15th March 1977

Leave Rangoon Burma at 11:35 - Hour and half flight to Calcutta. View the Ganges River meandering to the sea. Arrive at Dum Dum Airport. Travel by taxi 20 rupees or $2.50 Aust. to the Calcutta city a distance of 17 miles.

16th March

Calcutta area 400 square miles - population 8 million.

Stay at the Salvation Army hostel $1 a night

Walk over to Howrah Bridge which is a real landmark.

First impressions of Calcutta.

 

There's the 30D bus on the right that I usually caught to go back from Calcutta to Dum Dum orphanage. Notice all the passengers hanging on for dear life on the back of the double decker bus going into Calcutta. Can you imagine how hot it was inside the bus with 100% humidity?

I thought this was funny as I walked a stray goat just jumped up and sat in the front seat.

There were always lots of demonstrations in Calcutta when I was there - the hammer and sickle indicate their politican leaning.

I had to be careful taking this photo of cheating in a school exam. The answers are being passed through the window.

The streets in Calcutta were always like this - chaotic. Trams, buses, cars, rickshaws, motor bikes, people, noise, animals......

17th March

Coconut milk is delicious and safe to drink.

18th March

To to MC house at Kidderpore. 40 Rp pickpocketed. Pretty happy with the surroundings at Kidderpore. Although no bed and security of passport etc is a worry.

The main MC house at Kidderpore where I first did volunteer work in Calcutta. On the right is Surangeon who was a volunteer doctor and next to him is Br. Andrew the co-founder of the MC brothers with Mother Teresa. All the rest are local MC Indian brothers.

19th March

Arrive at the Brothers house at Kidderpore. Evening meal is bread, water and stew.

20th March

Little worried about catching TB. Check at the hospital to see if I jab is still OK.

First day at Kalighat home for the destitute and dying. Not as bad as expected but many patients have T.B.

21st March

Go to the slum school. Indira Ghandi looses the election. Volunteer Neil is over his fever after a week. Lots of constipation due to no substantial solid food - rice and curry only.

Kids are paid to demonstrate with the red flag, hammer and sickle.

22nd March

Go to the school. Teach English. Chn pick up fast. "What is this" - "This is an arm".

"What are you doing?" - "We are singing/blinking/walking/smiling/smelling/

hearing/sleeping/standing/kneeling

"What is your name?" - "My name is .............

"What colour is this?" - "This colour is red etc.

Oral lesson: "sit down" - "stand up" - "pens down" - "turn around" - "raise your hand" - "put your hand on your ear"

Spelling: pen, cat, dog etc.

"Is this big or small?"

23rd March

Finally get T.B. vaccine. Br. Andrew head of the M.C.s arrives. He is an Australian Jesuit priest recruited by Mother Teresa to be head of the brother Missionary of Charity. He comments about 'things' v 'people. The poverty of the rich. Calcutta was very bad but now because of the emergency restrictions, a lot better. Neil leaves to help the lepers.

25th March

Go the school. Teach for 4 hours. Chn learn very quickly. Talk with Br. Andrew about going to the orphanage at Dum Dum.

There is much happiness, meaning and friendship in this work. No one talks for the sake of talking. People matter not objects to be looked after.

26th March

Talk to Br. Andrew again

27th March

Spend all day 40 miles south of boys home. Many mentally handicapped. Most boys picked up from the streets without parents. Brothers seem happy in their work. Go out and back by the ambulance together with Br. Andrew.

28th March

Leave the MC house at Mansatala Kidderpore at 9:30am by the ambulance and go to Dum Dum orphanage with Br. Andrew who later left for Hong Kong to visit the MC house there caring for the mentally handicapped.

Again surprised by how this place is - modern enough. Nice garden. My room is shared but I have a bed with a mosquito net but no mattress.

I AIM TO STAY HERE AT LEAST UNTIL THE START OF OCTOBER WHICH WILL BE 6 MONTHS.

29th March

Many mossies last night. Go to Dum Dum school. Overjoyed to find a radio here and it picks up radio Australia.

This is my bed : the + is the mosquito net and the minus is no mattress.

31st March

17th day in Calcutta - 2 month since I left Australia

A Dutch girl is adopting an Indian girl and taking her back to Holland.

The Sister of Charity are charming and natural

Buy a ball for 3 Rp for the chn to play cricket. Must make a kite in the future.

1st April

No power again. The Way of the Cross the most beautiful I've seen.

Hailstones

3rd April

Power on again. Take Chloroquin tablets to prevent Malaria. Trying to learn Bengali words.

4th April

Nice outdoor Palm Sunday service this morning. Snake found near the convent but not killed as life is sacred in Hindu religion.

Make the kite but the string is too light and breaks. Play cricket with the chn.

5th April

Go to the market to get string for the kite. Chn enjoy playing soccer.

6th April

Heavy rain, vicious thunder and continual lightning. John and Syrangan vaccinate the kids against measles.

7th April

Factory workers wage is 12 rupees a day or $1.50

Teachers wage is 250 rupees a month or $40;;

8th April

Good Friday: fast and abstinence but we go to the St. Xaviers Jesuits for lunch where we have fish, potatoes, water and melon.

10th April

1 month in Calcutta. The volunteers suffer with illnesses such as ringworm, itches and infected eyes.

11th April.

MEET MOTHER TERESA: She kindly signs my notebook 'God loves you. Love others as He loves you. God bless you' M. Teresa M.C.

She looked very pale and tired but very generously gave us half an hour of her valuable time. Her lips were drawn and she was somewhat stooped. She said "Indian people are only materially poor. The poorest are the spiritually poor. That eats at the inside.

There are tiny babies like dolls that cannot live unless cared for by the Sisters.

12th April

My eye is quite swollen and penicillun doesn't seem much good.

This is the Bengali New Year. Take a tram to Kidderpore. Return by train to Sealdah Station and then to Dum Dum by public bus 30 D. So many beggars and sellars

15th April

Talk to Br. Joti about starting a poultry and vegetable project.

16th April

Shocked by the death of a little boy whom I saw around often. Just lying there like he always looked ... but dead. One brother oils his body. Death is not such a big thing in India.

17th April

Mass early with boys and brothers. Leave by truck for Norpoor. Very crowded but enjoyable. The country is looking beautiful

18th April

Go to Prem Dan (gift of love) building donated to Mother Teresa by ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries). Crowded train with people even on the roof'.

21st April

Dizzy spells probably due to lack of food. Train derailment, so after 3 hours return back. Feel very weak and now worried about how much weight I've lost

22nd April

Wake up feeling sick. The food here will drive me away.

23rd April

3 months away from Australia. My health is better since I'm cooking my own food. The curries are far too hot with the chillies.

27th April

Up early and went to Krishnanagar - 90km north of Calcutta

29th April

Mother Teresa still cleans the dirtiest toilet at Prem Dan each Sunday.

30th April

Visit the slums and help provide medicine. There are refugees from Bangladesh.

2nd May

7 weeks in Calcutta

3rd May

Visit Bokaro the steel city. (see in the background). Many well off but the very poor have no employment. Lepers cannot drink the same water as everyone else.

Lepers gather rice from the passing trucks on the ground. Many wells are dry. Talented blind person learns Braille in 1 year.

8th May

Go by bus from Bokaro to Dhanbad - 4 and half hour trip. The conductor of bus tried to pick pocket me

9th May

Boy mangles his food under a truck

10th May

Travel to Barrackpore

13th May

Will working on the hen house a small piece of metal has lodged into my arm which is now swollen and I think I need an X-ray.

14th May

Talk with Br. Andrew at Mansatala Kidderpore.

16th May

See Br. Andrew and then go to the hospital to have an X-ray of my arm

17th May

Visit Auxilium school at Dum Dum https://auxiliumdumdum.org/

18th May

Work on the chicken shed all morning - perspiration rolling off me and all my clothes are wet

19th May

Go to Mansatala to have a minor surgery on my arm. Sirangon removes the small piece of metal

22nd May

Visit the museum and Planetarium

23rd May

Aunty Tricia passed away at 2am from breast cancer

25th May

Another boy died today at the orphanage

30th May

Today was just one of those days when everything went wrong.

5th June

Visit the Christian Brothers at Dum Dum. Heavy rain in the evening. Looks like the monsoon is here.

9th June

I'm shocked to find an Australian begging on the streets of Calcutta and his name is Thysten. Everything has been taken from him including his passport. I bring him back to the brothers house where I am staying at Dum Dum. Br. Andrew tells me about all the young travellers who have died or got mixed up with dangerous cults.

10th June

Thysten has a history of LSD use and is having flashbacks. I take hime to American Express and post a registed letter to Delhi so he can be taken back to Australia.

21st June

Thysten's father comes from Australia to pick up his son. So much trouble to convince him to leave. A tenser moment is hard to find. His father is a great guy. We go to the airport and I see them off. Emotionally drained I slump into a rickshaw and taken back to the orphanage thinking that this was the most profitable thing I've ever done.

25th June

Take the lady with T.B. by taxi to Prem Dan run by Mother Teresa.

29th June

Work on the chickn shed almost finished.

4th July

4 months in Calcutta. Go to Prem Dan.

7th July

Travel to Khagapur

17th July

Go the zoo and see white tigers. Later go the Calcutta races

19th July - 25th July Come down with an illness and confined to my bed. Down to 67 kg (normal weight 78 kg).

I'm looking pretty skinny there and also Br. Tom who was quite a big man when he first arrived, slimmed down so much he wasn't recognised by his friends when he returned to the US.

1st August

5 months in Calcutta. Hope to build up my strength to travel around India at the end of the month.

2nd August

I go into Calcutta I find a restaurant so I can have a decent meal. There are about 20 people there. While we are eating there is a man up in the roof fixing something. Suddenly, the ceiling breaks and his leg dangles down above the diners. I'm so weak from hunger, I just cover my bowl from the dust and then just continue eating. Outside there is a small child with no hands or arms and a dying man on the pavement. Around there are starving miserable children.

9th August

I'm starting to get healthy again after cooking my own tucker. Just simple mashed potato and some vegies.

I bought this kerosene cooker and it nursed me back to good health by simply boiling my food.

10th August

Feeling really strong again after my body was physically run down.

16th August

Go to Barrackpore

21st August

See Br. Tom off from the airport. He came from the US a few months ago to volunteer, and was so overweight that he broke the rickshaw. Now he is going back really slim. So much so that his friends didn't recognize him when he returned. It's a let down when I come back to the orhanage. I feel a little lonely from losing my good, kind friend.

29th August

6 months in Calcutta

1st September

Our friends Kitty who had TB died last Thursday at Prem Dan

2nd Sept

Feeling so strong now - health is good: thank God.

8th Sept

Unbelievable darkness in Calcutta by midday. Teeming rain. In the arvo, the streets are turned into canals. People are wading knee deep in water and cars are stalled.

11th Sept

I've completed 6 and half months in Calcutta and of that 6 months at the ophanage. Time now to travel around India and then backpack overland to Israel to stay for a month on a Kibbutz.

After that I'll travel overland back to Calcutta and do another 6 months of volunteer work.