In the Heart of India

from Darla Shaw, professor of education at Western Ct. State University in Danbury, Ct. Traveling as part of the Humanitarian Travel Group from WCSU.

In the past five days our group has traveled to the Taj Mahal to Akbar, Acra, to Delhi to Jaipur. The sites and scenes are fabulous but now I am where my heart belongs. I am in Calcutta where we are working with people of all ages.

Yesterday Rosalee, our leader in Calcutta, took us to visit an orphanage of disabled people from age 11 to 50. These were all people who were found family less on the streets and would have had no quality of life whatsoever if it were not for this program. There were probably about 3 in the group.

We were welcomed into the orphanage with a multitude of hugs and handshakes. We were shown the crafts and paintings and saw parts from their famous show. This group has been in newspaper articles and on TV because of the work that they do in regard to music and drama. Even with varying disabilities these people are able to put on huge productions based on the work of the poet, Tagore. The level of talent was incredible. Even the deaf, dumb and mute took part in a major role.

After a rather lengthy performance we now thanked them them through singing the Barney song with hand motions. We then involved them in the song and they loved.it. Next we sang We Shall Overcome together as a group. They sang in several languages. We sang in only one language. Finally we danced with the people in the orphanage to a wild drum beat and the girls played with the hair of our women. They hated to see us go and we also felt sad to go, but our bus, Priscilla was waiting.

As we left they gave us beautiful little Xmas trees that they had made. It was a wonderful day and a wonderful way to start the heart of the trip.