Blog #1 (by Joshua Roberts)

It feels great to have the strength to be able to type this. Okay, in truth, it doesn't feel great yet, not when my stomach is still turning circles, when trips to the toilet are necessary every half hour, when I haven't eaten since Thursday evening and when I have to sit here all alone in bed having already missed out on a full day of activities. That is probably the toughest part of it all – although the food poisoning 'got [me] pretty bad' (in the words of Tom Rapson), not being able to visit Freeset and Future Hope yesterday and then the Mother Teresa Museum and the Brooklyn slums today with the others pains me much more. Nevertheless, I can feel my body fighting the sickness and this makes me really appreciate how fortunate we are to have such an incredible vessel to live in. Another positive now that I am on the road to recovery is that, as Rowan informed me before he walked out the door this morning: 'at least you'll have heaps of time to write a good blog' (Thanks Rowan) – no pressure then I guess.

Reading through the blogs earlier this morning, I found that in general, my thoughts were almost perfectly summarised by them collectively. And so rather than share a synopsis of the incredible experience so far, I will attempt to describe a few of the highlights of Kolkata to date:

1.       Hot Kati Roll: my first experience of Indian street food was jaw-dropping. This sensory overload of a lunch numbed all my senses to the point where I questioned to myself: Is this real life or am I dreaming? I'm incredibly sorry to everyone reading this back at home but I simply cannot describe this Hot Kati Roll adequately. On a slightly more sombre note, my second experience with street food, a Vege burger from the local dairy, managed to bring me down with this stomach ache: so as the saying goes, it's all a bit hit-and-miss really.

2.       Dhapa Village: On Thursday, Matt, Roni, Aaron and I were led on a bit of a tiki tour of Kolkata by four of the Jungle Crows rugby players. One of them, Bikash, is also a rugby coach and so he took us to two of the villages that he works in – one of them being Dhapa Village. Here, he says that the people have become like a second family to him. The village seems far removed from the bustling streets of Kolkata. It is situated on the outskirts of the city and one thing that initially struck me was the serenity of it all. The locals earn a living by cultivating fruit, vegetables, and fish to sell in the city. We enjoyed the company of about 15 villagers, mostly children, who happily showed us around the dirt tracks, complete with goats and cows at every corner. The effervescent nature of the locals was infectious; I soon found that I too had a spring in my step and large grin stretched wide across my face. We were even graced with the opportunity to ride in their homemade wooden fishing canoes, powered by a man at the front with a long rod of bamboo. This was truly beyond surreal. Looming omnisciently in the background is a literal mountain of rubbish. At over 15 metres in height, this is where most of Kolkata's rubbish used to end up. About four months ago, the site closed down and it is in the process of being converted into a park. Thick sheets of tarpaulin have been laid over the entire mountain of rubbish and we climbed to the top to witness some incredible views of the city. Bikash said that once the park is finished he will use it as a means of fitness training for those from the village that he coaches (nothing better than some good hill reps). A conversation the four of us had sitting atop that mountain was to wonder what each of the other groups had gotten up to that day. We all agreed that there was absolutely no way you could top our experience, however, I'm sure all the other groups would say exactly the same thing.

3.       Touch Rugby: twice, we have had a game of touch rugby over here in Kolkata. The first with the Jungle Crows on Wednesday night in the Maidan, and the second with the kids from Salt Lake (the second village we visited with Bikash on Thursday). One thing that has struck me about this sport is the ability with which it can bring people together. In both circumstances, there have been two groups of people, strangers at the time, of the utmost difference in every way possible, and yet these groups have been unified completely. Playing rugby with the people of Kolkata has made me realise that there is a hope which shines brightly, against all adversity, and defiant against all odds: this is the hope of the human spirit.

One thing that being sick has really highlighted for me is the great company that we have on this tour. Whenever the boys are around someone will without fail pop in to see how I am going and this always brings a smile to my face. All four of the staff have been incredible: Mr Jordan stayed up late into the early hours of the morning to make sure I had everything I needed and Mr Crook went out to buy me the 'Calvin Kleins of India' after all my pairs had been decimated by diarrhoea. Rapos (Tom Rapson) also pokes his head round my bedroom door whenever he can for some light-hearted 'banter' (one of us certainly finds it amusing), and Matt Illing too, has been extraordinary, rooming with me the past couple of nights and essentially granting me my every wish. One thing I can't have here, however, is Mi Goreng – I have been craving these 2 minute noodles all morning and in summary of my current mind state I will leave you with this acrostic poem:

My intuition is telling me there will be better days
I can't see very far out of the window with all this haze
Getting to know this city makes life for them seem so unfair
Or maybe not, because at home no-one seems as happy as here.
Really hard to believe but my snot turned black within 12 hours
Emirates Hotel has so many staff it takes two of them just to change the flowers
Never-failing the Adhan sounds over and over again
Gosh it would really be great to have some Mi Goreng.