It's Kolkata

A very clever SU alum once told me that he learned more on his taxi ride from the airport to Sudder street in Kolkata than he did in all his four years at college.

Traveling into India went really really well. Again, I had the extra adrenaline rush of navigating it all solo. Needless to say, when I found Joe and Traci at our hotel, I was exceedingly excited. After a short flight packed full of Indian men--one of whom insisted I have a Pepsi with my breakfast because I was American--I made it through customs and got a taxi. Driving through Kolkata I was initially taken back by the amount of noise. So much noise. Here your horn is your most valuable car part. A honk means move, I'm turning right, I'm turning left, move faster, watch out I'm passing you, hello I have a car, this traffic sucks or have a nice day.

I spent yeterday walking around the city with Joe and Traci. We went through a little park and talked with a new friend we made, a young girl from Germany. And then we went out to dinner. With another German girl Traci works with at Shishu Bhavan. The Germans love us. Better yet, all the volunteers here love everyone! That was one of the most exciting things about yesterday. Meeting all the other volunteers here to work. Our entire hotel is alllll volunteers. It's so nice having the same schedule as the rest of the building.

I went to orientation today for work (Joe and Traci already started working a few days ago). After a very eye opening walk to the Mother House--I was nearly side swiped by a leg of some sort of carcass being butchered on the street--I made it. I still hadn't decided on where to work. Once sitting through orientation I felt very drawn to work at Prem Dan, the hospice type care facility for both men and women. I was told that was the site they needed help at most. I was also drawn to it after day dreaming about my bus ride I'll have to take every morning to work and after looking at a picture of a girl doing laundry. Something about the idea of checking out and just doing physical labor for a morning seemed so appealing to me right then. Turns out I made a great choice in terms of other volunteers I'll be working with. I meet 4 other girls who will be starting tomorrow at Prem Dan as well who are from SEATTLE! Ha. And! They had been told to look for the SU kids by their advisor at PLU. We're famous! They all seemed really great. They are nursing and pre-med majors, so I'm excited to have someone to tag along with who is slightly competent in a medical environment. Because I am slightly notatall competent. I start work tomorrow at 8am after our daily morning breakfast of chai and bananas from the Sisters with all the volunteers at 7am. I'm oh so eager. It feels so great to have a schedule in a place so foreigner.

I wish I could articulate more of what I'm seeing and feeling for you, but it's so many things. There are equal parts astoundingly beautiful things and horribly disgusting things. Having only two days under my belt, I feel like I've already seen so much.

In my short time, I feel like I can say that Kolkata is, simply put, all over you. It's on top of you. It commandeers every sense, in every way.

It's the sludge that flips onto the back of your legs, the little girl tugging at your elbow in New Market, the red saree drying on the balcony, the smell of the chai stand (and the burning rubber and the rotting garbage and raw meat and feces), it's the goat you side step to avoid being hit by a rickshaw and it's the boy showering naked on the sidewalk. You can't ignore it.

It's consuming in a way you can't ignore. I feel like just by its intrusiveness it forces you to love it. I suppose you could choose to hate it... but people who choose hate over love don't come to India.