July 15--taking photos during our medical rotation

     Another day on medical assignment.  Actually, I was with the medical group but didn’t really have an assignment.  So I mostly took photos and video of the group doing their thing.  Better yet, I took some photos of the patients and printed them out on my little portable printer, which always amazes and thrills them.  Thankfully, the ATM worked today so I was able to pay off the artists for the pictures we bought.

     Tomorrow, the 16th, is our last day of volunteer activities.  Our flight leaves early on the morning of July 17.  Wow, that was fast!

 Leprosy patient.  He's also the village tailor.

 ...So here he is in his good shirt with his sewing machine.

 Leprosy patient

 Leprosy patient

Tailor and his family

The nurses who work on our medical team

Me with the tailor and his family

July 14--work at the school and a bike trip to the Junction

     Today our assignment was on campus.  It was our “education rotation,” meaning we worked with the kids at the school.  Our day was spent with kids from pre-K to 7th grade.  I felt like I had a pretty good experience teaching a fourth-grader some math, but a lot of the time I felt like a substitute—I’m gonna be gone in a few days, and they know it, so it’s limited how much you can help.

     My ATM card hasn’t been working in any India ATMs for the past several days.  It’s getting to be a problem because I bought some paintings from a couple artists at a leprosy colony, and I owe them some money and I can tell the people here are getting nervous I’m gonna skate without paying.  Sheesh.  But anyways, they encouraged me to go down to the ATMs at “the Junction” about 5 km away to get some money.  Except there’s a rule that we’re not allowed to ride in the little rickshaw taxis to get there.  Sheesh.  And they won’t authorize one of the vans to take us.  Sheesh.  So we had to ride down there on bikes, except there were seven of us and only four bikes.  Grr.  So we figured that three of us would ride double (hey, plenty of Indians do it, right?).  Except that about 100 yards into the ride, my bike (with another volunteer on the back) blew a tire after hitting a rock.  So one person agreed to stay behind, we switched bikes, and the six of us kept going on three bikes.

     It took maybe half an hour to ride down to the Junction.  I have to say, it was worse to ride than to pump.  The rack is very uncomfortable to sit on, and when riding you have to use weird abdominal and oblique muscles to keep your feet up off the ground, since there are no pegs to rest your legs on).  It was kinda funny to trundle along on those bikes, with natives gaping and waving—all in all, one of those experiences that’s rather more fun in retrospect than while it’s happening.

     At the Junction, I tried both ATMs and neither of them would give me money.  Grr.  After we came back, I called BofA and they say that everything’s fine with my account.  We’ll see if I can get the stupid card to work tomorrow; I’m told that Indian ATMs can be tricky.  The issue of the deadbeat painting purchaser seems to be weighing heavily on the administration here, so my assignment’s been changed—I’ve been attached to a medical group that’s passing by an ATM on the way to the colony where it will work.  I’ll take the photo printer along, and that should be a good time.

The Junction

Video from today

More photos from today

Video from today at Bethelnagar and Pulipakkaam Hill

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

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?)

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