Last week in India

Last Tues through Thursday, Laurel and I joined other Kothara staff in running "camps" in various tribal villages surrounding Paratwada. It's absolutely been the most fun we've had the entire time in India.

On Tuesday, we set off with Deepali, the medical intern, Pramoth, the community outreach coordinator, and a couple of other World Vision staff or volunteers to hold medical screenings for World Vision-sponsored children in about five or six hill villages. We were excited to be off campus on an adventure and to visit some of the villages from where our tribal patients come. We saw incredible scenery, beautiful people, and extreme poverty. Laurel and I contributed to tooth decay in the villages by giving out tons of candy; we were selfish actually because we just wanted to see the kids smile. :)

On Thursday we held a medical camp in Bhandaraj, right next to a Hindu temple. The camp is a twice annual one that sisters from a convent nearby run on their own. They provide the medicine, arrange for the doctors to come, and publicize the camp in the nearby villages. There was a cave nearby where a priest lived in bare conditions. There were about 360 patients who came in with various ailments, from minor colds to serious conditions, like probable hepatitis and cerebral palsy. So many children had conditions that had gone on far longer than it might have. Dr Steve saw the peds cases, Dr Asha the adult gen med patients, and there were also a gynecologist and an orthopedist. The ortho techs from Kothara also screened many patients to take back on the van with us to receive free eye surgeries from Dr Shyam. In all, there were 44 patients who came back with us. Most of them were older patients who had extremely mature cataracts. The doctors said many of them had never been outside of their village so coming to Paratwada was like us going to Mumbai!

It was an amazing experience for us. We are now in Mumbai, a bit overwhelmed at first but we're loving the new sights, sounds, and tastes. It's a bit chilling to walk in the same areas where the shootings occurred, like the train station, the Taj hotel, Leopold's cafe. But we know God is our protector and we are in his hands. Pray for us anyway! Yesterday we visited the dhobi ghat, where an entire neighborhood is in the business of washing clothes. It was an incredible sight. If you've seen Slumdog Millionaire, the scenes in that movie are all around us--the begging children, the slums, the trash...as well as the high rises and wealthy neighborhoods. Laurel and I were glad we watched it on Sat night because we recognize many of the places in the movie now that we're in Mumbai!

We are going sari shopping today (Monday) and buying more luggage to fit all the stuff we've bought. The doctors at Kothara told us to haggle like Indians, so we'll try our hand at it. We have so many more stories to write about but our time in the internet cafe is limited so I'll end here.

One more thing. If you remember Atish from my last post, he passed away a few days after he left the hospital. Dr Rashmi said that his dad called her up and asked her if those girls who took pictures of Atish could give him one photo of him to remember him by because he didn't have any pictures of his son. My heart breaks for him. God be glorified even in this situation! Pray that his family would come to know and experience Christ's love for them even through this circumstance. Maybe God has a glorious plan for them.