Mother Teresa’s Home

This is a continuation of my very long but incredible day on 2/12/11 beginning at 5:30am. I land in Kolkata at 7:45pm ahead of schedule with time to kill until my 1:30am flight to Bangkok. Despite two Indians telling me not to leave the airport (not for fear of safety but rather time to catch next flight), I look into a taxi and utilize the 3G on my cell again to check for interesting things to see in Kolkata. I was immediately sold on Mother Teresa’s house and scarf down my first Assam tea and a delicious paneer tikka, my last Indian meal. I easily find a nice taxi service to drive 1 hour each way to see where the house of this saintly woman looked like.

I am glad that I decided to explore Kolkata via taxi, sitting in the airport for 5 hours whilst in a city I have never been to would have been torture. In the car, I whiz past many shops and a lively street which is opposite from the desolate streets of Guwahati at night. I snap some photos of the token old fashioned Kolkata taxis. This city looks different from both Delhi and Guwahati but at the same time shares similar qualities such as the same cars, rickshaws, cell phone ads, store fronts, and types of street food. There are fireworks in the air and I ask the driver for some radio. What a great way to leave India, Hindi music with fireworks in the sky as I am headed for Mother Teresa’s house after a wonderful 12 days working on an Operation Smile mission.

We stop abruptly and I think maybe the driver needs to buy something at the shop he stops in front of (I recount many a similar scenario in Shirati & Cairo) but we are at the location. For some reason, I romanticized a large charity-like house with green gardens and a big dirt road. In reality, the missionary spans 1 city block, is grey and square, and has towers that span about 3-5 stories. It makes sense though, Mother Teresa’s work was based on improving slums. I love what she represents, what I’ve always believed in: one person can make a difference. Her quote, “Peace begins with a smile,” appropriately sums up my experience in India by helping to create smiles with Operation Smile and making the last stop to Mother Teresa’s missionary home.