40 Days

Today is my 40^th day in India.  It is odd to write that because it feels to me like it must feel to my readers that I have only been in India for a short time, since I have only shared a handful of stories.  For every story I’ve blogged about there are a hundred stories I haven’t.  As I sit here on the concrete floor of my hotel room,an odd song is being composed outside in the hallway consisting mostly of drums and a wavering, nasally voice.  It sounds like something you would hear in a movie when they show a quick shot of the heart of India with rickshaws and brown women with giant pots on their heads walking up a dusty jungle path.  I, however, know the singer and he is not Indian, he is in fact a white guy from New Jersey; but he dresses in an orange robe like a Tibetan Monk and sports a shaved head with a single lock of hair in the middle.  He lives in the mountains north of Kolkata but spends a good portion of his time here for reasons I still haven’t figured out.  Josh and I refer to him as ‘Papa Pipi’ because we can never remember his Hindi name.  All that to say 40 days worth of stories is overwhelming when it comes to blogging and I don’t even know anymore what is weird and what is normal, I wish I could paint an accurate picture of my life in India but it’s unfortunately impossible. 

Josh smiling even though he is sick

This morning I opened a note from my friend in Spain who had given it to me before I left and told me to open it some time after May 16^th.  In it she asked some great questions and I want to share them and maybe you can ask them to yourself too. 

1.       What has been the biggest surprise?

Possibly the size of the Missionaries of Charity.  The house of the dying has only 89 beds in it within a couple small rooms.  There are only ever about 30 volunteers in a given day.  Since Mother Teresa is a common household name and her ministries are in hundreds of countries around the world I guess I always assumed her headquarters would be giant with hundreds of volunteers.  Maybe that’s my American showing. 

2.       What has been hard?  Harder than you imagined?

Really my life here isn’t nearly as hard as I imagined it would be, though surprisingly the heat has been really annoying lately.  We have had record temperatures which when it’s already summer in Kolkata gets kind of ridiculous (today the heat index was 120 F and no A/C anywhere!).  It is so hot that I am covered day and night with heat rash which is quite itchy and sweat drips down my face even at night.  It is also really hard for me to visit people in the local hospital which I do occasionally as part of my job.  Walking through the rows of burn victims, recently paralyzed, and sometimes dead patients makes me feel so powerless and uncomfortable.  Life seems entirely unfair in those moments. 

3.       Is there anything you are dwelling on and not putting into words?

Not that I can think of…

4.       Where have you seen the power of the Lord?  How have you come to know him in new or deeper ways?

One way I’ve come to know God in a new way is through the Catholic community in general.  Once again I am reminded of the beauty of the diversity of the global Church.  The traditional prayers and rituals all point directly to Jesus and I have found intimacy with Him through them.  I am also learning to see Jesus in the people around me.  One of the oldest sisters the other day said she grew up getting to know God in church and in the Bible but she learned from Mother Teresa that she could get to know God in people as well.  As far as the power of the Lord goes, that is a daily occurrence for me.  Every day I see lives transformed.  People walk who couldn’t walk, reason who couldn’t reason, and hope who were hopeless.