Yesterday, one of the CRAWL students, Joy, invited Trina and me to his house for tea after we left the Iway. So Trina and I went with him to his "house", which I guess I should call a dwelling. The whole place is smaller than my bathroom at home. I'd guess it to be about 5'x6' or so, though I'm not that great at estimating dimensions. It had a concrete floor, the roof was metal and the walls were woven. It didn't stand alone; it was in a complex so other people lived on the other side of one of the walls. There was a lone light bulb dangling from the ceiling, but no other electricity that I could make out. They didn't have running water, instead they fill bottles at a nearby pump. There was no furniture, just a cloth on the floor to sit (and sleep, I assume) on.
Joy's mom made tea for us on a kerosene stove. It was the best tasting tea I've had since I've been here; she ground fresh ginger into it. Joy asked if we wanted biscuits (sweet biscuits are cookies, salty biscuits are crackers) and we said sure. When his mom gave him money to go buy some, we protested but they insisted. Joy came back with a package of two cookies. So Trina and I drank the tea and cookies while they watched; they didn't eat too. Joy invited us back for dinner tonight, so I'll be going there after I leave the Iway. However, Trina is feeling sick so I'll be the only one going. I hope that they eat with me this time, because I will feel uncomfortable eating in front of them, especially if I'm the only one eating since Trina isn't coming. I am going to buy a few pieces of cake to take with me as a gift. I hope that it doesn't seem to extravagant and embarrass them, but I figure it will be a nice treat for them since the cake is something they obviously can't afford.
After tea, Joy took us to the next dwelling over, which shared a wall with his place. I think its his aunt's house, but they call everyone "auntie" and "uncle" here, so I'm not sure. This place was a little bigger; two rooms instead of one. The first room was like an entryway/storage room and it was teeny. The second room was probably 6'x6' or a little bigger (once again, I'm not the best with dimensions) and it had a bed and a table with a TV on it. There were six people in the room, all watching the TV (though when we came, they were watching us, not the TV). This house had a ceiling fan too. So it was still very meager, but a step up from what Joy has.
Today I got up early for school. The intermediate kids did story problems, and the advanced kids did order of operations, big surprise. It went smoothly though. After school, I went back to sleep for a little while, though I kept waking up. I finished Malcolm X and had lunch, and then we went to Sealdah. Sealdah wasn't busy at all. Hardly anyone showed up for wound care and all of the regular kids were nowhere to be found. On the train back to Khardah, I talked to a woman who, like everyone, was curious about me and why I'm here. When I told her about CRAWL, she said this was a good reason to be here and that at first she hadn't understood why I would leave "the comfort" of my home. She was the first Indian to talk to me about America like that. She asked if I spoke any Bengali or Hindi and I told that I regret that I don't, but that hopefully I will know some by the time I leave.
Thats basically it for today. After this I'm going to Joy's and tomorrow is Sealdah at the crack of dawn and school in the afternoon.
~m
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