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.