Two brides from Shishu Bhavan, the children's home, with a flower girl, get dressed up for their wedding day. |
The Missionaries of Charity
also run leprosariums all over India. One of the newest, in Raigarh, some
300 miles west of Calcutta, was dedicated during Mark's visit. Mother
Teresa gave a speech, and a free eye clinic was held. In her diary Mark
wrote: "There is fanfare and a parade as Mother rides through town in a
jeep. During the speech at the town hall she tells a story of a beggar who
approached her recently. '"Everyone comes to ask something of you," he
said. "Some people have something to give: I have nothing. But today I
earned tenpence. Here, take it." So I took it. And that to me was much
more valuable than the Nobel Prize.'"
ORPHANS ARE GIVEN A TRADITIONAL WEDDING
Not far from the hospital for the dying is a far more
hopeful place. More than an orphanage, Shishu Bhavan is also an adoption
center where abandoned children and infants find homes. Some of the
hard-to-place children -- the crippled, blind and retarded -- may live
their lives among the Missionaries of Charity.
While she was in Calcutta, Mark watched the nuns prepare a double
wedding for two girls from the home (left). "The sisters dress the girls:
polish is put on fingernails, powder and Indian makeup on their faces,
henna on their feet. They wear red and white wedding saris and gold
jewelry -- the nuns spent 5,000 rupees on each girl. The ceremony is a
blend of Bengali and Catholic. Afterward Mother Teresa blesses them.
People bring many gifts."
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