We're on the road to Basirhat. It's a long drive along a bumpy and windy road. There are detours and town signs that are not complete.
We see a 16-foot van turn on a 12-foot-wide street.
We're heading to the Ganges and are within a 5-minute walk to the border of Bangladesh.
We're welcomed by conch horns trumpeting and anointed with oil ... the smell of incense ... candles blowing and a Hindu blessing ... presented with bouquets of flowers and showered with marigold petals. We have all been on vacations before as tourists ... now we feel like travellers immersed in the local customs and ways of India.
Eight days ago, when landing in Kolkata, who would have thought that today when we sat down to eat with our Overseas Volunteer Organization partners after a long and dusty day we would find ourselves mixing our Dal and rice with our fingers and eating with our hand just like our new friends.
Oh Kolkata!!
Warren Wagstaff
for Team Kolkata 2011
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