One Month In and I'm Leaving Town!

One month ago today was my first day in Kolkata. It seems like I've been here a lot longer than that. I feel like I've had at least a year's worth of experiences in the past month. I've adapted to many of the daily realities that originally were very difficult for me, but there are still many things that seem so foreign to me.

Since it's a month in, it's about time for me to write my next "official" prayer update letter. It'll get posted up here too, which means a lot of you will get it twice since you're also on my email list. I'm sorry about that, it was poor planning on my part. At this point I just don't want to take the time to go through and edit my list down. Besides, I'm sure that if you have the time to keep up on all of the stuff I write on my blog, you'll have the time to deal with one unnecessary email. The real challenge for me is figuring out how to put everything I might want to say in a one or two page summary.

On Sunday (tomorrow) through Tuesday, part of our team is going to visit a family in a village outside of Kolkata. Since it is optional, only myself and two or three of our women (one is still undecided) will be going. The Word Made Flesh staff here in Kolkata know the family, but will not be going with us. I'm sure this will be a great experience (if for no other reason than clean air), but it will create some new challenges. First, the family don't speak any English other than "hello," so we will be entirely dependent on the little bit of Bengali we know, which is still pretty basic. Second, this is a rural area, which means it won't share the limited technological conveniences we have in the city. Third, as much as we're out of place as white Americans in the city, people are at least used to seeing whites occasionally. In these villages, whites are probably about as common as hamburger stands. We will be even more out of place.

I think that I'm unlikely to find any internet cafes in a village without indoor plumbing, so I probably won't be posting again until Tuesday or Wednesday. It may still be worth your while to come and read other peoples' comments. I've gotten a few thoughtful ones recently and I hope they don't go unread.

Anyway, thank you so much for all of your prayers, comments, and encouraging emails.