Always New and Exciting

Got a late start today, that happens when you get in so late. After we got up and dressed we talked to Masangi and Maengi and then waited for Masangi's friend Peter to come with lunch. Our breakfast was the airplane coffee packs the stewardess had given us last night and cookies. Peter came with his friend but no lunch so we got delivery. They were both really nice and the food was so good. We talked for a while and then they had to leave. Maengi and I went down and across the street to pick up betel-nuts for chewing. They honk their horns a lot here, I will never complain about LA again. The flat is not in a touristy area, so I got some confused stares but no catcalling or grabbing like we'd been warned about. Again, way less people then I'd been expecting. When we got back up Masangi's other friend Tito was there and we talked to him for a while. Then Cook and I left to go the Victoria Monument, it was so beautiful. It has 64 acres of gardens and the building is gorgous. It is all built out of the same white marble used in the Taj Mahal. Gigi you'd love it. Then we were on our way out when we met these two guys who started showing us around. They showed us where there was a free Bellagio type show every day and then on the way to St. Pauls cathedral the one guy had to leave. So Paul showed us the church, there was some sort of concert but we didn't know when it was starting so we left and he walked us most of the way to Sudder st where a lot of hotels are. Sudder st is also where a lot of beggars are as they know there are lot of foreigners there. The gov. has put in water pumps for them to use and also, urinals. These are right on the sidewalk and the guys just stand right there and pee, we have walked by, god I don't know, hundreds of peeing guys. I am starting to prefer the urinals since it affords them a smidgen more privacy then literally the side of a building, or worse. There are smells here that you can't even imagine, and from what I hear the best is yet to come. Honestly though I had been expecting much worse. We do get stared at and our pictures taken quite often, but I just consider it practise for being famous. On the plus side unlike we'd beenwarned so far nobody has watched us pee. On Sudder st we bought a woman and her baby groceries, there are somany here who need help but money is just a band-aid, it is spent in seconds. What is desparatly needed is jobs for the adults, some form of housing and most importantly education for the kids.Reliable income and education are the only sure ways off the street. And that is anywhere in the world. I figure there is so much trash everywhere here, why are none of these people employeed to clean it up. Then you get dual benifits, clearly I don't know anything about the situation, the culture, the mores ect.. so this is all speculation but, whatever it is my journal and that's what I think. Went back to the flat and nobody was home so we sat quietly in the hall. By and bythe guard came over and started yelling at us in, not English. So a little boy translated to him that we were staying with friends and they were at dinner, ect... and he left. Aftermore time passed he came back and started yelling again. This time there was no little boy around and thankfully Tito showed up. In retrospectI think he wanted money, but he didn't do anything and we didn't do anything wrong so forget him. Masangi and Maengi came up and we were going to leave because we didn't want to make trouble but then we started talking and then we started cleaning. Yep, there we were two Americans in Kolkata doing laundry and scrubbing floors, too funny.Tito bought us all dinner and then we cleaned more. It was fun, been a while since I got to clean anything.

Once in a lifetime