Shika

This is Shika. Shika has a broken leg but is otherwise healthy. Her bed was in the back corner of the building which didn't bother Shika because she could see everything from her view. She was the little gossip of Prem Dan. I would often go sit with her because the other volunteers didn't give her much attention...probably because she was fairly healthy and didn't need that much assistance because she could feed herself and get up to go to the restroom...
Although Shika knew only a few words and phrases in English we grew quite close and had many conversations. I would sit with Shika on her bed and she would point to different patients and motion to me that they were crazy...some motions are universal! She would point to different Nuns and let me know who the nice ones are and also the not so nice ones. She would tell me an elaborate story all in Bengali, using hand motions and everything and even though I did not understand a word of it I would listen and make comments, which she of course didn't understand either. When she was finished with her story she would look at me and then I would tell her a story, all in English, and she would listen intently. One day we were doing our story time and as Shika was telling me her story she pauses and says "Don't worry, Be happy!" I had no idea what the rest of her story was about but that was all I needed to understand. Shika was happy and she has a beautiful spirit about her that is contagious.

One day I was feeding a patient on the bed next to Shika's and I look over in time to see Shika reach for a plastic bag under her pillow. She reaches inside the plastic bag and pulls out a smaller bag with some sort of white powder in it. I must have had a weird look on my face because she looked at me and said "salt" then motioned to her food and acted like she was gagging. I guess she didn't like the food too much! It was a good reminder for me though that even though the people there don't have much they still have their likes and dislikes. It made me think of the people here, like the homeless people we serve in Sacramento and sometimes we get frustrated when they don't want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich but we forget that they are people too and just because they have an unfortunate situation they are still allowed to have a preference of food.
I was nervous to work at Prem Dan because it is difficult to work with adults when you don't speak the same language. They need something and they are trying to communicate it to you and you don't have any idea what they are saying so they get frustrated which is of course frustrating and then they wet themselves (or worse...) and you realize "Ah! She needed to go to the restroom...shoot...too late." With little kids you don't need language too much, you can entertain and take care of little ones using barely any language. Skiha, however, taught me that some adults don't need language either, they just need love and affection. Shika is a beautiful lady who will forever hold a spot in my heart.

Bhula

This is Bhula. She was one of the older ladies at Prem Dan and was a little slow mentally. The first day I met her she grabbed my hand and made me sit down next to her. As I sat with her I held her hand and rubbed her back and she just smiled. She never said anything more than her name..."Bhula" and then she would laugh. She was more like a child than an adult. There were always masses of flies swarming the benches where the ladies sat and as I was sitting with Bhula one landed on her hand. She looked at me, gave me a sly little grin, then quickly smacked her hands together, she slowly pulled her hands apart and with great pride showed me the smooshed fly on the palm of her hand. "That's nice, Bhula!" I replied and she flicked the dead fly on the ground, gave me a great big hug, then proceeded to hold my hand and I tried not to think of the fly guts being shared between our palms. Every morning I would find Bhula and give her a hug before I started my cleaning. She was always beaming.
About one week into our trip I was having a rough day, just trying to process everything and really think about our work at Prem Dan and I didn't say good morning to Bhula. I knew she wasn't all there mentally and with all the volunteers that go through there I figured she really didn't know me from any of the other women. That afternoon I was helping pass out plates of food and as I walked by her she reached out and grabbed my arm. As I looked at her she smiled and stood up to give me a hug. After that morning I never skipped saying good morning to Bhula because I realized that she does remember me.

One more story about Bhula:
On our last day of work at Prem Dan I was putting lotion on Bhula's arms. My roomie, Sylvia, was standing with her back to us to the right of us and Bhula kept looking at her, looking at me and then laughing. All of a sudden she swiftly reaches over and grabs Sylvia's butt and looks at me and starts laughing...One of those belly laughs that little kids do and you can't help but laugh too. You put a bunch of Westernized volunteers with Indians and this happens! I'm not quite sure who taught her that but she was not going to let anyone get by her without grabbing their rear. Maybe she knew it was our last day and wanted to give us some parting gifts...so this is Bhula!

Prem Dan

After our first day of volunteering I was set against working at Prem Dan. I wanted to work at Shishu Bhavan (Children's Home in Bengali). Half of the kids at the orphanage are physically disabled or mentally handicapped and the other half of the kids in the orphanage are "normal" (their words) and are adoptable. In order to work with the kids that are able to be adopted you have to be able to work there for 2 months so we were not eligible. We had to go to the Mother House to get our two week work assignment and for this we were able to request where we wanted to work. As we waited...and waited...and waited I just felt challenged and felt God tell me that He didn't bring me to Calcutta so that I could do something I knew I could do. I know I can work with kids...so I decided to challenge myself and request Prem Dan...knowing that the following day I would probably be kicking myself and wishing I was working with the kids. So, every day for the rest of our time in Calcutta I was assigned to Prem Dan to work with dying adults. I have to say that now I am so glad I made that decision and while it was challenging and I was way out of my comfort zone I made the right decision.
Every day was basically the same routine but it got easier the longer we were there because we came to know what the Sisters expected out of us and how they wanted things set up. Let me tell you, they know exactly how they want things and if a bed is even half an inch off they will fix it. Some days it was really frustrating because they were more focused on the work than on the patients and I was reminded of the story of Martha and Mary where Jesus explains that the relationship, not the work is more important. However, they seemed to think otherwise...But, we got through it and only got yelled at by a nun once. She was mad because we were visiting with patients while we waited for the floors to dry and we were suppose to still be cleaning. She told us to either work or leave. We decided to go back to cleaning but it was really tough because I simply wanted to love on the ladies. So, like I said, after we knew what the Sisters expected out of us it got a lot easier...and we didn't get yelled at again! Each of us seemed to find a couple patients that we would spend time with and we would make sure to say Hi to them in the mornings and give them their massages...we became somewhat territorial over "our" ladies.

There were quite a few volunteers from other countries there to work with Missionaries of Charity and many of them were there simply to be a help. They did not come with a church or because they even believe in Christ but because they saw a need and felt they had to do something. We got to know quite a few of these volunteers and as a team were able to share Christ with them. Very few patients at Prem Dan speak English so we were not able to communicate with them using words however we would tell the patients about Christ and pray that God would use our words to convey the message in a way that they would understand.

The picture at the top is where the more able-bodied ladies at Prem Dan would spend most of their day. They could only go outside when accompanied by a volunteer but most of them simply wanted to sit in this area all day.

Calcutta

Okay, I know you have been waiting anxiously to hear about my trip to Calcutta...okay maybe not but just humor me! Let me just begin by saying it was an incredible trip...the most challenging of all my trips by far, but over all it was simply incredible.

For now I'll give a brief rundown of what we did and in later posts I'll get into more detail about the people we met and some of the relationships I had the privilege of building.

Mother Teresa started Missionaries of Charity which is an organization that exists to give the dying of Calcutta dignity. There are about 8 homes now which are run by the Nuns (Sisters) in Calcutta. Basically, Mother Teresa decided that people should not die on the streets of Calcutta but should have a bed, some warm food and caring people around them during their last days...and who would argue with that?! There are now several homes for dying adults, a few orphanages and homes for the mentally handicapped. The first day we went to volunteer the Sisters assigned our group to Prem Dan which means "Gift of Love" in Bengali.(the picture above is of Prem Dan) Prem Dan is a long term home for the dying. The younger patients at Prem Dan have diseases such as TB, HIV/AIDS, extreme malnutrition and many of the older patients have mental illnesses or some other handicap. Let me also just add that I did not want to work at this home. I really wanted to work in the orphanage and did not think I could handle working with adults. I can entertain kids...I know how to work with kids...adults, not so much! But of course, we were sent to Prem Dan...
The mornings were spent cleaning the beds and the entire room where the women sleep. Nothing has changed since Mother Teresa started the organization...it is a bit of a time warp walking into the homes. All the laundry is done by hand and the floors are washed with buckets and "brooms" made out of straw. After the cleaning was finished it was time for us to focus on the patients. Some of the patients have terrible bed sores and I was recruited to help another volunteer clean them. Mind you, neither of us have medical training but in Calcutta that doesn't really matter much! We would do our best to clean the sores without putting the ladies through too much pain and I would try to do my best to avoid being pooped on by the ladies. Yes, pooped on. Many ladies are not able to get up and go to the restroom so they go in their bed and the first lady I was recruited to help just happened to be one of those ladies and as we were cleaning her bed sore we had to shift gears and clean her elsewhere. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" has never gone through my head so many times before!
The ladies greatly enjoy having lotion put on so we would walk around to the ladies and rub lotion on their arms and legs. They loved it! One lady loved it so much she took her dress off to make sure our co-leader, Kelly, didn't miss a spot! We gave lots of foot and hand massages. One day we even brought nail polish and did some manicures and pedicures for the ladies. It was amazing to me how such a simple thing, lotion, could brighten a day...it was a great reminder of the little joys in life. We spent a lot of time just sitting with patients and giving them physical contact. Although there are a lot of volunteers there (mostly from Australia and England) they don't all give the patients much physical contact...at least not without gloves on...and we did not wear gloves. I feel like wearing gloves to console a dying lady isn't really giving them much dignity. We would also help feed the patients lunch. Most of the patients could feed themselves but there were also quite a few that needed to be fed. It was difficult to try and feed some of the patients...especially the ones with extreme malnutrition because every bite is such a struggle for them that they don't want to try eating yet eating is what they need to do.
Our first day came to an end and as we were leaving one of the patients passed away. She had been on an oxygen machine but was not able to make it. Our first day was really tough and I really wasn't sure how I was going to do this for two weeks. I desperately wanted to work with the kids because they were mostly handicapped but otherwise healthy so I figured I wouldn't have to see patients die.