So I'm a weakling. I won't deny it. The unfamiliar germs, pollution and humidity in India completely floored my immune system. I now have bronchitis...I know this is self-diagnosed, but I'm pretty sure. I had a cold on the night train from Varanasi to Calcutta, and over the course of a day, this "cold" blossomed into a wretched chest infection which left me unable to lie down, stop coughing, stop sweating (temp around 102) or stop sneezing. Yesterday was the worst of it, I think. (By the way, I added some pictures to the Varanasi journal entry).

    Luckily, my father's uncle lives in Calcutta, so I'm staying with him, but the bronchitis has left me with a large amount of guilt - I've just imposed my sickly self on him! On a whiny note, his house has no air-conditioning and is FULL of mosquitos, so it's not really the kind of respite that you'd want when you can barely breathe or swallow.

    Calcutta is a huge city - beautifully laid out - but wrought by pollution and a stifling amount of humidity. Straddling the Bay of Bengal, the mouths of the Ganga all pour our into the sea here, adding to the humidity. Much of Calcultta was built by the colonial British - there's even a St. Paul's Cathedral!

    My mother's cousin is a nun with Mother Theresa's Missionaries of Charity, so yesterday I managed to visit her, as well as Mother Theresa's grave. The convent was a beautiful, cool, peaceful place and everyone who I met had an other-worldly type of grace. There is a huge volunteer program associated with the Missionaries of Charity (halfway homes, AIDS houses, leprosy houses, orphanages) - I made a promise to myself that I would come back and volunteer, even for just two weeks, once I become a doctor. What a good way to make a difference!

    The next ten days will take me through Chennai, Trichy, Bangalore, Pune and then Mumbai - it'll be a whirlwind tour, so I better rest up today to fight this cold.

~Hope