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| Sarah and Rainbow Kids |
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| Loreto Sealdah |
Our adventure started with a fairly uneventful flight. Everything was more or less on time. We took a northerly route over Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Iraq, Kuwait, and then down the Persian Gulf to Qatar.
We arrived in Kolkata in the small hours of Sunday morning. The drive in from the airport was eye-opening: people hauling goods on bicycles, people sleeping in the streets, garbage on the sides of the roads, wild dogs, the smell of fumes, and despite still being pre-dawn,the heat.
After checking in at the Baptist Mission, we had a short sleep before 7:30 breakfast. The Baptist Mission is a bit of an oasis from the traffic and noise of the city. It lies on the busy AJC Bose Road, a short distance from Mother Teresa's mother house. It is fairly close to Sealdah Railway Station. Our rooms are air conditioned and have showers. Most of the people staying there are from North America or Europe.
Around mid-morning, we were driven to Loretto Sealdah where the Rainbow Kids were having a dance class. Rainbow Kids are homeless children who are given an education and a place to stay. They mostly looked healthy and happy, particularly when they were trying out their Bollywood number. After the class we played hand games with them, using their limited English and lots of gestures. We ate lunch with them, sharing rice and daal from huge aluminum cauldrons. They ate Indian style (with their fingers) while we wimped out using forks.
After an afternoon nap, we went for an evening walk to see different neighbourhoods. Again it was sensory overload. Small shops, street kids, little Hindu shrines, and traffic chaos. bamboo seems to be the mainstay of the construction trade. It is used for scaffolding as well as structural support for the makeshift homes you see. They are about 3 by 3 metres and are covered with plastic, boards, cloth, or tin. We took a otto to dinner. This is a tricked up motor tricycle, where three people cram into the back. Two can sit either side of the driver in the front, but the problem is that the steering is a handlebar, forcing front-seat passengers to hang partly out of the cab. Les rode up front with one arse-cheek hanging in the breeze.
We shared a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We were back at the Baptist Mission and blessed air conditioning only to crash into our beds by 9:30.
