For Evil to win, all it takes is for good people to do nothing. In the process of trying to provide opportunities for these children, I have learned many things about human nature; some are good and some are bad. I have learned that some people are truly generous and kind. But there are many who are doing bad things for various reasons.

Two of the children (both are 5 years of age) we are sponsoring required Child Welfare’s papers. When the parents went to apply, they tried to convince them to give up their children for adoption instead. The children are adorable and would have been adopted quickly. Luckily, the Sisters were able to prevent the people from CWC from doing this. There is a black market for adoption and people make lots of money “selling babies” to families looking to have children. And of course, some couples are so desperate for children, they would pay anything without any questions or thoughts.

I am trying to provide opportunities for these children so they have a future from the slum, poverty, violence, and prostitution. Now, there is one more thing to worry about. Some people are so greedy in our society that they will do almost anything to make money. For people here, they don’t see anything wrong with convincing families to give up their children so that they can make money from the adoptions.

Well, tomorrow we are bringing the two children to Don Bosco to be cared for and to have opportunities for a better future and to still have their real parents with them. Without, getting into Don Bosco, both of these children and their parents will eventually end up back on the “foot path” which means living in the streets. The Sisters rescued them off the streets and there is no way we are putting them back in the streets. Only when pigs fly will that happens.

Each week, I spend anywhere from 4 to 10 hours hours in the slums teaching the children, talking with the families, and learning about their lives. The children and families are living in very poor conditions. I figured if anyone is making a living sorting trash and living in a landfill has met the definition of being very poor. Many of the families I have met live in a tiny shack made from bamboo and plastics. The floors are a mixture of cardboard and plastic sheets to keep the water out, but often not very successful when it rains too long or too hard. These tiny shacks about the square footage size of a full size bed (8×6 square feet) normally house 5-7 people, adults and children.

In India, the Hindi word for naughty is “budmas” and they use the word, “cheater” to describe an Indian man who is a bad person, abusive, a drunk, and unfaithful to his wife and family. There are many “cheaters” in India and many in the slums are “cheaters”.

For children living in this environment, I would define them as being very poor and being at-risked. However, if a child has two parents regardless of their living conditions, many people in India and the government don’t considered them poor enough or at-risked enough to qualify for assistance since the “cheater” father and mother can go find jobs to care for the family. For them, they don’t view a child living in an impoverish environment with a father who drinks and is abusive as being poor enough to help. At least, that has been my experience working with many of the Indians here in Kolkata.

I spent the day yesterday buying school supplies and some clothes for the children. I wanted for them to look nice for their first day at Don Bosco. This morning I went to pick them up at the Gandhi Center around 9 in the morning. As it is typical the children and mothers were not ready, but we had plenty of time. Two Sisters from Missionaries of Charity accompanied me and the children to provide support and to learn about the Don Bosco’s facility.

When the children were ready, we decided to take them there by bus and not try to be fancy using a taxi or the Missionaries of Charity’s car. Since it is our goal and philosophy to maintain simplicity as much as possible, it was appropriate to not waste money on fancy and unnecessary things.

When all the paperwork and interview were completed the mothers were elated, rejoiced, relieved, and began crying with joy that it finally happened; that their children are getting a chance to start new lives.

I am so thankful that we are able to bring the children in. There are still many obstacles to overcome for the other children, but I feel we will somehow get them all enrolled.

The two children that we brought to Don Bosco today are Sarfaraz and Shahin. Sarfraraz is 7 years old and is a very smart child who I believe will go very far academically. Shahin is 9 years old and works very hard. She is also a smart child and with guidance from the Sisters and teachers will have a chance to do well and have a better future. At least they will have the next 10 years off the streets…I hope for a lot more for them. Thank you for continuing to support the children and to help provide them the opportunities for better lives.

Today, I spent the morning at Don Bosco talking with Father Myppan to make sure he will take in the children. I showed him the paperwork on two of the children and he said it was sufficient for admission. Later, I went to tell the families in the Gandhi slum to have the two children with completed documents packed and ready to go on Tuesday morning. I think it will be both a happy and sad day for all. I know I will be sad not to see them daily at the Gandhi Center or in the slum whenever I go and teach there.

We have been using the Buddhist Temple as a classroom for the past several gatherings on Thursday and Sunday. It is a bit strange to be teaching inside a temple. Unlike Jesus, I don’t have anything profound to say to the children or to the parents inside the temple. We basically sing songs accompanied by my bad guitar playing, some mathematics, reading, coloring, and silent meditation. That has been the case each time I go teach in the slum. The children are slowly learning how to behave with more respect for each other and also behaving better towards us. They are not as loud as they used to be and now they will actually listen when I ask them to work or to quiet down. It is a real slow and sometime frustrating experience working with the children and their families.

On Monday, Friday, and Saturday each week, I spend my morning working in the Sister’s medical dispensary at Daya Dan. We see about 20 patients each morning and the normal routine is to dress their wounds. Most, if not all, of the patients are homeless, living in the streets around Daya Dan.

On my first day at work there about three weeks ago, when I undressed the wound of my first patient, about 20 worms came falling out of his foot or what still remains of his foot. For me, each time I opened a patient’s wound, all I can think of is that he is dying a slow death. The smell of rotting flesh permeates the room.

Today, one of the patients coming in was a homeless child about 10 years old who I normally teach in the slum school in the afternoon. He has a small wound on his right knee, but it was deep. After I cleaned out his blood clot and drained the fluid, there was a hole almost a centimeter deep. Afterward, I saw him in the street with his mother cooking lunch of rice and dal. The clean dressing that I had applied about a half hour ago was already dirty from the dirt in the streets.

Every patient we treat is so grateful for the medical care we give even if it is merely antibiotics and cotton gauze we are applying. With the monsoon season fast approaching, the infections will get worse since they don’t know or don’t care to keep their wounds clean.

I wish everyone is having a wonderful day. As for me, yesterday was a busy and frustrating day. We took the children to Don Bosco only to hear that they may not get accepted because they do not have addresses and other documents. I am not sure how we will be able to get all the children in if any now. They need to have a counselor letter from child welfare and a letter of request from someone who thinks they are at risk if they remain on the streets. Anyway, the Sisters of Charity will provide us with letters of request so all we need is to have these families go to child welfare to get the counselor letters.

The first photo is an outdoor market in Kadamtala on the way to visit the slum in Howrah. The child is one we hope to sponsor in a year or two when she is a little older and qualifies to get admitted into Don Bosco.

I hope God is listening and will help these children to get the documents they need. And I hope the director at Don Bosco has a soft heart and will help these children get in. Worse comes to worse, I can always extend my stay until they I can help them get the proper paper works. July and August will not be something I would look forward to experience since June will be bad enough.

Well, take care and I hope everyone is enjoying good coffee wherever you are. My 2 kilos of dark French roast coffee I brought with me is now down to two weeks supply. June will be a miserable month without good coffee in the morning.

Thank you for the help and support and wishing everyone a pleasant and wonderful day.

I did a couple of home visits to see how some of the families live. One family has 9 people living in a single room while another family has 7. In both cases, the room measured no more than 6×10 feet. In the 1st photo, the family’s father recently past away from illness and the widow of 6 children is now unable to work due to having health problems herself. And though I wished we could take all the children, we were only able to accept three of the younger children out of the 14 children from the two families. It sucks to have to tell the children we can’t send them to school and see the disappointment and sadness in their eyes.

Photos of my classroom (above), inside and from the outside. The trash is sorted and packed away to be sold for a few rupees per kilo. The color markers and pencils and coloring books were donated by people from Italy, along with other school supplies. The children love to color and draw. Thank you for the generous donations.

Well, the days are getting hotter and more humid. And though I take many showers each day to stay cool, it is tiring in this heat. For the children, it is the start of Malaria and Dengue flu season. Already, a few children are coming in with high temperature and fever.

For the next couple of weeks, the goal is to get some of these children off the streets and into clean and good learning environments. 

I wish everyone wonderful and bright days.

I have arranged with the Sisters to bring the children to Don Bosco next week. Father Myppan has said he will accept all the children so that is good. I hope the Sisters will bring enough cars for 17 children, otherwise it will be like taking a public bus where they pack people in like cattle..

This morning, I went to teach the children in the slum around the Gandhi Center. In the photo, the children are working on an art activity. Amazingly, we did a silent activity at the end of the day and the children remained silent for almost 5 minutes while we play a soft acoustic melody on the guitar.

Yesterday, I spent two hours teaching kids in the Gandhi slum. There were about 20-25 children with 4 older children of age 10-12. We began by learning some basic English and sang some songs. Afterward, the young children colors in coloring books while the older kids performed mathematics problems of multiplication and long divisions. We ended the day with more songs and the children taking turn learning how to play the guitar. Overall, it was a good day. The children were rather quiet and mostly on task. Our classroom is a dirt floor in the middle of a landfill. When it is not a classroom, it becomes a kitchen where the families cook their meals of rice and dal. I feel these children can learn just as much if not more than any other children in modern schools and classrooms if they are given the opportunities.

We hope to have 20 students in Don Bosco by the end of the month. We are waiting for child welfare to approve the registrations of the children. I just wanted to say thank you to all those who have donated money, supplies or fully sponsored children. And thank you to all for the support and believing in the effort.

On Sunday, I visited the slum in Howrah, a suburb of Kolkata. The people in the slum are definitely much different from the street people on Sudder Street in the tourist section of Kolkata. Being poor does not mean they don’t know how to be polite and kind. As I walked through the slum, I met and spoke with people about their lives and their work. Of course, when the children and people see a camera, they automatically got interested and wanted their photos taken. I met an orphan young boy who decided to follow me around and pointed out things that he thought would be interesting for me to see.

Today, I met with the Sisters and asked them to bring the children and families in for me to process their paperwork and have their photos taken. I am hoping to get them done and the children enrolled within the month.

It is getting very hot here. I am taking 4-5 showers a day to stay cool and to keep the dirt off my body. On top of that, I am doing my best to keep the “butmas”, a Bangali word for naughty, of Sudder Street and in Kolkata at a distance so that I don’t take a cricket bat to their heads for saying vulgar things and touching us in a creepy way. Today, at Jo Jo’s, a restuarant near my hotel, I almost did just that when a creepy Indian man who touched me in a very creepy way on my back. Luckily for him, the waiters kept me from taking a chair to his head. By the way, these Indians in the tourist’s areas work in teams, trying to antagonize tourists and distracting them so the others can steal while we are being distracted.

Well, that is all for today. Tomorrow, I go back into the slum and teach. I definitely like my current classroom much more than any of the modern classrooms I have taught in the past. We don’t have much, but we definitely have more heart and love for learning even if we are not learning much.

Take care and wishing all a wonderful May Day.