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| I'm Happy!This morning in prayer it felt like everything came together and I'm back and excited to be here! The mass was in Spanish, with the starting song being Resuscito! There are lots of Spanish speaking volunteers here, and sometimes I talk with them, and seems to me that now (surprisingly) my verbal fluency is best ever! So I'm actually learning two languages right now, German and Spanish! Maybe by May I'll be basically fluent in Spanish, adding to my fluency already in English and Italian. And, living with a close-knit Hindi-speaking family, I'm starting to be more excited about Hindi. Give me couple years, maybe that will come too!
I am living very close to the Himalayas, and I love the mountains, so I'm starting to think about taking a month walking in the mountains sometime in the next year! Last night I was reading about hiking in Nepal.... :)
About the fire hazard I mentioned earlier: they also lock the door downstairs very securely at night until around 8 AM, so even if I can get down the stairs I may be screwed. So I put buying a sledgehammer and rope and maybe a metal cutter on my todo list. Shortly after I moved in to my apartment I found a storage space at ceiling level that I hadn't noticed before. I have avoided looking at the stuff up there to see what it is yet, I know I should, but I'm not ready to deal with the hassle yet.
Excerpts from recent mails:
If there is a bird flu here in Kolkata I'm screwed because they transport chickens by tying them up live in bundles of five or ten (tied together by their legs) and carry them to their destinations on bicycles. Then the chickens are slaughtered in the open street, you see the carcasses in baskets lying in the mud, and the skin and feathers lying right in the mud.
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I did move into my apartment the Sunday before last, and it is so much more relaxing and liveable than the dorm! I'm not totally overwhelmed by tiredness as often as before, though this morning I overslept and didn't wake until the middle of mass, which was almost certainly what I needed. But today was the feast day of the founding of the MC sisters, or else of Mother Teresa's birth or death, and now that I remember I regret it a little. I am also enjoying my encounters with the extended family in the evening. There's a two year old boy who comes running in my door as soon as I come home, and others who like talking, the children especially. One of the children invited me to come on a walk with her last night, so she and the others took me for brief visits to the houses of a couple of relatives. Both families are living in individual rooms, in buildings shared with others. Not something I would get to experience much or at all if I weren't staying at this apartment! Really a treat! Really cheered me up! And Sunday night a man about my age, a close relative, came into my room, said he lives nearby and is a security guard, said that if I have any problems at all in Kolkata I should tell him and he will resolve them (! mafia???), that he can take me to see a whole side of Kolkata nobody sees, and do I like discs? I wasn't thinking and a lie slipped out - I said I do like disc(o)s but I couldn't remember the last time I went to one. I suspect the truth is that I've never been to a disco! Bars, yes, discos, no. Anyway I'm invited, and I have a friend in the FAMILY!
The good news is that my course I'm teaching seems to be going well, and choir practice for Taize has started, and God is providing for me!!!
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Yesterday I moved into my apartment downtown. I left my stuff in the morning, and came back in the evening - there was a soccer (?) game about to start on the street, with a crowd of male spectators, they asked if I wanted to play. I went in and visited with the family for a while before relaxing with a book and going to bed. It's so convenient having the mother house be just 8 minutes away or so! I didn't sleep quite enough last night so I came back in the morning and slept another hour. Got rid of the slamming headache. The family is charming, it's nice to be around such an extended family, there are six grown-up sons and their families I think, plus others, I still need to figure this out. Some children who are charming. In this respect a bit more like home than I've been in for some time.
On the other hand I have been having nice conversations with other people, and am relieved to be in an apartment, and am doing a little more research, and continueing with my teaching. I'm starting to think about other things, like finally writing the Vietnam mail, or buying my Christmas ticket to come home, that's less than four months away now. It's been about three months here now, but it seems so much shorter, especially if I judge by what I've accomplished. I am still working on the paper that I started in on at the end of May, that's taking a while.
Chorus practice for the Taize gathering started last Saturday, and will be each Saturday. (You know there will be a big Taize gathering here in mid-October, with around 7000 Indians and some 300 or so foreigners from maybe 44 countries.) Already there have been prayer services twice a week since I got here. Since I know the base part by heart on some songs there have been a couple of times they gave the mike to me! That was fun, but the best is just to be in a Taize experience again, and also the Missionaries of Charity is a bit like Taize, lots of people coming and going from all over the world. That's part of what makes it so attractive.
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| Independence DaySeveral people have asked me where Kolkata is. It might help if I told you that this city of sixteen million people used to be named Calcutta and was only recently renamed to Kolkata for political reasons. Then you'd probably know that Kolkata (Calcutta) is somewhere in India and was the residence of Mother Teresa. What can we add? Kolkata is a cultural center for India, as well as being either the second or third biggest city here, one of the big four along with Mumbai (used to be named Bombay,) Delhi, and Chennai (used to be named Madras.) Geographically Kolkata is in the northeast corner of India, at the top of the Bay of Bengal which separates India from Southeast Asia. Just a few miles to the east is the border with Bangladesh, 80 miles south is the Bay, and 200-300 miles immediately north are the Himalayas, including Mount Everest and K2. Like most of India and Southeast Asia, the climate is basically tropical, with wet monsoons. There are mangoes and pomegranates and other interesting fruit for sale, and bittermelons and other vegetables whose names I don't know.
Enough of Geography, now for politics! Today is not just the feast of the Assumption of Mary (woo-hoo!) (and woo-hoo for St. Maximilian Kolbe, martyr priest of Auschwitz, my confirmation saint, whose feast was yesterday!) It is also India's 59-th birthday! This seems to be celebrated mostly with flag raising ceremonies, where the Indian flag is raised, and then the national anthem, and then dancing or marches or singing of special songs. I saw this at the mother house this morning - after mass and breakfast they brought some of the orphans in from Shishu Bhavan, dressed in military dress and beautiful saris, and after the anthem they did marches and dances, it was very very adorable. Then going around my neighborhood and to work I saw where they were preparing for other local flag-raisings. When I got to work they had already done the flag-raising but I wasn't too late for the nice snacks.
Sunday I moved into an apartment! I feel much more culturally authentic, I walk through small "streets" far too small for even the smallest car to get there, am surrounded by four mosques because it's a Muslim neighborhood, and see the young men slaving away making shoes in some of the apartments along the way. At night there seems to be a soccer match going on though the field has to be only a third or less of the width of a regulation field. My apartment is basically a room (with adjoining shower, toilet, kitchen) in a four story building owned and inhabited by a large extended Muslim family, complete with several generations, from the two year old boy up to the bride-to-be (henna on her hands, less than two weeks till the marriage) to the aunts and uncles, even a crazy uncle! I've been enjoying it, and especially having a place I can relax and sleep, it's much better than the dorm where I was staying for the last three weeks. It's very close to the mother house, so if I'm still tired after mass and breakfast I can come back and take a nap.
I am well on the whole, but certainly still very challenged by life here. I'm glad to be here.
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| WhateverI arrived to teach this morning, and was informed by the lab techs that one of the principal scientists here had instructed them to move the class to a different set of computers and reduce the number of computers available to my students. One of the lab techs had agreed with me earlier to work on the original computers to prepare them for this class, but after receiving the scientist's instructions instead did nothing and did not bother tell me that he was doing nothing. I freaked about why they hadn't even bothered to tell me and about the reduced number of computers. Eventually I calmed down enough to say that I could teach wherever they said, but the lab tech said I should use the original computers today and see about changing things later. So I started teaching, but ran into a problem during class that slowed things down by an hour. That hour was spent having the lab tech do exactly what he had originally promised to do!!! Talking with the professor in charge of computing later, it looks like I may end up staying permanently with the original computers....
Last night a Canadian acquaintance took me over to where she is staying to look renting her room after she leaves this August 10th. It's in an interesting Muslim neighborhood close to the Missionaries of Charity motherhouse, and in a four story building owned and inhabited by an extended Muslim family. The apartment is nice, a large bedroom with adjoining small kitchen and smaller shower and bathroom. The floors are all marble, and the family keeps the place sparkling clean! Surprise! :) I had an enchanting hour visiting with some of the extended family, including a two year old boy, two roughly nine year old girls, a 37 year old mom, and a matron of the family. Plus there was Uncle, who was my financial contact. We ended with the financial part of the negotiations, in which none of the women could take part, just me and Uncle who speaks only a little English. His bargaining was incredibly endearing, made me grin furiously, I couldn't help it. We ended on an impasse, but it seems likely that he'll come down in the next day or two - he was trying to raise the price above what the last tenant paid.
Another amusing thing - I noticed a lot of large gas-type cans in one of the apartment's side rooms, and asked what they were - chemicals for their shoe business, to work on shoes, I think actually a home-made mixture of gasoline with other things! Already very interesting, wondering about the possibility of walls of fire, movie-grade explosions. Then the previous tenant reminded me that this was actually the kitchen - good thing she had never actually done any cooking there! :) So the family agreed to move all those cans, presumably to someplace else in the building. In fact I saw some other cans further up the stairs. The windows of my apartment (this is not unusual) are built with solid iron work embedded in the concrete around the window; you'd need a sledgehammer to get out. So the only way out is down the stairs. I'm only on the second floor (first European); I pity the people further up. On the other hand the view from the roof is really nice, four stories is already higher than most buildings in Calcutta. There are four mosques in the immediate vicinity, and their chants will add a certain flavor....
Almost all the American friends who came for the summer have left in the last few days, the last two will be gone in a week, and I am acquainted with ten to fifteen out of the hundred or more who show up for breakfast every morning, and of those am still working on fairly early friendships with just a few, maybe three or so. Sometimes very happy, sometimes lonely. I am often very certain that God is doing big things, overwhelmed by his and others' love - other times I am left really longing for deeper friendships and loves. It's a good thing God moved me downtown almost two weeks ago now, I think this really makes relationships a lot more possible. Two nights ago I was eating dinner by myself somewhere, and a short-term volunteer sat herself down with me, which was better than by myself. After that I overcame my doubts and joined some friends for a beer, which was good - well the company was good, but in India there is NO dark beer!
My birthday was wonderful - starting with prayer and mass with the Missionaries of Charity including an hour and a half of Eucharistic adoration. A sister organized some French people to sing me happy birthday. An American volunteer was leaving and a dinner had been organized, so I showed up at the dinner and after we were seated told her it was my birthday too. They sang me happy birthday! I left a bit early to have an hour and a half on the Internet phone with my family, I am so blessed and loved that they decided to dedicate that time and love to me! I got to talk to all but one or two of my siblings! :) And I wound things up by visiting a friend who had told me earlier in the day that I can drop by in the evenings.... a really nice way to end the day! Two days ago I was surprised to get the new movie made by the family in mail, I watched it almost immediately, it was really very well made! :)
Peace to you all,
Vincent
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| Hello from KolkataSo sometime in the early morning a steady (no big gusts, etc.) and pretty heavy rain set in, which is normal I think this time of year, but it kept going for hours. By when I woke up at 5:30 AM half of our very big lawn had turned into shallow lakes. Our parking lot was also several inches deep, with ripples and waves. Some birds I hadn't seen before (small herons?) were wading around in the lawn. I called the sisters and mass was cancelled, didn't wake up again until after nine. The rain was tapering off, but even more of the lawn was submerged. Around eleven I went out, just across the street to buy drinking water and soap, and that involved wading through a foot deep lake just outside our driveway, the street is completely submerged there. It would (have been) really fun to spend go downtown at the height of the rain and see how bad it got there - here I'm in a fairly ritzy neighborhood.
The other big news is that from Wednesday 12 July until last Monday Monday 17 July I was in the hospital for something involving high fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. The onset was sudden - within a few hours I was in the emergency room. It could have been the food, it could have been the water, it could have been a random virus, it could have been anything. That's why I'm buying my water now instead of using the stuff filtered by machines at my work. Today should be my first real day at work, if I can get and keep my focus. The stay at the hospital was fine, it's one of Kolkata's best and I could have been in the first world, and I got in a lot of sleep. The staff at my Institute were incredibly supportive on the day I went in, and also coming out. They are still asking how I am every time I turn around.
I was wondering where the smoky smell was comign from, and realized that my cleaner had not only washed, dried, and ironed my T-shirt, but also smoked it! In Manila the cleaners are very like what you would find at a U.S. dry cleaners. Here they do their ironing with irons warmed over charcoal (home-made charcoal! smells nice but very smoky!) fires. The store is outside, made out of branches, tarps, and a couple makeshift wooden counters. I haven't seen the washing, but I'm sure it's by hand.
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