Mother Teresa's Varanasi Home

On my first trip to Varanasi in 1997 I saw a sign for the Mother Teresa home. I only had a few days in town at that time but always thought it would be great to volunteer there one day. Well now is one day.
I have been going there in the mornings for the past 4 days and plan to keep on volunteering until I leave. It has been a huge heart opening experience. I am learning so much from the nuns about caring for mentally disabled people and learning from the residences how to be patient, smile and just enjoy every moment.  So far I have not taken the camera into the home but hope to do so soon; I thought it best to get to know the residence first before sticking a camera in their faces; so photos to follow soon.

Anyway I arrive at 7.30 am and the residents are already dressed and have  had their breakfast, so they get up around 5.30 am or 6 am. The home is separated into a men and women's wing and the volunteers work in the wing according to their gender. So in the women's wing there has to be about 60 women of all ages and differing levels of mental capacity. Some of the women help out with the daily activities while some are unable to even notice what is happening around them, so they usually sit or lay down either in bed or out in the courtyard.
The first job of the day is cleaning and I tell you this home is sparking. Every day the floors, walls and windowsills are washed with hot soapy water. On the cold or rainy days a good sweep does the job. The first day I arrived it was spring cleaning day as the weather had just turned a bit warmer. Every inch of the home wash being scrubbed. Next comes laundry. There is always a ton or two of laundry as the residents often wet themselves and have to be changed a few times a day. The home is staffed by young girls of lower cast families who come form Bihar and Utter Pradesh. These young women are amazing, they work so hard and are wonderful with the residents. So about 4 girls, maybe 5, 6 or 7 of the mobile resident ladies plus a volunteer or two get stuck into hand washing clothes, blankets, sheets and towels. Everyone knows the routine and it can be a lot of fun. First we scrub the clothes or stomp around in a huge metal basin filled with clothes and hot soapy water, then rinsing the laundry in the three basins of cold water, then fill buckets of washed laundry and walk up three flights of stairs to the roof to hang the laundry on several lines. We all manage to have a good laugh and everyone is very industrious. The residents who can understand what is happening but have small attention span help out where they can. Today I hung clothes with Mauri,  like me she is under 5 ft so we both had a good giggle trying to reach up and hang clothes on the high washing lines.

After cleaning and laundry comes a much deserved tea break, which everyone enjoys as this is when they also get a sweet. So on their newly acquired sugar rush, we then open up the activities room where some of the ladies draw or do colouring in or play with rattles and beads or just sing and play in whatever way then  want to. Also at this time the music goes on throughout the building, the music ranges from Hindi popular Bollywood songs or christian praises and hymns. This is also the time when the men and women can mix in the activities room and they all seem to get on well together.
 I have been roped into playing a type of shuffle board game with one of the men and every day he is happy to teach me how to play. He is slightly mentally challenged so he demands that I actually try to win, but his attention span is only half and hour so one or two games is enough. There are a few ladies who just enjoy drawing and some are very good at coloring in and give great attention to keeping within the lines.
Some days there are 4 or 5 volunteers so on these days I go into the ladies wings where the not so mobile and more mentally challenged ladies sit for the day. I  take some toys for them to play with, or sit and listen to them rant on in Hindi and I pretend to understand.  Yesterday one lady, who was just skin and bones and has to be around 70, explained how to make chapatti, pickles and vegetables. The only way I knew she was telling me this was by the extensive hand actions. In her mind she must have been giving me a cooking lesson and today when I walked in and said hello to her she slapped her palms together, gave me a huge grin and said "chapatti".   The ladies are very affectionate we give them shoulder massage, lot of hugs, stroke their  hair and clap hands a lot. They thrive on getting some attention and I have discovered that I love to given them the attention they desire.
Around 11am the activities room is closed and lunch is served. In the Indian style the men are served first, then the ladies. Some residents need help with their food but the girls who work in the home do this job, we volunteers only serve the food.  By noon the volunteering is finished for the day and the residents have some quiet time in the afternoon.
As the days pass I will get to know the ladies more and give you more stories