Eclipses and the Dying.

Pray for us! We leave on one of those crazy overnight trains to Nepal tomorrow afternoon. It'll take about 13 hours to reach the border where we will then have to take a bus for a good 6 hours. We're going to be as safe as possible, but the trains sound a little scary. They'll steal everything you have while you're sleeping, so one of us will be awake and watching at all times. We are so excited to get out of this crazy city, as much as we love (and don't love) it here. We are going to either work in an orphanage or with the people of a small village while we are there. Mostly, it will be a chance for us to calm down and think and pray and digest. I don't know if you've noticed, but I sure have... I feel my blogs are getting less clear. As I see and experience more and more it gets more difficult to write and explain. I hope to sort out everything before I get back so that I will be able to effectively share with you all everything I have learned, seen, experienced.

We saw a solar eclipse Wednesday morning! Who knew we were going to be so lucky :) I guess it happens in India every 3 years, but apparently this will be the biggest for about 100 years or so. It was truly amazing. I feel so blessed too even though it was kind of cloudy here (like always, due to monsoons and smog), because the clouds provided a makeshift filter so that I was able to take photos! I wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

I had an opportunity to go to Kalighat on Wednesday afternoon. It's the first home Mother Teresa started I believe, the home of the destitute and dying. It was so intense... I saw a tiny woman bent into the shape of a box who constantly babbled things no one could understand. I saw women drag themselves across the floor to get to the bathroom. I saw women who had lost their minds. I saw young women, and wondered why they were dying. I saw women with wounds and sores. I washed their beds and helped them walk and massaged them and fed them. I know Grant did the same things on the men side. It was a beautiful, heartbreaking experience.

There is another transportation strike going on. It seems they will protest or have strikes about anything here, which can be a little scary and inconvenient. Mostly it hinders our daily transportation to work. Grant was stuck on a bus for 3 hours on Tuesday due to a huge rally, and because we don't have cell phones or anything here, I had no idea where he was. I'm a little nervous about how we'll get to the train station tomorrow if this strike is still going, but I know God can handle it.

Today has been hard. I started thinking about leaving, and I just don't know how I am supposed to leave these children and never see them, feed them, hold them again. How can I leave them here to do the same thing everyday, hardly progressing and seeing new faces every couple of weeks to go on and live my life like before? Impossible.