Kolkata farewells completed and oh so meaningful!!!

Greetings from the hills of Mussoorie!  My week of "lasts" went well in Kolkata, and I am sure that I was being carried by those who prayed that I would "finish well"!  Thank you!!!

The Fri night dinner with friends and fellow residents of Pauline Bhawan went well on the 16th!  Sat was just a day of hanging out and finishing up practical things.  Sun at church was very special.  Prashanto and his wife Malabika sang a song, like a traditional Hindi bajan, that they had sung before and that I like.  Several people gave thank yous after the service was over, and then I was asked to say a few things.  I was able to do so without breaking down, something that I was grateful for. 

As I headed down the stairs on Mon a.m. for the Assembly, I thought I was going to loose it, and I cried out to the Lord for His help!  The Assembly was lovely with the entire student body in front of me singing the school song, and then two students saying nice things about me and presenting me with cards.  Of course, the principal asked me to say a few things, and I was able to do it without "loosing" it!  Thank you, Jesus.

The hardest good bye was the final one with the residents of PB encircling me and Deep in my arms.  Debbie, newly returned from N. Ireland, assured me of their love and prayers.  Prayers, hugs, tears and off I went to spend the night at Premila's.  Emotionally exhausted, I dropped into bed that night shortly after dinner.  Premila and I agreed that one of the highlights of the time in Kolkata for each of us was getting to know each other!  Though we have known each other for more than 40 years, we didn't really "know" each other until now.  She is such a special person and oh so compotent.  We have spoken by phone a couple of times since I left.  I pray that the Lord will really bless her!!!

The flight to Delhi went smoothly, and my taxi driver managed to find the Wetherby's place with the help of dear Carolyn coming out to the street to wave us down!  Though hot upon arrival, a wind blew through on the 20th night, and cooled things off for a bit of running around the next day.  The highlight was having lunch with Probhita, Premila's daughter, and her family!  Carolyn is Ria's piano teacher!!!  (Ria is 10 years old, a girl.) 

On Thurs a.m. when the taxi came just after 6 a.m. to take me to the train station, it was down right chilly!!!  Getting on the train with the help of a coolie was easy, and the trip went smoothly and arrived on time.  Mohan Chacko, President of Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Dehra Dun was there to meet me.  I thought it would be just someone from campus.  Driving onto the campus reminded me of how much I enjoyed my seven years on this side of India!  I had a delightful time with the Chackos, the Grace Academy teachers and the Newtons, and felt at home every moment of the time.  I also got in a visit with the Calvin Taylors, and ate more than my share of Tibetan food . . . yum!!!  One of the highlights was seeing Maria Chacko, Class of 2001 from Woodstock . . . I haven't seen her since she graduated, and meeting her husband Ramesh. 

Sun I headed up the mountain.  It has been a wonderful time.  In my unrealistic mind there are always so many long walks that I am going to take, etc., but . . . most of them won't happen.  However, reunions with people have been very special!!!  I am not the only former staff member that is visiting at the moment, and tonight we are gathering at Criders for a meal . . . old timers and even some new timers with old timers connections.

I head back to Delhi on Sat the 31st by train and will be at the Delhi airport by about 10 p.m. on Mon night to begin the long trip home.  (My flight is scheduled to leave at 12:50 a.m.)  The scheduled travel time is 27 hours!!!  I have a great book to read, and just hope I will still know my name when I arrive!!!  I also pray that my bags will arrive on the plane with me.  I have to pick them up in JFK to clear Customs and Immigration, and then they get rechecked for the flight to Richmond.  As I am gaining time all the way back I am actually due in at 6 p.m. Richmond time!

Sleeping with my suitcase

About a week ago I pulled out my suitcases, dusted them off, aired them out and set them aside.  Even after all of these years of packing and moving, I have a certain amount of anxiety about the process.  I find the best way to deal with it is to begin packing!!!  My greatest fear is that everything won't fit into my cases.  My dad tried to teach me to travel light, but it isn't a skill that I have developed!!!  Changing seasons doesn't help, I told myself as I packed my sweater and shawls.  When the temperatures dropped in Dec, I wished I had brought along more warmer things, but now that the temperature regularly reaches the 100 degree mark, I wonder why I brought the warm things that I did, and I have added some cooler things to my belongings!!!  What's a girl to do?

A week ago today I started shopping!  That seemed like one of the necessary elements to all of this because until you have what you are taking home with you, how can you begin to pack!!!???  On Friday I went to New Market with Rebecca, a friend from church, and we got a lot accomplished all in one shop!  So, on Sat, I started packing.  I was hoping that my suitcases would be lighter going home because of the things that I brought with me that have been used, but adding the things purchased negates that.   I am packing one suitcase that I will close in Kolkata and not reopen until I hit Richmond.  Fortunately I can leave it in Delhi with friends when I travel to Dehradun and Mussoorie!

I miss my dining room table which is where I generally pack at home!  If I pack down there, I don't have to get the luggage down the steps.  It works well for me.  Unfortunately I had no where to start my packing other than my bed, which is fortunately a double, and so the suitcase is there, and I have a little giggle to myself as I crawl into bed next to it at night.   When I flew to Kolkata in Oct, I had to pay overweight charges.  I fear the same may be true on the 20th when I return to Delhi!!!

Sat, the 10th, was a big day in another way.  I paid for a really nice lunch for the boys who are in the residential program like the one here at Pauline Bhawan.  There were approximately 40 of us counting the boys, the staff who care for them, and some invited guests.  We have so much more room at PB plus the grounds of the school.  The boys live right in the central part of the city, not a blade of grass in sight.  Their living space is minimal, but they make the most of it!  We had a great time playing games before and after we ate.  Premila's third daughter and her children along with a friend and her children . . . these folks all live in Delhi and were visiting joined us, and what fun we had!  One of the things that amazes me about these children is how quickly they open their hearts and lives to people.  It takes less than 60 seconds, it seems, to become their friends.  I feel like it is a gift especially considering some of their backgrounds.  I think they know they are loved, and somehow the fact that they are safe, secure, and have three meals a day as well as a roof over their heads . . . it just means a lot I think!  I am touched deeply by their love!  (I'll try to post pictures when I get home because it takes too long here, and with the connection device that we have . . . well, it just isn't practical.)

Sunday Probhita (Premila's daughter) sang in church with Hussein, one of the young adults who was rescued from the station platform a number of years ago.  I am guessing that he is in his early 20s . . . he is one of the boys who doesn't know when his "true" b'day was so he celebrates the day that he became apart of the ministry.  Anyway, he is an interesting character.  Probhita is like an older sister to him, and the two of them sounded so wonderful singing together.  Of course, I got teary and thought, "Oh dear, the beginning of the week of lasts!!!"

Because of "unit tests" I didn't have Class IV on Mon.  I had my last Scripture classes with Classes VII and VIII.  Some of them registered regret that I was going, but I am quite honestly relieved!  I managed to get all of the grading done before going to bed that night.  That also felt like quite a triumph!

I took devotions with the "kids" here Mon night.  We looked at Ps. 139, a Psalm that we used to talk about often when I worked with Third Culture Kids.  It was good for me to remind myself of the truths of this Psalm, and to remember how God has always been faithful to me.  I was first introduced to this Psalm as a young Christian who felt pretty lousy about myself!  I shared that with them . . . I am NOT a mistake, and neither are they.  I can't help but wonder if they feel as if they are sometimes, though!  Anyway, many commented that they appreciated looking at the Psalm.  We talked about the fact that even though they aren't going anywhere, people that they love are always coming and going out of their lives!

Today I took the last Assembly for Classes KG - 3.  Moshimi, Moinul, Ishob and Sandy, another American volunteer who is here for three months, helped me read an original script to finish up Esther.  I left out a lot of the details, but I think I got the gist of the story.  How I love Esther, and the thought that, "for such a time as this . . ."!!!

Tomorrow is the last Bible study.  We are just beginning the third chapter of Ruth.  I regret that we couldn't finish the whole study.  I'll leave the book.  Perhaps someone else can carry on.

I am going to spend the night with Premila tomorrow night which will help me finish up some shopping on that side of town Fri a.m.  It will also relieve the pressure of getting home on public transportation during rush hour, and take care of getting back over to the office for my final English class.

Friday night I am having a special dinner here . . . again for 40 people.  I should add that all I do for such meals is say what I would like to have to eat, and pay for it.  Someone else shops, cooks, and cleans up! They do a great job!  I was laughing with my friend Rita, the Headmistress of the Primary Section of the school, that soon I will have to get used to doing such things for myself again!!!

Sun will be my last day at church.  Mon will be my last day at school.  They are planning to have a special all school Assembly to farewell me . . . touching . . . then I will leave to spend the night at Premila's again, and then off to the airport on Tues a.m.

This time next week I will be with friends in Delhi.  With all of the good byes I think I am settled in my heart that it is time to go.  Certainly the next few days will be emotionally challenging, but the well wishes and the 'when are you coming backs' are touching in and of themselves.  My response continues to be, "I think I will be back, but I don't know when or for how long!"  In two weeks, I will be in the Hills enjoying much cooler weather as well as old and dear friends, having been refreshed at the bottom of the mountain by former colleagues and dear friends in Dehradun.  In three weeks I plan to have dinner at SPC, or is that Spring Break!?  Oh, I hope not!!!

Photos taken at AG Inauguration March 2, 2012

See Facebook.  It takes too long on the blog!  There are others there, too, of the children with whom I live!

Inauguration, black "dust" and water bottles!

Another Monday over . . . a relief as it is my most demanding day of the week.  It seems to get hotter by the day.  Maybe the heat is getting to us.  Spending two periods with Class IV used to be a highlight of my week.  Today they were very restless and talkative.  By the end of our 80 minutes together, I had a headache.  My real challenge of a Monday, though, are my Scripture classes, VIII followed by VII.  We got through today with much less pressure than usual.  Class VII has 52 students.  It feels impossible to me to try to reach them.  Five boys were suspended for three days last week after making the period very difficult for me.  I think my complaint was the straw that broke the camel's back where they were concerned.  They were better today, and we got a lot done.

Friday we journeyed over to "The Strand" which is part of Kolkata that must have been a very POSH area during the days of the British Raj.  It is on the banks of the Hooghly River.  We passed the Calcutta Swim Club along the route . . . we also passed yet another of the city's slums.  I had visited the area in Oct with friends from the US who have been instrumental in what is about to happen in this area.  At the Armenian Ghat (a place where you can get a boat to cross the Hooghly for Howrah), a "neighborhood" has grown up along an abandoned railway track.  The area is crowded, loud, I witnessed a temper outburst where I thought someone was going to get hurt, and then there is the stench.  Emmanuel Ministries Calcutta is on the move again!  Among the ruins of what was once a beautiful area, no doubt, with Greek style columns that are dilapidated and dirty from pollution . . . it is hard to describe the scene.  People wash there, wash their clothes there, toss their idols into the river after worshiping them.  The "homes" in the area which are made out of black plastic sheeting predominately have no running water, no electricity, no toilet facilities.  We have located a place, and will begin building an area for one of our Pavement Clubs.  The area needs to be secured so that things can be left there.  A place to cook so that the children can be feed lunch is high on the priority list.  Some local officials were invited.  As usual, the whole ceremony was in Bengali, so I don't know exactly what happened.  I do know from Premila, however, that at least one of the officials was "blown away" by what he saw and heard.  Children from some of the other projects performed a classical Indian dance, a mime which was very funny and very much about "life on the streets".  Perhaps the most moving piece of the program was the testimony of one of the young men, the son of a local brothel, whose life was changed in a Pavement Club.  Changed in the sense that he was given enough of an education and given enough confidence to be able to succeed in his educational pursuits enough to currently be involved in university studies.  He urged parents to send their children to the Club when it opens.  The fact that the official was there and impressed means that he will help get things moving forward.

Tomorrow I am going to spend the a.m. at the New Market project.  On Friday I heard a lot of parallels drawn between the situation at AG and the one at NM.  So much has happened to improve life there with things like plumbing since EMC came on the scene.   I may have commented that listening to my English 'students' tell about the changes in the situation there had reduced me to tears after class one day.  I want to be able to visit a few of these projects before leaving the city.  My departure is just two weeks away!

Kolkata has a layer, seemingly of black 'dust' everywhere.  The other day when I was making up my bed, I realized how dirty my bed spread was.  So, I pulled it off the bed on Sat and started soaking it in my bucket!  I wish I had counted the number of times I changed the water in the bucket before it stopped being black.  If you asked me today what am I looking forward to the most about coming back to the US, my answer would be my washing machine!!!

I have been thinking and praying about giving the children who live at Pauline Bhavan a little gift before I leave.  To make something that could be a longer story short, I was able to buy them all water bottles on Sat.  They were on sale for about a dollar at Spencer's . . . a bit like Target, and at the South City Mall, my little taste of the West that is about a 10 minute walk away!!!  I gave them out that night, and you cannot imagine how thrilled some of them were.  Clean drinking water isn't something that we take for granted here, and how that it is getting hotter and hotter what is a lad or lass to do at school!?  I am reminded of my dear late Mother . . . little things meant more to her that big things!

Debbie, from N. Ireland  and Bablu, raised in the ministry, are back after the birth of their second child.  The kids in the ministry are so pleased by their return, and it makes my heart glad to see them  in action before I leave.  Debbie left just about the time I moved in so I haven't really gotten to know her other than by reputation.  She's a keeper!  Bablu was around for a month longer.  He is just fun and always playing with the kids.  Their baby was born on my b'day!!!

I hope to host a special dinner with the boys in the residential program this coming Sat night and then one with those in Pauline Bhavan the following week.

Thurs is Holi and everything will be closed.  It is a Hindu festival where colors (like paint) are thrown.  School will be close both Thurs and Fri, but the office will be open on Fri.  Hopefully I can make my way across town without incident.