Back in Kolkata

Our team is back in Kolkata. It wasn't the greatest train ride, but it could have been a lot worse. God blessed us will amazingly cool weather yesterday, so it wasn't the miserably hot ride that Kristin had prepared us for. It started to get hot, but around noon it started raining heavily. This forced us to close the windows, leaving the train with too little light for reading*. All things considered, I was perfectly happy to be in a nice, cool dimly lit train over a well lit, but miserably hot train.

I'm not sure what to say about getting back into Kolkata. We've only been back for a few hours so far. I'll probably have some more feelings soon. Kolkata still seems really dirty and crowded... even after being in Chennai. I guess it just goes to show why even most Indians don't like Kolkata. It is a lot hotter now than when we left Kolkata a month ago. May is supposed to be a pretty miserable month, and I suspect that we are in for some days even worse than today. It seems like there are a lot less sickly animals in our neighborhood. There were five dogs that usually hung out around the entrance to our apartment building. I haven't seen any of them yet. It is quite possible that the hot weather was more than those animals could handle. It is also possible that the hotter weather drove them to find some shade to hide in during the day. If I don't see them at all within the next few days, I probably won't seem them at all.

You can be praying for all of us as we get re-acclimated to the city. This is going to be a rough six weeks, but I know God still has a lot left to teach each of us.


*Closing the train windows makes it dark for two reasons that may not be obvious if you have never ridden a train in India. First, there are two sets of windows. The inside window is transparent, but leaks badly. The outer window keeps the rain out, but doesn't let water through. You may also wonder about electric lights on the train. The train does in fact have lights, and the lights are bright enough for me to read comfortably. The problem is that they disable the lights during the day. I guess they don't want people wasting electricity while the sun can provide light.