Today, I
attended the morning chapel, currently being held in the hospital library
because of the heavy rains. There was a fair amount of good singing going on
and some prayers and then during one of the songs, a GIGANTIC clap of thunder
sounded and the roof began to wobble down toward us and back. Then, I was told
that it was a tin roof and that wasn’t thunder…..it was the giant monkeys
jumping on the roof!!! These guys are rather large…
At the end
of chapel, we were introduced to everyone and then everyone dispersed. I
attended the nurses’ rounds. Today was not a very busy morning so I went back
to have some breakfast and afterwards Kahala showed me around the hospital.
We attended
the doctors’ rounds and I got to see each patient in the men’s and women’s
wards as well as a private room patient. There was an encephalitis patient, one
with a back cast, one with splenomegaly as a secondary to what he came in for.
I also saw two newborn babies in their incubators. They were in a quiet room by
themselves. (Since Tuesday when this was written, there have been ten more babies born and two of them have died). The hospital does a ton of C sections here for two reasons: Malnourishment is high so bone structure demands C section and many women give at a birth very, VERY young age.
After these
rounds and exploring the other hospital rooms, someone picked us up to go to
the Rambo School. As I was walking across the schoolyard, tons of little kids
came running up saying “hello, how are you” and extending their hands! SO
CUTE!!! The older ones seemed more shy, but still said hello as I passed
by. I went in to meet with the
principal, Avanash, for a while and we talked about what kinds of things the
students knew and might not now about various subjects. After our chat, he took
me around to each classroom and I got to meet each teacher and say hello to
each class. As with my Bulgarian teaching experience, the students immediately
stood up when they saw me and said “Goooood morning ma’am” They are being
taught in both Hindi and English and the school has grown from 600 to about 750
students. Indeed, their classrooms are extremely packed and they not only need
space, but better conditions in general. There is some construction going on at
the school, but it is slow.
Tomorrow, I
will begin teaching three or four classes (not sure yet) and then I may ride the
school bus as it takes them home around various outlying villages. I’ve heard
riding the bus is fun and I can see some of the countryside and smaller
villages this way. I also met with someone who puts together the weekly Sunday
evening service and I will be helping with that as well as meeting with the
hospital nurses every evening for music (and English texts) time etc. So
excited! Things are shaping up for me to do!
Mungeli is
not as hot as Delhi, but it is hot. It’s also high monsoon season and rained
almost all day today. I love it!! I tried walking to one part of the village to
go to the market, but I was wearing sandals and they were slippery so I will
try another day. I did manage to drop off some cloth I bought in Delhi to a
woman living near the hospital who is a good seamstress and she will make me a
sari “suit style” outfit from the material! To ask her to do this and another
errand, we were invited into her house. It had a hardened mud/concrete mixed
floor, partially no roofing, but the covered rooms have electricity, ceiling
fans, cooking stuff etc. Items like toothbrush and toothpaste, hairbrushes etc.
were kept outside between roof tiles.
 |
| looking out from someone's house into the road |
Interesting to be in someone’s
house.
The internet
has been out here for some time in the town so I am writing daily, but will
post all at once when I get the chance! I’ve taken lots of good pictures, but
many were from a moving car and not the best. I plan on taking some time for
photography in between breaks and monsoon rains!
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