Show me Bombay in a whole new way

I’ve been trying to get to a computer for days, but the only time i had a decent amount of time in an internet cafe, my computer turned off halfway through my post. Bummer.

The rest of our time in Calcutta went really well, we met with a guy who works in villages, he explained the close link between disease, poverty, and trafficking. He sees the same story played out of famlies getting sick from unsanitary conditions, getting into debt to pay for medicine, then making up for it by selling their children to traffickers (often there’s a cover story of waitressing, or something of the like). He told us that 80% of disease in developing countries is preventable. They work a lot to educate them on disease prevention.

We went to the International Justice Mission office in Calcutta. A ton of the people we’ve met are ex-IJM’ers, so it was good to actually see an office, sit down with them. A few people had just arrived from the states to work, so we went along for a walk-through of the red light area. We stayed on the street walking single file down alleys. It was about 5 in the evening, and girls lined the streets. I was suprised how many there were, heavily made up teenagers in western clothes stood with their hands clasped behind their backs, one hip thrust out, women in saris looking distastefully bored. Many of them yelled out to us, reached out to clasp our hand in theirs. Rachel and I wanted to stop and try to talk to them (since I speak Bengali and all), but we had been told to Keep Moving. The woman from IJM told us we had seen a tenth of the girls in the area we walked through. Most are kept inside.

Yesterday was Diwali, a huge Hindi holiday. From what I gather, it’s something between Christmas and 4th of July. We awoke to what sounded like bombs going off outside (fireworks.) We were pulled into a neighbors house who fed us puri and baji (I am definitely spelling that wrong), took picures with us, and told us we were “daughters of wealth.” They were so loving; the wife kept pinching our cheeks, it was adorable. Walking around last night was pretty overwhelming, fireworks went off above and all around us, every alley filled with boys lighting crackers. Every few minutes an explosion shook the sidewalk. It felt like being in a war zone. But fun. Yeah.

So now I’m in the Bombay airport (Calcutta heat drove us here a few days early), waiting for roughly seven hours before my flight takes off. And Sunday afternoon (I can hardly believe it), I will be Home. Land of personal space and real coffee, nonfat milk, water pressure, no communication barriers, and my family. I am pretty excited.