HCK Kolkata 2026

We started off our day bright and early (or should we say dark and early) as we were up at 4:45am for our 6am mass at the motherhouse of Missionaries of Charity. We joined the sisters, a range of international volunteers and guests for the Mass. After the Mass, we visited her tomb which was a surreal experience. We returned to the accommodation to get a couple hours sleep before a brunch with the Brothers. We layered on the deet and the factor 50 before embarking on our personally guided walking tour of the city with the students. We were so grateful for their time that they graciously gave us as they will complete the IOS next week (their equivalent of the big LC). We started off with a bang as we quite literally “jumped” on to the bus and got some airtime on the journey, over some unexpected and unwelcome potholes. Ed Sheeran bangers pumping out of the speakers provided a welcome distraction from the few jolts every now and then. We flew off the bus (due to the lack of doors) and o...

This morning the girls enjoyed their 2 nd lie in of the week (lucky us), taking the bus at 9.30am to begin our fun filled day! We began the day with a bus tour around the city seeing sites such as the GPO of Kolkata and the town hall. Our busiest and most colourful stop was the flower market in Kolkata. As overwhelming as it was with all the hustle and bustle, it was a beautiful and necessary experience to get an idea of the day-to-day busy lives of many of the locals in the area. However, we must admit that we were picturing a very different flower market to the sprawling maze we experienced. We travelled through the market, passing beautiful bouquets and arrangements and exited onto the ghatt - the ghatt is the steps that sit beside the river and descend into the water. We also went onto Howrah Bridge and learned that five million people cross every day. After many photos on phones and cameras we headed back to the bus to continue onto our next stop. The bus was filled with chatte...

Today we began with another delicious breakfast before heading down to Class 3. Ruby and Katie led this class; they played a game revealing the students secret Valentine’s followed by an energetic game of hangman. We also took them outside to do dances. Next, we participated in Class 5’s P.E. class. We all thoroughly enjoyed this, especially joining in on the class warmups. Their warmup included military style marches and call to attention. We further developed our friendships with the children through a competitive game of basketball. Following this, Izzy O’R., Izzy O’D. and Rachael led Class 6. We made Valentine’s Day cards with acrostic poems written inside, as these students had strong English. They then enjoyed decorating the front of their cards. We enjoyed teaching this class and making new friends as this was our first time with them, and we are closer in age to these students. At lunch, we taught the children Duck, Duck, Goose. Everyone enjoyed this game and the circle end...

  We started today off bright and early for breakfast at 7.30 this morning. Our first class on our timetable started at 8.40, so we met briefly before to discuss our ‘game plan’. Our first class was with Class 5 and it consisted of our language Jenga and lots of entertaining chats with all the students. Our next stop was Class 3 where we played a game of Headbandz lead by Katie, Ruby and Ava. We finished the class with some singing and dancing, and we were met with high enthusiasm from all the students. After a short 5-minute break of playing in the yard, we headed into Class 1 where we taught them the ‘Hokey Pokey’, ‘Cha Cha Slide’, the classic; ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’, ‘The Macarena’ and ‘The Dreolín’ of course to add some ‘Irish feels’. In our last class of the day we did come more of our Jenga game, hot seat and some descriptive games. We had a brief break to recover from the heat. Today the school were celebrating the win of the ‘Blue House’- which is very similar...