What a Morning!

I woke up at about 6am this morning to the sound of very heavy rain and lots of thunder. We had some light rain last night, but other than that, this is the first time we've had anything but sunny (through the smog) and hot. I've heard that when Kolkata gets heavy rain, it means that you get to wade through sewage. With that thought in mind, I lay in bed wondering if it was really worth getting up. By 6:30 the sound of the rain was mostly gone, and I decided I should probably bite the bullet and get going. I took a cold shower (I'm not sure I'll ever get used to those), then woke Todd up and told him it was kind of on the late side. Todd was nice enough to rush through his morning routine, so we actually left about the same time as usual.

Once out of the apartment, I realized that my fears were entirely unjustified. A few hours of heavy rain only made the road a little muddy, with small puddles here and there. We caught our usual train and bus, then made it to Nabo Jibon by about 9am. I didn't feel much like having tea, so I grabbed my Bengali notes and headed to the TB ward. I've brought my Bengali notes there before, and even once had a patient request that I go get them when I came without them. Very few of the volunteers attempt to learn Bengali, so the patients get pretty excited when one comes through that is trying to learn.

Yesterday afternoon was our first Bengali lesson on verbs, so suddenly it feels like my ability to communicate in Bengali is about twenty times better. Granted it is still pretty limited, but it was way more limited without knowing any verbs. Anyway, I sat down with about three of them, and started using my verbs. I had to keep referring back to my notes, but they're used to that. Often they look at my notes to try and learn the English. Usually a lull will hit after I've been there for an hour or so, but not today. I was in there when their lunch time hit at 11am.

One of the men I was talking with managed to communicate that he wanted me to eat lunch with him. He disappeared for a couple of minutes, then returned with two plates of fish curry and rice. Up until today, I have always used silverware (not an Indian thing) to eat because it was available. Today, I just dug in with my right hand (The "clean" hand in Indian culture). It was weird to do, but functional enough. The curry was spicy, but not unbearable. I told him that it was spicy, and he offered me water. Not knowing where the water had come from, I didn't feel like I could safely drink it. Water that is safe for a native's well adjusted system could still do a number on me. After I was done eating he gave me water and a moist towelette to wash with. We tried to talk a little more, then I left to go spend some time in the chapel.

This man's hospitality really blew me away. We can still hardly communicate, but he clearly really wanted to share a meal with me. He did everything I could possibly imagine to serve me. Oh, he's the same guy that I was worried about because of his resistant TB. We had an American doctor visiting this week and he told me that the ward was plenty well ventilated and none of these patients were all that bad. Basically he said don't worry about it unless they're coughing on you. That in and of itself was a huge blessing.

So, the upshot of this morning was that on a day when I contemplated not getting out of bed on account of the weather, God provided some amazingly wonderful blessings. I never would have known what I was missing if I hadn't gotten up out of bed.