Poverty

pictures of Rama Krishna Hindu temple to the north of Calcutta, the largest banyan tree in the world (in the Guiness book of records), and really large pond things (don't know what they are called, but they were about 3 feet across)

The beggar woman with 4 kids, who I wrote about earlier and I bought 2 kilos of rice for a few days ago, finds me a couple of times a day. Every time, she greets me with such gratefulness. She is a sweet and gentle woman. But she also greets me with stories of misfortune - her accident when she was hit by a car a few months ago and injured her wrist and knee, her son who has no shirt to wear, her children's sleepless nights due to the constant rain and living on the street. It is so difficult to feel for her and know that you can't save her. I can provide some temporary relief easily enough. I will buy more rice for her and her family tomorrow before I leave Calcutta, but that is about it.

Yesterday a woman with an infant came up to me with her hand out. I reached in my bag to give her 10 rupees, but she said, "No rupees, " and pointed to a container of powered milk for her infant, who is sick. I bought her the milk, and as soon as I did, another woman came up to me, who I had to say no to. I can't help them all, and these are only "band aids." The real problems continue - of hunger and poverty, corruption, inequitable distribution of income, and even the way the international banking decides that 1 rupee is worth 1/50 of a dollar. But for this woman who is trying to take care of her children, her difficulties are not so abstract, but day to day. It pains my heart to come in contact with it, and to know that I can't do more, or have not been doing more.