Blog - Friday 6th Sept

It seems that few experiences in Kolkata come in medium or small.  This morning we were helping (at least, we think we were helping) the Missionaries of Charity again.  Paul and I were in the men's  part of Mother Theresa's first home for the dying destitute.  With a great group of other volunteers we washed clothes; set out and made up umpteen beds; served water; served food; fed some who couldn't feed themselves; assisted with basic physio to keep the men mobile - some are in a very bad way.  All in a morning.  The monsoon dropped in on our journey home, flooding the streets in a few minutes and slowing the city's tide of traffic, but pretty much dry a couple of hours later.  Some of the water drained away; the rest rose up again as vapour.  Later we made our way through this steamy, tropical air by auto-rickshaw (6 adults in a speeding covered motorised tricycle) to New Market, one of Kolkata's oldest, a labyrinth bursting with people and colour and with everything you could think to buy, particular clothes.

For all its problems and all its suffering, God must love something about this city for it to be so full of life and energy.

David