Mother Theresa House

Mother Teresa's Tomb


On our first weekend in Kolkata we visited the Mother Theresa house. The main house is where Mother Theresa lived and is now where her tomb is. We saw her room (though weren't allowed to take photos here), her tomb and a timeline of her life with many quotes from the people that she helped. It was very moving.

We decided to volunteer at one of the Mother Theresa Missions of Charity in Kolkata and went to the orientation where we chose to go to Mother Theresa's "first love", the Kalighat House of the Dying. I was nervous to go but extremely glad that I had this experience. We only signed up for every Tuesday for three weeks because we work during the day and of course we felt that it would have been more beneficial for the people there if we had gone for longer so we could have gotten to know them and the routine better, but hopefully we were somewhat helpful. Our first day we arrived and washed some laundry with other volunteers and then went to help out in the women's section. As soon as the sister found out we were OT students we were sent to do exercise therapy with the women. These women were so sweet. Though it was also very sad. A couple of the women were missing an eye, which made me think of stories I've heard where people are maimed so that they make more money begging. And some women had tattooed wrists, which were possibly put on to mark them by someone who once owned them, maybe for prostitution. I am just making assumptions of course, but as this is a charity, many people are found in living in the street and brought there to die. So sad, but they are well taken care of there which is a silver lining to the whole story. Many of the women just want you to hold their hand or give them a hug. The Kalighat Mission of Charity is a also a very cool and serene place for them to relax, where outside there is a chaotic bussel of traffic, touts and people sleeping on mats by the street.