Yesterday I got a final dose of Nizam’s before leaving Kolkata. First, I met up with Neel. He and his driver picked me up near my apartment, which was awesome because it worked out timing-wise and it was really hot and saved me from catching a bus and then the subway. Unfortunately, we had…
I have a ticket to the Maldives on the 21st (of May!). I will be there until the 29th. So I’ll be leaving India in only a few days! My sister and I are trying to spend some time together before we don’t see each other again for who-knows-how-long. Jayanthi…
Well yesterday did not go AT ALL as I planned – what day ever does? However, it was quite a roller coaster. I got up in the morning for my last day of volunteering at Kalighat. I took the bus to the Mother House (only the 2 correct buses this…
I have worked the last two days now at Kalighat, or Nirmal Hriday. This is the first home that Mother Teresa opened in Kolkata. Having volunteered there in 1998 for a couple of months, I was glad when the sister told me to go back there this weekend. I was…
I’ve decided to leave India and spend a week in the Maldives before heading to Morocco. The Maldives is a tiny cluster of islands located somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean, to the south and west of India. It’s remote, beautiful, idyllic, and ridiculously expensive – especially compared…
So today I came to the Mother House by 7 am – just barely by seven. Since I’m staying in Hiland Park, I’m quite far away from the side of town where I needed to be, so I had to be up and at the bus station before 6. I…
This afternoon, I went to visit the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. This is where Mother Teresa is buried and where her order is headquartered. It is also filled with memories for me personally. The first time I came to the Mother House was in 1993. My extended…
Over the last week, I’ve been going around to different areas of Kolkata for multiple reasons. I’ve been hanging out with my sister and her friends in various locations – restaurants, clubs, malls, parks, – I’ve moved residences from one area of town to another, and I’ve gone back to…
Last night was the long-awaited night of the Dolna Day School’s production of the Wizard of Oz. My sister had managed to procure a ticket for me and I planned to meet a few of her friends at the show. When I first arrived and went into the auditorium, I saw my…
My sister set helped me connect with one of her friends here in Kolkata on couchsurfing.org. This is a website where people make their extra bedrooms or couches available to travellers. In exchange, the hope is that someday, the chance will arise to “pay the favor forward” and people will…
Jayanthi and I went to meet Melissa at Sari Bari today. She had promised to give us a tour this afternoon of one of their locations, where she works, in Shova Bazzar. Sari Bari is a program that works in the red light district of Kolkata. It isn’t geared at…
I just went see to the Marble Palace here in Kolkata. It is a home that belongs to a wealthy family here in town and has been in their family since the 1830s. Apparently they still live there in a part of the house. The tour guide (who didn’t really…
Last night, I got to go to the first ever Moth Storytelling night to be held in Kolkata. It was hosted by Rishi Desai and his girlfriend Melissa and was absolutely great! I hadn’t heard about The Moth before my sister told me about it a couple of weeks…
The weather forecast for today in Kolkata says it’ll be 109 degrees Farenheit (43 Celsius). That is so NOT cool, especially when you consider that there is humidity to boot. I have to tell you, I do not love super-hot weather. I feel that whenever you are cold, you can…
The next morning, Dean took us into town and helped us arrange a driver to take us to Kaziranga National park in Assam. Our driver was cool, stopping for daab just outside of town (basically as soon as it was available) and good-naturedly letting us fill up every extra available…
Mawlynnong won an award a few years ago for being the cleanest village in Asia. It is proud of that designation, and rightly so. The village is almost utopian-like in its cleanliness. When we were hiking, we went quite far out of the town before I saw even one potato-chip…
Today, I went to the living bridge in Ruwai, near Mawlynnong, in Meghalaya. This is perhaps one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my entire life. I do not exaggerate on this. Due to one of the highest annual rainfalls in the world, the floods each…
When we got up to head to Meghalaya, Bonnie had prepared breakfast and sent us off with a wave for our journey with Dean. We drove out of Shillong and headed into the hills on a road that is under a lot of construction. In some places, it’s still dirt…
After a couple of days in Kolkata, I got onto another overnight train, headed for Guwahati. Jayanthi and Alec had been out of town when I returned to Kolkata and both returned from their travels ill. They weren’t quite up to the difficulties of a full day on a train,…
Back in Kolkata, I had reserved rooms at a place called Travel Inn. I decided to stay a little closer to the area of town where I had stayed when I lived here in 1998. I’ll only be in Kolkata this week for a couple of days before my sister…
Vishakapatnam is located in Andhra Pradesh, on the shores of the Indian Ocean. While beautiful, this shore in Andhra is not quite as beautiful as the Arabian Seashore in Goa. It’s touristy, but more for Indian tourists, rather than foreigners. It is therefore, filled with trash. Also, (and I assume tides…
The day after visiting the orphanage and school, my cousin Pratap took me into the jungle to see one of the village churches. This is a ministry he and Sunitha have been working on for years. They now have 20 churches. What I didn’t realize, nonetheless, is how extensive the…
In the evening after I had gone to see the kids at the school and the orphanage, my cousin Moses and I went over to see the building site our cousin’s husband Venkat is developing. He owns a construction company and had mentioned I should come by and see it,…
I’m staying with my dad’s cousin Deborah Sunitha and her husband Pratap here in Rajahmundry. Pratap is a bishop now and he and Sunitha have a very large mission program, school, and orphanage they run, based out of Rajahmundry. Moses, their son, just finished his masters and is looking for…
Rajahmundry is hot. And humid. Everyone on my trip so far has been asking how I’ve been bearing the heat. In Goa (and Hyderabad and Bangalore) everyone said, “It’s so hot! How can you manage?” I said that it was hot in Kolkata, and hot in Goa and humid in…
Peeing in India can be…challenging. If you are a boy, this is not the case. You can find any street or building-side – really, any corner or bush will do. No one will blink an eye. A girl, however faces a few more hurdles. Assuming she can find a toilet,…
Right after coming to Hyderabad, my cousin’s wife Clara and I went with her kids Melissa and Aaron to the lake in the center of town where there is a very large statue of Buddha. It’s on an island in the center of the lake actually, and I’d seen it…
