things I consider a big deal:

• The fact that India can have a successful, multimillion dollar moon mission succeed, but the fact remains they are one of the most impoverished nations in the world with millions living on pennies a day.

• Treating my first case of maggots in the ward. We got a new patient in yesterday. As I approached her in the med room, I could see that she had a wound on her ankle. Then I could see that the wound was indeed moving. Tons of little wormy maggots were squirming around her flesh... I felt like they were in my stomach. I sat to help comfort the patient while the Sisters worked on removing the inhabitants. I was in shock with what I saw. First of all, I don't think I've ever seen or smelled rotting flesh before. Her ankle wound was surrounded by a thick perimeter of black flesh. Secondly, the smell, the smell was unreal. I did my best to breath through my mouth, but the stale taste of Kolkata smog wasn't even a match for this aroma. The poor woman. I can't believe she sat through the whole procedure with only a mere handful of tears to show for her pain. She was completely, utterly brave. Before the Sisters could soak her leg to start to kill off the maggots, they wanted to pull out as many of them as they could. The two Sisters decided their sets of hands wouldn't suffice for the matter... and in I went, plucking away at maggots with a pair of clamps. God, how did this happen? How did I get here? I'm in freaking India pulling maggots out of a woman's ankle... Again, my feelings of humbleness and awe at this work is consuming. I don't feel equiped to be doing what I'm doing and at the same time I feel angry that no one else more qualified is here to be doing what I am doing--cap that off with a large portion of love for these patients who grip my hands and cry on my shoulders, and that sums up what I am feeling. As for maggots: when it comes to maggots I think, "Thank you for only eating dead flesh and not living flesh and, whoa, you are way stronger than I anticipated when I grabbed your butt with my clamp to pull you out."

• New friends. Remember the burn victim I spoke about a few weeks ago? The one I was scared of when I was asked to feed her. Update: her name is Pushpa and we are best of buds now. I know...I'm such a total newbie for having been intimidated by her and now be so close with her. Pushpa is really sweet. I ended up feeding her quite a few times that first week. I quickly became more confidant in my "Prem Dan" skills and day-by-day got closer with Pushpa. Turns out she actually speaks a handful of English words, her favorite of which is "FINISHED!" She yells FINISHED at the top of her lungs at the end of every lunch I feed her. It's so great. Our lunches together have become a very regular thing. It's rare that I go a day without being in charge of helping Pushpa eat now--a responsibility that I fretted about while I was out sick last week. I've spent so much time with Pushpa in fact I can tell you very important little details about her. Like, she doesn't mind eating the bones from her fish but she despises the skins of potatoes. Yeah. This fun fact has dubbed Pushpa the nickname Bonecrusher by me. I don't give an awesome nickname like that to just anyone. I really love Bonecrusher. And! I know that Pushpa loves back rubs. And English pop music. Yesterday I was sitting with her, rubbing her back while she talked at me in Bengali. A song came on the radio that really struck her fancy. I kid you not, the song was Smack That by Akon and Pushpa LOVED it. She started wiggling around on her cot, smiling and dancing to Akon. Just when I thought I had you figured out, Prem Dan... you go and throw Akon at me. Really? REALLY??

Those things are big deals. I think.

On a very different note: I've created a list in my journal. It has one title and two subcategories. It reads, "ART PROJECTS" "For Here" "For Home." I'll post pictures soon of my completed new stuff from here. Hopefully.