"Welcome to the City of Joy Madam" -Indian Street Kid

Kolkata, I recently found out, is called the City of Joy. I think this is fitting. So far I have encountered such an overwhelming sense of joy even in the midst of great suffering. But before I tell my stories, heres a few things about Kolkata.

The city is actually bigger than New York and has at least twice as many people to populate it. Volunteers come from all over the world in order to volunteer at the Mother House and I have found most are actually from Spain and Japan. Just like any Indian city

My little apartment

 of its size, it is very very dirty. But there is a certain charm amidst everything that hints at just how old some of the structures I pass daily are. It's currently monsoon season which means the streets flash flood. Today that meant wading down a street in the Red Light District with water almost knee high. They tell me this should end at the end of the month though so that will be a blessing. 

This morning was my first day at the Mother House (what everyone here calls Missionaries of Charity) where I mainly cleaned and did small projects for the sisters. While this is nothing glamorous, I was super happy to do it because that means I worked closely with Sister Mercy Maria, the volunteer coordinator. She said she was happy i was going to be there so long and she would "make sure to use me in all kinds of ways." (Aka ill be helping put with orientation later on) from now in, I am being placed at a home called Daya Dan which is for handicapped kids. I see this as a challenge because this is probably the house I am least comfortable with but I trust the sisters' judgement of where to place me.

As for New Light, my work has not begun because the floods have been so bad. They even

fully closed the place one day because the water was too high to be safe for the children. This wouldn't be so bad except NL backs up to a river which has strong tides. However, I was able to go to one of the projects New Light has started called Soma Home. At this house, young girls who are at risk of either forced prostitution by their mothers or human trafficking are able to live and get an education safely. I had bought a cheap Indian guitar that day and brought it to visit the girls. They absolutely loved it, so after I was done playing for them I passed it around to all the 20 or so girls. A couple even want to learn, so I promised I would.... In exchange for Indian dance lessons! They were literally some of the sweetest girls I have ever met even though the lives some come from are simply horrible. This is the joy I was talking about.

Someone told me once happiness was a feeling. Something good may happen to you and you feel happy, or it's a mood you can be in for awhile. But happiness isn't permanent. It can change and go away without your choosing.

Joy on the other hand is a choice. It's deeper than a feeling or a moment because it is a way of thinking. Joy is a lens for which you can see the word, and it's not based on anything you can or cannot have. Joy here can be seen in a culture that celebrates everything (literally, there is a holiday every other week it seems like) and in the faces of the Soma Home girls who have every reason to be cynical and mistrusting, but were hanging on my arms begging me to come back soon. This city is hard to adjust to, with its monsoons and sticky weather, but even if I had the choice, I wouldn't choose to be anywhere else.

Love you all. Continually pray for me and for my health as I adjust to everything here. Also, for patience and understanding for a culture so so different from that if the South haha.