Mid August India Update

I'm doing OK, but I was feeling pretty homesick today. I felt much better after going to church and making some new friends.
When my current roommate flew back to Canada, I was left all alone. However, I've been able to establish friendships with some friends I met at church from England, Finland, and Sweden. I also met some Koreans, volunteering at Mother Teresa's Mission. You know me. I'm always excited to have such an international group of friends. Tonight I made friends with two ladies that are living in Calcutta long term which is such an answer to prayer. Now when the other volunteers come and go, I'll have some quality friends to keep me company. Thank you again for your prayers. They are working!

The people that I volunteer with at Calcutta Mercy Ministries are so personable. I feel like I've learned so much about India already, just by listing to their stories and explanations of the Indian way of life. They've been so hospitable and shown me all the major sights of Calcutta.

My volunteering is coming right along. So far I've helped profile/register over 100 children for Project Rhino. Profiling a kid involves driving out to a village or their inner city neighborhood. Then one of the local families helps round up around 20 plus children, so we can interview them one at a time. Since most the families only speak Bengali or Hindi, we use a translator to jot down their basic information such as name, parent's name, parent's income, whether or not the child is currently in school, etc. The majority of the kiddos aren't able to afford schooling, so they are entirely illiterate. Also I had the privilege of taking all the profile pictures of these precious children. Later, I type up all the info, reformat the pictures, and then match the pictures with the correct child's info. It can be quite a tedious process, but it's so worth it as I look into the eyes of each child as I type away. Also this Saturday Project Rhino will be hosting a training session, where I will learn the inner workings of the online education program. However, this is just the beginning. The entire semester will be devoted to refining the curriculum and working out all the kinks. Our game plan is to have the program up and running so that we can start our first Project Rhino learning center at the beginning of January. I'll keep you posted as the program progresses.

The first picture I posted is of me with two other Calcutta Mercy Ministries Volunteers (Aparna & Jeff) and the winsome children at the feeding station where my Project Rhino learning center will be located. The following picture is of me standing in the doorway of my one room school house which pertains of a 6ft x 13ft classroom. We have room to expand, but we are so thankful for the community building us this classroom as an open invitation for us to come teach their children.