Monday, July 13, 2015
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.
Community hall at Bethelnagar
Health presentation to patients before the treatments
Leprosy patient
Bethelnagar family
Leprosy patient
Leprosy patients
Lily and one of her patients
Playing jenga with patients
More jenga
More jenga
With the priest at Pulipakkaam Hill temple
With the priest at Pulipakkaam Hill temple
At Pulipakkaam Hill temple
Statues in an alcove at Pulipakkaam Hill temple
Lily and her friend Bailey on Pulipakkaam Hill
Me being awesome on Pulipakkaam Hill
The group on Pulipakkaam Hill
Sunday, July 12, 2015
July 12--church day
Today we left for church at 9 am. It starts in Chennai at 11, and it’s about a two-hour drive there. I never get tired of riding in the car here, because there’s a non-stop parade of fascinating stuff to look at out the window.
I was surprised how nice the church is and how many people were there. There were maybe 120 people in sacrament meeting. There are three branches in Chennai that meet at that building. The people are good at English and most of the church services occurred in English. One of the sacrament meeting talks was in Tamil, and many of the comments in Sunday School were kind of a mix of Tamil and English. Younger members and men are more likely to be good at English, but it seemed almost everyone could speak it passably.
On the way home we stopped at a Domino’s Pizza, where the staff assumed I was the boss of a company outing. The kids had a good time eating pizza, and they all insisted on having their picture taken with the employee of the month (or “Service Guru”), whose photo was on the wall. The Indians ate it up, and our kids thought it was hilarious. Also on the way home, our tire was low and we stopped at an Indian tire store for some air. Gunnels Tire it wasn’t.
I’m having mangoes and pineapple for dinner tonight, and we’ll see what else I feel like eating. Tomorrow it’s off to Behtelnagar, another leprosy colony.
Lily and I in the Chennai chapel (notice her cute sari)
The teeming road in front of the Chennai chapel
Lily with this month's Service Guru!
The Indian tire store (see the air hose leading to our bus?)
Saturday, July 11, 2015
July 11--day off in Mamallapuram
Today was a play day. We left at 8 am for a visit to Mamallapuram, a city about two hours away on the coast. It has touristy shopping and several nice private beaches. We first went to several gift shops. Maybe the neatest thing I saw was a globe made of carved stone, about four inches in diameter with a zillion little holes carved in it. It’s neat to look at, and you can put a candle in it and it is a cool lamp. I had just about convinced myself that I couldn’t live without it, and was moving it to the guy’s counter to discuss the matter further, when I dropped it and it smashed into a jillion pieces. I may or may not have used inappropriate language. The good news is that the shopkeeper gave me a 200-rupee discount because he felt sorry for me (it’s not like I had room to bargain on the price once I’d smashed it), and I think because he was relieved that I didn’t try to get out of paying for it.
After buying a few trinkets, we got some lunch. I had tiger prawns, some of which were so big that I swear they were more like baby lobsters. Tasted more like lobster than shrimp, too.
Then we went to the beach, at a nice private resort. The water was perfect, maybe 76 or 78 degrees. I think it might have been the first time in India that I’ve been outside and comfortable. It was fun to play in the water for about an hour and a half. It cost 500 rupees to go on the private beach but it was worth it.
On the way home we stopped so I could get some of the yummy-looking fruit that we had seen on the way to the beach. I bought some grapes for about a dollar a pound. The lady selling fruit on the side of the street had an old-fashioned scale with weights for 250g, 500g and 1 kg. I bought all she had and then a bunch from her neighbor. Then another guy in the group bought some from the next vendor over. I think the vendors were puzzled at the giant American grape freaks.
One of the girls in the group wanted to stop and get mangoes on the way home too, so we did. I don’t like mangoes much. But I always want to have an interesting experience. So I told the bus driver to pick me out the best mango on the cart. He did and the mango selling lady gave me a free slice of it to try. Holy cow, that was delicious. So I bought a kg of those too. Yum. We also stopped at the regular grocery store and I bought a few veggies and some various kinda weird Indian treats—little chips and cookies and stuff.
We came home to a standard yummy curry-based dinner, then it was just relaxing for the evening. I took some grapes up on the roof and sat on the edge of it. It started to rain, which cooled things down a tiny bit. I ate grapes and looked out off the roof as I sat in the rain, and it was just peaceful.
Cows are everywhere--it's quite common to have them in the street
Lily and her friend Bailey at the restaurant where we ate lunch
The beach resort where we spent a little time today
Mamallapuram is famous for its stone workers, and there were quite a few we passed as we drove into town
Friday, July 10, 2015
July 10--our visit to Barathapuram
Today we went to a leprosy colony about an hour away called Barathapuram. The community is adjacent to one of the few leprosy hospitals in India. It’s Rising Star’s “model colony”—the locals have used the grants from Rising Star wisely and repaid what they’re expected to, and so they’ve received a lot of help and been able to make a lot of improvements to their community.
Water supply in the summer is a huge issue there, so one of the things that Rising Star has done is drill a well to replace the old one, whose water was so impure that it couldn’t even be given to cows. We looked down into the old well, which was maybe 30 feet deep, adjacent to a public latrine, and bone dry. The new well was drilled by a contractor and is 490 feet deep. It’s made a huge difference; locals who used to have to go a kilometer for water now have immediate access to it.
Rising Star also built a community center for the village, and they are in the process of adding a computer center there. The community center is important because families of leprosy patients usually aren’t permitted to rent reception halls, and even if they are it’s a burden to travel there.
We toured the local preschool (called a “creche”), and of course Lily enjoyed herself playing with the little kids.
Rising Star makes “microloans.” Actually, Rising Star provides the capital to a community council, which lends the money to locals and then receives repayments so that the money can be re-lent to others. One such loan was to a woman we met who travels to Chennai from time to time and buys dresses and saris wholesale, then brings them back to the village to sell. Lily bought one for a few hundred rupees. Another loan was to a lady who needed capital to buy inventory for her “petty shop,” a tiny hole-in-the-wall store for the village. And several loans to villagers have been used to purchase cows. The cows cost 30,000-45,000 rupees ($450-700). Rising Star will lend 20,000 rupees of that amount, which must be paid back within 10 months.
Chatting with the Rising Star guy who was leading us around, I asked him about employment prospects in the area. He said that laborers are typically hired on a daily basis, and under the law they are supposed to be paid at least 400 rupees ($6.30) per day, though that doesn’t always happen. Skilled laborers such as masons and electricians make about double that. He said that poorer laborers from northern India come to the relatively more prosperous south, and have caused some problems. Often they’re brought by professional middlemen who bring them down, find them jobs, and keep part of their wages.
As we were walking around, Lily was carrying a little flower that she picked off a bush. She got yelled at by a peasant woman because apparently that type of flower is for the exclusive us of a particular god, and people aren’t supposed to use it. Our guide was concerned that Lily might be offended, and pointed out that besides, that flower has sticky white sap that can be a skin irritant.
Finally, we went to a local art studio where leprosy patients create pictures using Indian materials and motifs. Some of them were really cool, and I bought a couple.
Indians always eat with their fingers. I’m not a big fan of that to be honest, especially since the food is almost always liquidy or some kind of a stew, but usually there’s no getting around it. Sitting around and eating with the kids a couple days ago I had my plate and was eating kind of gingerly with my fingers. The kids asked why I was only using my thumb and two fingers. I said I dunno. They showed me how you’re supposed to do it, which is to take a bite of food and put it on your four fingers, then use your thumb to push it into your mouth. It actually works pretty well!
This afternoon I was asked to make a presentation to the ninth graders at the school. Rising Star’s school on the campus where we’re staying serves students through tenth grade, which is when high school ends in India. Originally established because family members of leprosy patients can’t get into normal schools, this school is so good that lots of local people come now, and they have a reasonably decent chance of going to college and succeeding if they work hard. I talked to the class about what it takes to be a lawyer in the US—how much schooling it takes, what you have to be able to do, how to get clients, and so forth. I showed them our website, and a video of me talking about the law. They thought that was pretty cool. One particularly bright young student (named Jennifer!) asked me about whether I’ve had any interesting clients lately, so I told the class a story or two about some challenging clients I’ve had.
Little girl at the village preschool
Kids at the preschool
Kids at the preschool
Permanent community trash bins donated by Rising Star
Villagers make these chalk dust designs outside their homes to welcome visitors
A really nice house in the village
This house gate has a welcoming design on the ground, as well as scary demon faces painted on the posts. The scary faces are designed to ward off evil spirits. They're necessary because the house is a nice one, which means it would otherwise be attractive to those evil spirits.
The "petty store"
Lily with the artist who painted the picture she bought
Me with the same artist
Inside the art studio
The class where I gave my career presentation. That's Jennifer looking at the camera.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)