maybe something else, either way we're staying for adoration! It'll be great. It feels like I haven't been to the Mother House in forever so it'll be nice to pray in front of Mother's Tomb and be in adoration again! Anyways, Brianna comes tomorrow night and ... we're all getting excited! YAY!
Monday, July 16, 2007
N.I.S.H.A
Last night was wonderful. Early in the evening Caitlin was thinking a lot of home and of course I kind of got home sick too, missing love ones from home. So we went onto the roof of Hotel Maria and just talked, and it began to lightly rain! It felt amazing! Being here you never feel clean but when the rain comes... it feels so great! You don't feel sticky and your room is cooler! Caitlin and I were both talking... and something we truly need in our room is some glad plug in because it STINKS! that or a small fan because our room is hotter than outside and it sucks when we come home and walk into a warmer room! Anyways, Caitlin and I read the Sunday's reading again last night for some prayer time we did on the roof since we didn't understand it when it was said in Bangali at Nabo Jibon yesterday. The gospel reading spoke so directly towards us that day. It was about the good samaritans! Before reading, we said a prayer asking for God to direct us on our mission and truly the gospel yesterday reminded us why we were there. We also read 2 chapters out of The Immitation of Christ that really related to our situation and did the litany of Humility. It was a wonderful prayer session that we did on the roof of Hotel Maria and I really believe that we'll have more to come.
Afterwards, I went over to Hotel Paragon and introduced Caitlin to some friends and invited some people out to have dinner with us, and a group of 4 others came along and we sat in jojo's and talked about the craziness of kolkata. Which made Caitlin and I feel not so alone with feeling lost or homesick sometimes. Which I believe was reassuring for Caitlin to hear, that other volunteers felt stressed on the streets here or sad about their love ones. I'm excited because Brianna comes in two days and I'm sure Caitlin can relay how she felt the first week towards Brianna better than i can since now It's my fourth week or so. Which actually blows my mind. I really don't even know how long I've been here. It still feels like the first week but when I think of home it feels like it's been months since i've been here. So I try to look at things from just the schedule of the day and what I encounter during the day.
Later that night we went to my friend Ace's hotel room at the Paragon. Ace has been here in Kolkata for a year and a half. He cooks his own meal every day and works morning and afternoon shifts. He's pretty impressive. Anyways, he has a laptop with movies on it and so Caitlin and I bought some Vanilla Ice cream and pepsi and made floats and watched "the Mask!" it was wonderful and so nice to relax! It started to rain heavily and lightening lit up the night periodically.
Today we woke up and went to Fresh and Juicy for breakfast. We've been pretty bad about making it to Mother House the past few days and it's our goal to do it tomorrow morning for mass and breakfast. But we got our usual for breakfast at Fresh and Juicy; and they made my sandwich wrong again! There was tomatoes in it! I think they're thinking I'm asking for the toasted cheese egg sandwhich, while the grilled egg cheese sandwhich is what we always mean... which tastes sooo much better! But whatever! When I arrived at Daya Dan I was walked into the classroom and started making my lesson plan for Nisha. Today, I was working with Nisha and she was more than I expected. She was extremely hard to work with but i managed. I drew out circles and wrote in them the names of colors with the specific color of the name. Say for instances I would write with a red crayon "RED" in a circle, and she was suppose to try to match the color and fill in the circle with the correct color. Usually before the previous teachers just made a mark with the color but i figured she can't read yet so writing it in with the color is just the same as making the mark but maybe she would be come familiar with how the word looks like and starts matching the colors according to how she remembers the names of the color. It's really hopefully thinking but she does this almost everyday... you'd figure after a month or so she'll start remember how the word looks like. So that's the goal! Well, Nisha didn't want to do anything today. She just had her head down on the table and every now and than would get up and try to find something else to do in the class, sometimes I would try to apply some study to whatever she wanted to do but she just didn't want to do something for any longer than a minute so i kept to my lesson plan. She would pick out certain crayons thinking it matches the color of what I wrote and she would make a mark next to the color and see if it would match and would pick up a different crayon and try to do it again until it matched. It was quite clever but she's improving on matching colors pretty well.
I also drew shapes and had her copy the shapes I drew, and that was a bit challenging. She kept drawing triangles when I had her draw squares and than would draw squares when I drew triangles and periodically she would just draw circles. She has the whole circle thing down. So I tried helping her understand squares and triangle a different way, I counted as I drew the two, each stroke of each side had a number.... sqaures had 4 sides so I was able to count to 4 before the lines are connected and triangle 3 sides before the lines are connected. She would count with me and than try to do it herself. Somehow she was able to count to 4 and yet have 3 sides for a triangle. It was quite humorous but in the end it worked out somehow. Maybe, she'll be better at it tomorrow. I made shapes that were half finished and had dotted lines that finished the shape, that she had to follow and fill in. Nisha was pretty sloppy with it at first but I kept on tell her "you have to be careful, slow down" and her shapes became more identifiable. I did dotted lines that spelt Nisha and she had to draw along the dotted lines and write out her name. Than I drew lines so she can copy her name and she began to write letters randomly that she used in writing her name. No specific order, just a whole bunch of "AAAAA" and then "E,N,H,I,S," So i wrote at the top of the page, once again her name and told her to copy it and she did a wonderful at copy it once. So i applauded and gave her praise which made her very happy. I showed it off to the other teachers which also made her feel very happy and proud with herself and so i asked her to do it again and she wrote for me 4 more times her name N.I.S.H.A perfectly! It really made me happy. I was finished with my lessons that day so I gave her a color book to color in. She loves coloring and colors in the line pretty well but when I had her match the colors to the name that was in the correct color she drew way outside of the circle. So I decided I her next lesson plan, for sometime this week. I drew a picture of a house in a sharpie, which looks like one of her pictures in a coloring book, and colored parts of the picture with certain colors. Her task for this lesson plan when we do it will be finding matching colors and coloring in the picture. I think she'll enjoy that more than just filling in a circle with the matching color, because she surely didn't spend time trying to fill in the circle neatly but did perfectly fine coloring in the coloring book. So we'll see what happens.
Music class today was amazing like always. It's just so beautiful to see all the kids singing and dancing. Some of the kids sing what they can, and even if it's not real words and just "da, da, da" to a melody it's still very encouraging for them when everyone claps and they feel confident and special. It's amazing. I love music class as stressful as it may be with kids running around everywhere. I always leave Daya Dan and have children songs stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Caitlin usually comes down from upstairs for music class also and I think we both agree that the songs are addictive, and we can never get it out of our heads for the rest of the day. This little light of mine was a song I introduced at Daya Dan which the kids love now. There's also songs like Jesus loves the little children, God's love is so wonderful, Rise and shine and give God the glory glory, Father Abraham, .... the list is truly endless! I love the children so much!
When music class was over I came back upstairs and helped feed Adreanna. She's an orphan that struggle with some severe deformity, it's extremely hard to get her body to fit into her stroller because her body no longer straightens out. She doesn't have mobility of her arms, leg, and barely any in her head. Feeding her wasn't hard but it took a lot of patiences before i could continue feeding so she can fully sallow her food. She began to a cough and was coughing out her food which was a minor obstacle and towards the end she was crying. But she finished her meal! So i was happy. I brought her back to her crib and came back out to help who ever was in the main gathering space. I came over to little Piya that Caitlin was working with and helped feed Piya. She wasn't eating today so I tried feeding her for a bit but she'd just cry and spit out her food. So I took her food back to The Massis and Sisters and exchanged it for some Juicy so she can get some nutrients at least. She drank only half of her juice cup and began spitting the rest out, but it was something at least.
We headed back to Sudder and had lunch at Blue Sky, Caitlin had some Toast and Honey which she's getting addicted to now... sweet tooth. And i had some american chopsuey, it was great! Well, i'm getting excited for Brianna to get in. I think we both are. The more the marrier! Pray for us and pray for Brianna's flight. She is flying out on tuesday and I think it's her first time on a plane... but i'm not sure. Anyways, God bless! Take care!
Oh by the way, Caitlin created an amazing photo buckets and she posted some of my pictures since I've been here on the site. You really ought to check it out! the address is
http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z53/cait0013/Kolkata%202007/
Afterwards, I went over to Hotel Paragon and introduced Caitlin to some friends and invited some people out to have dinner with us, and a group of 4 others came along and we sat in jojo's and talked about the craziness of kolkata. Which made Caitlin and I feel not so alone with feeling lost or homesick sometimes. Which I believe was reassuring for Caitlin to hear, that other volunteers felt stressed on the streets here or sad about their love ones. I'm excited because Brianna comes in two days and I'm sure Caitlin can relay how she felt the first week towards Brianna better than i can since now It's my fourth week or so. Which actually blows my mind. I really don't even know how long I've been here. It still feels like the first week but when I think of home it feels like it's been months since i've been here. So I try to look at things from just the schedule of the day and what I encounter during the day.
Later that night we went to my friend Ace's hotel room at the Paragon. Ace has been here in Kolkata for a year and a half. He cooks his own meal every day and works morning and afternoon shifts. He's pretty impressive. Anyways, he has a laptop with movies on it and so Caitlin and I bought some Vanilla Ice cream and pepsi and made floats and watched "the Mask!" it was wonderful and so nice to relax! It started to rain heavily and lightening lit up the night periodically.
Today we woke up and went to Fresh and Juicy for breakfast. We've been pretty bad about making it to Mother House the past few days and it's our goal to do it tomorrow morning for mass and breakfast. But we got our usual for breakfast at Fresh and Juicy; and they made my sandwich wrong again! There was tomatoes in it! I think they're thinking I'm asking for the toasted cheese egg sandwhich, while the grilled egg cheese sandwhich is what we always mean... which tastes sooo much better! But whatever! When I arrived at Daya Dan I was walked into the classroom and started making my lesson plan for Nisha. Today, I was working with Nisha and she was more than I expected. She was extremely hard to work with but i managed. I drew out circles and wrote in them the names of colors with the specific color of the name. Say for instances I would write with a red crayon "RED" in a circle, and she was suppose to try to match the color and fill in the circle with the correct color. Usually before the previous teachers just made a mark with the color but i figured she can't read yet so writing it in with the color is just the same as making the mark but maybe she would be come familiar with how the word looks like and starts matching the colors according to how she remembers the names of the color. It's really hopefully thinking but she does this almost everyday... you'd figure after a month or so she'll start remember how the word looks like. So that's the goal! Well, Nisha didn't want to do anything today. She just had her head down on the table and every now and than would get up and try to find something else to do in the class, sometimes I would try to apply some study to whatever she wanted to do but she just didn't want to do something for any longer than a minute so i kept to my lesson plan. She would pick out certain crayons thinking it matches the color of what I wrote and she would make a mark next to the color and see if it would match and would pick up a different crayon and try to do it again until it matched. It was quite clever but she's improving on matching colors pretty well.
I also drew shapes and had her copy the shapes I drew, and that was a bit challenging. She kept drawing triangles when I had her draw squares and than would draw squares when I drew triangles and periodically she would just draw circles. She has the whole circle thing down. So I tried helping her understand squares and triangle a different way, I counted as I drew the two, each stroke of each side had a number.... sqaures had 4 sides so I was able to count to 4 before the lines are connected and triangle 3 sides before the lines are connected. She would count with me and than try to do it herself. Somehow she was able to count to 4 and yet have 3 sides for a triangle. It was quite humorous but in the end it worked out somehow. Maybe, she'll be better at it tomorrow. I made shapes that were half finished and had dotted lines that finished the shape, that she had to follow and fill in. Nisha was pretty sloppy with it at first but I kept on tell her "you have to be careful, slow down" and her shapes became more identifiable. I did dotted lines that spelt Nisha and she had to draw along the dotted lines and write out her name. Than I drew lines so she can copy her name and she began to write letters randomly that she used in writing her name. No specific order, just a whole bunch of "AAAAA" and then "E,N,H,I,S," So i wrote at the top of the page, once again her name and told her to copy it and she did a wonderful at copy it once. So i applauded and gave her praise which made her very happy. I showed it off to the other teachers which also made her feel very happy and proud with herself and so i asked her to do it again and she wrote for me 4 more times her name N.I.S.H.A perfectly! It really made me happy. I was finished with my lessons that day so I gave her a color book to color in. She loves coloring and colors in the line pretty well but when I had her match the colors to the name that was in the correct color she drew way outside of the circle. So I decided I her next lesson plan, for sometime this week. I drew a picture of a house in a sharpie, which looks like one of her pictures in a coloring book, and colored parts of the picture with certain colors. Her task for this lesson plan when we do it will be finding matching colors and coloring in the picture. I think she'll enjoy that more than just filling in a circle with the matching color, because she surely didn't spend time trying to fill in the circle neatly but did perfectly fine coloring in the coloring book. So we'll see what happens.
Music class today was amazing like always. It's just so beautiful to see all the kids singing and dancing. Some of the kids sing what they can, and even if it's not real words and just "da, da, da" to a melody it's still very encouraging for them when everyone claps and they feel confident and special. It's amazing. I love music class as stressful as it may be with kids running around everywhere. I always leave Daya Dan and have children songs stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Caitlin usually comes down from upstairs for music class also and I think we both agree that the songs are addictive, and we can never get it out of our heads for the rest of the day. This little light of mine was a song I introduced at Daya Dan which the kids love now. There's also songs like Jesus loves the little children, God's love is so wonderful, Rise and shine and give God the glory glory, Father Abraham, .... the list is truly endless! I love the children so much!
When music class was over I came back upstairs and helped feed Adreanna. She's an orphan that struggle with some severe deformity, it's extremely hard to get her body to fit into her stroller because her body no longer straightens out. She doesn't have mobility of her arms, leg, and barely any in her head. Feeding her wasn't hard but it took a lot of patiences before i could continue feeding so she can fully sallow her food. She began to a cough and was coughing out her food which was a minor obstacle and towards the end she was crying. But she finished her meal! So i was happy. I brought her back to her crib and came back out to help who ever was in the main gathering space. I came over to little Piya that Caitlin was working with and helped feed Piya. She wasn't eating today so I tried feeding her for a bit but she'd just cry and spit out her food. So I took her food back to The Massis and Sisters and exchanged it for some Juicy so she can get some nutrients at least. She drank only half of her juice cup and began spitting the rest out, but it was something at least.
We headed back to Sudder and had lunch at Blue Sky, Caitlin had some Toast and Honey which she's getting addicted to now... sweet tooth. And i had some american chopsuey, it was great! Well, i'm getting excited for Brianna to get in. I think we both are. The more the marrier! Pray for us and pray for Brianna's flight. She is flying out on tuesday and I think it's her first time on a plane... but i'm not sure. Anyways, God bless! Take care!
Oh by the way, Caitlin created an amazing photo buckets and she posted some of my pictures since I've been here on the site. You really ought to check it out! the address is
http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z53/cait0013/Kolkata%202007/
Sunday, July 15, 2007
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
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
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