Steph and I headed to Shantidan for our second day of working with the girls today. Getting to Shantidan begins with a 15 minute walk through the waking streets of Kolkata, and then a 20 minute bus ride, followed by another 10 minute walk. Today it seemed like our normal bus, bus 166, was not running, so we took 213 through to the slightly less hectic part of Kolkata. In our fourth day here we are all starting to sprout new blisters from sandals that we had previously thought to be broken in. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you are constantly sweating! Just gotta embrace it.
At Shantidan, Steph works with the Rainbows, or the severely handicapped. I work with the Star girls who are blind and also cognitively impaired. Since today was Sunday, the girls didn't have any classes or really anything scheduled for the morning so everyone hung out outside. All of us aunties (volunteers in Bengali) went around painting the girls' nails. My favorite moment from the day was when one of the blind girls that I work with, who is usually very hard to get through to, put her hands on my face for the first time. I was singing to her and she burst into the largest smile I've seen on her face that I've seen and kept putting her hands on my throat to feel the vibrations from my singing. It was truly beautiful.
From these first couple days at work, Steph continues to realize how lucky we all are in our lots in life. We are dealt a hand of cards and for some reason, we ended up in the United States with amazing opportunities and supporting families and friends that wish us well in our travels and will be ready to welcome us home with open arms. The girls we work with are not so fortunate, to say the very least. It is truly humbling to work with these girls and to realize that many of our hardships are small compared with those these wonderful girls have faced. We feel truly blessed to be here and to be able to get to know these girls and where they came from.
Tonight, sitting around with our whole group, laughing about the day's antics and sharing our favorite moments and those that challenged us, I feel the same appreciation that Steph felt. Being able to sit together and connect with and get to know one another is one of the greatest joys of this trip. After spending the night eating lots of delciious authentic Italian pizza (in India, who knew??), buying awesome gypsy-like pants, and riding around the night-time streets of Kolkata in auto-rickshaws feeling like you're on some wild and crazy rollarcoaster ride, it's with a happy heart that I go to sleep tonight. It is only day four, and Kolkata has shown me what an amazing city it can be. I can't wait to see what the next 2 and a half weeks will bring! (Hopefully no more blisters...)
Namaste and শুভরাত্রি (goodnight)!
Andie and Steph
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