I feel like I should title these, but I can't ever think of anything...

Last night I really enjoyed talking to people on skype, gettin the update from back home. I do miss everyone, but luckily things are picking up here and I'm not as homesick as I was. I'm beginning to really appreciate being here.
Anyways, after I was here talking to people last night, I went back to the flat and Jen Trina and I began watching Erin Brokovich. It had been playing for about 10 minutes when the power went out. We moved into my room where the generator will power my light and fan (only from 7 to 11 pm) and began playing cards. Dinner arrived and we ate, and continued to play cards. Finally the power came back on, and we watched about half of the movie before decided to go to sleep.
Today started quite early. Too early, for my taste. My alarm clock went off at 4:50 am. I got up and did the usual to get ready to go and make the 5:45 train. When we got to Sealdah, we waited for at least twenty minutes for Babai to show up, but he finally did. We set up like usual by spreading news paper on the ground outside the station. A bunch of little kids came and we passed out pages from coloring books and crayons. CRAWL coming probably is the high light of their day. They get food, they get to draw, and perhaps most significantly, they get attention. We play hand-clap games and pick them up and talk to them (even though we don't speak the same language) and smile at them. We look at their boo-boos (sometimes they're really serious, sometimes not. Today a boy showed me a hang nail he had as if he might die from it. Just as dramatic as a four year old American) Those kids are so dirty. I just try not to think about it. At first I didn't want them to touch me, but now I let them climb all over me. We are the only people who even look at them, they have to be longing for contact. And you can't say that you hold yourself as equal to every other person if you aren't willing to let someone hold your hand. In UUism, and in mainstream American thought, we say we consider all people to be equal, and most people probably think they do a pretty good job of not holding themselves above others. But I don't think most Americans would let a kid who doesn't wash, who runs around naked and lives in a dirty train station touch them. But that is a form of internalized superiority. Don't get me wrong, I scrub like hell when I get back to the flat, but playing with these kids has been quite a humbling experience. I had to let go of some of my... not pride, but personal concern, I guess is the best way I can describe it. Anyway, the kids colored, then we gave them cups of cereal and crackers. Most of them left after that, and our attention shifted to wound care. Almost all of the people who come for wound care are adults, and most of them are male. We see lots of infected cuts on legs and feet, and then some crazier stuff besides that. There is one man who was there on Friday and again this morning who got shot in the thigh. He has a huge open wound, but he won't go to a hospital. It needs to be seriously washed and have stitches put in, but I guess he can't afford the hospital fees. Babai rinses it with water, sprays antiseptic spray on it (the bottle says, "for minor cuts and abrasions" and gunshot wounds? haha.) and then loads iodine ointment and antibacterial cream on gauze that he ties around the man's leg. I am quite sure that that man will die if he doesn't get real medical attention. He'll probably wait for so long that he'll have to get his leg removed or something, i don't know. Its pretty gruesome.
We spent basically four hours at Sealdah. When i got back to the flat, I took a shower and then went back to sleep. I only slept for about an hour before the delivery boy came with Jen's lunch. No one else seemed to be waking up from the door bell, so I got up to get it, and I couldn't get back to sleep after that. So I got up and read and had lunch and then talked with Jen (she got about half and hour after me) and later Trina until the girls came for the computer class. The computer is fixed now, P.S. I had them work on typing, then I had them read out loud. My mom suggested that I read out loud to them and have them follow along because this would help their reading and speaking skills in English. I got about four pages into a picture book and they were so bored that I just stopped and let them play with Microsoft Paint instead. I was really tired and didn't have the energy to try to educationally entertain them, so Trina took over and I went back to playing fifteen and talking with Jen.
At school, the kids drew pictures of Durga Puja, a huge festival that's coming up next month.
After school we came here, to the cafe', and right after this, we're going to the Penguin Inn, which is, as far as I can tell, Khardah's only sit down restaraunt.
After that we'll finish watching Erin Brokovich. Pray for the power to stay on!
Tomorrow and Tuesday are our weekend, so we'll be going into Kolkata.
~m