Tidbits from India journey continued...

Day 4 (Sunday, 8/2/09): After a good nap yesterday afternoon & a good sleep last night, I think I am on India time. Hotel Devi Towers has a western-style bathroom, w/ flush toilets & somewhat of a shower--yeah! Our team divided into 2 groups, to go to 2 different churches in different villages. Our group consisted of Jenn Archer, Deb Thompson, John Baldwin, Dana Anglund & myself. Before church, 4 of us took a walk through part of Salem. Man, did we get a lot of stares & rubbernecking! People there are not used to seeing white people, so we attracted a lot of attention.

Today we got to travel by motorized rickshaw to get to church, again quite the experience. We went to the village of Thirumalagiri, to Pastor Job's church. There were about 80 people crowded into a small room, singing as we arrived & continuing to sing for another 30". They even had learned 2 songs in English for us, that we knew and could sing along to--that was so nice! We each had an opportunity to introduce ourselves, and give a short testimony.
Pastor Job The church service

It was Friendship Day, and after church we were mobbed by the children who tied these little bracelets around our wrists as gifts. One little girl didn't have any bracelets left, so she gave me what looked like a flattened marble. We were mobbed by children in the neighborhood as we went outside to wait for our ride back to the hotel. Most have never seen white people before and again, we attracted a lot of attention. They loved having their picture taken & then looking at their pictures via the digital camera--you would have thought you had given them the best present ever.

Back to the hotel for lunch...very hot & spicy food there, but good food.

In the evening, we all went back to the village of Thirumalagiri for a celebration service. The intent of the service was to invite the whole village to meet us, and to introduce that there would be a health camp the following 2 days, for anyone to attend. Members of the church put on a couple of skits, and a couple of song/dance routines by younger girls in the church, plus a short talk by Pastor Job. I swear we were treated like rock stars: people put flowers in our hair, everyone crowding around us & asking us our names, shaking our hands. You could not have been made to feel more welcome. Vanakum! (which means welcome in Tamil).

Tidbits from my journal Day 1-3

Thought I would enter a few excerpts from my journal over the next few days, now that I've had a little time to recover from the jet lag & get back to a "normal" routine.
Day 1 & 2: Met @ GCC and left by 4:15 on a bus for O'Hare. Long, long flight (~15 hrs all total to get to Bangalore, India. Fed well on the various flights; highly recommend British Airways. Hard
to sleep on the plane, but managed a few hours.
Day 3: Arrived in Bangalore. Due to the swine flu scare, we had our temperatures taken via a laser thermometer pointed at our foreheads to make sure we didn't have a fever. Luggage was loaded into/onto shuttle buses, said our goodbyes to the Kalavai team, & we headed to Salem. Driving thru traffic was definitely an adventure, not for the faint of heart. Stopped at The Spicy Spoon for breakfast (really, that was the name of the restaurant) and then on to Salem, about 6 hours, with horns honking & bus weaving in & out of traffic (often on the wrong side of the road
with oncoming traffic headed for you) all the way. Met up with our leaders, Jim & Barb Blechl, at Devi Towers, the hotel we were staying at for the first 2 nights in Salem.


Everything I need for 10 days!


Waiting for our bags in Bangalore. The Spicy Spoon

We are back!

The Salem Team (without our fearless leaders, Jim & Barb Blechl)

It is hard to believe we are back from India, after a very long, long flight home! I am not sure how to get all the experience down in 1 blog. To simplify, the take-away is that poverty is much more in the open in India than in America and that it is at a higher rate, that the culture is definitely different, but people have much the same concerns there as they do here, that the faithful there can put us to shame here. I am posting 2 short videos of Celebration Ceremonies of the 2 different churches we were at in Salem and some pictures of the people and the team. Enjoy!

Salem Medical team Day 8

We are finally able to blog today. We have had computer issues/technical difficulties & we are now at an internet cafe in Salem so that we can update the team blog about our experiences. There is just so much to talk about!! The traffic is incredible. Our impression is that there are no traffic rules, only "guidelines", and that the biggest vehicle wins. Driving is not for the timid here!

The Health Camps have gone well, especially today in Suramengalam (hopefully I have the spelling right). People here seem to be very concerned about pesticide use and won't eat fruits & vegetables because of it. So I did a slight revision in my talk to include Food Safety, & covered how to wash produce with water before preparation, and eating produce that grows below ground or have peelings on (which are peeled before eating) to reduce the risk of consuming pesticides. It has been a very interesting experience!

The kids really enjoy having their pictures taken & then seeing what they look like afterwards. This is the first time many have seen white people. The people here are very gracious.

I just cannot describe everything in one post & we have to leave soon. Hope all is well at home!

We have a few people who have been sick yesterday and today, but so far I have been well. I think the probiotics Marcia recommended have been helpful. Please keep us in your prayers & that John will be well soon.