India - Part 6: Mother Teresa’s Work Sept 19-Oct 2

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I came to Kolkata, India to see its culture & volunteer in some of the most humble conditions I could think of – alongside the Sisters of Mother Teresa’s “Missionaries of Charity,'' taking care of the sick & dying.



At the Motherhouse, where Mother Teresa’s tomb lies, I recieved my orientation package and met the new volunteers. Everybody just shows up at 3pm without reserving a spot or even contacting the sisters first. Volunteering would start on Friday.

On mz first day, I showed up at the Motherhouse at 7:00am with a group of 60-80 volunteers. We had tea, sang & prayed, and left in groups to our specific locations. I chose “Nirmal Hriday'', the place where Mother Teresa herself started doing her work, where she founded her worldwide organization “Missionaries of Charity.'' I want to see how Mother Teresa worked, and learn more about her practices and life. My group of 15 or so took a bus that got us there shortly after 8am. The outside of the building was big & clean. There were a few homeless people sitting near the entrance. Unfortunately we were only allowed to take pictures outside of the building, to protect the privacy of the patients.

Inside, on the ground floor, there is a section for men & one for women, each with 48 beds. and a middle section for laundry & dishes, which are done by hand. The upstairs area has a kitchen, a volunteer area, and an area for the sisters to live. I put on an apron, went to the mens side and started by putting bed sheets on the patients beds. Some patients needed to be lifted off, or taken to the bathroom. Its a good thing I put on a big apron, because within half an hour I took a man to the toilet and was told to change aprons. When I looked down I saw a big smear of poo. “Great, this is what I came here for,'' I thought, half seriously. It was my initiation. I had decided even before starting that had come here to get dirty, I wasnt going to shy away from this work.

Activities I did included seriving food & water, taking patients urine pots, dishes, laundry, carrying patients to the toilet, changing patients clothes, giving patients medicine, making beds, giving showers, and more. I quicklz became used to seeing naked men and putting pants on them after they used the toilet. I even showered a few men with soap & water, using my bare hands and a scrub on their entire body, testicles & all. It was an emptying of self. And the men were totally defenseless, even though completelz naked being washed by a young foreigner. They had no ‘self‘ to defend. When people are sick or dying they are humbled and hide nothing. Its as if theres less energy to afford to build & express a front.

Sometimes I would sit next to a patient and hold his hand or shoulder for a moment, smile, and go. Other times I would stand and wait for a minute for someone to call me over for help. Some of them would look at me and reach for me to come closer. Sometimes they were in obvious pain. One man seemed to be nearing death – he was old and had an eye that was glued shut by mucus. He winced in pain with a high pitched voice whenever he was moved. When I came and held his hand he looked straight into my eyes in a way that resembled a child, so fragile and trusting. One mentally retarded man sat in a wheelchair and I helped him eat his food sometimes. He would just make groaning sounds to tell me anything. Another younger man asked for water once by using hand signals. He was looking straight at me when I gave him a cup of water, and he remained lying down. Then he shifted his gaze to the cup, moved it towards his mouth, and dumped it on his shoulder as his mouth opened in expectation. It was too late for me to stop him, so I just smiled and said “I see you have a drinking problem,'' knowing nobody could hear me.

Some of the patients were verz weak & skinny or had missing limbs or mental retardation. I measured one mans arm width bz wrapping mz pinkz & thumb completelz around it. Some were old & weak, and others had deformed ankles or large flesh wounds. One man had an injured penis, which he protected with great care. It was swollen to 8 inches in length, and wrapped in bandages. But a few had such minor injuries that they were able to help out. There was one who was always laughing and making beatbox music to cheer people up. One man didnt like it and threw his water at him, but music-man dodged it, laughing. Another man would look at me anytime I passed by, as if he desparately needed me. He was sitting in a frog legged position on the floor and waving for me to come over. I helped him up onto his bed, thinking how uncomfortable his legs must be, but when I tried to straighten them out, they seemed stuck in that position. I think he prefered the floor. Probably the most unfortunate case I saw was a young man who had injected himself with a needle (drug addict) in the lower right abdomen, penetrating his large intestine, which had become infected and leaked feces. Every day I saw one of the sisters unwrapping his tummy, and wiping clean a wound near his crotch that had blood and feces smeared on it. The nurse said it will likely kill him.

The sisters work with true commitment to the patients. They dont act special and rarelz spend time socializing. Thez are women of action focusing onlz on their task. Sometimes thez seemed too rigid to even smile, but occasionallz they would have a friendlz conversation with us and show affection. On Sept 30 the sisters hosted a volunteer meeting, and we all watched a film together & had dinner & prayed. I reflected on my most central belief, which is that our universe was created by a conscious and deliberate being, who came to our planet as Jesus so that we can know how great His Love for us is, no matter how far we think we‘ve gone from Him.

I really value my experience at Nirmal Hriday volunteering with Missionaries of Charity. It’s quite a legacy Mother Teresa has left, and I’m glad my time in India has been so meaningful.



Special thanks to Rene for telling me to google search ‘mother teresa Kolkata volunteering‘ when I told him what I was looking for.

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Photos

Nirmal Hriday ambulance
They (the sisters I think) use this van to pick up people off the streets, then bring them back to Nirmal Hriday to take care of them.

Nrimal Hriday entrance
No pictures allowed inside... for the dignity of the patients.

Walking with the volunteer group
As usual, somone was asking for money

Street life 1
I implore you to consider each of these street life photos for a moment.

Comments

[gerd]

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