Kolkota

In Kolkota I am visiting Life Connection. It mostly for the run-aways who live at the train station and are on drugs. At Life Connection, they clean the kids up, help them do laundry, bandage any wounds, sing and read the Word, lunch, rest time, and play games.

Thursday, I arrived in time for the Word study, although I had no idea what was going on. In spite of the language barrier, I did enjoy playing Uno with a couple of the boys. There were only boys there that day, about 15 of them...I also helped serve them lunch and mopped the floor.

It seems so odd to spend time with the beggar kids who I normally try to ignore when I see them limping along on the street asking for money. It was fun to watch them play and be kids, in spite of some physical disabilities.

One of the boys gave R (one of the volunteers) a hug and said, "she is my mama." R laughed, "I was 7 when he was born." In the afternoon as they played "uno" other games, one of the children rested his head on R's lap and fell asleep.

After that R took me to the guest house where I will be staying. I had some anxiety about just being left there, and in the morning taking a bus on my own to go to "work". But the guest house is quiet nice, and I have enjoyed talking to the various foreigners who are staying there. It's a dorm-style place run my Baptist M. Society, so I have 3 roommates who all volunteer at the various Mother Theresa Homes in the city...there are quiet a few homes, as Mother Theresa lived here in Kolkota.

Other than helping at Life Connection during the week, it seems my schedule is flexible and I am free to do whatever I want, so I suppose I could probably talk to the people I live with about going to visit the orphanage...oh the joys of being an independent single adult...