Congratulations Heidi!!

Today we found out that our dear friend Heidi, director of MOVE, had a baby boy! It's almost unreal to be receiving news like that from so far away, but so exciting!!

We have been in Kolkata for exactly one week today. It feels like time is flying by, none of us can believe that there is only one Wednesday left after today. We're all hitting our stride, so to speak, but there are still things around every corner that throw us off. For example, you can have your entire day planned out and have it come to a halt by 1. a cyclone, 2. exhaustion, or 3. need for a bathroom in close proximity. Still we've learned to take these things in stride and be adaptable with our plans. Sometimes you even plan to go out but get to the quiet sanctuary of your air conditioned, peaceful and spacious hotel room and realize that your mind needs a rest. That happened to me today; I had grand plans of exploring the city after my morning volunteer time, but ended up sitting in our room watching Indian soap operas with my roommates. I guess other people felt it too, we had a party of four people (Derek, Julia, Kate and me) throwing beanie babies around and bowling with our empty water bottles and just being goofballs.

Julia took Derek and I to the 'new market', a sort of indoor market place in an empty warehouse. Derek had a pretty easy time, but Julia and I were barraged by vendors and coolies trying to show us to various stalls or sell us 'many nice pots, nice plungers madam!' It's so different than what I'm used to, I probably won't go back but its no problem. I'm glad for the experience.

Some of us are also volunteering in the afternoon now. It's not something we can do every day, but it's nice to switch it up. I usually work with older patients at Prem Dan, and yesterday I trekked over to Daya Dan to hang with the kids there. What a difference! We had such a great experience with the kids. I held a young boy with a type of cerebral palsy which makes his muscles 'soft'. I sat on the floor with him on my lap and moved his arms and legs in time to the music that was playing. It ws very beautiful and sad - much like what Val said in her post yesterday. Oh I probably shouldn't say this, so skip ahead if you have a weak stomach. As we were walking back from Daya Dan, we were talking about how nice the experience was and enjoying eachothers company, when all of a sudden we came upon a cart filled with at least seven severed cow heads topped with intestines! Quite ironic, and completely Kolkata.

Tomorrow we head over to the Sabera school. It's a great organization - the children who attend are from the redlight district. It's mostly young girls but there are boys there too. The children can board there and go to school; it provides such great opportunities for children who would otherwise be forced into prostitution or be unable to gain an education. I'm sure you'll all hear about it in tomorrow's post! Best wishes to everyone at home. Namaste ~ Brittany