Godspeed: God sightings in my (second) first day in Kolkata (June 2014)

What a day of answered prayers! Actually, what three days of answered prayers as I journeyed here. But, today was truly a perfect first day with many delightful answers to my questions of what these 5 weeks would be like. I have been worrying about this trip, and trying desperately not to worry about this trip for literally years, but especially for the past few months or so…What would my accommodations be like? Would I be able to talk to Travis or anyone else back home? Could I handle five weeks without internet if it meant I couldn’t see Travis’ face or hear my mom or dad’s laugh? Was I going to be lonely?... And then little things like… Would my driver be at the airport? Would my ATM card work? Would my luggage show up? How long would it take to get my new cell phone and be in touch with others?

The truth is that these things didn’t need worrying. Worrying didn’t fix them. I just worried. And talked about that worrying. And I thought about the relationship between that worrying and my faith and my desire to be present and joyful and a good person while I am here. And you all heard me talk about it. And God certainly heard me—every morning—talk about it (and still will, for sure). And you all prayed for me and with me. You laid hands on me. You hugged me. You told your friends to pray. You sent me encouraging emails and texts. You all understood the importance of this trip, and the depth of emotions that have surrounded it for me. And you’ve walked with me. And God and I have been talking about it every morning over coffee as I starred out the living room window at the Bloomington summer.  I shouldn’t need a perfect first day to remind me that I am not alone—that you and God go with me, but I did need it. And I got it. And I am so thankful for it.

Let me give a most recent status and then I’ll share a few wonderful details of my trip prior to the trip here, just to illustrate the many answered prayers and God sightings displayed for me today. You don’t have to read this. I am not going to write eloquently or thoughtfully; I just want to get my thoughts out there so I remember. Because this serves as one kind of prayer of thankfulness to God and, in the future, a reminder to me of God’s rich faithfulness.

Aside from being tired from jetlag and not really sleeping for the past couple of days, my flights from Thursday on went totally perfectly, all of my luggage arrived, my ATM card worked, and a very nice man picked me up at the airport and dropped me off at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture—everything as planned. WHAT?! Yeah. And I checked in at the hotel and they took me through this lovely courtyard up to my room, which is definitely the nicest place I have stayed in South Asia—A.C., reliable electricity, fan, a daily jug of clean water, a personal bathroom, everything spotless, a water heater for tea, hot water in the shower, extra (clean) sheets and towels, a shower, a toilet, a desk, annnnnnnd out of nowhere, totally unexpected….. AN INTERNET CONNECTION! Its definitely not the institute’s, so it could disappear at any time, but I had the pleasure of skyping with Travis and my mom today. Its amazing how much of a difference feeling that connection can make in your total well-being. I don’t know how long I will have this internet, but I am taking advantage of it now and feeling very, VERY thankful for this connection to all of you and the outside world. Connection is priceless when you’re out of your comfort zone.

The other wonderful surprise was the incredible food here. At breakfast there was yummy tea, bananas, gluten-free cereal (yeah, I know), warm milk, chapattis and delicious chickpea curry. Lunch was even more impressive: chicken curry, fresh vegetables, rice, and fresh mango. Then when I came home this afternoon after my excursion, hot tea and milk showed up at my door! WHAT?! Im pretty sure my problem on this trip will be eating too much, rather than the opposite, which is truly a luxurious pleasure. (food update: Lunch Sunday: an assortment of delicious Indian vegetables: fried potatoes and bitter gourd; potatoes and squash cooked in a cashew cream; spinach and potatoes cooked in spice pods…then fish, cashew rice, dal, and fresh mango….yeah… WHAT?!)

At breakfast I met a woman named Simanti Dasgupta. She is an Assistant Professor at Dayton University in the Anthropology department. She is doing some VERY impressive work here—like the kind of work I have always been in awe of. For the past five years, she has been spending her summers here working with grassroots sex work and sex trafficking advocacy groups. Basically she works one on one every day with women who are doing sex work in the red light district and exploring the difficulty of simple definitions of trafficking and sex work. She tells these women’s stories of both agency/independence and violence in their field of work and basically just tries to be of help to them in exchange for hearing their stories. Five years ago, she had to present her project proposal to a panel of  women who are also sex workers who head up the grassroots advocacy group she works with. She had to defend her work to them, and they agreed but asked that she help them with their everyday needs. What has grown out of this are deep relationships and connections and trust. She hopes to develop a fuller and more complex story both of these women’s lives and the issues, particularly global, that shape and define sex work and sex trafficking.  That was my first conversation here! She gave me all of this advice about ethnographic work and was so, so encouraging. It was a special, God-filled moment. As it turns out, she is my next door neighbor here and she told me to holler if I need anything or any more advice.

Now before this day, I had a layover in New York and got to spend a whole day with the great John Jeffords, who showed me around his adorable neighborhood and introduced me to his equally adorable and charming Lindsey and Stephen. I ate some great food, had some great coffee, watched America move on in the World Cup and sat in Washington Square Park with the greatest brother in law ever.  Other wonderful encounters: basically everyone I encountered as I was navigating the New Jersey Railroad and the Subway to get to and from the Newark Airport, were kind and forgiving of my deer-in-headlights, I’m from a city of 70,000 people look. There was even a man who noticed that I was having trouble getting my luggage off the train who helped me. He carried my giant India suitcase off the train, just to be nice. Did I mention that he did this all with one arm? WHAT?! Then, as John, Stephen and I were walking home from dinner, we ran into a monk from the local Hare Krishna temple who gave us a book about devotional cooking.

So basically, God was like, “Look, Ashlee, even if I have to beat you over the head with this,  and it doesn’t matter how much you try to ignore it by getting wrapped up in your own neurotic whatever, I will remind you that I am with you. “

I mean, how’s that for an abundance of answered prayers. My cup runneth over. I can hear God whispering in my ear: “See, I’m here, silly. Now get out of your box of worry and control and be present here, aware and thankful. “  

My challenge in the coming days is to move beyond myself and the worry and need to control that has tended to characterize my trips, so that I may see God’s story here and to more fully be with and tell the stories of others than I have been able in the past—to move past the distractions of ensuring I was ok (since God’s got that), and be more mentally and physically present with the people I meet.

I was hoping to post some pics of my room, but I can't get them to upload; I'll try later in the week.  Hopefully, in the posts to follow, I can share less about myself and my situation and my neuroses and share more about the world and people that I have the opportunity to engage with.

Although I do not yet have a working cell phone, I am hoping to arrange a meeting with my research assistant, Hena Basu, the most capable and wonderful woman in this country. She has invited me to her home to watch her home celebration of Ratha Yatra. Today is a festival day that celebrates Lord Jagganath’s journey on a palanquin with his brother Balabhadra and his sister Shubhadra to their aunt’s home. People celebrate by building or buying small chariots and pulling little forms of the deities through the streets. There are also special foods prepared, of course, so I hope to see and better understand those aspects of today thanks to Hena. Hopefully our meeting will work out and I can share what I have learned with you.

I miss you all and hope that I can share many more updates about this place and the people I meet. I so, so very much appreciate your prayers, both of yesterday and tomorrow. I’d like to be in prayer with you too, so please let me know how I can pray for you and just how you’re doing.

Blessings,

ashlee