The same but different

Hey bondus (friends)!

Now it’s the third day since we have been here and everyone is slipping right into the crazy flow of the city. It is such an interesting thing to be back in Kolkata a second time and to see what is the same but also what is different. The shop keepers, people on the street (including the henna lady), Blue Sky jokes, Astoria Hotel, traffic, noise, smells and even the family outside of Shanti Dan are still the same. I was worried that it was going to be frustrating not to see progress from last year, but I was surprised at the many changes that have happened. First of all, as of last week West Bengal (the state that Kolkata is in) is no longer communist. After over 30 years, the TMC party unseated the CPM and the ever popular Mamata Banerjee is the new chief minister. At Mother Teresa’s, Kalighat is being renovated and Shanti Dan’s home for women is in a complete nice, new building. The addition that was just a foundation behind the Astoria is now a full concrete frame of a building. And for a little bit of gossip, Sam is no longer at Blue Sky. He left 50 days ago on vacation and never came back. Allegedly he is with a woman from France.

Being back at Shanti Dan has been wonderful, once Anne and I were able to get there. Shanti Dan is a home for women who are mentally ill, were abused or have experienced some sort of trauma that Anne and I volunteered at last year. Apparently the bus routes have changed and we were greeted with funny looks or laughs when we asked the bus drivers to take us to Topsia. The bus ride is usually 20 minutes and we had no idea how to hoof it from the Mother Huose to Shanti Dan so this morning we walked with the group from Prem Dan to their home and were easily able to figure out how to walk the rest of the way.

There is a definite change in the atmosphere of Shanti Dan. It is much friendlier and upbeat. They play music, dance, do stretching and drawing time and treat the women much nicer. Much of the volunteering at Shanti Dan is simply to be with the women and to give them loving attention. Today was a standard day there and I painted some nails, sang some songs, danced and fed some women lechi (a sweet Indian fruit). The most interesting part of my day was hearing the history behind why some of the women are there from one of the sisters. It all started when a woman was brought in on a stretcher by two massis. She couldn’t have weighed more than 80 pounds and was visibly shaken. I was curious where she was coming from and hwo they evaluate the state of the women and one of the sisters was kind enough to answer alllllllll of my questions. The new woman was taken off of the streets this morning near Howrah Train Station by the sisters and it is assumed she is HIV positive. She was coherent and talking but she had strangulation marks around her neck. The sister said that she was assaulted by some men and they dumped her at the train station. In talking with the sister it seemed as if most of the women were taken in from the stations. Many of the women’s families or even strangers will beat up women who are sick, disabled, mentally ill or otherwise unwanted, put them on a train with a one way ticket to Kolkata and then they are left with nothing to fend for themselves once they arrive. If the women were not already traumatized, then they certainly would be after that. Another woman, Alex (which is the name the sisters gave to her because no one knows her name), was found in the station with acid burns on her face and chest. Her bottom lip has now healed to her chin so that her mouth is always open and it is difficult for her to talk. She says she is married with two children but she ran away from her husband. The sisters were unable to find her family to reunite them but she is being transferred tomorrow to a home where more people speak her language (Tamil).

Once the women go through intake, the sisters try to find their families to see if they will take them back and care for them. In the case of Amkhi, her family in Bihar did take her back after she ran away. She is a 25 year old schizophrenic who was found living on the streets. She got pregnant and the sisters cared for her while she was off her medication during her pregnancy. No one knows who the father is. The pregnancy was healthy and the baby is now at Shishu Bhavan, a home for kids to be adopted. The sisters said that Amkhi did not want and could not care for the baby but if her family wants to care for the baby, they can have it. Otherwise the baby will be put up for adoption.

Even though it is an extreme disadvantage to be a woman in India, to be seen as an object or a second class citizen, there is some progress. Mamata is a woman and one of the most respected politicians in India and there are many organizations concerned with women’s welfare. Besides having to sit on the opposite sides of the bus and being subjected to quite obvious male stares, the women on the trip luckily don’t have the same struggles.

Today some people are at the final vow ceremony for many of the sisters while others are mastering the marketplace and hanging out on the street. We’re back at Mother Teresa’s tomorrow and will make our final decisions as to which houses we will be working at during our registration in the afternoon. And with the call to prayer, I must go!

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes! Indian birthdays are always ones to remember.