Calcutta

I had heard that Calcutta was the ugliest, dirtiest, poorest, most crowded city on earth, and was asked repeatedly, "Why do you want to go to Calcutta?" but I had wanted to see it for myself. The bus dropped us off on Sudder Street which is something of a backpacker's "ghetto" with guesthouses, restaurants offering very mediocre international fare and stores selling western snacks and other convenicnes at inflated prices. Unlike many of the other cities I've visited which have similar streets, the Sudder Street area was definitely India, complete with goats, cows, rickshaws and people begging on the streets.

After looking at a few guesthouses, we decided on one at slightly less than the asking rate (thanks to our good use of the "walk away before you commit" stratagy) and headed over to the Mother House to enquire about volunteering with one of Mother Theresa's Missions.

We found the room filled with prospective volunteers and found ourselves seats on the back bench where a group was seated for an orientation. The volunteer coordinator talked a little about Mother Theresa's charities and then passed around boards with the name of each charity, the focus of their work and the type of volunteers they accepted (some sites only accepted female voulnteers due to the sensitivity of their population). I chose Shanti Dan which was a home for woman who had been rescued from the sex trade, many of whom were mentally ill. Mark chose to volunteer at a center for disabled men.

After committing to volunteer the following week, we decided to explore the city. Back in the days of British rule, Calcutta was the place to be for the European elite and evidence of this is found in the numerous European style buildings and monuments throughout the city. While we did find streets that were diry and full of trash, we also found lush green areas, upscale shopping areas and everything in between. I found Calcutta to be a very enjoyable city.