Good news! We only
had to travel 10 km to our Day 7 distribution which gave us the opportunity to
distribute 800 bedkits. The flavor of
the day was different as we were drawing on children in the Kolkata area, more
city than rural.
Team member impressions gathered over a wonderful lunch
after the distribution:
We love you Deba.
Deba works with the Rotary Club of Dum Dum and a jack of all
trades. He works with us and could not
be more attentive. One night he saw
Wendy and Kathleen enjoying pomegranates and sure enough the next day on our
snack table were pomegranates and a knife.
We are learning to eat Bengali food properly. Rice with vegetable dishes first, then
followed by meat, then sweets. The order
is important to keeping the system healthy.
We also learned that the date soaked dessert balls are to be squeezed to
firm up the dessert and to make them less sweet. We are starting to get the knack of eating
with our fingers.
Gratitude. There was
something about the sense of gratitude that was different from our more rural
experiences. We can’t quite put our
fingers on it, but immense gratitude was shown.
Many blessings to us, gentle nomaskars, and touching of our feet.
Needy. These children
were needy. During our family surveys,
one father was asked if the bedkit would allow him to buy more food for the
family, since he wouldn’t have to buy blankets, books, etc. His most touching reply was that it didn’t
matter since he didn’t have any money.
Fun. We had fun as a
team. A few of us ended up with Maple
Leaf felt pen tattoos on our arms, as did Deba and our driver Amit. And
of course we had fun with the children. They really liked Wendy hula
hooping.
Overwhelmed. We had
around half a dozen young ones overwhelmed by the whole process, tears and
all. We moved them to the front of the
line to receive their bedkits. It was a
combination of not knowing what was going on, and not knowing that their
parent/guardian would be there to meet them after they received their bedkit.
Support. The school
provided many helpers, many of them Rotary Interacts. We saw the future of India in these wonderful
helpers.
On to Day 8 …
Team Kolkata 2014
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