A Typical Day

Here's my typical day:
5:30am Wake up at the Baptist Mission Society (BMS) guest house.
5:50 am Walk a block to the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity for daily mass with the sisters and other volunteers.
7:00 am Breakfast with 25-50 other volunteers. Breakfast is bread, bananas and chai tea. I was very surprised by the chai here, it is almost shockingly sweet, but very good.
7:30 am A group of us catch the bus and then an auto rickshaw to Daya Dan, a home run by the MC's for mentally and physically challenged children.
8:00 am Arrive at Daya Dan, say hi to the kids, and start the morning chores. Usually about 6-7 volunteers do laundry by hand in a number of vats and then it is hung on the roof to dry.
9:00 am Begin school! I will be teaching Binoy, a 9 or 10 year old boy for the next 3 months. We practice reading, spelling and math.
11:00 am End lessons and get the kids ready for lunch. After the kids sit down to eat, the volunteers get our first chai break. We sit around and chat for about half an hour before leaving Daya Dan to find lunch.
12:00 - 2pm Lunch break: sometimes we go out to eat, sometimes I go back for a nap at BMS
2pm Catch a bus or the metro to Kalighat, a hospice for the poor and unwanted. At Kalighat we pass medications, fill water bottles, serve dinner, and do whatever else needs to be done. Kalighat has been peaceful, a place where you can sit down and talk with the women. Some women just want to hold your hand and talk to you in Bengali.
5pm Our Second chai break! We sit out on the roof of Kalighat and figure out what the evening will look like. Some nights we walk to Sudder Street (the tourist street) to eat at Blue Sky Cafe or walk around New Market. Sometimes we go back to the Mother House and eat at Delhi Dabar.
7 or 8pm By this time I'm usually back at BMS. There's always laundry to do in our sink and I hang out with my roommates. By 9pm, all of us are worn out and it's time to hit the hay!