Kolkota

How many people can you get in a train? ALL of them! Between accidently sitting on the women's side of the bus, missing his train stop and being momentarily lost 7 hours outside Kolkata, and learning to hail a rickshaw ... Jason's orientation to India's teeming culture has been exciting as well as a little stressful at times. Oh how very strange it is to be on the OTHER side of sending young people into missions!

Jason has divided his time in Kolkata working with ministries that help street people in various ways. Asha Bari is like a day care centre for street kids so they have an alternative to wandering the dangerous city streets all day. The photo on the left is of a wee boy who loved blowing bubbles with Jason.  who helped feed and bathe the kids attending for the first 3 weeks he was in Kolkata. In the weekends he helping out at the Mother Teresa Sisters of Charity home, mainly washed the orphans clothes (by hand ! Hope he doesn’t lose that skill!). For the latter 3 weeks he is working with a FairTrade project called FreeSet which provides employment for women wanting to get out of street prostitution. He has been doing some graphics work, and a lot of manual labour. He was very pleased to have been able to take a few days out of the city to visit a World Vision project, as he is works part-time with thecharity here in NZ. A lot for him to process, and we can’t wait to hear all the tall stories when he gets home late February, ready to begin his 2nd year at Uni studying Communications
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