Holi Celebration!

They have the neatest holiday here.  I say neat, because it is fun!  They rejoice for the winter harvest here by celebrating on Holi Day!  (pronounced Holly Day)  I couldn't figure if they did anything else to celebrate other than throwing colored rice dust on each other.  I am thinking that we have to figure out how to get some of this stuff home and have a serious party ourselves!  I thought I would just post a few pictures.  We are so loving it here!   We were sad that Emily and Doug missed out.  Emily was sick that day and Doug stayed with her to get some work done that he needed to do.  Bummer for them!

No, Jillian did not grow a mustache, it is blue dust!

Jocelynn's neck was red for a few days!

No, that is not a batman symbol on Olivia!



Reloading.....

Sooo much fun!



This rice dust totally stains clothes and we felt badly afterwards because we realized later that these kids don't have many clothes--so they were more careful about getting it on their clothes than we were.  We had a shelf of old clothes in a room to choose from.  They didn't. 

Even Charlotte loved it, too!

Munchie was loving it, too and then he was ready to be done.

As you can see--poor Cole got it right in the face.  That was painful.  He was so upset later thinking about it, that he got on my camera and deleted all the pictures he could find with him in them.  Thank heavens for Chris--she had snapped this one.  That little stinker! It did look painful and took awhile to get his eyes cleaned!

What a great memory!



Things I have learned about life in India.

As I was visiting with a friend the other day, I realized how much I have learned in just the short time that we have been in India. Their culture is so different than ours that at times, it seems like we are in another world--and I guess that we really are. A world so different from what we know. As I thought about updating the blog since we finally have internet for more than just a few minutes a day (the wireless got fixed here), I thought I would just take a few minutes and randomly share some of the things that we have learned here that to those in southern India, is normal living. This might seem a little scattered, but I thought it might be interesting reading for you. Mingled with my thoughts, I will also just share random pictures of some of the things that we see each day.

As we were driving home the other day, we saw some people gathered out in front of a house with a couple of men playing some homemade drums. In the middle of the gathering, their were ashes still smoldering. Woman had scarves over the tops of their heads and their heads were bowed. Because we had been told previously about this type of thing happening, we recognized what was going on. That was a funeral in progress. They don't have morticians here, at least in the part of India that we are in. They don't have cemetarys either. So, when a person passes on--they put their body on the ground and friends and family gather while they cremate them. Often, it will happen just along side of the road--instead of someone's front yard. We have actually passed a few of these "funerals." A couple of times, we have realized what was going on because of the women having scarves draped over their heads and were obviously crying. Then we see the smoldering ashes. Other times, we randomly see a spot of the side of the road with just ashes there. That might seem so outlandish at first, but then think about it. What would you do if there was no mortician or place to bury them. I would hate the thought of what would feast on my loved one if I just put them in the ground. It's not likely that most even have a shovel to significantly dig deep enough for them to be at a safe depth. When you consider all of that, I can see why they do what they do--I just don't know that I could do it.

Another random thing I have thought about is trash. If our communities had no type of trash disposal or even trash cans--what would our streets look like? Probably just like what their streets look like here in India. They probably don't think of burning their trash because to them, fire is a means to cook food--not to get rid of trash. As a result, you see it everywhere. When I think of it like that, it helps me to think of them in a new light. Not that they don't care and just throw their trash on the ground, they usually just don't have a place to put it.

One food that my kids will probably never crave at home is red rice. It is served here at Rising Star as the main portion of the meal, daily for lunch and dinner. Occasionally, they get other rice--but between here and the other countries that we have travelled to, I think my kids are about "riced out." One of the little boys here was visiting with Ally. He asked her if she had ever had pizza and she said yes. Did she like it--"yes." Next, he asked her about ice cream and again, she said--"yes." What about hot dogs? "Well, my kids like them but I don't really like them." Then he asked, "Which do you like better--India or America?" She answered that she likes both because they have such kind and humble people here. He pondered and then said, "Yes, we have nice people here--but the food is yucky!" She just laughed.

Last weekend, we went to a little french settled city named Pondicherry. While we were there, we had a few minutes to just walk around and do a little shopping. We were in several small groups, but I guess that Charlotte had to go potty and so Ally spent her shopping time going from place to place to find a bathroom. As she asked at several different establishments, she was pointed out to the street time and time again. Of course, Charlotte wouldn't go there--so the search continued. I wouldn't either! I guess that as they turned the corner, they almost stepped in something and you can guess what it was. The smell was horrible. Charlotte ended up throwing up and later, Sam came around that same corner and started dry heaving as well. Okay, so I guess the Smiths have sensative stomachs but I think I would have done the same! That's what you get with no public bathrooms.

Another lesson we have been clearly taught: You eat with your right hand and wipe your boomski with your left! Don't get that one wrong! Who needs silverware?

Oh--a funny story. We were in Pondicherry and our drivers were eating with us at a restaurant. One of them walked over to our coordinator--that they are not close enough to do this to--and said, "I am so sorry." Then we cut a piece of her food and took a bite! Then he didn't say anything else and walked back to his seat. That was so odd....

Note: Sharing a shower or a toilet with a gecko isn't so bad.

Last week, I had heard of the term, "kitchen burnings," but didn't know what it meant. So, we were visiting with our coordinators here and they told us that a "kitchen burning," happens when a man is unhappy with his wife. He simply sets her on fire in the kitchen and says it was an accident. That way, he can get rid of his wife and no one does anything about it. Thank heavens for law enforcement in the states!

That topic brings me to another. Women here are definitely the lesser of the sexes. There is no equal rights here--not even remotely close. If a wife answers the door and it is a man to visit the husband, the wife should immediately leave the room. Girls don't go to college because they don't need to. Many don't get all the way through school. One of the girls here at the school told Jocelynn that she probably will never get married because "she has a voice and boys don't like that." From what I understand, it is pretty common for husbands to beat their wives and it is accepted as a normal part of marriage. I would hate to think of what all transpires in these homes. Even at church, there wasn't anything that suggested there was any type of abuse but it was obvious that the men ruled the house. So, I imagine that even though the gospel has softened or clarified how men should treat their wives, there is still a long ways to go. One sister was talking about her baby that was crying through the night and her husband got mad because he doesn't like to be woke up in the middle of the night. "He gets very angry if that happens," she said. My response would be, "then get up and help calm the baby!" It is just a different world.

I know that every family does things different, but I was raised that there wasn't his work or her work--there was just work to be done. Doug and I have raised our children the same. Here, it is just a whole different approach. Many times, you will drive down the road and see the women working as laborers. I don't claim to know exactly how it all works but it sure seems strange to me.

Another incident happened at the school the other day. Kennedy, who is a volunteer here, was playing the hand-slap game with one of the high school boys. Doug was just watching. I guess that when the boy would slap her hand--he would quickly reach up and slap at her face. It got to the point that she was telling him to stop but he was a little too into it. Doug didn't like that. So, he stepped over and asked if he could play. So, they started playing and he recipricated what the boy had been doing to Kennedy. They ended up in a little wrestling match on the grass. Totally playfully. Doug ended up wrestling him down and pinning his face to the grass. He wanted to be let up. Doug told him that he would let him up when he promised that he wouldn't hit girls anymore. The boy wouldn't. So, Doug just kept him pinned as the boy struggled to be let free. That went on for a little bit and then finally, the boy relented and yelled, "OKAY, I won't hit girls anymore." A whole different world.

I have already shared a lot of information on how people with leprosy are treated. It still just amazes me. One day, you can have a totally normal life and be respected and loved in your community and the next--no one will speak to you or treat you like a piece of trash off the street. There "used to be" a cast system literally in place here, where there was different levels of society on a scale, say of 1-5. The elite might be the king (or maybe a cow???) and the bottom of the scale was a person with leprosy. They are called the untouchables. As you walk around, you see people with different lines or dots on their forehead, some of those are indicative of where they are in the cast system. I guess it was outlawed about 5 years ago, but most people still live by it.

I could go on and on with stories of things that we have learned here or seen. It is just amazing to how different our lives are. It is interesting to me, too, because the experiences that we are having are so culturally different that each day we learn so much. I think because of that, one week can really seem like one month. I don't know if that makes sense, but that is how it seems to me.

I hope that I am sharing this information correctly. It is how it has been presented to me. I think it is mostly accurate because we hear the same things over and over again or see it for ourselves. If anything, it has increased our appreciation for the land that we live in and the freedoms we enjoy. We are so blessed and have so much and often forget to stop and recognize these blessings in our lives. It has been my earnest prayer that I, or we, as a family will never forget the things that we have learned here and in these other countries that we have been serving in. I hope that these life changing experiences will be just that--life changing. I worry about when we get home. I know it will be easy to fall into the same thinking patterns that have been used to before we came. I hope we will always remember the lessons that we have learned and be forevermore better people with more gratitude in our hearts because of them.

Whose Shoes I Am Unworthy to Unlatch....

It has taken me a couple of days to think about sitting down to post this entry. What I hope to share is a very emotion filled experience which has changed me and my family forever. It is difficult to put into words the experiences that we are having here in India, especially those where we get to go and interact with people in the colonies. I share these things in hopes to show you a part of what we are feeling and experiencing here but also am trying to do so with great respect for those we are serving. We had no idea what we would be getting into as we left the campus to go to the first colony. We had a general understanding of what we would

be doing and because of where we have gone in life--we had an idea on what the living conditions might be like. What we didn't expect was the emotion that we would feel as we worked with these incredible people. We felt a great reverence and love for them as we came eye to eye with them and saw what they live with on a daily basis.

This is how this woman gets around.....

Last week, we drove into Chennai and went to Ramachandra Hospital. There we saw first hand how those with leprosy are treated. It was very fresh in our minds as we pulled into the Bethelnagar Colony. To go from seeing how they were treated to seeing where they live, the conditions that they face on a daily basis and most impacting--the wounds that they live with was staggering for us to take in. The injustice was overwhelming. I just kept wondering why some are born with so much and others are born--not only with less, but monumental challenges on top of it. I know the Lord doesn't have favorites and no one is above another but it just seems so out of balance. I can't begin to comprehend it. Unless, that is all there is to understand--that we just can't understand and merely need to accept it for what it is.

We left campus about 9:30 in the morning and it took us almost an hour to get out there to the colony. We pulled in and started to set up shop, per se, in a pavilion type of building. There was nothing clean or sanitary about it. Just an open building with things stacked along the back wall. The floor may have been swept in preparation for us coming, but it still felt dusty with cobwebs.

We set up different stations. They would first come in and get their medical folder from our drivers. Their next stop was to see the doctor and get recommendations on what they needed done while we were there. From there, they would go to Doug's station. He would take their blood pressure, heart rate and sometimes a blood test.

From that station, they would come over the the boys. The boys would help them take off their shoes and remove their bandages. Most of the wounds were on their feet. We all had to wear a mask and two sets of gloves. We always kept the first pair of gloves on and and then changed the second set from patient to patient. This was sometimes difficult for the boys because the gloves were adult sizes. They were so cute about being careful with the changing of the gloves. I was so grateful that they recognized the need to be careful about doing that. I really prayed that morning that the boys especially would understand the significance of being careful in their interactions and would feel the gravity of what was transpiring. I was so proud of them and the girls, as well. They all did awesome--even when at times, I felt my own stomach turn.

The boys would pull the knot on the side of the wrappings and cut off the knot. Then, they would unwind the wrappings and put them in the trash. They would have to sterilize the scissors between each patient. Cole especially got into this and Munchie did pretty good until one particular man--which I will share more about later. After that one man, he was ready to change stations and went to work with Doug. Sometimes, the wound would have oozing stuff stuck to it and they would have to pull it away--that didn't seem to bother them at all. It probably did me more than them. They really were amazing.

The next station was where Emily and I were working. We would have to clean the wound. Some were much easier than others. We would put some water in a bowl with some antiseptic and soak the wound. We would use a small little rag about the size of 4" x 4" to try to clean the wound. Then we would towel dry the wound and put a little sterilized bootie on them as they moved to the next station, which is where Jillian was working. She had to oil down their feet and ankles. They would be so dry and calloused.

The next station was where the nurse was working with Jocelynn. I sent Jocelynn down to that station for a couple of reasons. First, I thought it might be good for her to see firsthand that procedure since she is wanting to go into nursing and second, I thought she would have the stomach for it. She did awesome! The nurse came up to me afterwards and really complimented her--that was a tough spot to work.

The last stop they go to is to check out and get any medicines that they might need. It is all a very simple procedure and I kept having to remind myself that I was in a third world country. It was a little shocking to think that a nurse was cutting away dead skin and digging out maggots in sores on a dusty concrete floor with primitive working tools.

With leprosy, the disease attacks the skin and nerve endings. For most of the time, the patients don't feel anything with their treatments because the nerve endings are all dead. Others, the nerve endings are still alive and well and they obviously
could feel the procedures. For those that have dead nerve endings--that is why their wounds are so bad. They don't feel anything. So, they might get a cut or scratch on their foot and not realize it until it is seriously infected. Then because of their situation, they might not have the means to clean or treat it properly. The infection just continues to fester. Rising Star goes out to each colony twice a month--but a lot can happen in that amount of time between visits.

There was one man in particular that really touched our hearts. Derek, who is our fearless leader for the volunteers here, told us that a couple of years ago--this man needed cardiac surgery on his eyes. The doctors told him that he was too old and had leprosy, and they weren't interested in doing the surgery. He might not survive it anyway. I guess that Rising Star went to bat for him and told the doctors

that the surgery would be a win/win situation for this man. If he survived and it worked--win. If he didn't and died, he would be relieved from the leprosy and will have gone on--win. So, the doctors consented and he saw his daughter for the first time in 20 years and got to see his grandchildren for the first time.

Caring for this man was especially difficult for us. His wound was

so deep that it went to the bone. As we removed his shoe, infected liquid dripped onto the ground. Flies were coming out of the wound. It was pretty horrific. As I tried to scrub and clean the wound, he had tears just rolling down his cheeks. I would look up to him and just keep telling him I was sorry. Tears were rolling down my cheeks as well and it was very difficult to keep my composure. It was obvious that he was in excruciating pain. It was all I could do to keep going. It broke my heart. He continually would raise his hands to the heavens to plead for help and again at the end to praise God that he made it through it!

 

As he walked away, we all just stood and watched him go.