Kolkata, India - Part 1

Ive just returned from a short term 'missions' trip to Kolkata. I was one of three leaders of a small team of young people from the Churches I work for in Emsworth. We went out with BMS (Baptist Missions Society) who are awesome! Their work out in Kolkata is pretty established and we spent our two weeks visiting and helping with different projects they were involved with. It was great to be able to give my time and make a small difference in peoples lives, but it was also a time to be challenged myself and be inspired by others.
I kept a journal whilst i was out there to keep track of my thoughts and what i was learning. And I thought i'd share some of those things with you...

First off i LOVE visiting new places, experiencing different cultures and world views and allowing them to impact my life and change me. One of things that i enjoyed was how i saw cultural differences not being a problem. We visited a girls group where they learnt different life skills and also a girls house for orphans. At both these places we just hung out, played games, laughed and had fun. At the girls group many of them were from muslim backgrounds and at one point we heard their call to prayer and in the middle of the penguin game that we were playing they pulled their scalves up over their heads and then carried on. I remember thinking how sereal that felt. I guess ive never spent much time with anyone from the muslim faith before and growing up where i did has made me quite sheltered in that respect. I thought it was awesome that here we were, two groups of people from COMPLETELY different backgrounds, cultures and upbringings and yet that didn't matter. We were just friends having fun. I liked that.

At the girls orphanage me and Dave, the only other guy in the team, found ourselves being completely ignored to begin with which we found hilarious. By the end of our last visit i think its fair to say it was the complete oppostie, especially with Dave! Ha! I think probably they didn't know how to react to us to begin with. After all, they are orphans living in a girls home without much male input. By the end, we were human climbing frames for the younger and (thankfully!) lighter ones and it was clear that they enjoyed having a brother or father figure to play with.

We spent alot of time working with GNCEM (Good News Children Education Mission). GNCEM was set up by an incredible couple who had a heart for the many street children on Kolkata. They have a number of mobile schools in the city. The school bus will pick up the kids off the streets and drive them to the schools where for the morning they will wash, have breakfast, sing songs, have lessons, have lunch (most of the time their only meal of the day!) and then be taken home (thats back to the streets) on the school bus.
We'd get picked up each morning by the school bus and be swamped by the kids for the 15minute drive to the school. There, we would be human climbing frames (it happened A LOT!!) whilst we waited for everyone to get washed and then we'd go inside. It was probably my favourite thing working with these kids, building relationships with them and seeing how happy they were that we'd come to see them. Possibly one of the most rewarding things ive ever done. We always had fun teaching them basic english stuff and most of them are actually really bright, some of the older ones have really good english and its so great to see how the mobile schools are making a difference in giving them a chance for something better in the future.
GNCEM also have boys and girls homes which are more like proper schools and have accomodation aswell. if the kids at the mobile school prove they are cable of going to a more discplined environment like that then they are sent there, which is really great. It provides that next step for them.
They run a baby care unit which we visited once and it was incredible. The babies get on the school bus with all the kids, often without nappies and crying their eyes out. They stay on the bus when the kids get off and are taken to the baby care centre where they are washed, given clean clothes and nappies, and spend the rest of the day there.
One of my favourite things was riding with the babies on the bus. The girls who worked their would bring them on and just plonk them next to you or on your lap and you'd have a little friend for the next hour. I never thought id say this but i enjoyed that alot!!
Oh and the kids would call us 'Auntie' and 'Uncle' all the time, just like you would close family friends or relatives, that was pretty special for us.

Ive got loads more to say but im conscious this is flipping long already so i'll do a second and maybe even third part another time...Thanks for reading.
Rob