Mother Teresa's Mission

Searching through the Lonely Planet for the sights to see and things to do in Kolkata I came across Mother Teresa's mission, house and Tomb. It looked like it would be worth a visit since we were in the city where she lived from 1953-1997, carrying out her work and where she was eventually laid to rest. I didn't give it much thought as to what this might stir up or the discussions and debates Mark and I would have following this spur of the moment visit!

It was not easy to find and we had attempted to locate it on a previous day , unsuccessfully so , this time we asked a few locals and when we were heading in the right direction locals seemed to know our destination and happily pointed the way. Many of the areas we walked through were extremely poor and beggars even assisted us or attempted even to escort us .

Unfortunately we discovered on arrival that the house was closed for 2 hours over the lunch break but you could only visit her tomb and view the exhibition in the foyer . I discovered you could volunteer for a day - a little too late for me as we were leaving the next day, sadly so.

On the way back to our super deluxe room hotel room ( economy by NZ standards-1st justification! ) with flat screen TV and complimentary breakfast we navigated around trying to avoid the requests for food or money from mothers carrying babies and children begging, the battle of internal dialogue giving no answers and unease developing and increasing . To read about the unselfish life of such giving person and visit a place where such humanitarian work has been undertaken, how humble this makes you feel considering the opportunities we have in the self indulgent life we live.

Mark and I continued to discuss the situation later that night about why we visit such places and seek to be spectators of human suffering and then walk away to shelve it in our minds, rationalizing it in some way that may leave us with some peace ? When can you , and can you ever say , you have contributed something . Perhaps on a very very small scale it is the fee you pay to visit these places or a donation to the cause, to giving your time and volunteering on a short or long term basis.