A Loss for words

I find it ironic that as we sit down to blog about our final days in India I am at a loss for what to say.  Our experience here has been one that we will cherish in our hearts forever.  The experiences that we had and the lessons we learned were some that will always be with us.  I can't begin to explain how much the people of India changed our way of thinking and of being.  To see so much pain and a hard way of living is uncomfortable.  But the way that these people react to their circumstance of living is something I will never forget.  These people are truly happy and yet they have nothing.  In America we define ourselves by what we do as a living.  Such as I'm Jessica and I'm a nurse.  But these people they are defined by how they live.  They don't care who has more money because majority don't have hardly any money.  But they find joy in living and even when they have been afflicted with Leprosy and the community has turned their back on them.  They are happy.  They lean on family and friends and find joy in being given the gift of life.  Indians are very family oriented here.  Something I wish that Americans  would take a lesson from.  Family is everything.  Having children is everything.  They know that they aren't in the best circumstance but make the best of it.  I never heard anybody complain.  It was a hard thing to leave this wonderful place.  It was a very tearful goodbye to the children and the adults of RSO.  The girls said that next year when we come back to bring our baby (because they are sure I will have one by then) But they also wanted us to know that I already had 20 children.  Meaning those of our house that I spent each night with. I truly do feel that way. I love those children like family.  They are so willing to love and be loved. Such a sweet innocence that I hope they never loose.  I think this quote fits very well with our trip " Your journey has molded you for the greater good and it was exactly what it needed to be.  Don't think that you lost time.  It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now, and now is right on time." We were supposed to come here and God knew of our needs and theirs I'm eternally grateful for these people and  this place.  It has taught me some of life's greatest lessons.

The end is near

 So here we are at the last week of our great trip in India.  It's amazing that it's been a three weeks already.  I feel like we just got here too. And it's also hard because I feel that we are just starting to have a great relationship with the people and the kids here and now it's time for us to depart.  Ever since this week started the kids will always ask "Auntie, Auntie, When you leave?" When I tell them Saturday they always frown and say it's to soon.  I feel the same.  It's also hard because for some of these kids we are about as close as family.  They only get to see their parents once a month and then are here for the rest of the time with us.  It's hard to see but a necessary thing.  This week we've done a lot.  We did some medical work again which was great!.  I learned a few Tamil phrases with the Indian nurse that I work with and used them on the patients.  I'm sure it was barely decipherable what I said but they always responded in excited voices.  I think it was mostly just because it was nice to communicate with them without having a translator.  Steven did an awesome job washing the feet of the leprosy patients.  While I was debriding and wrapping the wounds.  It's exciting to see that some are understanding their disease and knowing when they need to find treatment. I've found a new love for public health education because it can help so much in preventing and knowing how to treat.  

 Okay so this is Steve writing now... Jessica mentioned that I haven't made a blogging entry this entire trip, and well quite frankly shes absolutely right. So here it goes.  This trip has been amazing.  I am eternally grateful for the many people who made it possible including those who so generously donated financially.  2 Years ago when I returned from my mission I prayed every night for an opportunity to feel like a missionary again. Through this trip my prayers have been answered.  It has been more amazing than I had dreamed.  Thank you again to all those who have helped make it possible including our families.
When we landed in India I looked out the window of our van and saw a city full of millions of people.  I thought to myself, "how is it possible that God knows all these people, loves them, and is involved in the details of their lives?" My experience here has taught me that God does know all of his children even if they have never heard of Jesus Christ.  The boy pictuered above is named Bala.  He and I are good friends now.  He is 11 years old and doesn't have close family.  When I asked if is parent's were coming for parents day he said that he hasn't seen his Mother or Father for a long long time.  I wonder sometimes if God knew that Bala was sad, afraid and lonely not having a family of his own but knew that Steven Hart on the other side of the planet would be able to connect with him.  I also wonder if God knew that Steven Hart wanted to serve and make a connection and that Bala would be able to teach Steven a thing or two as well.  I feel that this was a match made in heaven, a divine crossroad.  Jessica has made several similar connections.  This taught me that God is willing to send someone half way around the world, spend thousands of dollars, and countless hours of planning and preparation maybe just to give one of His children a hug, wipe a tear, or make them laugh again. I know that God lives and that we are all part of His eternal family.

Dehli trip

So this weekend we went to Dehli, and Agra City.  We started our journey at 3 am Friday morning. And after a small flight of about two hours we arrived in Dehli.  We got in a very nice chartered bus (with AC I might add) and drove around new Dehli.  The tour was beautiful.  The picture above is the capital building.  We went and saw the american embassy which was cool.  I was amazed at how clean New Dehli was and the nice buildings.  I was under the impression that was how all of dehli.  But I was mistaken for sure.  The tour guide announced that we were now headed into Old Dehli.  It was a night and day difference to the above.  So much poverty and people everywhere.  It was dirty and the traffic was at it's peak of craziness.  

 This picture I feel doesn't even start to describe the mass of people there.  They just build one on top of the other.  I couldn't believe that this amount of people could all reside in such a small area, And people would stare at us constantly.  It was really uncomfortable. But a good learning experience.  When I was in the slums of brazil I saw wires being plugged into the poles just so that people could have electricity.  This city was the same but times 20.  There were wires hanging to low I was worried we would hit them.  While we were there we did go and visit a spice market and I got some spices which I'm very excited to go home and try out.  The man I bought them from gave me his email and said that he would email me some recipes so if it turns out good family you better plan on an amazing indian meal.

 So to tour Old Delhi we took some bicycle rickshaws.  It was so intense to be out in all that traffic exposed with nothing protecting me from all those crazy drivers.  Our tour guide says that it's reallyeasy to drive in India because there are no rules and you can just make up your own.  All I can say is next time I get pulled over I think I'm going to thank that police officer for keeping order and making people abide by the rules.  Yet another thing that India has taught me.  Now this next story actually happened I'm not making this up.  While on this bicycle ride we were turning around on a narrow street.  And our bicycle driver bumped into a cart passing the other direction.  While they were speaking in some very heated Hindi, Steve and I couldn't have anticipated what was about to happen next. All the sudden our driver jumped off the bike and started fighting the cart drivers.  We were surprised but that was just the beginning.  All the sudden there is a swarm of people in front of us fighting each other! And us right in the middle of it.  Steve got out to try and move the cart but I told him it was probably best to stay put.  We just watched in a state of shock.  The unfortunate thing was that we didn't even think to get our cameras out and film this.  A sadly missed opportunity.  When the driver returned he acted like absolutely nothing had happened. Just another day in India.

 After our near death experience we got on our very safe and secure bus and drove to lunch.  This food topped all the food I've had this far.  I couldn't believe the rich flavor.  And the Nan bread was divine. And such good curry.  It was called butter chicken and chicken tikka masala both were extraordinary.  All I'm sayin is that if this restaraunt comes to the united states I'll eat there every day.  We also ate at pizza hut and KFC which was fun.  Indian version of pizza hut I dare say was probably better then the original.  It's just so funny that they don't eat meat so it was all spicy chicken pizza's.  But all I cared about was that it was a little piece of home and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Justin Beiber and Kesha while eating.

Next was a long seven hour bus ride to Agra city! We got settled in our cozy five star hotel and it was so nice to take a real shower! I soaked in there for at least an hour.  And to sit on a seat while using the bathroom.  I thought I might have died and gone to heaven.  Indian squatters are not exactly comfort based more like essential based.  But we woke up early to see the sun rise on the TAJ MAHAL! Words can't express the Taj.  It's the 1st of the seven man made wonders of the world.  And I think that it is much deserved. The detail that was put into that building is extraordinary.  It's hard to explain just how beautiful it is.  And it's all for a tomb to place a queen in.  What a quest of love.  So while at the Taj I got my first taste of stardom. I'm getting used to people staring at our large group of white people but they usually do not approach us.  Well while everyone was taking pics I was just sitting down taking it all in. And a group of about five or so men came and asked if they could take a picture with me.  It was quite funny but I consented.  They were all so excited. And that's about how the day went.  People would either ask us to be in a picture or they would just sneak pictures of us like we were part of the scenery.  HA guess I now know how it feels to be the huge minority.

WE RODE AN ELEPHANT!!!!!!!  It was amazing to be so close to such a large and magnificent creature.  It was way fun to be on top and feel it sway as it stepped.  I didn't realize just how tall he was until we got up there.  He was very gently.  I never realized that elephants have hair on the hides.  It's very prickly to touch.  Kind of reminded me of unshaved legs.  Steve stayed his distance back so I finally persuaded him to take a picture near the elephant.  He consented and the elephant hit him in the head with his ears.  It was hilarious to steve's expression.  Something new that I learned about my husband is that he doesn't trust unfamiliar animals.  I guess that's why he's the smarter one in  our relationship.  There was also a camel and some monkeys there  but I'm so used to both of those two animals now I think I see them on a daily occurance. It's not uncommon to see a speeding car pass a camel carrying a cart.  Or a herd of cows being lead down the road with people zooming in and out to pass them.  Such a crazy mix of modern and ancient worlds.  

a sleepless night

So it's 5 Am here and I've given up all hope of sleeping till 7.  It has definately been the worst night since we got here.  The reason being is because the power in India is extremely sketchy.  So instead of it going out every five min like it usually does we are just getting power surges every few min. So the fans will be going at regular speed and then all the sudden speed up really fast then slow way down.  And also another unfortunate side effect of these power surges is that the AC is affected also. So every few min it turns on with a loud clank and then turns off again.  So it's not on long enough to actually cause an effect on the room temperature. So when I woke up a few hours ago, I woke up in heap of my own sweat.  And now that I'm awake a just keep listening to the AC and hoping that for some strange miracle it will just remain on. My main question is I don't have any clue how steve is still sleeping through all this. Because if I'm hot then he must be boiling.  Maybe I should go check his pulse and see if he's ok. .. . . .

  So questions have been asked about the food here in india. Well here it is. That about sums it up. I always knew that India was famous for their curry but I always thought that there was other foods that were there. But I was mistaken.  All there is curry and more curry.  We do switch it up a bit and have fruits and vegetables with our diners.  Yesterday we were in charge of chopping up the fruits and veggies. And we just loaded the vegetables with garlic salt and vinegar because I honestly just want a different flavor besides super spicy.  Also I think because you sweat so much here I think that my body is craving salt.  In fact my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it.  When I'm eating the curry which is fairly delicious don't get me wrong.  I usually try to stay away from the whole unrecognizable vegetables.  Because those usually just end up being a whole spice and my mouth is burning for the next hour after I eat those.  They do have rice cakes sometimes. Which is just finely crushed rice, mashed into a patty.  I asked one of the girls yesterday what she would do if they didn't like rice.  And she said that they would probably starve.  Sad, but a valid point seems how they eat rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This next picture is us up on the roof where we have dinner. It's super nice because we get to talk about our day and our experiences and then the sun usually sets while we're up there. It's usually always a beautiful sunset. And a nice way to end the day.

After dinner we split up into groups and go to what is called family time.  This is steve's family time.  I don't know the stories behind these but it looks like to me a fairly typical guys night.  With the light sabers and I can usually here screaming coming from the boys hostel.  These boys love steve tho.  When we are walking up to the hostels there are boys waiting outside for him and as soon as they see him they say "Steve Steve me first me first" They are referring to a game where he puts them on his shoulders and he runs all around the path.  He teases them and pretends he's going to go into the mango groves and they freak out because there are scorpions and snakes in there that even they don't want to deal with.  This last picture is what everybody sleeps on including the girls.  The just lay down on these paper thin mats and go to sleep. With the girls in my family they love it when I lay down with them and tickle their arms and backs, while singing them to sleep.  I usually sing primary songs and hymns. It's a sweet moment to see these girls requesting songs.  One girl yesterday started singing a song that I didn't recognize and I asked her what it was.  She said she didn't know the name but it was number 2 in the hymn book.  So I started singing The Spirit of God.  And let me tell you the spirit is particularly close when your with those sweet children.  They are such an amazing example to me and I love getting to spend time with them. I couldn't have asked for a better experience here then the one that I've been given. 

Construction day

 No matter what country you are in little girls like to braid your hair and paint your nails. In this case I feel a little bit like a my size barbie.  This braid actually was done by one of the house mothers named Sarahswathi,  The term beauty is pain doesn't really do this justice.  She was pulling on my hair so hard I literally thought that  my whole head of hair was going to come off of my scalp. Funny part is that she just sat down and started braiding. No questions asked. It's funny also how critical they are of your imperfections.  If you have any flaw the girls will notice it and they will point it our.  While Steve has been here he decided to grow out a go-tee and everyday a girl that's in my family named Bianca would tell me how ugly my husband was because of it.  She then would go tell him that it was ugly and to shave. HA HA I loved it personally.  So finally after days of this Steve decided to shave and Bianca and Steve have been best friends ever since.  

Each day when we go to the leprosy colonies we help the community in building bathrooms for the houses there. So yesterday we were caring rocks from house to house.  I'm a little bit sore today but the smiles on these people's faces is well worth is.  After caring these rocks for about three hours the foreman called over to us and said that the snake charmer in the village has caught a cobra and to come see it. It was intense.  I took a couple videos but they wouldn't download. But this cobra was very angry.  The only thing that kept the cobra in place was a brick on his tail.  The snake charmer actually drinks the venom of these snakes so that when he does get bitten he won't die.  And he has been bitten before so apparently it does work.  While the snake charmer was preparing the venom to drink the cobra actually got away in which case we all ran away screaming.

After the cobra scare we decided to do something a little bit more mellow. There is an art school there in the colonies where they teach leprosy affected people to paint.  It was great seeing the talent of these people and the way that they chose to express their feelings on the paintings.  This painting we bought for our home and the woman is the painter.  So it was fun to get to meet her.  And I think that it is a nice feeling for them to see their work being appreciated and enjoyed.  I love this painting and already know exactly where it's going to go when we get home. 

 I just want the blogging community to know how hard I'm trying to be on being a dedicated blogger. And to show you my dedication I want you to know that I had this whole post almost finished and it was pretty great if I do say so myself, and lo and behold the computer crashed. . . . . . So here I am starting from scratch so that I can bring my stories to you.
Ok now that that is out of the way the past few days have been awesome and a little surreal. We spent Saturday going to a beach town called Mamalapurim.  The picture above is a rock called butterball rock. There has been teams of elephants trying to bring that ball down the hill and it won't budge. And yet it looks like it could slip off at any moment in time. We also saw some 14th century temple ruins which were very interesting. It's always fascinating to see the dedication of people through out time and the pride they put in their buildings.   After seeing those we went down the street to get some shopping in. Now I'm not a fan of shopping in general but shopping in India is EXHAUSTING! They will some how start bartering with you on something that you don't want to even buy.  And then on something you do want to buy you have to argue with them for a hour to get a fair price. And then with the currency exchange it was just overall an ordeal that I'm not looking forward to repeating next weekend.

 The good part about the day was the beach! We went to what was called Ideal Beach. And let me be the first to say it was truly "Ideal",  The ocean was the perfect temperature and I think it was the warmest bath since I've gotten here.  The sand was so soft and no rocks or coral to stub your toes on. There were beach huts to lounge out in and a waiter even came and brought you food. Thus the picture above with Steve sipping on a smoothie. There were also hammocks and palm tress so I think that I've sufficiently painted the picture for you to know how ideal it was.  My favorite part about it was that Steve has never been to a tropical beach before.  So when he felt the water I think he was surprised that his foot didn't turn into an ice cube that instant.   It was such a nice relaxing time and I think much deserved.

We went to church on Sunday. It was a long two hour drive so we had some time to snap some pics along the way. Once we got there though it was a nice slice of home.  I just love that the church is the same wherever you go.  I think that we nearly doubled their congregation but the didn't seem to mind at all.  It was interesting because alot of people spoke english but some didn't. So the teacher would have to go back and forth between English and Tamil. But overall a superb day. The church is growing a lot down here. They are constructing a three story chapel here and there is three branches.  The missionaries said that they had 6 baptism dates this week. So i think that the work is really starting to take off here. So it's exciting to see.

Today we spent the day at one of the many leprosy colonies. It was a fascinating experience to do what I do everyday in another country.  The medical techniques were different. And it made me very grateful for the knowledge that I have and the tools that we have in america for medicine. We are truly blessed. But that said it was great to make a difference today. The people were all very grateful and kept touching my face and saying thank you.  There are some very bad wounds that I don't think will ever heal.  Most of the patients have lost most of all of their toes and fingers.  It is sad to think that all of this could have been prevented by educating the Indian people.  It was great to see Steve in medical action as well. You should have seen him working that blood pressure machine!.  (I was all over that thing-Steve)  Enough said. I got to debride the wounds which was fun. And worked along side an Indian nurse who was very sweet and patient with me. Since I don't do to much wound care in my day to day practice.  Overall it was a great experience to get to see the smiles on these peoples faces and get to make a small difference in the world of leprosy. 

Good times in india

So today has already been a good day. We got up early at 6:30 and took a walk through the village. It was amazing because all the villagers were up doing there morning chores and getting water for the day. It was so great because the sun was just rising and it wasn't nearly as hot as it could of been. But when I say that it was still probably about 95 degrees but that feels like a cool autumn day now. ha amazing how the prospective can change. These two pictures that are posted above were taken this morning. the people would come up and ask to have their picture taken it was so cute. The family above were in shock when we showed them that picture because I don't think that they see themselves that often. They showed their whole family the pic it was so cute.  This lady in the next pic came up to us and at first we thought that she was angry because we didn't know what she was saying. but then she started adjusting her sari and flattening her hair so we figured out that she wanted us to take her pic as well. It's so fun to see their smiles on their faces when they see their pics. I wish that I could print them all out and give it to them because I don't think they have ever had a pic of themselves in their lives.

 Its amazing how different India is sometimes, the traffic, the food, the culture. All of it is so different on the outside but while we have been here we have discovered we are more similar than we think.  While working with some villagers the townswomen brought us mango juice. It was just like doing a service project back home and being served lemonade.  They saw it was hot and we were in need, they showed kindness by their gesture. Kindness, concern, gratitude, friendship are all emotions we all feel no matter what cultural differences.  We are all part of one human family. It was a simple act but a powerful lesson. The pic above is the ladies who gave us the juice, They were so sweet.