Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - Kolkata - arrival and park

We began the day super early!  We had a 6:25 a.m. flight out of Delhi to Kolkata.  Uma, was flying out on business the same morning so it worked out well for us all to go to the airport together.  What a whirwind!  The lines were huge!  As we waited patiently so get through the first line of the ticketing counter we noticed the time was ticking by rapidly and the line to get through security was extremely long!  My heart started racing a bit as I wasn't sure we would catch our flight to Kolkata.  Uma, explained that in India they have a list of all passengers on the flights and the plane will not leave unless everybody is accounted for.  They began making overhead calls for people on the flight we were taking to move ahead through security.  I remembered then that the men and women go through different check points so I was sorting out passports and bags to get us all through security.  We then scrambled to make sure we didn't forget anything and rushed to find our departure gate.  As we were running we heard the last call for our flight come over the loud speaker.  The man at the departure gate hurried us to a shuttle that only had us and one other person on it as it traveled swiftly to the airplane that was waiting for us.  As we stepped onto the plane a sigh of relief came upon me as I knew we were now on our way to Kolkata and one step closer to our baby girl.  I told Darin that I felt like I was going to be induced like I was with the birth of our first son.  The anticipation of it all and knowing we were going to meet soon.  On the 19th we will meet our daughter and our lives will be changed forever and life as we know it will be different....in a wonderful way.

The flight was short and the service was AMAZING!  King Fisher does a fantastic job.  Everybody was so friendly and the food was very good, too.  We checked with our friend about eating the food and he said it was safe and not to worry.  The newspaper caught my attention as the headline read Record Breaking Temperatures in Delhi.  Boy did I know what they were talking about.  On Monday the day before we left it was 115 degrees.  The paper said that the last 2 days in Delhi had record breaking temperatures and they were the highest temperatures on record for the last 8 years.  I had never in my life experienced heat to this level.  The building, cement, everything just radiated heat not to mention the sun just blaring down on you.  It felt as though you were standing in a furnace!  As the plane approached Kolkata a flood of emotions filled me.  Tomorrow we will meet our little girl for the first time.  I am actually in the birth city of my baby girl.  The reality was really beginning to sink in that the next flight I will be on we will be a family of 5!!

As we exited the plane and walked to the OVERCROWDED shuttle bus I was surprised at how muggy it was compared to Delhi.  Delhi, felt more like you were walking around in a furnace, as Kolkata, felt more like a sauna!  When we arrived to the terminal we were unsure of where to go.  It was awkward walking around and seeing security all over with VERY large guns.  Our boys were very impressed with the size of the guns.  We had a bit of a problem at this point, because there was an issue with the Alesha's return tickets back home.  We were told in Delhi to get that taken care of BEFORE we left the airport in Kolkata. The problem was the guard, who was holding an extremely large machine gun, would not let us into the area where we needed to conduct this business.  We tried to explain the best we could, but to no avail.  Not wanting to argue with this man or his gun we decided we just needed to find our driver and deal with it later.  As we exited the terminal there was a sea of people, many holding up signs.  We were told our hotel would send a driver to pick us up and to look for him holding a sign with our name on it. We walked slowly through the crowd scanning every sign for our name. Even though we ALL scanned the signs we didn't see our name!!!  YIKES, I started to panic.  My husband said, don't worry, you stay here with the boys (it was SO difficult to move about with the kids and all the luggage), and I will go and look again.  Thankfully, he returned with our driver.  He had been holding a sign that had our name on it, but it was totally spelled wrong.  My husband just made a guess and approached the driver and thankfully he was correct!  We asked for the sign as a memory, but with the language barrier we never obtained it. :-(

Safely in the car with all our baggage our driver proceeded to drive us to our hotel.  As we drove along I noticed such a difference in the landscape compared to the city of Delhi. There were a lot of open fields, greenery, and more of an "old traditional" look to the city.  We were at last in the city of our daughter.

Upon our arrival at the Kenilworth Hotel our jaws dropped at how nice it was.  We are not ones that would typically stay in a hotel of this calibier, but with not being familiar with the surroundings and having our children with us we wanted to stay in a place that came highly recommeneded.  It did not disappoint.  The staff was super freindly and it was really beautiful.  At last we arrived in what would be our new home for a couple of days.

This is a view from our balcony looking down into the hotel parking lot . What is interesting is that the cars go this direction for about half the day and then the traffic changes direction the other half of the day.  It is really crazy how traffic works here in India.  One of our drivers said you really need to know your way around or you can get in trouble in  a hurry.

We really wanted to take in some of the sights of Kolkata before we picked our daughter up so we started making some plans.  We were disappointed to find out the Naheem, the driver that came highly recommended had left on vacation the day before we arrived. Bummer!  So we arranged for a car later that afternoon and were off.  Our first stop was a local park not too far way from the hotel.  We decided that we would walk to this stop so we could take in the some of the city.  It was really hot, but we decided to go anyways so we didn't miss the opportunity as we also wanted to go to the  Mother Teresa Home and that would be later in the afternoon.

Our walk to the park was much longer than we had originally thought. As we made our way among the crowded sidewalks, walking past the various food carts, hearing all the horn honking, we were quickly overwhelmed with the poverty that surrounded us.  A sadness came over me as I looked upon small children with little to no clothing and families sleeping on the sidewalk.  This level of poverty is difficult to comprehend when we come from such an affluent country.  The reality is, is that so much of the world lives below the poverty line. What is amazes me about India is how you can see extreme poverty and extreme wealth all at the same time quite often within looking distance.  I am always taken back by the sheer beauty of India even amidst the poverty.  The colors, smells, beautiful faces of the people, scenery, etc.

Our boys kept very close as we made our way to the park.  As we were approaching the park we were approached by a very young mother with her son.  She asked if we had any food for her and her baby.  We had packed along with us multiple baggies full of dried banana chips and mixed nuts, so that we would have something to give to people when this situation arose.  This is something we learned on our 2008 mission trip.  It is so difficult to just walk by these people and not do anything and giving money is an ABSOLUTE NO as you will be mobbed!  Giving food was a great way to not feel like we were ignoring the great need that was facing us and knowing that the food was helping in a small way.  What was different about this encounter was that she asked us to take a photo of her and her son.  We were honored to do so and it was great to see a such a sincere smile on the mom's face. She thanked us repeatedly as we continued on.

We finally made our way to the final stretch of sidewalk leading to the main gate of the park.  As we looked upon the wall surrounding the park we noticed something sticking up out of the concrete.  Upon closer evaluation we found nails, spikes, and shards of glass sticking up.  This was their way of keeping people from jumping the wall into the park instead of using the main gate.  It seemed like a good deterent to us.  We entered the main gate and began to take a small tour of the park.  It was getting REALLY hot and we had run out of water.  The park was fairly crowded with people having picnics, couples strolling about, people reading, etc.  It was quite beautiful to see all the flowers in bloom, the lush green grass, and the different elements the park had. We didn't stay long and headed back to the hotel to rehydrate and cool down before our next adventure.

The wall surrounding the park

Entrance to the park

We thought this was the park at first, wrong...much further to go

Fun garbage can around the park

Beautiful

One of the beautiful trees.

A small pavilion.  The pillars helped us stand up in the sweltering heat LOL!

TO BE CONTINUED.........