These cuties.

These beautiful faces are part of the reason I've managed to get through some of the harder times in Kolkata... a stolen smile, a warm cuddle, a dance in the rain, a muffled giggle; the little things that help me stay strong.

The most tear-inducing thought though, is the fact that the faces of the girls here are the ones that now have a future of education, and freedom from ever having to enter the sex-trade, losing that innocent glint in their eyes, and the care-free laughter, because Freeset has helped their mothers chose their freedom. Chose their own path. Making their own decisions in itself is new concept to some even.

And then there are the boys; they are the ones that will grow up heavily influenced by their environment, and the people who have input into their lives, and ultimately they will be husbands to their wives. Any influence that their mother's freedom and the wonderful women in the creche have in their perspective on the world, it's women, and its people, I pray will help shape them into wonderful young men.

Kushi, Charlie, Bindi, Luke... just some of the names of these faces I will forever hold ever-so-dear to my heart.

Diwali

Diwali: the festival of lights.

If you close your eyes, you could easily make-believe you were in the midst of gunfire, with brilliant flashes of light piercing even the thin skin of your eyelids.

You find yourself up on the rooftops, surrounded by the people you've grown to love, and you allow yourself to lie backwards, head in the dirt, mesmerised by the light show above you; staring up into the sky, without being able to see your surroundings, you find yourself in a surreal place. You are no longer in India, nor are you in New Zealand; you're no-where, and anywhere you want to be.

The explosions drown out the sounds you've become accustomed to, like the persistent drone of a man bleating his call for you to come purchase his wares, the invasive chorus of a thousand horns, and the call of a mother shouting at her child because they went to pet a stray, mangy street-dog.

In all of this, you remember that the fireworks that are causing momentary blind-spots in your eye-sight are all to drive out evil spirits. And you pray. You pray that these spirits do leave, and that not just any light takes their place, but that of our heavenly father.

Diwali is the festival of lights. Our hearts cried for light to enter the hearts of others in a city that is full of darkness.

And as we hung our heads backwards over the balcony, for a moment it really did look like light was falling down to earth.