OH India

Part of Agonda Beach @ Sunset

As I write I am currently enjoying a beautiful view of a Goan Beach- Agonda Beach, Canacona, Goa to be exact-on the Western coast of India bordering the ...can you guess? The Indian Ocean. Palm trees, white sand-its amazing.  Why blogging while on a 4 day excursion to the beautiful beach? 3 reasons really A) We have free wi-fi in our cheap Beach hut and Nilesh the 23 year old guy who runs it was so excited to give us the password that I feel I MUST use the internet and B) I burned myself so badly today on the beach that I can only compare it to the time in Myrtle Beach when I fell asleep for 4 hours on my stomach (and nobody woke me up) so I am taking a break.C)Also: to appease my brother-in-law who told us we had to write a minimum of 1 blog entry per week or he wouldn't support us (sorry Brad but KC doesn't believe in blogging on the beach)
                         It is actually KC's turn to catch up on blogging of our trip to India, so I will make this short. And I must make it short as KC demands daily that we go swimming during the afternoon high tide to catch some pretty huge waves, and that is coming up pretty soon.  We took a 32 hour train trip to get here, 20 hours to Mumbai and 12 hours from there to Goa, but I would say it was worth it. Goa is beautiful. The beach KC found is very private, with several very laid back restaurants and beach huts along the sand. The ocean is much like the Atlantic or Pacific (not blue like the Caribbean but some pretty amazing waves) and the beach is actually pretty white. The weather is hot hot hot, but in the evening feels amazing. It has been a great way to take a break from Dhamtari, and we wish it didn't cost so much to fly to India or this would be a new vacationing spot  :). Tomorrow we leave on an early train back to Mumbai, then are staying the night and exploring Mumbai for a day-then its off to Raipur on an overnight train and back to Dhamtari for teaching and helping in the hospital. It has been an amazing week.

Our mantra for this trip has been "ooooh India" and here are some examples of when we have had to use said mantra:
1. Our first train from Raipur to Mumbai was 3.5 hours late. We left at 10:30pm.
2. In the middle of the night in the sleeper car I awoke to something crawling on my face- a large cockroach, and KC informed me later that yes he saw one the moment we stepped onto the train but thought it better not to mention it
3. On arriving to Mumbai we found out that our OTHER train to Goa departed from a station 1.5 hours away in traffic....a $60 (in US dollars) taxi trip-oops
4. When the taxi driver tried to sneakily change out the 500's for 100's in the rupees that KC gave him and tell us that we didn't pay enough (KC informed him we did in fact give him the right amount)
5. After coming to Goa, when the guy with the beach huts had told us he had a vacancy when we called...and he really didn't, but as with all Indians he was SO nice about it that he made his friend take us in his huts for the night (at a cheaper rate)
6. Renting a scooter from a kid- (at the equivalent of $5 US a day) that was completely empty of Petrol causing us to run out of gas and having to have a nice Indian man push us with his foot- and also who forgot to mention that it was illegal to drive without a helmet on the national highways.
7. Getting pulled over and given a TICKET by an Indian policeman for not having the required helmet
8. Driving 3 hours north on the scooter (getting lost and getting the ticket)  to find a spice plantation that isn't really a working spice plantation at all but a tourist trap where they take all of your money and try to get you to ride an elephant and smoke a banana leaf cigarette (yeah KC was realllll happy with my spice plantation choice) and yes I bought many souvenirs from here.
9. A running shower in the hut with WARM WATER!!! YESSS!

Colomb Bay- a beautiful spot we found on a scooter ride

10. And finally, a GORGEOUS beach, with fantastic people from all over Europe mainly and Indians who own all the restaurants and huts who are unbelievably friendly and you can sit in their restaurants with bare feet and your swimsuit playing scrabble all day long and they won't ever check to see if you are ready for the bill (really. Never. You have to go ask them for it. We have played a whole game of scrabble AND rummy)

It has been an awesome week :) Hope our trip home is just as adventurous!!!

Raina (and KC)

We're over half way there

Yes that man is indeed washing his buffalo

            It is hard to believe that we are over the halfway point of our time here in India. In the next few weeks we will be taking a couple trips, so it seems like our time is going to be even shorter. It is unfortunate that we did not meet Pastor James until this week, because it seems like he is genuinely excited by our desire for mission work here, although it is definitely a God thing that we just happened to meet in Dr. Mousam's office. He is a local Pentacostal pastor (although his church is considered 'Church of God' he is very non-denominational) who, originally the son of a Hindu Brahman priest, was persecuted and forced to leave Nepal in the early 90's as they had a closed government towards Christianity and he was holding Bible studies at night. He came to Dhamtari, India, and began to work with ministries in nearby villages. He started to take orphans into his home (those who were Christians who's parents kicked them out, or those who had single mothers that could not support them) and began to have such a large number that he has opened an orphanage. The kids are each sponsored by either friends of Pastor James, or some of the local doctors, and so far they have about 19 kids. He also opened a "Bible school" where young adults can come for Theological training. He asked KC to come look at the property, and draw up some plans for a new church, parsonage and add-ons to the school, and I offered that KC start a web-site for him. When KC started to explain his ideas Pastor James was very excited and said that clearly God had sent us to him, and then invited us to come to his church Sunday to meet the orphans and to give a small talk to the Bible school students. We are very excited about meeting the kids, although neither of us is jumping up and down about the idea of us giving a sermon! oh AND he wants us to mention his Bible school to people back home as he would like some people to come teach for a month or 2....he was very interested in people our age or anyone...just throwing that out there....

I found a puppy!!

            Sunday night we were invited by the Chatterjees to see a movie with them in Dhamtari (the movie theater shows one movie for as long as it is popular). We tried to explain that we had already seen a Hindi movie in Raipur, but we went with them anyway. As with everything else we were 25 minutes late into the movie, but it didn’t matter because it was in HINDI so we were lost anyway. :) Dr.Chatterjee sat next to us and interpreted some of it, but we caught on to the majority of the plot, and relaxed in the very comfortable theater seats-believe it or not they are nicer than some that we have at home. Monday we spent the day with Pastor James, and Tuesday I decided that I was going to start going to 'Community Health' with the students in the morning instead of Casualty and got permission from the principle. They go to a nearby village and do teaching, some first aid, etc. One of the men in the village recognized me and said that I started his IV a couple weeks ago in casualty, and said that he was feeling much better now thank you :) . The people are SO nice...they always offer me their nicest chair, or mat, and want to talk about the white girl. One lady said I was the first white person she had ever seen. I looked at a dog bite, and old woman's shoulder that needed put back in place but she wouldn't/couldn't go to the hospital(the students wouldn't let me reduce it although I wanted to ...I think I could have done it!) and a child with a rash. The younger students taught about personal hygiene, nail care, post partum care, etc. It was very interesting to use my cultural appreciation while talking to villagers. For instance: one lady was taking warm oil and smacking a tiny baby on the stomach repeatedly with it-massage she called it. I tried to hold myself back from ripping the baby away from her. The baby looked like it was going cross-eyed and going to vomit everything it had ever eaten, but hey...there were tons of toddlers running around the old lady and I'm sure she did the same thing to them when they were infants... so I guess it's okay. I also held and petted many baby animals, which the students think is hilarious. I tried to explain that we don't keep baby goats, chickens or cows in our house in the US.

I found a baby!!!

                    KC has now been volunteered (by his wife of course) to tutor a couple Master's students on Excel. They are taking Statistics and their teachers don't teach them how to use Excel, so I signed him right up for that. They also need help researching journal articles (which makes me cringe thinking about Nursing Research) so I have been trying desperately to help them with that. They have no access to any kind of journal articles so I have had to use my library card and get online...oh the things I took for granted in college. The only difficult thing is that they show up at our apartment un-announced, and with our language barrier it is hard to get them leave, but we are trying to be patient. Yesterday when I got to class to teach...the door to the school was locked shut, and nobody was in the office (it was a Muslim holiday) and nobody had told me that they cancelled afternoon classes....so I got to relax under a tree with a book. That was very nice. This weekend promises to be a good time as we are invited to TWO Hindu weddings, a night out with a doctor our age, and the Church service on Sunday. Other than that we are getting super excited for our trip to Goa which is on Tuesday :). Hope everybody had a fabulous Valentine's Day! (we kind of forgot it was Valentine's day but had to make do with what we have)

KC's card for me made out of cardboard :-)

Click here for more pictures!

Raina (and KC)

A fair without funnel cakes

The new Dhamtari library

              On the scale of busy-ness in India for us, this week was insane (we had 3 events to attend in one week!!!)We had been invited to an array of things. As an attempt to get involved and to get to know more people, we decided (read: Raina decides it would be an adventure, KC hesitantly agrees) to accept all invitations-which is why we ended up on borrowed bicycles pedaling down the main road through Dhamtari on Tuesday afternoon after my class, with really no idea of where we were going. I had several panic attacks and almost hit a cow and a small child-with a bicycle. Some of the dentists that I had met invited us to a "library thing" (I could never quite understand what they were saying) which turned out to be the opening of the first library in all of Chhattisgarh that has English and Hindi books, owned by one of the young dentists. You will be happy to know that we did in fact turn at the right clock, and stop at exactly the right petrol station (those were our landmarks in the directions) and found our way there in plenty of time for the opening no surprise- as the power was out and they started an hour and a half late like all celebrations in India. It was very cool to see the 'Collector' there-essentially the mayor of Dhamtari-showing her support for the cause, and encouraging everyone to read more. They have a fish tank, couches, very cute tables and a coffee machine...so I told them of course that I would be back to read :).

         Wednesday brought movie night (Every Wednesday and Saturday we watch a movie on our computer and drink a diet coke-which, if you are related to KC's family/cousins...our diet coke is like Ryan's 'weekend' cup...you gotta look forward to the little things!) and Thursday I decided it was time to start taking advantage of all our evening time and learn to cook 'real' Indian food. I went to the market, pointed at a lot of green things that I didn't know the name of, and came back with a huge bag of vegetables and random spices (thank goodness one of my students found me wandering aimlessly in front of the masale-spice- market stalls and helped translate).  We had 'methi mater subje' (methi-green leafy thing that I didn't know what it was; mater-peas;  subje-means vegetables)with rice and rothi for dinner Thursday thanks to AllRecipes.com.India (yes I really joined the website...I have an addiction to Allrecipes) :)...and it turned out pretty good! But, we don't have any measuring utensils so it was a little heavy on the 'mirch' (chili powder). KC is in charge of the next menu....

Welcome Celebration "Learners today: Leader's tomorrow"

     Friday night we were invited to the 'welcome celebration' that 2nd year BSC students throw for the 1st year students. Their dorms are about 10 minutes away so we caught the school bus and went to Shantipur with them for the evening. 'Shanti' means peace in Hindi, and the dorms/hostels are located on a very peaceful piece of property outside of town, with several small buildings (about 8-10 students per building) spread out essentially like a summer camp.  We walked around the place for awhile, offered to help set up for the celebration (absolutely no...guests aren't allowed to help they said) and then waited for the 'chief guests' to arrive (principal and teachers). It was explained to us by a student that you do not start an event in India until the chief guest arrives...so if they are late the event is late. Thus-the celebration started around 6:45p...we were told it started at 5p and had been there since 4pm. We were also told that "ragging"-essentially hazing- is actually prohibited in India now because there have been so many problems (deaths-usually suicide) and so the students are supposed to take it easy on their juniors. 'Easy' involved making each one of the 50 first year students come up one by one to an embarrassing Hindi song, introduce and talk a little about themselves and then perform a humiliating act in front of everyone (sing, dance, give a rose to a cute senior boy, act, etc.) Though it was all in Hindi it was actually very entertaining. The 2nd year students went ALL OUT on decorations (which is why they didn't want class at all last week I guess) dinner was served afterward, and then they had hired a DJ and were going to have dancing when all of the staff went home. We begged our way out of the dancing and went home with the Chatterjees because we had to get up early the next morning....and boy the students were disappointed. It is hard to explain to them that this Mennonite does not know how to dance!

Eating some chicken biryani at the mela

                       There was no class on Saturday morning as some of the students were going by bus to a 'Mela' (festival) 3.5 hours away north of Raipur.  As always I invited ourselves....why yes we would LOVE to go to a fair thank you very much! I thought this would be a great chance to get away from Dhamtari for awhile, and to see what the fair was all about. KC and I are picturing carnival rides, food stalls, maybe some funnel cakes?? (we could only hope...but no we knew that it was only a dream) It is a week long Christian festival, so there are speakers that come and people are selling Christian paraphernalia (books, crosses, tracts, etc) and lots of food. Some people-we heard-think that it is a good place to "find a mate" ha-and people pick out spouses from there. Though there were no Ferris wheels, elephant ears, or funnel cakes it was like we expected -crowded, hot, and had lots of different stall type places selling things. If you know KC you know that this is a mixture of all of his most hated past-times, and that he doesn't even go to the Ohio State fair-so it was definitely an adventure-I read that some 80,000 people go every year. The students thought it was funny that our skin turned so red. We also learned that many of the 3rd year GNM students go there to light a candle and pray at a cross (has a little sense of Hindu religious practices) in order to make sure that they pass their final exam. I am sure they also pray for other things too :) It was set on a small island, surrounded by a river, and people come there to camp for weeks ahead of time. Some people go swimming in the river, but it was pretty dirty so we steered clear. We did not buy anything but food (the first thing we bought was ice cream!!!!) and lots and lots of water, and then spent most of our time under a huge shade tree getting to know some of the students. At one point we heard an AMERICAN SPEAKING and went running to the main tent to see if we knew him (which we did not-ha yes I know America is huge but I thought I recognized the voice) and he was a pastor from the US that had come to be one of the revival speakers. We didn't get a chance to talk to him as he was whisked away in a guarded police car after.
                            The fear of God and the vice principal was put into us on arrival to remind us that the bus was leaving for Dhamtari at 4pm...naturally KC and I were the first ones there in the sweltering bus by 4:03....we left at 5:30. The ride home took 2 hours longer than the ride there... there was an accident on the road that backed traffic up for miles, it was hot, my Ipod died, our good seats were stolen and I was desperately wishing for some of Brianne's trail mix that she made when we went hiking-BUT all in all it was a great learning experience. KC got to talk to some of the guys and now we know what a 'Mela' is...  but his long legs and that bus for 5 hours are not a good combination.

On the 'island'

      Next week we are hopefully going to visit an orphanage near here. We met a man named Pastor James who runs the orphanage and he said he would like KC to look at his property and help him with some construction ideas. This is a very exciting new prospect for him that we hope will pan out as we would love to help. Also on the schedule for next week: the kids in my class are going to actually have Trauma class for once whether they like it or not!!! :)

Have a great week!

 Raina (and KC)

Psalm 139: 5-10

5You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are 
       there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.

Back to the early 20th century

Old-fashioned laundry!

Don't I look thrilled

    A series of unfortunate events has led us to feel like we are living in the 1920's. Until Tuesday, we had been able to do our laundry in the neighbors washing machine, however, said washing machine is now broken. "No problem," we thought, "we can just take it over to the Chatterjee's washing machine." Well it appears that rats enjoy eating the electric cord to washing machines (who knew?) so theirs is out of commission also. We were crossing our fingers that one of them would be fixed by the time we ran out of clothes, but we were not so lucky. So alas, we are now washing our clothes by hand since there is no such thing as a laundromat in Dhamtari. It is quite an unfortunate process of sitting in the shower with a bucket of water (after turning on the "water heater" for a perfect amount of time-too short of time the water is cold, too long of time and you blow the fuse) with detergent and immersing each piece of clothing and performing our own agitation cycle (I'm sure some of our older readers can relate). On top of that, we have no laundry line, so we have various pieces of clothing draped over chairs, couches, and the table. We have also stolen both neighbors laundry lines (we had a lot of laundry to do).

Raina in her saree

          Moving on, Friday was graduation day for the nursing school, so they had a big ceremony and dinner celebration (we were excited that we didn't have to cook). Everyone gets dressed up in their nice clothes, so some of the students told Raina she needed to buy a saree for the program. They took her to the saree shop and she picked one out and had the tailor make the under shirt for her. Throughout the evening people kept coming up to her and saying, "Mam you are looking very beautiful tonight!" Meanwhile, I just stood there in my hiking shoes and khakis feeling under-dressed (I failed to bring nice clothes to wear). The program was very similar to a US graduation, they had a main speaker, the principal spoke, and they even did a lamplighting ceremony like they did at Mt. Carmel for Raina's graduation. Following the graduation program, they had dinner and a cultural show, which was very good. Each group of students (1st year male, 1st year female, 2nd year male, etc.) had a performance, and most of them were dancing, but a couple groups sang. Everyone wanted their picture with "Raina the beautiful" so before the night was over we probably took 40-50 pictures (there was a line, it was ridiculous). Below is a video from the culture show we thought you might enjoy.

           Saturday was a nice day of relaxation (although I still had to teach from 8-9am). We cooked a big American breakfast (scrambled eggs, toast, & hash browns) and decided that we ate enough that we could skip lunch. So after our Hindi lesson at 5:30, we were very hungry, but neither of us wanted to cook. We decided (I use 'we' loosely; Raina decided, I gave in) to venture out and take our first stab at an Indian restaurant (again 'restaurant' is used loosely here; really just street food). We found a place called the Eats Restaurant not too far from the hospital that actually had a place to sit and order, so we tried it. Without really knowing what we had ordered, we were pleasantly surprised at how good it was. It was actually some of the best food we've had since we've been here, and as of yet no G.I. problems! We got enough food for 2 meals (and then some) for a grand total of about $8.00 (at the Indian restaurant in Columbus we spent $50). We will certainly be back to eat there(barring any late onset of diarrhea).

Clothes hanging inside

This morning (Sunday) we made breakfast consisting of parathas and cream of wheat (we accidentally bought just a bag of plain old wheat instead of flour in Raipur last week, so after I experimented with adding water and cooking it we've been eating a lot of cream of wheat), then we went to church in the chapel at DCH. Following church we began the laundry extravaganza. Lunch was grilled cheese and popcorn, and dinner will be our leftovers from last night. I realize I keep coming back to the subject of food, and I believe it is because I have not eaten meat in over 3 weeks, and I never seem to be satisfied. I could NEVER be a vegetarian-however when your choices here are mutton (complete with all the innards)  or veg.....I end up eating veg. Anyway, Raina is working on lesson plans for this week, and we plan to spend the rest of the evening relaxing and reading.

          We are both feeling more and more comfortable in the way God wants to use us while we are here. I have realized that being in my comfort zone is not at all what God intended for me on this trip, and I think He is using this opportunity to teach me how to go with the flow and explore other unknown abilities I have (like teaching). Raina seems to enjoy teaching-although she is baffled as to exactly what to teach because she doesn't feel like the students will ever use the Trauma information that she is giving them, but the students absolutely love her, and I think she has realized that the relationships she is forming with some of them are more important than any work she could do. The first few weeks were difficult because we had so many of our own expectations, and now God has shown us that he doesn't really care what we think or want, He will use us where He needs us-even if we aren't really "needed'! We are starting to get a little bit homesick (Raina interjects here with A LOT homesick)...especially with the new laundry development and we really miss all of our family and friends (and dog). Thank you everyone for your continued prayers, we could not have done this without your support!

God Bless,

KC (and Raina)

Graduation Week

What my class did this week instead of learning

The 1st year GNM students and 1st year BSC students have their capping, pinning, candle-lighting  (whatever you want to call it ) ceremony and the seniors are graduating this coming Friday the 4th. Everyone here is excited about it...and the kids in class keep telling their new "teachers" that they don't have class because they have to "practice their dancing". I thought my med surg class was telling a "juht" (lie in Hindi)...but after asking the principal-turns out it is true. None of the afternoon classes are meeting for the next 3 days....but the morning classes are still on!!!! ( poor KC) They are also building these huge awning type things in the middle of the campus...complete with banners and quilts as decoration...and large sticks tied together as a fence. This is where graduation will be held Friday night-and no need to worry about if it rains-we are not in rainy season sooo IT NEVER RAINS HERE!!! woo hoo :)

KC teaching English

       It has come to my attention that if something happens in the lives of Mrs. Raina and her husband Mr.Kaina (KC corrected the spelling for them to Kenneth...although I think he should keep that name when we come back) everybody in DCH knows about it! It is turning out to be really funny. For instance...in my limited Hindi understanding I kept thinking that the staff nurse in casualty was talking about me and my saree purchase to people that came in...I was right. She was telling everyone that I bought a saree at the market and that it was pink. I don't even know how she knew! Sometimes randomly I get whisked away to different departments-or wards-and usually at the time I don't have any clue what is going on, most of the time it is just because they want to show me their unit, or to talk. Today I ended up in a completely different part of the hospital-Dental- twice...and the dentist asked if I would be wearing my new pink saree to graduation on Friday. Word gets around. Also: I have got to come up with a more diverse menu for cooking...everybody is very interested that we are cooking for ourselves and wants to know EXACTLY what I have prepared. I don't think they are going to believe me anymore if I keep telling them 'yesterday I made rice, rhoti and vegetables'. Dr.Chatterjee told me today that my husband's heart is through his stomach and that he needs fed.  So that being said-I will take recipes from anyone for anything involving rice, carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and eggs. Oh and sometimes milk. We just found out that we are the only ones who have ever come here (some people have volunteered teaching at the nursing school, other Med students come to the hospital for a learning experience) that have cooked on their own. Most of them take their meals with the Chatterjees-and people are amazed they we are not!

            The good thing about not being busy in Casualty (we had approx 6 patients today-2 of them were children and the pediatrician is sick so they advised the parents to go to another hospital) is that people in other departments want to talk. I got to spend a lot of time with 2 of the dentists today, who have lived in Dhamtari their whole lives and were very interested as to why we came to India. When they found out we are not being paid to be here they were able to say in English 'then what is the purpose of you being here?' I tried to explain to them the word volunteer, and serve and finally just said 'we are also learning a lot but maybe I can help by brightening people with my smile!!!' This made them happy, and I was able to try to explain just a little bit why we wanted to come. Hopefully it made a difference. Now we have made plans to go to their house at 'any time' and to be friends on Facebook.  I asked them what Indians mean when they say "anytime" (because really EVERYBODY tells us that here!) and they said literally....that people would love you to just come over anytime, as long as it isn't the middle of the night!

Med/surg class practicing "chin lift"

             Tonight we are invited to a dedication service that they have the day before graduation, and then we also received an invitation with 2 tickets to the graduation for tomorrow, so that will be our week. KC has been busy with lesson plans (he even made handouts Ben!) to keep caught up for the week....while I am trying to figure out what to teach about Trauma. I have already spent 2 days on the A-I of trauma assessment and forced each and every student to learn how to cold C-spine while turning a patient...KC was the patient. And boy they acted like they did not want to touch him. (I think I scared them by making them leave their classroom) I am not entirely sure if they always understand my English...I try so hard to talk slow but you all know that that is impossible. Today in the Casualty I actually started 2 IV's because the staff nurse left for lunch, leaving me with 2 of the students (all of the other ones had left). I was positive that this very young patient in sickle cell crisis was going to stop breathing on us and went running to look for intubation equipment, until Dr.Chatterjee was called in and said-'he is just scared, I told him not to act like a girl, and now he is better with the oxygen'. And sure enough-he stopped gasping for air, he opened his eyes & calmed down.  Oh the things I am learning .

The casualty crew

       Our newest current problem is that we have no way to do our laundry-one person's washing machine had a rat chew through its cord and the other person's we broke. I suppose we should learn how to wash by hand. Our Hindi is getting somewhat better (meaning we know numbers 1-10 and the days of the week), we can barter the price of a rickshaw to the market and we are making new friends. It has been interesting to hear about the different religious backgrounds in the school. In one class 50% are Hindu, and the other 50% are Christian. In another class there are Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Christians. There is also an interesting blend of Hindu culture evident in the Christian's lives. Our intended trip to Jagdalpur this weekend has been put to a screeching halt as one after another person that we talked to told us not to go because it is not safe. The first person we talked to we thought was just being overly cautious and didn't want us to drive 5 hours on a bus, but by the 3rd person who said that it is a Naxallite area, and that if we go we have to go in a private car not by bus (as in with the Chatterjees) because the guerillas might stop us, we decided maybe we should not go (and we all know who I mean by "we"...he is definitely the more rational of the 2). So, perhaps we will try to rent bicycles and bike around Dhamtari on Saturday (because we are definitely not driving a car on these roads!!) 

Have a great week!

Raina (and KC)

We are attempting to memorize Psalm 139 while we are here-this is it so far: 

¹ You have searched me, LORD,
   and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely. 

Hindi movie and Domino's pizza

KC making dinner-potato parathas!

Week number 4~ crazy! Saturday was spent with me (Raina)all day in Casualty....doing what I usually do-sitting and talking to students. The nursing school kids here have class and "duty"(clinical) Monday-Saturday...but no afternoon classes on Saturday. Makes me very thankful for our whole weekends that we get. Saturday night, when I asked the girls what their plans were for the weekend...Pinky said-"Today is Saturday -I go to the Market!!!" So naturally I invited ourselves to go with them, and KC and I set off after 8 Indian girls to the market to buy ...whatever it is that they were going to buy. It turned out to be purses and jewelry so KC quit and went back to the house after about 15 minutes of girl time-he said it was too much :). The girls bought me some pink and gold bangle bracelets (the married women here wear a lot of bangles on their arms, so naturally I need some too) and the day was a success. We planned another time to go to the market to buy me a Saree. The nursing students are only allowed a "market pass" twice a month-every other Saturday. The rest of the time they are not allowed to leave DCH without special permission.
   Saturday night was another night of Hindi and Indian learning with Mrs.Lal. However, 10 minutes in we got a text message from Dr.Mousam saying 'code red: open knee fracture with lots of bleeding RUN to Casualty'. So-I ran to casualty and helped him with that-there were 2 other students there too , but it was nice of him to include me. The ortho doctor reduced the dislocation WITHOUT PAIN MEDICATION because it takes to long to wait on anesthesia there-that was a learning experience for me. We stitched it up and put it in a plaster splint....to do surgery several days later, instead of immediately to the OR like we would back at Mount Carmel. (partially because the patient/patient's family is responsible themselves to come up with blood to donate for the surgery, and money for the surgery before any surgery can be done-partially according to the doctor to let the leg "adjust" to the fracture) Interesting philosophy.

Me at the Magento mall

Sunday Dr.Mousam and his wife Dr.Shweta had told us that they would take us to Raipur. This had been talked about several times, but both in different scenarios. One person said we would spend the day with them-watch a movie and go to lunch with them, in another scenario they said they would drop us off at the market. As we were sitting at their house waiting to go we noticed that they were packing overnight bags.....that was the first clue we had no idea what was going on. The second was when KC said 'It will be nice not to take a bus this time' and Dr.Shweta said-yeah but you gotta take a bus back'. Oops...once again we had no idea what was going on in India! Turns out that they go home to their parents' houses in Raipur every Sunday and stay the night-and they were just taking us to Raipur to do some shopping and to get away from Dhamtari as a favor,  but we had to find our own way back. Because of this we were pretty much stuck there all day-at a MALL (found out that there are 4 malls in Raipur!) which was nice-but not really what we intended to do in India. We didn't really have any shopping to do (some of the stores were just as expensive as back home) and our food shopping took us 2 hours (we found their Walmart! It is called 'Easy Day'). We called him to tell him we were done-and he said he was coming to meet us one of the malls... but in 4 hours....& suggested we go watch a movie-also not something we wanted to do. They were all in Hindi. So we picked one that looked like it might be okay (it didn't say it was in Hindi like the others did), ate some lunch at DOMINO'S! woohoo (the pizza still has Indian cheese) and then watched Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji...which was 10% English, 90% Hindi. It ended up being kind of funny and we understood some of it. Then the Jefferins met us at one of the malls, and took us to the 'bus terminal' where we got on a BIG sleeper bus this time, and had a pleasant ride back to Dhamtari. All in all-what started as a very confusing day, ended up being good. Plus we had eaten so much pizza for lunch that we didn't need to waste any of our precious market food on dinner :).

KC at the 'Easy Day' (Walmart)

     I did end up going to the market to get a Saree yesterday-but not with anyone I knew. Because the students had already gone to the market twice that month, Pinky was not allowed to go-so she enlisted 2 staff nurses (both younger than me) to take me. They spoke understandable English, and were AMAZING bargainers in Hindi (one girl scared me sometimes yelling "SHE WANTS PINK ONLY" every time they tried to show me a different color) and were determined to find me a pink Saree for the graduation ceremony coming up this week, that would match my pink bangles. After striking a tough bargain (the girl threatened to leave if he didn't give it to us), they took me to little tiny hidden-in- an- ally tailor, and I will be picking up a completed Saree tomorrow! They then suggested I try Gup chup....a street vendor snack popular here with the girls also called Paani puri-before I knew it I was gobbling some sort of deep fried shell filled with a very spicy potato soup-whole ...and you just say "gup chup" to these vendors and hold out your dish for one after another until you are full. Then they made me promise not to tell any doctors that they fed me street food....I still don't know those girls names but I'd say we are friends. 
        KC started teaching English yesterday! We both told the respective teachers of our classes that we would like to sit in on a class and see how it is done before teaching. When he got to class and asked where the teacher was they said "you are the teacher" and made him stand up front. So-he was thrown into teaching immediately. It is a little nerve-wracking because they are so eager to please-they don't come into the classroom until you tell them too, they stand until you tell them to sit, and they all answer questions at once. But-they are eager to learn, and take notes at everything you say. He has been busy doing lesson plans for that. I also had no teacher when I got to the med-surg class that I am helping to teach (they said 'You can teach Trauma...but we don't have any Trauma books' so I am using our TNCC trauma manual....interesting) so I started right in on the different kinds of mechanisms of injury. I kept asking if they were bored...and they said NOOO MAM!(it is weird being called mam) Also these BSC kids stay in dorms off campus-at a village called Shanti Pur about 10km away, and they have already planned a weekend for us to come stay the night with them. We had to set some boundaries though-they wanted us out there for the next 2 weekends-from Saturday to Monday! We told them that this weekend we would like to go to Jagdalpur, a city about 5 hours away by bus. There is a waterfall near there called Chitrakote falls...one of India's biggest and nick-named India's Niagara Falls, and I think we are going to venture there on Saturday after KC's English class. It is far enough away that we will have to stay the night somewhere-so another adventure is coming!
Our days are becoming more hopeful-although still relaxed. For instance: the reason I have time to write this blog is because I went to surgery to assist with Mousam today-and his wife said that there are no ortho surgeries, nobody could afford to pay for them or to arrange blood. And, there were no patients in Casualty. So-back here to plan for my class that is not until 3 pm while KC takes a nap!

The cockroach battlefield

Everyday holds something different :)


Raina (and KC)


PS we have a bit of a cockroach problem-but KC is waging war

No no no...not pickles, FLOUR!

This week we began our Hindi and cooking lessons with Mrs. Lal (Dr. Mrs. Chatterjee's mother), and so far it has been going pretty well; however, after the first day, we tried to use our new-found knowledge to go to the market and buy various food items. Raina found out that the word for pickles (ada) and the word for flour (atta) are very similar, and apparently the pronunciation of the "t" is quite important. After asking for flour, she was promptly presented with pickles. Not a great first attempt.

Our very first meal with a stove-before the paratha

The cooking lessons went well, and we learned how to make chapati (tortilla-type bread) from scratch. There are 3 different types of chapati that we learned how to make: roti (unfried), paratha (lightly fried in oil) and puri (deep fried...mmmmm). Since both of us were counting on losing weight in India, we decided to stick to just roti and paratha. Our attempt at making chapati went much better than our attempt to buy flour. We had breakfast for dinner last night with paratha, eggs, and jam, and it turned out really well. Also, tonight Raina got a lesson on how to wrap a saree, which is terribly complicated and I'm glad I can just throw on a t-shirt.

Raina in a Sari

On Tuesday neither of us were busy, so we decided to take an adventurous trip to Raipur (the capital of Chhattisgarh about 1.5 hours away). We had no idea how to get a bus ticket, but apparently you just walk into the "bus station" (a parking lot) and walk up to a random person and say "Raipur" and they will usher you onto a bus that is currently driving away. We crossed our fingers that it was the right one, and sure enough, 2 hours later we arrived at the Raipur bus station (after nearly getting off at the wrong stop twice). Since it was Raina's idea to take the trip to Raipur, I figured she knew which bus stop to get off at (she didn't), where we should go once we got there (she didn't), and that she would bring enough money (she didn't). All she knew is that our main goal was to go to a market, and change some of our money. So by some lucky freak accident (Raina repeating "market" louder and louder to an auto-rickshaw driver-and to her credit attempting to use the word 'Bazaar'') we ended up at the Raipur City Center mall, which we were told later is one of 3 malls in Raipur, and has the best supermarket. Unfortunately, we ended up at the mall before we changed our money, and we realized, as we were filling a cart full of foodstuffs, that we could not afford to buy even half of what we wanted. Naturally, yelling and casting blame ensued. So we ended up just buying the essentials (rice, sugar, and processed -basically American-cheese), and decided to go try to change our money. We were told by a welcome desk attendant that we could go to the State Bank of India to change our money, which we did (by auto-rickshaw). We arrived at the bank at 5:00pm, and the money-changing counter closed at 4:30pm. Good thing I decided to set aside enough money for our bus ticket back, or else we would still be at the State Bank of India in Raipur (at least someone in this marriage plans). So we hopped on a bus back to Dhamtari, got our pictures taken about 300 times (they really like white people), and 2 hours later were back at DCH. It was ultimately a waste of a trip, but at least we now know how to do it again.

Namaste

Wednesday was Republic Day in India (a national holiday similar to Independence Day), so no one worked. They had a flag raising ceremony in the morning, and sports activities in the afternoon (which Raina and I were reluctantly involved in). We both ran a race similar to suicides; Raina placed 2nd, while I fell down and got laughed at. Thursday Raina helped Dr. Jefferin (the orthopedic surgeon) in surgery all day (3 surgeries back to back to back), and I was put in charge of fixing the hospital internet, which involved scaling the side of a building and climbing 2 trees. Friday Raina was sick (the same cold I had) and could not help in surgery, and I was supposed to go to Sankra again but it was postponed, so we had a nice day off. Today (Saturday) we met with Mrs. Masih, the principal of the nursing school, to see if they would like us to teach. They asked Raina to teach Trauma nursing to 2nd year B.S. students, and I offered to teach English, so they asked me to teach 1st year B.S. students. We will each be teaching one class per day Monday-Saturday, starting next week. They gave me an English textbook to teach from, and Raina will be teaching from her TNCC Trauma book she brought from home. We are both looking forward to teaching, since it will be something that we can do every day to keep us busy (especially me).

Me discussing the various 'race' options...they were suicides- plain and simple

Raina with nursing students @ Republic Day

So it looks like things are going to get a little busier for us now, which is definitely an answer to our/your prayers. I'm sure it will be an interesting week for both of us next week as we settle in to our new teaching jobs, so please pray for us in that regard. We have heard the snow has been pretty bad in Columbus, but don't worry, it hasn't dropped below 55 here and we still haven't seen a cloud (although I thought I saw one today but it just turned out to be contrails <---look that one up, there's your nugget of knowledge for the day). Keep praying for us!

KC (and Raina)