Medical Humanitarian Internship

Kathryn Beck
International Partnership for Service Learning and Leadership
Calcutta, India

This place was Mother Teresa’s first love and first mission of charity in India. She wrote extensively about the right of the homeless to die with dignity.

"I have had tea on Park Street at a 5 star posh hotel only hours after helping the dying women...how strange it was how naturally I fell into a different mode of behaviors and acceptance. I will not lie...I enjoyed the eccentricities of the place...How absurd and unnecessary! But my desire and enjoyment of pleasure from these extravagancies overrode my original conscious decision to consume less. .have I become numb to the homeless situation in America?; have my eyes become fogged by subjectivity and my own desires for survival in the States? And will I easily become consumed by it all so easily when I return to America that I no longer turn the water off in the shower? Will I go back to throwing away food without any regard? And why am I so aware of the economic crisis in this city and so unaware of it in the states? My awareness to the economic crisis in the states is strictly based on my own needs and financial constraints..."

"This last week in Kolkata I have absorbed myself with work at Nirmal Hrday and spending time with those I have become so close to. My photographs document my journey well but no one will ever understand what is in my soul as a result of my work. Because I can not describe to you how I am feeling I would rather like each of you to experiment for a day the act of saving electricity, water and food. I would also like you to save energy...meaning think before you speak...really think before you open your mouth and expend precious words. Be conscious of your mind at all times but be even more conscious of those around you."