Tonight, as the sun sets following a beautiful spring day, our group will gather in St. Michael's College word garden (words are carved onto moveable stones). This is the final preparation meeting before our Kolkata service journey. We'll pack donations of medicine, toothbrushes/paste, gauze bandages and more into the scuffed-up SMC hockey bags that have become the trademark sign of MOVE's international service trips.
For more than five months this group of nine students and two staff at SMC in Vermont, have been meeting to learn about Kolkata, India's culture, people, religions, poverty, challenges and joys. Tireless fundraising efforts have brought in more than $16,000 (!) that will accompany us to our service partners in one of the world's poorest cities where 250,000 children live on the streets.
For three weeks, May 18-June 8, we will work with the homeless, sick and destitute at Mother Teresa's homes, with underprivileged children at a school that offers them a future, and with women who are seeking a livelihood outside of the sex trade in which they've been trapped. We are excited, humbled and ready to embark.
--Allison
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