Nomoskar

Nomoskar,

Here is an overdue update. Sorry for not being able to get back to a lot of you in a timely manner. Every time I have tried to get on the internet in the past couple weeks, either there has been a power cut in the cyber café, or their has been a server malfunction either not allowing me to get on at all or cutting my time while I was in the middle of writing something. It has been a little frustrating. But nonetheless, here I am. I will be trying to get back to those of you who have sent me personal messages as soon as I can.

The last couple of weeks we have been getting monsoon teasers, where it is raining quite a bit for a day or two at a time and flooding in some places around the city. It is only a taste of the craziness that is to come. I have heard that in some parts of West Bengal that are nearer to the ocean, whole houses are completely flooded, to where whole families and even towns or villages are literally living in trees above the flooded ground. Kolkata won’t get that bad, but it will get even more chaotic then it already is once the monsoons pick up and floods are more consistent in size and longevity.

Last weekend I was able to hang out a little with the team from APU that came through Kolkata and Darjeeling, as well as Bhutan, and back to Kolkata. Last Sunday night we were able to serve and do ministry together at the Sunday night service at the English section of the AG church. A couple of them brought the Word through spoken word while I led musical worship. The next day my friend Isaac and I brought them around to one of the biggest markets in the city to shop and hang out. The rest of the day we hung out before we dropped them off at the airport. It was really refreshing and encouraging to be able to spend some time with them, being the last time I will see anyone from home for a little while.

I started my internship at CINI ASHA 2 weeks ago Wednesday. The first day someone took me around to see two units around Sealdah Railway Station, the second largest train station in Kolkata, where many street children come to live. Both units were drop-in-centres, which are places for street and platform children (children who live on the platforms of the station) where they can “drop in” and leave on their own free will. These centre’s run to provide protection for the child, nutrition, recreational and counseling support, and basic health and hygiene information regarding prevention of STD/HIV/AIDS. They have positioned me at a boys Half Way house near Sealdah. The Half Way house consists of around 40-50 boys ranging from 9 to 14 years of age, mostly coming from the streets and slum areas around the city. It is a transit home for traumatized and exploited children, where the goal is to facilitate the process of mainstreaming them into society and education systems. Most of the children have little or no education, so in this time, which can range anywhere from a few months to over a year depending on the child, they put the child on a educational fast track system trying to catch them up to the academic level they should be by their age. Also within their time at the Half Way house, they have access to all the other benefits listed above at the drop-in-centres. For the past couple weeks, I have had a pretty basic structure of hanging out and getting to know the children, while getting a little bit of a feel for the organization. They originally asked for me to teach the children English, which I have only done one official session with them thus far. I’m trying to figure out if they are still wanting me to do this or not. Even though it has been good to just be able to hang out and get to know the children, I am getting a little antsy to do something that is more beneficiary to them and to help the organization. Also something that stretches myself more and to be able to better understand the workings of the organization throughout the city. I have a meeting on Friday with both the director of CINI ASHA and the head of the unit at the Half Way house that I have been with for the past two weeks. Pray that this will be a fruitful time and that I will be able to clearly put into words what I am thinking and feeling, and that together we will be able to figure out what will be the most beneficial use of my time and abilities with the organization.

Every Saturday evening I have been going to my host brother Sudip’s youth group that he runs at the Bengali section of the AG church. He usually has me sing a song every week, and then usually sit and try to make out as much Bengali as I can to try and piece together what is going on and being talked about. It is a good time of being fully immersed in the language and being able to try to pick up different words and phrases.

Also in the past week or two, I have had my first experiences getting my beard trimmed at a local hair salon, as well as a test drive of getting a massage at the salon (which wasn’t very good), both of which were interesting experiences.

On that note, I have had bad neck pain for awhile, but it has been even worse lately. I have been trying to stretch it and massage it with my little electric massager (thanks mom and dad J), but it hasn’t seemed to help very much. I have told my host parents about it, and my uncle said he will be looking in to possible professional massage therapists in the area. Pray that something comes out of that, and that I go in the right direction with it, because it has been difficult to function properly as well causing more headaches. Also if anyone has any advice in that area, please let me know.

Blessings and peace.

Scott