The shoe's on the other foot

Vivek, Anant, Clint, Ruma, Shalu in the taxi bus

Last night, Clint & I, along with Kristen & Stephanie (nursing students from Canada) took a few of our Indian friends to Pizza Hut in Dehra Dun! We all piled into a taxi bus for the 1 hour journey. Shortly after we started eating, we quickly noticed that for the first time in the past 3 weeks, it was the foreigners who were eating with their hands and the Indians who were eating with silverware. (Indians typically eat with their right hand, as their left hand is considered dirty)

Kristen, Ruma, me, Shalu, Stephanie in Pizza Hut

Clint & Anant on the ride home

Then, on the bumpy ride home, it wasn't the foreigners who got sick, but the Indians. (we've all been getting sick off and on after eating Indian food) We felt so badly for them.

Glimpses...

I thought I’d give you a few glimpse into our lives at HCH.


These are the monkeys that frequent our campus. I’ve seen them here twice, now. They seem to come in groups of 15-20 and just hang out in our trees. (or eat micsellanous pieces of trash laying around)


This is a picture of the road that leads to the hospital campus. (I’m standing with my back to the campus). If you look on the left hand side of the photo, you will see a lady in a turquoise-ish colored suit with big pink polka dots on it. Just behind her, you can sort of make out a purple chair. That chair is at the chai stand that I visit every so often to hang out with Joyce, Ruma and Salu. Their chai is great…not lack for calories, though. :) This is also where I got roped into wearing a sari.


Here we have Dr. Lehmann’s old house. I’m not sure if he lived in the whole thing, or what. On the other side of the blue windows in the center of the picture is our room. The bottom level is broken up into apartments and several staff members live down there.

This is a funny story. So on our first day here, somehow we mistakenly thought Dr. Lehmann’s old house was the former Lehmann Hospital. With a little time on our hands, we went exploring. Well, actually, Clint went exploring. I just tagged along. We found all kinds of nooks and crannies in that place.

All of the sudden, we came across a locked door. (here is a grave difference between Clint and I) When I come to a locked door, I think.. “hmmm…it must be locked for a reason, let’s go somewhere else.” Clint, on the other hand, sees a locked door and can’t resist the temptation of knowing what is behind the door. So he starts yanking and pulling on the door, trying to open in, while I stand there fretting…almost sure we’re going to tick someone off. Bang. Bang. Thunk. Yank. Before we knew what was happening, a face appeared in the door window. My heart rate probably doubled. Here we are, only our 3rd day in India, can’t speak a lick of Hindi and we get caught trying to break into someone’s apartment! Thankfully, the apartment belonged to a resident named Geom who is one of the best natured guys here and someone who has become a very good friend.


This is a little hole-in-the-wall shop behind the hospital where Clint comes for snacks, an occasional Limeca and bread omelets. I myself have found a treasure here… COLD bottles of water for only 12 Rupees (which is between 25-30 cents) for a 1 liter bottle. Amazing.


And finally, this is Conner. He is Jeff & Janet’s 3rd child. Conner has a flying backpack….that shoots out fire…and is made of cardboard.

I’ve been spending my mornings over with Janet, helping as she home schools their kids. The kids are so much fun to be with!

The Road Home

Last week, I took an afternoon stroll down the road which connects HCH to the main road. Here are a few pictures of the journey. Trust you all had a wonderful Easter.

We attended the 6:00 am Sunrise Service, which was in Hindi, and then had breakfast with everyone who lives and works here at HCH. Our day ended with an evening Bible Study on the Prodigal Son. It was fantastic! Clint and I have are so encouraged to spend time with the believers here. I'm also thankful that we can be here for two months. It allows us to develop real relationships with those around us. It doesn't take long to realize that the aches, the joys and the fears of life really do transcend culture and nationality.

And the haircut was...

$0.25! We couldn't believe it. To top it all off, he cut it WAY better than I ever have!!!

Holi

Today is the Hindu celebration of Holi. When I asked about the meaning of Holi, I found that the story is somewhat similar to the Biblical account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It’s the story of a boy who had a very powerful father. The father wanted his son to worship him, but he refused. As a result, the father had him thrown into a fire. Apparently the father also had a daughter. This daughter was special because she could withstand fire. She was thrown into the fire with her brother to make sure her brother died. But, because of the boy’s devotion to do what was right, the fire didn’t burn him. Instead, the fire consumed his sister because she obeyed her father instead of obeying God. So Hindus celebrate the boy’s devotion to God.

Hindus celebrate Holi by lighting huge bonfires and spraying bright colored powder on each other. All of this is accompanied by the consumption of large quantities of alcohol and marijuana…which leads to a lot of brawls, as you can imagine. In fact, on my way to the hospital to use the internet, I heard a loud siren going off. I wasn’t sure where it was coming from until I saw a large crowd gathering on the hospital steps. The siren is to notify the entire compound of a mass casualty at the hospital. I stood there for awhile, watching the scene unfold, but with all of the people, it was really hard to tell what was going on. I’ll probably know more when Clint gets back this evening. There was maybe 30-40 people there.

Because Stan and Andrea live in a prominent Hindu area, they came up to Herbertpur during the celebration of Holi. It’s been such a fun few days because Lon and Sarah have also been up at Herbertpur. Unlike Stan and Andrea’s 3 hour drive, they had to take an 18-hour train ride, which actually ended up being a 27-hour train ride. Yikes! The three of us couples, along with Jeff & Janet, all celebrated Good Friday together yesterday morning. It has been great catching up with Lon and Sarah…and eating a lot of American food hasn’t been too bad either. ☺

Living with geckos and dogs...lots of dogs...

A story from Clint

This happened last night:

Dogs from around the neighborhood bark at night which is OK. However, when dogs outside our apartment bark and fight at night it is highly annoying.

Last night as we lay in bed some dogs were making their usual loud noises. Jeff has a slingshot and shoots them occasionally. I don't have one, but I thought I might look out the window to locate them and then run down our stairs and out the door...possibly throwing rocks or something at them. I walked to the window and to my surprise felt an intense burning pain in my right little pinky toe. I jumped back and shrieked at the same time. Then I remembered the two slain wasps that we had not picked up yet. Maybe we shouldn't have scared the gecko out of our room (they eat insects).

Osanna

Each morning, the hospital staff has chapel. The service begins around 8:20ish and lasts 15-20 minutes. Most everything is conducted in Hindi. However, for the first time this week, we sang part of a song in English…it was wonderful. Part of the thrill was the song we sang… “Hosanna.” This may not mean much to many of you, but to those of us who learned this song in Russian, and sang it day after day in Ukraine (because it was basically the only thing we knew in Russian), it brought back special memories…even tears. For an instant, I was transported back to the little orphanage at Loubetin and the friends we have made there. Seems funny, doesn’t it... to be in one country thinking of another? Maybe I should up at the end of the song and proclaimed "Slava Bogu!" (My Russian is way better than my Hindi...and that doesn't say much!)

A Story for Kendra

I couldn't decide whether or not to post this story...but in doing so, I trust everyone can appreciate this "cultural experience." It happened a few days back... And no, photos will not be posted :) This is a picture of Joyce and Ruma...the story's two culprits.

Of all the people in my life, I think Kendra would most appreciate what happened to me earlier today. This afternoon, I had about an hour to kill before meeting up with Clint and Geom to go to Vikash Nagar, a small town only 2km away. I’d just been given the task of designing 4 brochures for Herbertpur Christian Hospital, so I thought I’d go take a few pictures of the campus. The previous night, Clint and I had taken a walk up the road that leads to HCH. It’s narrow and lined with shop and every day Indians, so I wanted to get some photos. I began snapping away and as I zoomed in on this group of girls, I noticed that they were staring at me. No bother, I was getting some good photos! As I continued down the road, I ran into these girls. Two of them knew English fairly well and before I knew it I was sitting down with them, being served chai and some spicy, salty snack. I was so proud of myself sitting down with random strangers. It seemed that the girls, Joyce (21) and Ruma (18), had gotten to know a lot of the HCH visitors. They are really adorable.

Well, before long, they were asking me if I’d ever worn a sari. I didn’t know what to say because I thought I was wearing one! Come to find out, I was not wearing a sari, rather a suit. They kept insisting that I try a sari on. Not really knowing what a sari was, I kept telling them that I was too conservative to wear one. I’ve seen a lot of Indians wearing this dress thing that exposed their back and stomach. Yeah, not planning on wearing that anytime soon. Well, a sari covers everything, so my conservative excuse didn’t hold any weight.

The longer the conversation ensued, the more danger I knew I was in. I either had to go try on one of their saris, or never again leave the HCH compound because their shop is right outside of the gate and every time I left HCH, I would be harassed about trying on a sari. So I agreed. I knew that I had 30 minutes or so before I needed to meet Clint and Geom, so I agreed to go to Joyce’s house to try on a sari and take pictures. After all, how long can putting this dress thing on take?

So we went back to Joyce’s house for the big “trying on of the sari.” I told Joyce and Ruma that we had to do this in 15 minutes and they acted like it was possible. We go back to Joyce’s bedroom and I find myself in a room with two total strangers trying their clothes on. Weird. Totally out of the norm for me. Then, it took at least 15 minutes just to get the thing on. You have to put on a top and a skirt and then wrap this giant piece of fabric around you in a contorted manner. It’s too complicated for one person to dress themselves, so someone else, Joyce in my case, was delicately draping me in this fabric.

Finally, we got it on. Then, apparently, my shoes weren’t good enough to wear with the sari, so Joyce gave me a pair of her way-too-small red beaded shoes. I crammed my feet in…good to go. Or not. Next came the bangles. Then came the sticker that goes in between my eyes. Then came the necklace. Then they redid my hair so they could hang this piece of jewelry from my hair down my forehead. When it came time for them to put makeup on me, I struggled so hard to keep from laughing. For some reason, all I could think of was “What would Kendra do?” Then I would laugh some more. This was getting outrageous. And the makeup was BRIGHT red lipstick and blush. This was followed by bright eye shadow and dark eyeliner. Finally, I was ready for this picture. Out of control.

We go outside and of course I’m ok with taking the picture right there. Oh no. We had to go up on the roof for our photo shoot. And a photo shoot it was. I felt like I was taking senior pictures all over again. They put me in this pose and in that pose, all the while making sure my sari stayed draped correctly and the dangling jewelry on my forehead didn’t move. Seriously, out of control. If the girls weren’t so sweet, I never would have been talked into this.

By the time everything was said and done, I changed and was 15 minutes late in meeting Clint and Geom. I didn’t want to hurt the girls feelings, so I didn’t wipe off the makeup at Joyce’s house. As soon as I stepped out of the house, two of the girls I’ve met at HCH, Stephanie and Lois were there. Stephanie, in her Canadian accent, is like what happened to you?! It was too much. (Needless to say, I spent my whole walk back to HCH feverishly trying to wipe off the makeup). And to think…this is only day 3 at HCH!

Our Bathroom at HCH

This is a picture of our shower. Yes, you may notice many things missing, like a shower curtain, for instance. But what is really missing cannot be seen. Hot Water. The water that comes out of this spout is basically freezing, and it's not yet hot enough outside to enjoy a cold shower. This presents another option for showering. You can fill the silver bucket with water, plug in the black water heater (which is attached to the top of the bucket), wait for 20-30 minutes for the water to warm up, then use the little red cup thing (attached to the top of the pink bucket) to pour water over yourself. And I might say...the second option is much better than the first. :)

Riding in an Auto Rickshaw

I'm not sure this 36 seconds of video clip can accurately capture what riding in a rickshaw with 4 pieces of luggage is really like...but it's worth a shot. My favorite part is at the end when Clint is commenting on how good of a driver we have. :)

We've Arrived!

DISCLAIMER: future posts will not be this long, so sorry for the length!

After days of traveling and some time spent in Dehli, we’ve finally made it up to Herbertpur Christian Hospital. Here's a glimpse of the journey...(if you cannot read the words on the back of this truck, click on it with your mouse and it should enlarge)

We arrived in Dehli at 7:40 am on Friday morning, May 7 and met up with Zarema Dawson, the EHA representative who had organized all of our travel arrangements. She has been fantastic! We’ve really enjoyed spending time with her and her husband Jeremy. Anyways, about Dehli…if you haven’t been there, it’s really something to experience. Something about it reminded Clint and I of Mexico. Perhaps it’s the “somewhat in place, somewhat not” infrastructure, or the dry, dusty climate. Anyways, people drive like madmen over here. (I feel like this is similar to Ukraine or Jamaica). A big difference is the fact that the roads are shared by small cars, rickshaws, bicycles, people, motorcycles and a few random animals (mostly cows).

Yes, on our first taxi ride from the airport to our guest house, I looked out the window only to see the backside of an elephant…with reflectors, you know, the kind you see on the back of bicycles? I believe someone was sitting on top of the elephant. Because the roads are so congested, everyone uses their horn to announce their coming/passing of another vehicle/rickshaw. A basic “rule of the road” seems to be if there’s a spot of road where your vehicle can fit, take it, or else someone else will. And if that’s spot’s not quite big enough, go for it anyways, somehow it will work out. It’s very typical for motorcycles to be trying to fit in between cars and for cars to be missing their side mirrors. Honestly, there are people everywhere!!

Our first night, we were what we call "torched" by about 6:00 pm. Exhausted beyond words. But our host was making dinner for us at 7:30 (lunch and dinner are eaten much later here) so we did whatever we could to stay awake. After dinner we washed up and got ready for bed. Before we go to bed, Clint and I usually pray together. So, Clint began praying. I was attentive, or so I thought. All of the sudden, I realized that I had fallen asleep and the room was quiet. I figured that Clint was just waiting for me to pray, so I quickly said “Amen!” so we could climb into bed. Clint started laughing because apparently, I had only fallen asleep for mere seconds and then proclaimed “Amen” in the middle of one of his sentences!

So we spent two days in Dehli before taking a train ride to Deradun. From Deradun we took a taxi to Herbertpur. Let’s just say once we got off the train, we walked into madness. Porters trying to carry our luggage, haggling through a bazillion people with 4 heavy suitcases on dusty, rocky roads, while every auto rickshaw and taxi driver is vying for your attention. Meanwhile, we had to figure out how to find a taxi driver who knew enough English for us to communicate with us. In the near future, I hope to post a short clip of Clint and I taking an auto rickshaw to our taxi. Auto rickshaws are very small, so Clint is sitting on top of two of our suitcases.

Thanks for the prayers. With love, C&A