Once upon an Indian Christmas...

I think even if you lived in India, it would still amaze and shock you on a day to day basis. We have been here over 2 months and we still see or experience something new everyday. 
Let me begin where I left off last time, and give you a quick insight into how the past week or so has looked:
15th Dec- Decorated the school for Christmas. Made costumes for the children's nativity.
16th- Took the costumes to school for the children to do a 'dress rehearsal'.

The children in their costumes.

Got some surprise Christmas parcels, one from my fabulous mummy and one from the gorgeous Bebe Sanders.

Decorated the guesthouse.

We went to Despara to a school run by the same people who own Hatibagan school. Its not a mobile school, it is located right next to a slum and has about 600 children who attend it. We went to see their Christmas production. It was really good, lots of singing and dancing and beautiful outfits. 

'If I were a butterfly....'

One of the songs the children sung was 'O come all ye faithful' .... They hadn't quite got the hang of how to say 'Triumphant.'  Take a listen:

'JOYFUL AND TRUMP-FARRTTT...'

17th- Had 12hrs sleep. 

Shopping for Christmas presents.

Attended a Christmas carol service thing held at the guesthouse, sung along to a load of songs in hindi and bengali.

18th- Church service on being grateful.

Purchased more Firni (Indian desert- very yummy)

Special Christmas evening service... games and that.

19th- Freeset- Hannah's last day :( (Hannah is the son of Steve who's like our "boss". She is the same age as us and we just clicked. She is off to university in New Zealand! She's great and we will all miss her a lot). 

After Freeset us 4 plus 3 others went to this beauty parlor thing to get our eyebrows threaded! It was a good 'goodbye Hannah' activity! 

Me getting my eyebrows threaded. 

Josh, Naomi, Hannah, Ellen and me.

20th- The kids at Hatibagan school put on their Christmas nativity. They dressed up and looked so cute! 

We also decided it was about time we had a Christmas tree to put presents under. So seeing as they don't have actual Christmas trees here, we thought we would make our own.

Okay, I understand this is a very bad photo to show our tree but stupidly its the only one I took. I hope you can make it out. Its made from cereal boxes, plastic bags, cable ties and green paper!

21st- Our work has pretty much finished for Christmas now. School has broken up and Steve is away. Sooo what better to do on a day off but go shopping?! We went to Mani square (a big shopping mall about 30mins away). 

Made popcorn, watched a film.

22nd- Our first Indian henna, or mehandi session. We found out it was very expensive to get done professionally, so George (one of the guys who works at the guesthouse) said his daughter could do some for us. So she came over and we each had a hand done. It looked alright, but when she had gone we decided to try it for ourselves. And I have to be honest... I think we did a lot better! 

Check it out! Left done by Naomi and right done by me.

23rd- BMS staff party. We had to perform a little skit that we had prepared (the day before) on our time here. It seemed to go down well! They laughed at the right times so that's usually a good sign. The staff also acted out their nativity that they have been practicing for a couple of weeks now. Although it was in Bengali it was pretty funny. The costumes were amazing!

Some of the staff dressed up.

24th- Who would have thought I would be spending Christmas eve, in India, at a baptism, at a water park. Well... Thats exactly what I did.

It.was.freezing. They obviously don't have heated pools.. Because its India and its meant to be hot! And its the winter. Didn't stop us running in and enjoying the time we had there though! Its great because India has no health and safety rules so going down water slides 4 at a time is noooo problemo. 

It may appear as though we were going fast..... Truth is, we were stuck.

On the coach on the way back from the water park, we broke another of what would be a very enforced rule in England. Let me start at the beginning. We were casually sat down like you do, when loud music started blaring from the speakers. A few people got up and moved around but we thought nothing of it. Then, we were asked by some of the others if we wanted to dance. We were like naaahh its alright... But then the disco lights came on. No word of a lie, this was a true party bus. We did eventually get up and dance.. How could we not?!! Love India's lack of rules!

25th- Christmas day! In India. Fancy that! We all woke up to find little stockings at the end of our beds that Naomi had made for us (so sweet!). Josh came down for breakfast and afterwards we unwrapped a couple of presents each and then the fun began... Putting on a saree. We went up to Anu's house and her sister helped us put them on. Josh wore a punjabi which looked pretty cool too. 

Ellen, Me, Josh and Naomi looking all Indian-like.

We were the centre of attention as we walked to church. We didn't realise how much of a normal day Christmas is to a lot of Indian people. Everyone was working and shopping as usual, nothing was shut, no one was dressed up. We were the only people dressed up in sight. 4 whiteies in Indian wear walking down the street which seemed to be stretching longer and the church getting further and further away as we went. All eyes on us. I felt famous. I've decided I don't like it!! 

Josh bought us all pizza for lunch! We were gonna get egg rolls and stuff but dominoes delivers and lets just say saree's are not the easiest things to walk in.

Oh yes, we went there.

In the afternoon we unwrapped some more presents, then went up to Anu's for dinner. You might wanna sit down for this next part.... It was not curry. 

Everyone around the dinner table.

We had chicken, beef, spicy sausages, carrots, peas, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes.... and bread. Bit of a weird combination but can't complain. It was lovely to spend it with wonderful people. And that's alllll that matters. 

Christmas has made me realise more than usual how blessed I really am. I may not be with them, but I have the most amazing family, who love me and support me no matter what. I have beautiful friends and a wonderful boyfriend. I have a roof over my head and food every day. I have grown to appreciate this more and more whilst living and working in Kolkata, surrounded by people who live contently with nothing. Today I have opened gifts sent to me from across the world, and eaten food with my fantastic Indian family. I have so many opportunities in life. That is a lot more than most people can say. I have SO much to be grateful for. I don't thank God enough for all he has done in my life. I am so richly blessed. Thank you to every single person in my life, everyone who has supported me, encouraged me, laughed with me, cried with me, been proud of me or embarrassed by me! Everyone who has been there to be reminders of just how beautiful life is. Even the people who haven't. Each one of you has shaped the person who I am today. 

Peace,

Harriet x

P.s. We are off to Goa for our holiday tomorrow (more to be grateful for) so provided I get there and back in one piece, a holiday blog should be up sometime after the 11th Jan. Watch this space!

To the one I love....

So today is a happy but sad day. Mine and Chris' 1 year anniversary. 1 whole year being with the most amazing man ever to have come in contact with. But being away in India and not able to spend it with him. He is my rock and the love of my life. The only good thing to come out of working at Sainsbury's! I knew there must have been a good reason for working there 2 years! Our first bit of contact was when I was collecting the trolley's in the blowing wind and rain; he was laughing at me, so I told him to 'not say a word'. The next time was when we were out in the warehouse and he was unloading a lorry whilst I was putting away empty dvd boxes. I told him his machine was loud... he gave me the look as if to say '.....yes....and....' We have had many moments like this since, I state the obvious or say something silly and he just looks at me confused and agrees. From then on everything just fell into place. We exchanged numbers and talked all the time. And before we knew it it was official. I was his and he was mine. From then on every day with him has been amazing. He is the kindest, gentlest, sweetest man, he is the most special person in my life and I love him with all my heart. He puts up with my stupidity and clumsiness and accepts me for me. Not many people would be willing to do that! (Trust me). Thank you Chris Albones for loving me for a whole year, I hope the rest of the years of my life are spent with you, you make me the happiest girl in the world. 

Me and Chris <3

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So since my last post quite a lot has happened. I have almost been attacked by an army of cockroaches (after being told its unlikely I would see them here.... pffffffffft), I have had parcels and letters from family and friends, A surprise Christmas parcel from Miss Rachel Willicott which was so exciting to receive!! I posted a parcel home, found a shop that sold (an Indian version of) strawberry laces, went to a very swanky restaurant for a meal, experienced the Muharram festival, bought my first sari for Christmas (Blue and red and very sparkly, can't wait to wear it!!), spent sports day at the school (forgot my camera-gutted), went to a Christmas play- Christmas according to scrooge- at Assemblies of God church, getting in the mood for Christmas! Tried out some Kolkata deserts from the road side (yum!),  went out for a meal with Kari, an American lady we have spent a lot of time with here, it was her last day on Friday so we had a good bye meal. Went on our first cycle rickshaw (now my favourite way of getting around), tried more street food- (I thought I would lose weight in India, then I was introduced to egg rolls.) I even murdered the queen pomegranate. 

The Queen.

Uh oh!

Crime scene!

We had a busy day at Freeset on Monday. Devotions there are in Bengali  so we couldn't understand, but afterwards they were briefly translated for us and basically some of the ladies working there are going back to the trade, and some are doing both. One young girl there piped up quite annoyed and said that she gets more money in the trade and stuff. Its so sad that people will still go back to that even with the amazing hope and freedom they have through Freeset. After that we went and checked out another couple of projects similar to Freeset, Analogics and ConneXions, which both make beautiful things out of recycled sari's. Like journals, blankets, bags, cushion covers, baby slings, pencil cases ect, the list goes on and they are all so beautiful. We then went to Kali's temple. We didn't go inside but it was really interesting to hear all about it. Kali is the goddess of death and destruction and she is the goddess over Kolkata, they pray to her when they want to cause pain or death on someone. Its all really quite dark stuff. 

Other sad news: A guy jumped in front of a train so we couldn't get on the metro, and that same day we found out a lady from Freeset drank poison because of an argument she had with her husband. We thought she would be fine but 2 days later she died. Really sad time a Freeset so prayer for this would be greatly appreciated. 

Today was spent going to see William Carey's theological college in Serempore. It was interesting to see where all this BMS stuff started, he was an amazing man! However, for me, this wasn't the most exciting part of the day. We traveled by train to Serempore. It is exactly how it is in the movies. The trains have no doors and people literally do just hang off the sides. I thought this the perfect opportunity to try it for myself!! 

Look at me go. A true Indian.

You should try it for yourself some time.

So there's a very quick update for you. And a little love story to start it all off.  

I love you Chris Albones. Happy anniversary darling.

Harriet x

A post from M Harriej.

Another apology for not doing a blog in so long! My once a week plan didn't work out so great!! 
So I have spent a lot of time in prayer these last few weeks, talking and spending time with God. I sound really holy right? Its mainly because I have been bed bound for a whole week with a fever etc, unable to move or eat, so it was the perfect time to be totally focused on God. 

Me for most of the week, wrapped in blankets feeling sorry for myself.

With too much time on my hands, I also did a few quick sketches, here's a couple I'm not totally ashamed of.

Children at school.

One of the children from school.

So after a week of this madness, I managed to drag myself out to go to the evening service at church on the 27th. I was determined to leave my bed and get out of the guesthouse... And I wanted to join the team in our usual Sunday evening meal out, even though I could still hardly eat. 

My first day back at work was Tuesday 29th, School in the morning and then little sisters that evening. I was still aching but feeling a lot better. Now you know I said I spent a lot of time in prayer? A lot of that time was spent praying for healing for one of the little girls at school (who I consider my Indian child), Bina. 

Meet Bina, isn't she beautiful?!

Bina has really bad ears. They are often bleeding and I think its much more than just an external problem. She is often cupping her ears as though she is in a lot of pain. So I have been pretty worried about her, and really wanting to do something about it, but not sure what. So I figured that prayer is the strongest weapon. 
I was then ill all week so couldn't go to school to see her, but on Tuesday when I went, one of her ears looked totally healed. I know I can't see whats going on inside but she seemed so much happier, she was leaning on my shoulder without any problems. Very exciting stuff!! 


That Tuesday afternoon we went out and I bought a memory stick. When I went to the counter to pay, the lady asked me for my name. I was slightly confused because I'm not used to people needing my name in order for me to buy things, so in my confusion I hesitated and said 'Erm... Harriet' ... Check out what she wrote as my name: 

My new Indian name.

Can you believe it is December already? Christmas is on its way! I can't decide if I am excited or kinda dreading it. It will be good fun and an experience, but being away from home is going to be hard. 

We have to decorate the guesthouse soon so that should be good fun, and the staff are doing a Christmas sketch for us and we are doing one for them also so that will be a laugh. 

The 14th December will be a particularly hard day for me, as it is mine and Chris' 1 year anniversary, and I won't even get a cuddle :( 

On a happier note, I got a parcel from mummy today with advent calenders in it for each of us! Very exciting so thank you mummy!! 


I am feeling a lot better, and apart from aching every now and then, I am pretty much healthy. Touch wood. But apparently what I had has a tendency of coming back so prayer for that not to happen would be much appreciated! 


Eshor ashirbaad korben,
(God Bless you)


M Harriej x