Es impresionante la cantidad de ninos pidiendo. Cuesta no darles nada cuando con esas caras llenas de mugre te sonrien y se llevan la mano a la boca indicandote que tienen hambre, pero su suerte esta echada. Es duro, pero cuando el corazon y la cabeza no se entienden no se les puede poner de acuerdo a sartenazos, asi que hay que hacerle caso a uno, y yo he optado por utilizar el sentido comun. Darles dinero solo atraeria a mas, y Calcuta no se arregla dando limosna a los ninos de la calle. Cuando les toca el turno a los adultos, o bien las mujeres llevan a bebes esqueleticos y sucios en su regazo, o los que pueden te muestran sus miembros amputados o malformaciones si las tienen.Sinceramente espero estar viendo lo peor de la India aqui en Calcuta. Aun estoy por descubrir la parte esa espiritual de la que tanto se habla.
Cada manana seguimos recorriendo la calle inmunda que lleva a Mother House, y cada manana cogemos el bus que nos lleva a Prem Dan, y cada manana me sigue fascinando lo que veo, y es simplemente la vida de las personas al descubierto, actos que para nosotros son tremendamente intimos, como ducharnos, dormir o mear, ellos lo hacen en publico, y lo hacen rodeados de toda esa mierda que en Calcuta no dejas de ver ni un segundo a medida que avanzas por la calle, con suerte de que ningun escupitajo de los cientos que te caen por todos lados te alcance, porque los indios escupen continuamente.
Ahora casi todos los voluntarios(Por cierto en esta foto os presento a Jocelyn de Chile y Erika de Japon) 
tenemos la sensacion de llevar aqui media vida. Cada dia al llegar a Prem Dan, los hombres residentes alli nos dan los buenos dias juntando las palmas de las manos y llevandoselas unos al pecho y otros a la frente con una ligera inclinacion de cabeza, a la vez que dicen "Namaste".Empiezas a conocer mejor a los residentes, sus historias, sus vidas, algunas terribles, algunos te dicen que lo han perdido todo, incluso la esperanza pero lo que nunca pierden es la dignidad. Tu te preguntas que habran hecho esas mujeres para pasarse la vida sobreviviendo o malviviendo, ellas simplemente se resignan, y creen que es asi como debe de ser. Hay tantas cosas que me parecen tan terribles, claro que muchos de ellos no han conocido otra cosa, pero ellos nunca tienen la opcion de nada, ni siquiera pueden decidir si les apetece comer o no, ni por supuesto que van a comer, asi que ni hablar de escoger el camino que quieren seguir. Siempre he creido que tenemos la libertad suprema de decidir lo que queremos hacer con nuestras vidas, y aunque existan condicionantes y rasgos de nuestro caracter, educacion, entorno social, etc,. que nos puedan limitar en nuestra capacidad de maniobra, la naturaleza humana siempre va a poseer un valor mas importante que cualquier restriccion de ese tipo, la libertad con mayusculas. Y esto no se para uno a pensarlo hasta que ves situaciones como la que hoy nos trae a leer este blog.
Hoy hemos ido a una leproseria a las afueras de Calcuta. Lo que a mi me parecia a primera vista bastante morboso, ha 
resultado ser una experiencia bastante curiosa. Tratandose de Calcuta, lo que yo pense, y estoy segura de que vosotros al leer el titulo tambien, es en un lugar tetrico, oscuro, maloliente y sucio, y en absoluto es asi. Para empezar el 90% de los leprosos ya estan curados, hay muy pocos en tratamiento, pero al ser personas socialmente rechazadas, sin medios economicos, y por supuesto muchos de ellos con grandes secuelas, se mantienen en la leproseria que realmente se ha convertido en su lugar de trabajo. Ellos tejen todo el material que se utiliza en las casas de madre Teresa, incluyendo los saris que las monjas usan, no solo en Calcuta sino en todo el mundo. Todo sale de esta leproseria, que ya quisieran los miles de rincones de Calcuta estar igual de limpios y cuidados. Hemos visitado su "fabrica" y como trabajan, y la labor extremadamente meticulosa que llevan a cabo con esos millones de finos hilos es asombrosa. Los que menos cobran, se llevan a casa 60 rupias al dia (1 euro) y los que tejen depende de la cantidad de saris o sabanas que logren hacer, pero nunca menos de esas 60 rupias. Cuando terminan su jornada laboral, muchos de ellos vuelven a sus casas.Son autosuficientes, por eso en este centro no tienen voluntarios.
En total hay 450 personas en esta leproseria que han sido afectados por esta terrible enfermedad. Uno de los sintomas principales de la lepra es la falta de sensibilidad en las extremidades, y lo que ocurre una vez que estan curados es que como siguen andando descalzos y con tanta suciedad por todos lados, se hacen heridas de consideracion que se les infectan porque hay veces que ni siquiera se dan cuenta. La sensibilidad no la vuelven a recuperar nunca aunque se hayan curado, y es entonces cuando vuelven a la leproseria a curarse. Hemos visitado los pabellones en los que estan los que se estan recuperando, y a pesar de saber que ya no padecen la enfermedad, si que impacta ver las tremendas secuelas que la lepra ha dejado en sus cuerpos. Casi todos son adultos pero tambien hay algun que otro adolescente.
Creo que la parte peor ha sido el pabellon de los ciegos, la lepra tambien afecta severamente la vista, y muchos de ellos la pierden totalmente. Estos si que no pueden sobrevivir fuera, asi que viven siempre aqui, y son totalmente dependientes de los "hermanos".
La leproseria es enorme, tienen un huerto, y una colonia en la que viven muchos de ellos, ya curados. Tienen una pequena escuela, y aunque sigue habiendo casos de lepra, a pesar de que el gobierno dice que esta erradicada, cada vez hay menos. El lunes pasado les llegaron 5 nuevos casos.
Tanto la ida como la vuelta la hemos hecho en trenes, hacinados como gallinas, dejo una foto que lo explica mucho mejor.Creo que con lo que os he contado hasta ahora, y sobre todo con las fotos, os podeis hacer una idea bastante aproximada de Calcuta, aunque por supuesto no hace falta que diga que no tiene nada que ver vivirlo a leerlo.
Las semanas que me quedan aqui en Calcuta, no voy a tener tiempo dehacer muchas cosas, aparte de mi trabajo en los centros, pero en cuanto termine la fase de voluntariado tengo pensado irme a Darjeeling, altamente recomendado por las guias y por otros viajeros. Esta en la frontera con Nepal, es un pueblo tranquilo de montana a los pies del Himalaya. Espero contaroslo en otro capitulo.
Por cierto, que ayer fui a visitar a Marta, una voluntaria portuguesa, a su hotel, y he tardado horas en cambiarme. Mucho mejor, dentro de lo que es esto, claro, asi que mi nuevo alojamiento en Calcuta es el Hotel Galaxy, esta mejor pero al igual que en el resto, todo el personal del hotel vive en el hotel, y duermen en el suelo, unos en la entrada, en la recepcion, otros en los pasillos, por donde pueden y por las manianas cuando vamos a trabajar tenemos que sortearlos para no pisarlos porque ellos siguen durmiendo. Alucinante India.
Titagarh Leprosy Centre
It is amazing the amount of kids begging. It's hard to ignore them with their little faces full of dirt smiling at you, pointing to their mouths, to let you know that they're hungry, but as you lot say: the die is cast. It's hard, but when your heart and head think differently, they cannot be forced to agree, so you have to choose, and I've chosen to use my common sense. Giving them money would only attract more, and Kolkata's poverty won't be solved by giving them a couple of coins. When it's the adults turn to beg, they either carry skinny babies or they show you their amputated extremities or malformations if they have them.
I truly hope I'm seeing the worst of India here in Kolkata. I'm still waiting to discover that spiritual side of India everybody talks about.
Every morning we walk that filthy street that leads to Mother's House, every morning we take the bus that drives us to Prem Dan, and every morning everything I see, it still fascinates me, and that's just people lives in the open air. Daily tasks that are rather private to us, like bathing, sleeping or peeing, they just do them in public, and surrounded by all that filth you never get rid of in Kolkata. You witness all this as you move forward avoiding all the spittles that land next to you coming from all directions. Indian people are constantly spitting.
Now, nearly all volunteers (by the way, Jocelyn from Chile and Erika from Japan in the picture) have the feeling that we have been here a great deal of time. Everyday when we get to Prem Dan, men greet us joining the palm of their hands and taking them either to their chest or forehead and while the nod they say "Namaste". You start knowing the residents better, their background, stories, their lives, some of them terrible. Some of them tell you that they've lost everything, even hope, but what they never lose is their dignity. You ask yourself what these women have done to spend their wholes lives trying to survive, they just resign themselves and believe that this is how is meant to be. There are many things that I find so terrible, surely many of them don't even know that other kind of life is possible, but they never have the option to choose, they can't even choose whether they're hungry enough to eat, not to mention what they want to eat, let alone deciding how they want to live their lives.
I've always believe that we have the freedom to choose what we want to do with out lives and how we want to live them, and although there are determining factors and characteristics of our character, social environment, etc, which can somehow restrict the way we behave, human nature will always have a more powerful strength than any type of restriction, FREEDOM with capital letters. I guess you don't think about this kind of stuff until you see situations like the one that brings us to read this blog.
Today, we've gone to a leprosy centre outside Kolkata . What I thought to be a rather morbid experience, it has turned out to be quite interesting. As we are talking about Kolkata, what I thought, and I'm sure after reading the title, you too is in a gloomy, dark, smelly and dirty place, and it isn't like that at all. To start with 90% of the patients are cured, very few are currently having a treatment, but as they are people socially rejected, with no economic means, and of course many of them with serious after-effects, they are still in the leprosy centre, which has actually become their place of work. They weave all the clothes that are used in the other centres, including the nuns' saris, not only in Kolkata but in the whole world. Everything is produced in this leprosy centre, which by the way is so clean and well cared for, that it would be the envy of every corner of Kolkata. We've visited their "factory" and how they work, and the extremely meticulous work they carry out handling million of thin threads is absolutely amazing. The lowest salary they get amounts to 60 IRP per day (1 euro) and those weaving will depend on how many saris or sheets they produce, but they will never get less than 60 IRP. When they finish work, they go home.
They're self-sufficient, that's why there are not volunteers in this centre.
There are 450 people in the centre who have been affected by this terrible disease. One of the main symptoms is the lack of feeling in their extremities, so, once they're cured, as they keep walking barefoot, they suffer serious wounds that become infected. Sometimes they don't even realized they've been hurt. So, when this happens they go back to the leprosy centre to be cured. We've visited the wards of those who are now recovering, and despite not having the disease any longer, it is shocking to see the after-effect leprosy has left in their bodies. Most of them are adults, but there are some teenagers too.
I think that the worst part was the blind ward, leprosy also affects sight severely, and many of them are blind. They cannot survive elsewhere, so they stay here and are totally dependent on the "brothers".
The leprosy centre is huge, they have a vegetable garden, and a colony where many of them live. They have a small school, and although they still get newcomers, it's not as frequent as it used to be. However the government stated that leprosy has been eradicated, but only last Monday they got five new cases.
The journey to Titagarh and back to Kolkata were by train, piled up like chickens, take a look at the picture of the train and you'll see what I mean.
I think that after all the things I've written so far you can have a pretty clear idea of what Kolkata is like, specially by looking at the photos.
I won't have much free time the rest of the time I'm going to be in Kolkata, the centres really take up most of my time, but as soon I'm done with the voluntary work, I'm thinking of going to Darjeeling, highly recommended by my guide, and specially by other travellers. It's a quiet village, up in the mountain in the border with Nepal, with an awesome view of the Himalaya. I hope to write about it in another chapter. By the way, yesterday I went to visit Marta, a Portuguese volunteer, to her hotel, and it has taken me hours to move. It's way better than mine, so my new residence here is the Galaxy Hotel. As I said, it's better but the staff in this hotel also sleep on the floor all over the place, in the reception, corridors, wherever they can, and every morning we have to find our way to avoid stepping on them. Incredible India!!
Titagarh Leprosy Centre
It is amazing the amount of kids begging. It's hard to ignore them with their little faces full of dirt smiling at you, pointing to their mouths, to let you know that they're hungry, but as you lot say: the die is cast. It's hard, but when your heart and head think differently, they cannot be forced to agree, so you have to choose, and I've chosen to use my common sense. Giving them money would only attract more, and Kolkata's poverty won't be solved by giving them a couple of coins. When it's the adults turn to beg, they either carry skinny babies or they show you their amputated extremities or malformations if they have them.
I truly hope I'm seeing the worst of India here in Kolkata. I'm still waiting to discover that spiritual side of India everybody talks about.
Every morning we walk that filthy street that leads to Mother's House, every morning we take the bus that drives us to Prem Dan, and every morning everything I see, it still fascinates me, and that's just people lives in the open air. Daily tasks that are rather private to us, like bathing, sleeping or peeing, they just do them in public, and surrounded by all that filth you never get rid of in Kolkata. You witness all this as you move forward avoiding all the spittles that land next to you coming from all directions. Indian people are constantly spitting.
Now, nearly all volunteers (by the way, Jocelyn from Chile and Erika from Japan in the picture) have the feeling that we have been here a great deal of time. Everyday when we get to Prem Dan, men greet us joining the palm of their hands and taking them either to their chest or forehead and while the nod they say "Namaste". You start knowing the residents better, their background, stories, their lives, some of them terrible. Some of them tell you that they've lost everything, even hope, but what they never lose is their dignity. You ask yourself what these women have done to spend their wholes lives trying to survive, they just resign themselves and believe that this is how is meant to be. There are many things that I find so terrible, surely many of them don't even know that other kind of life is possible, but they never have the option to choose, they can't even choose whether they're hungry enough to eat, not to mention what they want to eat, let alone deciding how they want to live their lives.
I've always believe that we have the freedom to choose what we want to do with out lives and how we want to live them, and although there are determining factors and characteristics of our character, social environment, etc, which can somehow restrict the way we behave, human nature will always have a more powerful strength than any type of restriction, FREEDOM with capital letters. I guess you don't think about this kind of stuff until you see situations like the one that brings us to read this blog.
Today, we've gone to a leprosy centre outside Kolkata . What I thought to be a rather morbid experience, it has turned out to be quite interesting. As we are talking about Kolkata, what I thought, and I'm sure after reading the title, you too is in a gloomy, dark, smelly and dirty place, and it isn't like that at all. To start with 90% of the patients are cured, very few are currently having a treatment, but as they are people socially rejected, with no economic means, and of course many of them with serious after-effects, they are still in the leprosy centre, which has actually become their place of work. They weave all the clothes that are used in the other centres, including the nuns' saris, not only in Kolkata but in the whole world. Everything is produced in this leprosy centre, which by the way is so clean and well cared for, that it would be the envy of every corner of Kolkata. We've visited their "factory" and how they work, and the extremely meticulous work they carry out handling million of thin threads is absolutely amazing. The lowest salary they get amounts to 60 IRP per day (1 euro) and those weaving will depend on how many saris or sheets they produce, but they will never get less than 60 IRP. When they finish work, they go home.
They're self-sufficient, that's why there are not volunteers in this centre.
There are 450 people in the centre who have been affected by this terrible disease. One of the main symptoms is the lack of feeling in their extremities, so, once they're cured, as they keep walking barefoot, they suffer serious wounds that become infected. Sometimes they don't even realized they've been hurt. So, when this happens they go back to the leprosy centre to be cured. We've visited the wards of those who are now recovering, and despite not having the disease any longer, it is shocking to see the after-effect leprosy has left in their bodies. Most of them are adults, but there are some teenagers too.
I think that the worst part was the blind ward, leprosy also affects sight severely, and many of them are blind. They cannot survive elsewhere, so they stay here and are totally dependent on the "brothers".
The leprosy centre is huge, they have a vegetable garden, and a colony where many of them live. They have a small school, and although they still get newcomers, it's not as frequent as it used to be. However the government stated that leprosy has been eradicated, but only last Monday they got five new cases.
The journey to Titagarh and back to Kolkata were by train, piled up like chickens, take a look at the picture of the train and you'll see what I mean.
I think that after all the things I've written so far you can have a pretty clear idea of what Kolkata is like, specially by looking at the photos.
I won't have much free time the rest of the time I'm going to be in Kolkata, the centres really take up most of my time, but as soon I'm done with the voluntary work, I'm thinking of going to Darjeeling, highly recommended by my guide, and specially by other travellers. It's a quiet village, up in the mountain in the border with Nepal, with an awesome view of the Himalaya. I hope to write about it in another chapter. By the way, yesterday I went to visit Marta, a Portuguese volunteer, to her hotel, and it has taken me hours to move. It's way better than mine, so my new residence here is the Galaxy Hotel. As I said, it's better but the staff in this hotel also sleep on the floor all over the place, in the reception, corridors, wherever they can, and every morning we have to find our way to avoid stepping on them. Incredible India!!
