Slow Down

Despite the relentless car horns and hustle and bustle on the streets of Kolkata, things actually move quite slowly around here. For the first few days you are thrown into this mess and feel like you must be moving constantly. Something to do, something to see, somewhere to go. However, the only way not to go crazy is to just relax. Sure they wake you up at 7:30 in the morning for breakfast, but then, you chill out until 10 or 11 before getting up and taking a shower and starting the day. Almost nothing is open before 10, and a lot of the work projects don't start until noon. Instead of going to work today we went shopping with Vashal and saw more of the city, and we all wanted to get cell phones. What we (I) did not realize was that you don't just get a cell phone in one day - oh no - first you have to get the passport sized photo - then in the next few days you make photo copies of your passport - then a few days more you go with Vashal to the head office to get SIM cards - then later you go to by a phone, and finally a three month pre-paid plan. Like most things the whole process will take a week or so. Its no problem though, it gets done eventually right? This is what my job is going to be like. I will be working at a small factory near the red light district. I will be working with former workers of that district who are now seamstresses and book binders. I will be helping sort the good products from bad products, and serving as an sort of manager/keep people motivated to work person. I will hopefully get to screen print and make some journals of my own that will then be sold to the clients. I'm pretty excited to start tomorrow. Its a little sad I wont get to play with little children, but thats ok. What we're doing is pretty good as well - we are enabling this women and giving them a sort of self confidence they didn't have before. However - as Claire - the former volunteer has warned us - these people do not work fast. It is tediously slow moving and slightly inefficient, with little change in sight. That's just how things are around here, relaxed and slow going..If I learn one thing in India it is to relax and SLOW DOWN.