Rambo English School presents......the 2011 Annual Function!

Greetings! I hope you are all doing well. Today was another amazing day in this place they call India. I become more and more enthralled and interested with these people and their way of life with every day that passes.

We awoke early and arrived at chapel at 7:30am for this daily event. As always, it serves as an excellent way to start each day. Could you imagine if we had this type of spiritual discipline in our own lives? Maybe we would have an easier time dealing with the problems we face, recognizing that some things really just don't matter and how truly blessed we are. Just a thought.

The good Reverend Kelly delivered a very nice message using the Parable of the Lost Sheep as her illustration. She spoke about God's love for each and every single one of us. Following the chapel service Anil speaks to everyone, in a way providing them with a game plan or overview for the day and then asks for any announcements. Since it was Landa and the rest of the Atlanta crew's last full day in Mungeli - they provided candy for everyone at chapel as a gift to all of them. Following this Anil had Dave and myself present the maintenance team with all of the tools that we brought along. I wish I could have captured the look of amazement and humbled appreciation on the faces of these men as Dave was showing them all of the tools that were brought along and donated to the hospital. Seeing their reactions to something we would maybe take for granted, makes you again realize just exactly where you are in this wild and expansive world. It was also neat to watch them gather around Dave after Chapel as he put them together and showed them how to use them one by one. There was even a crowd of onlookers from the streets gathering to see this all happening. Dave said their favorite was the leaf blower and they just had a great time using it as he was showing them.

Some of us went on hospital rounds, others of us had to leave rounds early because we started to get nauseated and light-headed (cough, cough Lisa cough, cough). I am really just giving her a hard time, but it strikes us all because she works with dead bodies everyday in her work at the coroner's office, but for whatever reason the living sick and injured proof to be difficult for her. In all honesty.....I didn't even go on rounds, so I have no room to talk whatsoever. On the other hand - it's my blog so I will tell it how it is!

Following a surprise breakfast of french toast and hard-boiled eggs, we all set off for Mungeli to do some shopping and find an ATM. This was our first adventure without a guide so we were excited to check out the city. As usual there were billions of people everywhere doing millions of different things. The city was just teeming with vehicles, music, noise, horns (not the same as noise, it is a completely separate thing - trust me). Our second ATM stop proved to have an ATM that had rupees in it, so that was very helpful. From there we set off for Maggie's clothes shop. His store was highly recommended to us and rightly so. They have a beautiful shop and ask that you remove your shoes before entering. We were all warmly greeted and offered something to drink. Not thinking for even a second - we all jumped at the offer fresh, COLD, homemade lemonade. DUH! It's 90 degrees out, who wouldn't want some fresh squeezed, ice cold lemonade? Yeah so as soon as we sent for our order, we quickly realized what we were getting ourselves into and that this lemonade probably is being made from water that is not anything close to safe to drink. So we kindly took a sip....if that and made about trying to set it aside, dump it out or just ignore it on the counter for the rest of the time we were there. The colors and fabrics and the patterns are all just extremely vibrant and beautiful. It's no wonder that this region of the world is known for making such incredible garments and rugs and scarves and other fabric items. I think everyone in our group purchased something except for me. I will be going back though later this week. I am working on my impulse buying problem and this was a perfect chance to walk away, think about it and then make an educated decision. Even though $2.50 for a beautiful scarf is really a no-brainer. After leaving there we set off to find nails for a project we are working on at the school, we purchased fruit and snacks for our safari tomorrow and we tracked down a couple of ice cold pepsi's while we were at it.

After getting back to the hospital, we had a nice lunch and rested before the school's 2011 Annual Function. This is an event featuring choreographed dances from all of the children. It turns out its kind of a big deal around here. Well it also turns out that Avinash, the school principal, also informed us at lunch that Kelly was the guest of honor! And that she would be asked to deliver some remarks to the crowd. I am telling you - we are considered A-List celebrities around here. Just today as we were waiting at the ATM, a nice young man on his motorbike was driving by, stopped and chatted with us for a few minutes until we headed off. He said he saw us and wanted to meet us, so he stopped. It's pretty wild stuff.

So we all get to the School Function and we have a roped off section for reserved seating on the left side of the tent in the front 3 rows. Kelly asks me to come on stage with her and she said she would address the parents and that I could say a few things to the kids. I said what do I have to lose, so I agreed. So about midway through the show, we are called on stage and Kelly addresses the crowd. I also want to draw your attention to a photo of the recently constructed stage we were speaking from, see photo in upcoming album. This is not something you would consider performance grade staging, but believe it or not - this thing stood up to some rowdy versions of Ghostbusters, If You're Happy and You Know it, Head-Shoulders-Knees & Toes, Under the Sea and many other Hindi songs. So back to our address - we get up there Kelly says a few words, I say my peace to the kids about the importance of coming to school, doing your homework and respecting your teachers and we are done....so I think. About ten minutes later the principal is having all of these people on stage to present awards to the kids for various accomplishments and next thing I know I am called on stage to present medals to some of the kids! I of course went up there, but to be completely honest - I have no clue what these kids were getting medals for.....but it was an honor and it was awesome!

We stuck around the school for a bit after the show to do some more work in the classrooms getting lines up so that they can hang posters and we ran out of nails about the time we ran out of sunlight so we called it a day.

After showering and packing for our next two-day adventure, we headed over to the home of Anil and Teresa Henry for a going away party and dinner for Landa and the team from Atlanta. It was an absolute blast. First of all, no one is left out - Dr. Henry invites all the hospital staff, the maintenance crew, the drivers....everyone. We all enjoyed glasses of Sprite or Orange Soda while the karaoke machine was being fired up. Gregg sang a great version of Suspicious Eyes, Kelly completely owned Carly Simon's "It's Too Late" and then there was me. You are scored after the singing of each song by the computer. A 100 is the best you can do. The only 100's all night were some of the nurses who sang beautiful Hindi songs. So of course the girl before me gets a 100. Tough act to follow. I opt for Journey's "Open Arms." Very high song, complimented with my nonexistent singing voice and you have a hot mess. So what did I do - I gave it my all. The crowd loved it, everybody was just eating it up....except the game. As the song ended we all waited in anticipation for my score to pop up, when suddenly 00 flashed across the screen. The place erupted in laughter and I was left reassured that I won't be on American Idol anytime soon. I couldn't believe I couldn't even get like a 2 or a 3, but a zero? But who really cares, we were all having so much fun. Later in the evening we played a version human musical chairs, we enjoyed another awesome meal together and we simply relaxed in each other's company. It was a nice evening, but a late one. We left there around 11:30pm with a 2:30am departure for our safari right around the corner.

I would like to say this before I get to bed. There is something that continues to stick out to me as I meet more people here and experience life in this hospital and school. The word that continues to stick out to me is community. These people have such a keen sense of what it means to be fully in community with one another. They are all working as a team, living together, surviving together and doing what they can....collectively to make this world, this town of Mungeli, a better place. It was so awesome to sit back and watch them tonight laughing and joking and mingling and simply enjoying their time with one another. I am so amazed at the grace shown by Anil and Teresa. They are such gifts to this community. They don't view you as better or worse based on your job title, your income or your looks. They treat you as an equal and they treat you with dignity. In a culture plagued with a caste system that structures the lives of people for them, it is nice to see a place and a couple like the Henry's who don't judge, degrade or deminish the value of one person from the next. I wonder how much we could learn from these people if we truly were willing to listen? Do you feel like you belong to a community of people who deeply care about you and appreciate you and what you bring to the group? If so, congratulations - cherish it. It's something we all are not so fortunate to know. But what would this kind of community look like in Ohio or Florida or Canada or Iraq or wherever? I think it's what we are all called to do by Jesus so whatever it looks like, we should probably get working at it.

I need to get some sleep, at least an hour because tomorrow we are leaving at 2:30am for a safari in Kahna National Park and then upon our return to Mungeli that afternoon, we will leave directly for the train station. We will take an 8 hour ride to Bismantuckett (that is not the correct spelling, I am sure of it, but it's the best I could do for the time being) to spend a day at the hospital where Anil's parents Nancy and Viru served for so many years.

So my apologies if you don't hear from me for the next day or so, but I will be sure to get things updated and promise plenty of great pictures from the past couple days. Thank-you again for all of your prayers and support.

A big shout out to all my jr. high youth group kids who are meeting tonight! I miss you guys! See you in a couple of weeks!

Much Love,
Nate