MCC Guest House in Kolkata, India

Before the sun had risen on the waking city of Kolkata, a MCC staff member was waiting at the airport to bring me and my very large backpack to my home for the next month: the MCC Guest House.The Guest House is a vibrant blue compound that has a historical presence in this neighborhood of central Kolkata. While the compound is green, peaceful and productive, behind the gate the streets are narrow, crowded and alive. Old men slump against the turquoise wall waiting for chai in terracotta cups, Hindus pause to pay respects at nearby shrines, monsoon rains swell roadside drains, and colonial-era yellow taxis force their way into gaps between rickshaws and forceful pedestrians.

The compound has rooms for guests but it primarily serves as the base of operations for the MCC India staff. MCC India has a large staff with wide-reaching projects to improve education, healthcare, food security, sustainability, disaster and relief, and peace throughout five states in India. I am sharing a room with a MCC YAMEN participant from South Korea, Seorin, who will also be working in India for the next year.

For the next several weeks, Seorin and I will divide the hours in the day between Hindi classes and informational sessions with MCC staff. Hindi is a difficult language but it has a addictive rhythm that entices language students to continue to study and study. The sounds, flow and vocabulary are largely new to me, but ever so often my teacher will introduce us to a Hindi word that will resemble or match a familiar word in Bengali. Kolkata continues to put forward new norms, customs and culture I have never encountered, but everyday also brings a fresh wave of nostalgia and remembering.