City Life

I can’t believe it’s taken this long for me to upload this; but still better late than never. So far Kolkata has been an amazing and intense place; to describe it I don’t know where to begin. I suppose I could start with the trees. No one ever told me there are so many trees in Kolkata, but our first taxi ride, when we came in from the airport, I noticed so many, especially palm trees. And from our bedroom windows they take up most of the view. One night I was caught out in a thunder and lightning storm; walking on a tree-covered street, soaked to the skin, I felt like an adventurer exploring a jungle. So far we’ve settled in quite well; when James and I first arrived three weeks ago it couldn’t have been more of a shock to the system, but now we’ve adjusted its pretty good. The biggest challenge for me now will be surviving the heat, as it’s already hot and is meant to get even worse before the monsoon. We also have another housemate, Cate, who I’m sharing a room with, and she arrived only a few days after us. I started work 2 weeks ago; every morning at 8:30 I get a train from Ballygunge station (nice Irish name!) and get out about 40 minutes later. Indian trains really are so busy- even though the women’s only carriage is generally a bit quieter. Work in the office itself is great, I don’t think I could have asked for a better place to work. Everyone is so friendly and makes an effort to help me feel at home there. I’m working in an education project, and so far the work I’ve done has involved entering data about the children who attend the schools and their family background, researching child protection policies, and preparing case studies on children who are now attending Sabuj Sangha schools, having had no previous education. I feel like I’m learning loads. We’re also quite lucky that there are things to see and do here, between markets, cinemas, bars and of course some touristy, sight-seeing things. For Easter Sunday, myself, James and Cate went and relaxed in the Maidan, a huge, beautiful park, for a couple of hours before going for a bite to eat and, thanks to another expat friend of ours, actually managed to get some Easter eggs! I think I’ll wrap it up here, but hoping that everyone is taking care and I’m looking forward to reading more blog posts soon :)

Lizzy x