a break from the city

the last few days have been......eventful. on tuesday night we worked at daya don and there is a little boy there who can't be more than year old and has downs syndrome. after dinner i was putting his in his crib for the night when i realized that this little guy doesn't get held every night or rocked to sleep, no one sings sweet little songs over his crib when he's restless. so i picked him up and walked around with him and sang to him until he seemed to get sleepy. we all say that all people are equal and that handicapped people have just as much value, but it is so evident in that orphanage that they don't. if they did bashkar wouldn't be there, he would have never been abandoned or some family would have wanted him, but he will never be "normal" so he stays in his crib, just another orphan.
yesterday was exciting as well. if there are any avid blog readers out there see if you can follow me here. urmilla is jorah's sister as well as the wife of the guy we've taken to the doctor and bought medicine for, her family lives on sudder street and we gave them money to go to their village for a few days over christmas. on wednesday she asked stephen and i if we wanted to come to her village with her for the day on thursday and she would cook a big indian meal for us. i think she offered to do this as a thank you for all we've been able to do for her and her family. so we thought, only one day, sounds like an adventure, so we told her we'd meet her at 7am the next morning and go to the train station. we got up early and ate breakfast then met urmilla and her three year old daughter and left for the train. from stories i'd heard last time i was here i knew that in most cases that when you go to the village with a homless person you'll pay for yourself and them, but that was ok with us. so you can understand our surprise when she payed for her own train ticket, which was all of 7 rupees (about 40 rupees make a dollar). while we were waiting for our train i noticed that stephen looked a little under the weather, but he hadn't slept very well the night before and we got up early so i didn't worry about it. we caught our train and forced our way to a few crowded seats where stephen continued to decline. at this point i started asking what was wrong and he said that he was feeling achy and he was cold. i found this rather alarming since i wasn't the least bit cold, and if you know stephen and i you'll know that i get cold when it's like 75 outside and stephen goes shirtless in the snow. i tried to keep him warm, but there wasn't much i could do until we got off the train. our ride ended up being a little less than an hour and we arrived in kalikapur, urmilla's village. as we weaved our way through the streets stephen told me that he was continuing to feel worse. we finally got to the house that her children live in while they go to school that their aunt her daughter also live in. urmilla set to work right away cooking us breakfast over their little clay fire pit/stove. she made us each an egg sandwich like thing that could have fed a family. after one bite stephen said there was no way that he could eat his and not get sick, so we managed to tell urmilla, who speaks very broken english, that he wasn't feeling well and couldn't eat it. thankfully it didn't appear that this hurt her feelings at all and she rushed stephen into the house and made him lay down and cover up with a fleece blanket. he continued to feel bad and dozed on and off for an hour or two while we talked and i looked around. each time i went to check on steve i felt to see if he had a fever and finally about 11am i checked there was no doubt about it, he was blazing, so i called urmilla in there and told her that he had a fever and she became very upset. she told me that we had to go to the doctor and get him medicine immediately. so off we went weaving back through the village streets to a little pharmacy where she told a man that she needed medicine for fever and body pain so he gave us six pills, three to take with lunch and another three with dinner, and again urmilla paid for them, it did only cost 8 rupees though. since we were already back in the heart of the village urmilla picked up some stuff for lunch at the market with the money we'd given her to buy us food. she decided we'd have fish. we came to a man with a bucket of fish and she pointed to one, then to my surprise he pulled it out and smashed it against his dull blade until the head came off. he continued this until it was all cut up and then he wrapped it in plastic and gave it to me. once it was cooked it was great, but i kept having flash backs of the guy smashing it's head as i ate. anyway, we went back to stephen and had him eat a little rice and take the first dosage of the medicine. to be honest we didn't have a lot of faith in it, the ethnocentric part of us came out and we thought how can cheap indian medicine work on stephen? but two hours later we had our answer when his fever broke and he finally re-emerged from the house to join me for our rice and fish feast. he continued to feel better and was back to normal by the time our train left at 5. we spent the afternoon taking pictures like celebrities with all the kids in the village and awed them with the video capabilities of our camera.
you may think, oh how awful, but really being in urmilla's village was the best place for stephen to get sick. it was quiet, and full of clean air (of which there is none in kolkata), and i never would have thought to go to an indian pharmacy and get medicine, but it worked and steve-o is back to himself today. God continues to take care of us and knows just what to do and where to take us each day. that was definitely evident yesterday.
please pray that:
1. we'd continue to be healthy
2. we'd know who to give money/things to and who not to
3. we'd have patience and compassion for people that lie to and manipulate us (ie. tell us they need milk or blankets for their baby and then sell them back for half the price, after telling us they won't sell them back)
thanks!
kristen

a few five's

To rip off James' blog, here are a few of my own lists of 5.

things i love most about india.
5. sultana (see comments on "steve mcqueen does kolkata")
4. indian eggrolls
3. beggars
2. kids that come running down the street to meet you as soon as you turn a corner
1. the constant ability to provide for and have compassion on the poor

things i hate most about india.
5. being stared at by strangers ALL the time
4. man eating crows
3. beggars
2. the ever-present aroma of stagnant urine in the street
1. constantly realizing how selfish i am

favorite things i've seen so far.
5. "style cream and onion" flavored chips
4. an indian man dressed as santa claus with a powdered face and too much eye-liner
3. a family of five riding on a motor-scooter made for one
2. a japanese guy dancing alone to a french song for about 45 minutes just to amuse himself
1. a single man carrying a couch on his head

please go on to read stephen's more meaningful post that i just over-posted

kristen

A Christmas Buffet

Picking up where we left off last post, we went to a volunteer Christmas party. It was organized by an American guy named Ryan and we weren't sure if it was going to be a bunch of people, or just us and him. We showed up to the top of the Paragon hotel to find a table that was probably 15 feet long covered with food, and around 40 people from a vast range of countries. It was the best surprise of the day by far. There was even a guy who had grilled some burgers with a cooking stove he brought with him. I'm not real sure where he got the ground beef, but I wasn't asking any questions. It was great. We also gave and received our last secret santa gifts there. My secret santa was a french girl that I hadn't really met before. She told me her name and I couldn't really understand, so she said, "Sorry, it's French." Good point. She got me a wall hanging that is pretty cool. Kristen's santa was a Korean guy named Wonil who we are actually pretty good friends with. He said that he'd forgotten to bring her gift the day before and just gave it to her then. She got a santa hat from the day before and some earrings for the big gift. The party lasted for a few hours and we stayed up later than we have done our whole trip (around midnight). As we sat there, we talked about how it was kind of like a movie because there was a huge table of eaten food with little candles all over it, a bunch of people from all over the world, some french guys playing drums with a japanese guy's guitar, and everyone laughing and having a good time. I guess you would have had to see it yourself to catch what I'm saying, but it was cool. Coutries represented at the party included, but were not limited to: Japan, Korea, France, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, England, Australia, and the States. There were probably others but I didn't get to talk to everyone. All in all, it was a great end to a strange Christmas. We still missed having christmas dinner and being with family, but it made it a bit more special. As we walked home, we stopped and tried to call our respective parents' to say merry Christmas, but either the phones were jacked, or we just missed them, and we had to leave messages.

At the party, we heard a rumor that as of January 1st, the city of Kolkata was banning rickshaws as a means of transportation. If the rumor is true, it will be an interesting time to be here. For those who don't know, rickshaws are human pulled carts that people can take (very cheaply) in place of taxis and such. Kolkata is the last remaining city on Earth that still allows them to operate, and there are many. The people who drive them are very poor and often come to the city from their farms because they can't make enough money to feed themselves farming or other similar reasons. If the rickshaws are actually banned, it will be good because it is the end of an inhumane form of work, but at the same time, hundreds, or thousands will be instantly without work, which could make for an interesting scene. Of course, this rumor came from a big irish guy who said that an indian friend told him about it, so who knows. We'll keep you posted, though.

Last night, the 26th, we decided that since we didn't get each other Christmas presents, that we would go eat dinner at Pizza Hut. Now, you might be thinking, "That's not much of a present", but here, Pizza Hut is a nice resturaunt. When I say nice, I mean that the hostess took us to a table, pulled out our chairs, placed the menus in front of us, and asked if we'd be comfortable at this table. It was just as good as american pizza too, and cheaper. It was funny because we were all dirty and wearing tshirts from work, and everyone else was dressed in button down shirts and saris. We were underdressed at Pizza Hut. Imagine trying to do that in the states. You'd have to wear a black trashbag and not bathe for a week. It was great though, and a delicious christmas present.

At the end of Christmas, I have this to ask; Mom and Dad, can we have a pseudo Christmas dinner when we get back and say Merry Christmas at the airport? That's all.

Stephen

Ho ho ho...

Merry Christmas! Or, as everyone here says, happy Christmas. It has been an interesting christmas eve and day so far. The highlights are as follows.

In the morning, we went to church and got just about the same christmas service that happens at home. There was a large production done by the kids of the church in which the director of the music was really bad at keeping time, which was pretty amusing. Later in the day, we went and bought little cakes for our second gifts to our secret santees. Everyone here buys cakes for Christmas for their families. Also, a lady that we bought a blanket for a couple of days ago came and gave me a necklace. I'm not sure how she got it, but I think someone was handing them out or something. Regardless, it was cool to get a gift from someone with so little of her own.

Later, I received my second secret santa gift, which was a rubik's cube underneath the tiniest christmas tree ever (Yes James, smaller than the one you gave us). It turns out that it's great for when you're bored with nothing to do in the hotel after a certain person falls asleep at 7:30. Kristen's present didn't come. We're not sure if the person just forgot, or if she'll get two tonight.

At night, we were talking with the family whose father has been sick. They are all from a village and come into the city to try and make money selling chai. A couple of the older children stay in the village most of the time and go to school, I think. Anyway, since the husband wasn't working lately, they didn't have the money to go home and be with their children for Christmas and were pretty sad about it. The money was a pretty huge sum to them, but it only came to like $13, so we gave them the money. Now, they are going to get their children and when they come back they will bring them with them. They were very happy to get to do this and it was really fun to get to do something for them on Christmas eve.

After we were back in our hotel, we were sitting and reading when we heard what sounded like a band, only less organized. I thought that it sounded like it was in our building. So, we opened the door and there they were, coming up the stairs. Complete with trumpet, clarinet, drum, and metal shakers, they blared a slightly off-key jingle bells in our faces. So, being americans, we grabbed our camera and got a picture of me amongst the band members. I hope we can figure out a way to post the picture, because it's pretty funny. It made for a good Christmas memory if nothing else.

Today, we got up on Kristen and my first christmas morning together and went to work at Kaligaht for the morning shift. I had french toast for breakfast at our resturaunt, but I missed christmas morning bubble bread (if you don't know what that is, maybe my mom will make you some sometime). Some of the older women who are volunteering had brought a stereo to the home and played christmas music, so it made it feel more like christmas. They had christmas mass in the home right about time to leave, so we thought we'd check it out since it's not every day you have christmas mass in mother teresa's first home. Since we aren't catholic, we were kind of confused at times, but it was good nonetheless.

After work, we went to New Market and bought our big secret santa gifts. I got mine a scarf/shawl thing that kristen recommended and a santa hat. Kristen got hers a similar scarf.
We also bought 10 fruitcakes to give to the people we know on the street. Just before we came to check our email, we went and distributed them to the various people. It all went well and we didn't even get mobbed by other beggars. It has been a very different, but good Christmas. Now, we're getting ready to go to our volunteer's potluck dinner and gift exchange where we're supposed to bring a food from our country. Since the U.S. basically rips of other countries' foods, we're getting a bunch of french fries from the blue sky cafe and some "American" flavored lays chips. They really are american flavored, and apparently, americans are of the flavor "Style Cream and Onion" (No typo. Style.) But anyway, merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight. Eat some pie for me. I'm missing it.

The streak ends

It was a good streak. Longer than some. But like all streaks, it had to end. And end it did. It must have been something we ate yesterday. It didn't hit me too hard, but Kristen bore the brunt of it. We have been sidelined to our hotel room for the vast majority of the day. Laying around, eating crackers, and drinking water. All I got was a slight ache in my stomach for the first part of the day. Kristen's has been worse, but not as bad as it sounds. We have not been miserable by a long shot. Bored and frustrated with sitting in our room, and constrained by the distance from the bathroom is more like it. We are, however, feeling much better this evening. We ventured out to buy secret santa gifts for the volunteers whose names we drew at New Market, which took longer than expected because I tend to get picky. I think that tomorrow, we will probably feel close to normal and be able to go out as normal since whatever troubled our system has obviously passed. We haven't really felt hungry all day until now, and I'm getting a craving. Cravings always seem to be something you can't get here. Tonight it is my Dad's blueberry pancakes. If you could mail me a couple of those, Dad, I would appreciate it. (They probably wouldn't be any older by the time they got here than the ones Scott used to keep on his nightstand). The secret santa with the volunteers is fun and helps us remember that tomorrow is Christmas eve. Pretty much everybody here celebrates it too, but it's just different. All the christmas trees are made from crappy tinsel stuff and the plastic santa claus figures wear a lot of eye makeup. Today, we were sitting in our room reading, when we heard a knock on the door. When we opened it, there was no-one, but a note from my secret santa and an indian fruit cake on the stoop. We were supposed to get a small thing today (like $1) and the big gift tomorrow (max $5 or 200 rupees). I love all kinds of cake, except one. And that is fruitcake. I've managed to pick around some of the weird little red and green things that are somehow considered fruit even though they were probably never part of a plant, and it's not too bad. We're hoping that Kristen's is waiting for us when we get back.

There is a family on our street whose husband has been unable to work for over a week because he's been sick with a bad fever. We went with them to the Doctor last night and went in while he was examined. They prescribed him some mecicine, and also got their daughter some anti-worm pills and multivitamins. This, plus some blood tests on the father for typhoid and malria cost under $20 dollars. Pretty amazing. Also, since the father's little chai stand on the street is their only source of income, they had run completely out of food. So, we bought them enough rice and dal to last them a couple of days. They were much more appreciative of the help than anyone else has been and it was good to see that we actually helped somebody and hadn't been duped. Tonight, we went with them to get the results of the blood test and he had neither malaria or typhoid, plus his fever had broken and was now fairly small. He will be back to work tomorrow or the next day and they will have some money again.

I think it's time now to go get a tomato and cheese omlette, or maybe a grilled egg sandwich. I'm starving.

Stephen

P.S. For those interested, I got my second LSAT scores back yesterday with an 11 point improvement. I'm pretty pumped.

Two days worth of rambling

Yesterday, I woke up with a headache, probably from not sleeping much from the people doing strange things with glass bottles nearby. So, we spent the morning laying around and reading the Lord of the Rings. The headache went away by about lunch time so we decided to go work at Daya Dan, the home for severely handicapped orphans and abandoned children.

We got there, and since I was well prepared to be overwhelmed by Kristen's stories, it wasn't nearly as crazy as I expected. It also helped that as soon as we got there, a nun handed me a bag of laundry and put me to work with washing clothes and bed sheets. First I had to sort out sheets that were just wet from sheets that had visible clumps of poo. Then, I washed the wet ones until my overseer decided that I was too slow at washing and sent me to hang up clean clothes to dry. It was kind of peaceful up on the roof with the half-clean smelling laundry drowning out the normal smell of Kolkata. I could even partially see a game of cricket going on in a schoolyard.

After that, we spent some time downstairs with the kids who had just finished eating and were going to bed. We mostly went around to the beds/cribs and talked to them and held hands while they "napped". Several of the children were still there from when Kristen was here before, but none of them remembered her. We worked with a couple from somewhere in europe that we'd seen at breakfast one morning. Apparently, if you're from europe, you're required to have the most ridiculous haircut you can brainstorm. The guy we worked with was no exception. But that's beside the point. It was actually really relaxing to be around the kids and play with the ones who could play, and just sit with the ones who couldn't. Only one of them tried to bite me and that was because I couldn't tell her in Bengali that my arms were too tired to flip her 60 pounds over again. There is one boy that is fairly old(15 or 16) who can't really move at all. But he has these big eyes and he just stares holes through you and it's almost like he can talk that way. It was calming just to sit and stare back and try to communicate something through the look. After work, we went to get eggrolls from probably the only food stand I'll miss when we come home. I wish everyone could have one of them. I really think world peace could happen this way. Plus, they're like 20 cents, and almost a whole meal.

Today, the homes were closed for volunteers, like every thursday, so we went to the western shopping centers to mess around. We knew we were in the rich part of town because I saw three ipods within 5 minutes. We got personal pan pizzas for lunch and decided to see what was on at the movie theater. There were two movies in english. The covenant, and the Guardian. We wanted to see the guardian, but it wasn't playing for 6 hours, so we settled for the covenant. Luckily, it only cost $3, because it might have been the cheesiest movie of all time. We had a good two hours making fun of it though. Multiple cell phones went off during the movie, and twice, the guy right behind us just answered it like he would on the street and had full conversations. We thought it was pretty funny.

A little while ago, we were trying to check our email in the upstairs of the internet cafe we're sitting in now, and the electricity went out. It was completely pitch black for about 3 minutes until a guy came up with a candle. It made for a fun conversation with a british guy though. While the power was out, we sat with some people across the street and had chai. It's almost impossible to sit and talk to anyone on the street without them offering you chai. It seems kind of strange for these incredibly poor people to be buying you anything. They make up for it by asking for stuff later, but still. We also ran into a guy we know from working at kaligaht (Ryan, from New Hampshire, who is one of two other americans we have run into) and he asked if we wanted to get in on a secret santa with the other volunteers and go out for dinner or something on christmas. It should be a good time and we're glad to have some people to be with on the 25th. Well, this post has gotten long, and the rupees are piling up (at least 25-30 cents by now), so I guess we'll go back to the room now. The end. Oh, and the power did come back on.
-Stephen

the "cheerful" giver

It's rather amazing the picture I have in my head of what giving to the poor looks like and the actual way it happens. Even after being here four months before and nearly a week again I still think that people will throw their arms around me and beg me to tell them of the gracious God I know that permits me to do such wonderful things for them. Unfortunately things do not happen this way......Stephen and I have been getting to know this man who has been telling us that he is a poor Christian man and he needed our help to see a doctor to get his arm x-rayed and put in a cast. We have been unsure of his true intentions but we kept thinking that we are here to love the poor, not judge their intentions so we have been helping him out. There are also quite a few women we have gotten to know who beg around our hotel and today we bought blankets for six of them and tried to discreetly give them to them without causing havoc and mass jealousy. In both of these situations where we have invested time and money there is never an expression of gratitude, just another "need" for us to give them more money or buy them more things. At first I thought this was strange but moved past it, but now it is bothering me more and more and I feel like I am seeing the true heart behind my gifts. I know that these people cannot repay me but I secretly want them to be ever thankful and tell me what a wonderful person I am for caring so much about them. I am starting to see past my own facade of giving joyfully with no expectations.
Today we worked in Kalighat, the home for the destitute and dying, again. I gave some long massages and fed the sleepiest old woman I have ever seen. At lunch a nun asked me to feed a woman who couldn't feed herself and usually didn't eat much. Through my broken Bengali I managed to ask her which things she would eat and feed them to her, but she kept falling asleep between bites. It was fitting that I feed her since this sound like something I would do. Stephen got to spend time in the men's ward handing out food and medicine and got quite a surprise when he greeted a man in Bengali and the man answered by asking him in perfect English if he was from Arkansas? It was strange.
The final and possibly most important part of this post. Since we lack modern entertainment our spare time if filled with pointless conversation and wondering, but we have come to something we can't agree on. So we decided to put it to a vote. Which is supposed to have more holes in the top, the saltshaker or the peppershaker? I won't tell you which of us hold which position so you can vote bias free. Thank all of you for your prayer, we are grateful.
Kristen

Kalighat

Rummy update: Stephen 5 - Kristen 1
We worked at Kalighat today, the home for the dying. It ended up being a good day to start on despite not really doing much. Kristen got to massage some people, but I spent most of my time washing sheets and blankets with a bunch of other internationals. I was really expecting there to be more christian volunteers but we were like the only ones. There were two Italian guys, one of which looked like a cross between Brian Hirschy and Matt Leis with a crazy sleeve tattoo. I also met a guy from Korea who is about our age and is staying down the street from us. We'll go back tomorrow and it is supposed to be more of a normal day where we'll interact with the people more. I think it will be good. Right now we're going to go get the greatest egg rolls known to man for lunch. There is a man with a broken arm that we've been trying to help, but he may be scamming us. We decided to help him anyway, but cut off the money. We'll give you the full story later, but pray that if we are being scammed, that the money goes to some good anyway (It was only like $10), and that if he's being honest about all of it, that his arm would be healed. That's all for now. -S

Is Hoobastank a Christian band?

So, this morning, we went to the church that meets at the YWCA, which was good. A high point was a video backed by "The Reason" by Hoobastank. I thought it was hilarious. Ultra American song that may or may not be christian being played in an indian church with quite a few older people. Funny. We also nearly started a street brawl when we bought a woman some milk and another girl made her open it so she couldn't sell it back, but a bunch spilled and all the other women started yelling at her. I thought someone was going to get bodyslammed, so we did the best thing we could and ran. We also ran into another family that Kristen knew from before and talked with them for a while and bought a bunch of kids chicken rolls. Some fried momo's hit the spot at the Drive INN Resturaunt/Car dealership/Bookstore. Quite a bit better than most car dealerships I've eaten at. At church this morning there was a special presentation by about twenty men and women who are studying at a theological seminary. They came to the front and one spoke a little about their seminary and i couldn't help but notice how proud they seemed to be to have the honor of going out and preaching the gospel. There is an incredible difference in the character and demeanor of christian indian men and all other indian men. You can tell if he is a believer within the first sentence he speaks by the way he is respectful and presents himself. We were surprised at this and it is a characteristic lacking in many american christians. after this great realization the seminary students sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" in their best rendition of A Christmas Story, "Haak de Hewald Angels Sing......" it was moving. We've already become regulars at our breakfast resturaunt, "Blue Sky" and the owner doesn't bring us menus any more. He also makes fun of my beard. We met an interesting Greek guy there this morning who had an unfortunate experience with a certain illicit indian substance, but that's a whole other story. We got invited to a dinner at a church down the street tonight and will probably be going there in about an hour. Pray that as we try to provide for people on the streets, we would be able to know what to buy and when so that we don't start any more fights, and also display the character of Christ. We often are unsure of what to do and just kind of follow our own feelings, but to be like Christ would be better. Also pray that we wouldn't get bored playing rummy at night, despite Kristen's impending comeback (Stephen 4 - Kristen 1). We love you all. (Co-authored by K&S).

Email

A quick note. If you want to respond to a post without everybody in the world seeing it, email thecompstons@gmail.com. Things are calm here today. We are going to church tomorrow and start work at the homes on monday. There will be more to tell then. Until then, it will be mostly great rummy comebacks and the ups and downs of Frodo and the Ring. Peace.

Steve McQueen does Kolkata

After a brief time between computers, it's now our 2nd day in Kolkata. We arrived safely, but not calmly, on wednesday night, and took quite possibly the craziest cab ride of all time from the airport. It was like we were in the chase scene in Bullit and Steve McQueen was driving, except he was blindfolded and there were no lanes on the roads and all the other drivers were acting similarly. But, we got there nonetheless, and eventually haggled our way into a room at the Times Guest house on Sudder street. We might have the only double bed in Kolkata, as well as a western toilet. And it's the cheapest place we came to that wasn't a dormitory.
We eventually got to sleep the first night feeling pretty overwhelmed. It took me like half of the cab ride looking out beside the streets that we weren't driving through a poor part of town, it was all like that. Thursday, we woke up and discovered that, like cab-drivers and the like seem to do, all public transportation was on strike for the day, and as a result, most of the shops and such were closed too. That may sound bad, but for my first day in this crazy city, it made it a lot calmer trying to walk around. We ate breakfast at Blue Sky Resturaunt where for like $2 we got a cheese omlet, "musli fruit curd" (amazing), and orange and pinapple juice that were squeezed when we ordered it. After breakfast, we went to look around the city and quickly discovered that a family that had lived on our street when Kristen was here before was still there. She had spent a lot of time with them previously and when we came walking down the street, Jorah, the mother, recognized kristen and came running out to meet us. We sat and talked with them for a while and told them that we had gotten married, which prompted them to throw us a wedding feast. They have almost nothing to their name, and in the past, Kristen and the other people she was with would ask Jorah to cook them some go0d indian food and give them the money to buy the food. This was what we did this time as well. So, we went off exploring for a while longer and took a nap in our room until 2:00 when it was time for the party. There was chicken, rice and dal, and chai for everybody and was fantastic. They even went easy on the spices for us. The rest of the day was pretty standard; a parade of goats through the street, a hindi cover of the theme from "Chariots of Fire", and some rummy (I won). Our stomachs have been great so far. Today we're going to try to find the Missionaries of Charity mother house to get set up working. Pray that it would be clear where God would have us work and how we can best minister to the people here. There is so much poverty that it hasn't really even hit me yet. There is so much that can be done with so little, but it's so hard to figure out what to do. Thanks again for your prayer and support.

Stephen

We're getting there...

Currently, we're sitting in the Singapore airport waiting for our last flight. We are pretty tired from the first few, especially the one from LAX to Taipei that was 14 hours. It was on Sinapore Air, though, which leads me to the top 3 reasons why Singapore Air is the greatest airline of all time. 1. We received 3 full meals as well as snacks. Wine was on the house. They give you hot towels to wipe off (bathe?) with. Your own personal TV and video game system is nice. Ok, that was four, and I'm cutting myself off there. Anyway, despite being tired, we're excited to get to Kolkata later tonight. It's around 1:00 pm right now in Singapore, and we'll get to Kolkata at 8:30 tonight. We'll update you next from there. Until then, keep sleeping.