And then there were five...

Okay, okay, we're sorry! It's been a while (two weeks, yikes!) since we've written- so for any devoted readers, please accept our apologies. Maybe it's because we're lamenting the loss of three of our wonderful members (while also looking forward to the three newbies). We've gone through some ups and downs in the past two weeks- sickness, heat, meaningless squabbles- but we're down to only five (Ryan, Kolt, Rhoman, Saxony, Holly) and we're missing our former pair of Whitney and Heather who left a week and a half ago, and Megan who just left yesterday.

Besides crying over our team's decreasing numbers we've been experiencing some new things, visiting the organization 'At the Well,' and 'Freeset Bags.' 'At the Well' works with street children and women from 'the line'- those employed in the brothels- and we had an opportunity last week to visit a service among the women and their children. Then, a few days ago we visited the Well again and sang songs, gave a message, and fed street kids. It's been interesting to see the variance of programs and approaches to reach these children- something I'm sure we've all formed our own opinions, but overall the experience has been good. We've been painting the first floor of a hospital that's owned by the Assemblies of God church by night- surprised by our relative skill. The mornings look different for most of us, but we're attempting to be more consistent in our activities, so encouragement, prayer, thought is much appreciated.

On to other things- cultural 'norms' in Kolkata are still difficult to adjust to- the courtesy policy we all learned about it being impolite to stare as children holds no significance here. While the staring and bodily proximity (men walk right up to us within a few feet and just stare while we converse) feels abrasive, it's mostly done out of curiosity. However, it takes patience to realize this and I constantly have to tell myself to relax when I look up to find seemingly all pairs of eyes on us girls as we walk, bus, or metro around town.

Last week we had a beautiful thunder storm that we all watched from our hotel rooftop- it was beautiful and thrilling to watch, but by morning we heard that 11 people had been killed from lightning alone- and the resulting rain left our street submerged in 2-3 feet of filthy brown water... When we can upload some photos we will- our breakfast trek across the street was an adventure, to say the least. Thinking of where all the people who sleep on the street (we counted 180 one night during a 10 min. walk home) is frightening... The culture is hard to get used to, doing the work we came to do is also difficult, and merely being here is diffucult- but it's all been worthwhile and we'll surely be learning from it all so if we neglect to write, rest assured we'll return with the 'in-betweens.'

Until then, we'll be sweating and serving- keep writing us!

Peace,
Holly