Finally.....a COLD Pepsi!

Greetings everyone! I hope you are all enjoying a great weekend and as most of you in America are probably doing, making Super Bowl plans for the Packers big dubya.

Things are going great in Mungeli. We have been so blessed with incredible weather, great meals and the fellowship and kindness of so many.

Today was our first full day at the hospital. I think we were all thrilled to be sleeping on a bed for an entire night since we set out on this journey. So this morning we all seemed extra alert and excited with anticipation for what the day might bring. I awoke around 6:00am to music and prayer calls on the loudspeakers for the mosque across town. I went up on the roof to take some photos of a sunrise over Mungeli and take in all the early morning sounds. It was surprisingly cool to me, but I don't have a single thing wrong with cool, when you have "frozen solid" back home.

Our day began with chapel at 7:30am. Everyone on the hospital staff, guests and even family members of those staying in the hospital attend this service. We were led through a short liturgy, a singing of "How Great Thou Art" in Hindi and a great message from Rick Lowery, husband of Disciples of Christ President, Sharon Watkins. After the service concluded we were treated to Lentil cookies and some other doughy, sugary thingamajigger that all tasted really good. On a side note - I have already shattered any and all bets on how many new foods or drinks I would try on this trip. I apologize if any of you lost some cash on this - but I don't miss meals, sorry. At the end of Chapel Dr. Henry introduced the contingency from the U.C.C. and D.O.C. National Staff that were here and then he introduced us to entire group. We presented the Principal of the school with the Nintendo Wii and the controllers and games that we brought along with it. He was very gracious for the gift.

After breakfast we walked down the road probably a quarter of a mile to the Rambo English School. When we arrived all the student were lined up by class and they were all sporting matching uniforms. I mean these kids were looking slick! It was really impressive. They were introduced to all of us and were led in a prayer and some school spirit type chants and then we sang happy birthday to one of the young girls. Check out the video:

Happy Birthday Video


Following this the children were dismissed to their classes to begin their day. We were brisked around the school on a tour with Anil and the school principal - Avinash. He showed us plans for the new school building and introduced to many of the teachers and students. It was interesting to learn about the students and how far they travel to study here. The school has three buses that pick-up and take home children from places over an hour and a half away. Some of the children arrive on motorbikes via family members, regular old fashioned bicycles and others have hired rickshaw drivers to take their children to and from school each day.

We were on a whirlwind tour for most of the early morning because the rowdy group from the U.C.C. and the D.O.C. were heading out of town at 10:30am. Anil shuttled us quickly from the school down to the hospital where we were taken through every part of the facility. It was an incredible time seeing all that they have going on in the hospital. We toured the site of the new cancer facility, the maternity ward, the psychiatry ward, we viewed the labs and the operating room, the hospital offices and the intensive care unit. We saw so many patients as well all facing different situations. One man had partied to hardy and was in with a bad case of alcohol poisoning, another gentleman broke his leg doing something that got him thrown in jail and was there for eight months before he was released and able to get any sort of treatment. There were two brand spanking new babies as well that were such a treat to see. Probably the hardest thing to see since I have been in India was a young girl who had suffered burns over 3/4 of her body. She had spilled some kerosene on herself in preparing a cooking fire when the kerosene ignited suddenly and engulfed her. She was in a room, without clothes, covered in burns and absolutely writhing in pain. It was absolutely heart-breaking to witness this. Anil noted that it was unlikely she would be able to survive these injuries. I hope for her sake, God takes her to a better place, pain free and and completely at peace.

After our hospital tour, it was breakfast time. We returned to the apartments for a nice breakfast cooked and prepared by the servants who work at the hospital. Lisa also managed to get Skype to work on her iphone and speak to her parents during breakfast. It is so amazing what technology can do.

We returned after breakfast to the hospital and spent some time there going through all of the posters that we brought with us and deciding which classrooms they would be going in. Over the next few days we are going to be constructing, excuse me - who am I kidding, Dave will be constructing some new bulletin boards for the school and running lines of rope along the classroom walls so we can clothespin the posters up all over the rooms. Sandy, dusty cement walls don't make for the best place to hang posters, but as you always do in Mungeli....you make due. We spent a couple of hours at the hospital doing this and meeting the kids. They all want their picture taken and they LOVE to see the picture in your camera! It was a great time meeting all these kids and seeing how much energy and joy and just pure affection they have for life. I am looking forward to their program that they are putting on this Monday and the school fair on Friday. It should be interesting.

Once school let out we headed into downtown Mungeli to find some nails for the cement walls at the school. We were led into town Meranawli who is a teacher at the school and Shane one of the greatest missionaries Mungeli has ever seen. Shane is one of these guys who could talk his way out of absolute any situation and has a super-sized personality along with a heart the same size to go with it. He truly has a gift of making connections and conversing with people from all walks of life. As he led us through downtown Mungeli he constantly was interacting with shopkeepers and vendors that he has developed relationships and friendships with. Everyone loves Shane, plain and simple. We were able to see so much of the city that we probably would have never dared to go unless we had someone of his caliber and capability guiding us along. Lisa and Kelly purchased scarves and FINALLY.....at the far reaches of the country, in the back alleys of downtown Mungeli, from a simple roadside Mungeli version of 7-11....I found the elusive.....COLD PEPSI and to boot it was even in a glass bottle. It was only 10 rupees and worth every single cent.

We returned 2 hours later and Napped and it was awesome. In India, well at the hospital at least, lunch time is from 3pm - 5pm. I had a wonderful lunch and then was out cold for a solid couple of hours. It was great.

The rest of the evening was very relaxing. We had dinner, played basketball with a badminton game going on at the same time and enjoyed some great conversation. We have had the opportunity to meet Shane's family over the last few days. They are quite an incredible family. They are originally from California and are hear for four months. Shane's wife Lisa grew up in India as her parent's were also missionaries. She attended school with Anil when they were children and has always been aware of the hospital here. She is here doing her dissertation for her doctorate and has the incredibly fortune of being able to be here for this time along with her husband Shane and two of their children - 17 yr. old Marcie and 15 yr. old Thea. Lisa is studying the rate of stillbirths among women in the villages all over the area around Mungeli. On select days she will travel the countryside with a translator and her daughters to interview the women in the villages in hopes of finding out answers to the high rate of still births in the country. It was absolutely fascinating to sit and speak with her this evening. We all had so many questions and she was just a wealth of knowledge. I can't wait to read her study upon it's completion.

But the most exciting thing today happened in the middle of this great conservation with Lisa about her study. Landa returned to the apartments to inform us that they were preparing to a c-section on a young women who had been in labor since the morning and we were all invited to witness this. Lisa and Kelly both jumped at the opportunity. Dave, Gregg and myself all took a few extra minutes to finally say "we gotta see this." So we all "scrubbed in", and went into the operating room. They were giving the young women a shot in her spine to prepare her for the operation. Now I have always pictured c-sections as this careful, slow, well-scripted thing
where a baby eventually is gently lifted out of the women's body crying and screaming and that is that. Well after they got the incision made and began to get in there, I realized there wasn't much gentle about this operation whatsoever. Finally the Doctor just basically dug in there rather furiously and next thing you know he has is holding this child from it's feet and spanking away at it until it finally lets out it's first screams. It was by far one of the coolest things I have sever seen in my entire life. Being here thousands of miles from anything, where there is so much poverty and so much need, it was such a stark contrast to the what we have seen in our short time here. I wonder what is in store for this child? What opportunities will he have? So many questions.....

Another incredible day in Mungeli. I grow more and more thankful for this opportunity with every conversation, with every meal and every moment that passes here. Thank-you for your continued prayers and your continued words of encouragement.

Tomorrow we are off to a dam nearby for an all day picnic with everyone from the hospital. The word is that we can go swimming if we'd like. The other word is that there are crocodiles in this water....but according to some they stay waaaaaay at the other end. No chance. I have had enough encounters with wildlife in my short life to pass on a chance to swim with the crocs.

I hope you have enjoyed our updates! Good night from Mungeli!

-Nate

p.s. Gregg has taken some amazing pics. Please stop by his blog at http://revgregg.wordpress.com for some great video and pics along with his take on our trip as well.

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