Brad and Lily in Dubai-India-Pakistan: July 13--Bethelnagar leprosy colony and Pulipakkaam Hill temple

In the morning we left for Bethelnagar leprosy colony, where we did our medical rotation. Today I was in charge of setting up and distributing the patient files, and I have to say I didn’t really do very well at it. The names are complex, and the patients aren’t particularly interested in whether any notations get made in their files, so they tend to grab their files and move on. I struggled through it with the help of the bus driver who could actually call out the names and get people’s attention.

I also brought my portable photo printer. I took photos and gave out copies to people. As in the other places I’ve volunteered, it was a huge hit. And it’s a great way to get good portraits of people whom I otherwise wouldn’t feel all that good about asking to pose for me. Eventually my print cartridges ran out, and that was a bummer. I had only brought enough for about 12 or 14 photos, and it would’ve been better if I had the supplies for a few more.

I also got some nice videos of some patients playing jenga with volunteers. Some of the patients’ hands are in pretty bad shape, so they couldn’t really play by themselves. Lily helped some of them by guiding their hands. I think Lily really enjoyed interacting with them. And one old crippled lady who gets around on a squeaky, beat-up little cart with wheels really enjoyed it.

Then I was assigned to the nail-clipping station. I have to say that today it was pretty gross. Some of the patients who presented had feet in terrible shape, and nails that really needed attention. The nails were thick and grarled and beyond filthy. I had to use these big clippers like you’d use to trim a dog’s claws. A couple times as I clipped them off they went flying and ricocheted and hit me in the face! It ended up being a really good experience, though. I can’t think of many things more humbling than trimming someone’s toenails, digging out the dirt, and cleaning them up. I kept thinking of the Savior’s example of washing the dirty feet of his disciples. So when I kept the right perspective, it was actually a powerful experience.

Lily worked at the eyedrop station. At the beginning of the day she felt like she had a migraine coming on, and I was a little worried how things were going to progress. There’s nowhere cool or dark for her to go, and we didn’t have any medicine. But once she got working she was fine. It’s funny how serving others always makes you feel better.

Afterward we went to a temple on Pulipakkaam Hill. The temple was very old and not very well maintained. However, there was a caretaker there who seems to live in an adjacent house with some others (presumably his family). There were several of the geometric sand drawings on the ground, and various little alcoves with statues of deities. Afterward we climbed further up the hill and had a really nice view of the nearby town.

As we were driving around today, we passed some kind of chubby dancing guy in an elaborate costume, with a bunch of singing, drumming acolytes behind. I asked the bus driver what was going on, and he shrugged. For some reason that struck me as funny—nothing to take note of here, just another half-crazed dancing troupe in the middle of the road in India, so shrug and move on.