Life in India is already looking much different. I feel more this week that India is home. I’m beginning to get a feel for the different areas of work here and am getting my feet in many of them. I’m very bad at conveying the emotions that I’ve been feeling here. Most of the time in the clinic the patients have a cold or gastritis. But other times I feel fairly heart-wrenched. This little girl (the smallest one) came into the clinic about 3 weeks ago.
I had been very busy that day running in and out taking care of some patients, but Dr. Anna stopped me and told me to go and listen to the girls heart beat. The girl had a congenital heart defect—she was born with a hole in her heart. This prevents her from developing properly. She is two years old and can’t walk and is no where near where she should be developmentally. During the medical camp at the pipe village (her home) I was blown away at how small and frail she looks. She needs surgery so badly, but with her family’s situation there is no way that they can afford it. Her name is Neha. Please pray that money will come in to meet this girl’s needs. Kanchan also lives at the pipe village. She is in the ninth grade and is so intelligent! I was talking with her today (she speaks nearly impeccable English) about her family. She lives with her family (mom, dad, and 3 siblings) in the summer in a neighboring state and has spent every year minus that time with her grandparents in this village. It was eye-opening to talk to this girl. She has such faith and hope and such a strong foundation. She wants to be a doctor and I have no doubts that this dream will be attained. It’s strange to describe how uplifting it is to be there in the pipe village. These are families who are brought in to work in a pipe factory. They make their homes out of the discarded pipes.
I watched two of my friends work there every day for the last 6 weeks and to go into the same village with their same kids and to see the impact that they have left on their lives is beyond encouraging. It reminded me that sometimes the littlest things make an impact on those around us. The smallest sentence we utter can influence one person even a little. Me and Dr. Anna have gotten to know each other much better in the last few weeks and I’ve become more confident in expressing my own opinions and views on certain issues. Last year God taught me a lot about grace and convicted me on the subject in incredible ways. I had shared that with her a couple of weeks back and honestly thought she wasn’t listening to me. Turns out that telling my story encouraged her to show grace to someone close to her. It surprised me, really, but made me realize a bit more fully what my role is here.
I went on an airport run this morning. I had spent the night with a friend 20 mins from campus and I just LOVE taking rickshaws at 8 in the morning by myself (sarcasm). And there was an airport pickup so they just picked us up on the way and then took everyone back to campus afterwards. It was the first time I had been spent time in the airport since I’ve arrived here. It was just weird. I was forcing myself to recall all the overwhelmed, confused, naïve feelings and emotions I had when I still have no idea what to expect. It was strange, but it made me realize how confident and adjusted I’ve become in the last two months! I mean, given most of the time I am still really clueless, but I’m OK with being clueless (and for those who know me well, you know I usually like to know what on earth is going on and don’t like to be confused). But here, there’s very little that isn’t confusing so if every time I let it get me overwhelmed, I’d be fairly immobilized.
Random facts of India: When cars backup, instead of a beeping sound, they play little songs—its like a ringtone for cars!
Indian men have small bladders. I have gotten very good at looking straight ahead or determinedly at the road in front of me. But when you are riding side-saddle on a scooter, there are things that are just hard not to see as much as you desire not to!
Some major roads don’t actually have street names and business cards even put landmarks for directions instead of just an address.
I had been very busy that day running in and out taking care of some patients, but Dr. Anna stopped me and told me to go and listen to the girls heart beat. The girl had a congenital heart defect—she was born with a hole in her heart. This prevents her from developing properly. She is two years old and can’t walk and is no where near where she should be developmentally. During the medical camp at the pipe village (her home) I was blown away at how small and frail she looks. She needs surgery so badly, but with her family’s situation there is no way that they can afford it. Her name is Neha. Please pray that money will come in to meet this girl’s needs. Kanchan also lives at the pipe village. She is in the ninth grade and is so intelligent! I was talking with her today (she speaks nearly impeccable English) about her family. She lives with her family (mom, dad, and 3 siblings) in the summer in a neighboring state and has spent every year minus that time with her grandparents in this village. It was eye-opening to talk to this girl. She has such faith and hope and such a strong foundation. She wants to be a doctor and I have no doubts that this dream will be attained. It’s strange to describe how uplifting it is to be there in the pipe village. These are families who are brought in to work in a pipe factory. They make their homes out of the discarded pipes.
I watched two of my friends work there every day for the last 6 weeks and to go into the same village with their same kids and to see the impact that they have left on their lives is beyond encouraging. It reminded me that sometimes the littlest things make an impact on those around us. The smallest sentence we utter can influence one person even a little. Me and Dr. Anna have gotten to know each other much better in the last few weeks and I’ve become more confident in expressing my own opinions and views on certain issues. Last year God taught me a lot about grace and convicted me on the subject in incredible ways. I had shared that with her a couple of weeks back and honestly thought she wasn’t listening to me. Turns out that telling my story encouraged her to show grace to someone close to her. It surprised me, really, but made me realize a bit more fully what my role is here.
I went on an airport run this morning. I had spent the night with a friend 20 mins from campus and I just LOVE taking rickshaws at 8 in the morning by myself (sarcasm). And there was an airport pickup so they just picked us up on the way and then took everyone back to campus afterwards. It was the first time I had been spent time in the airport since I’ve arrived here. It was just weird. I was forcing myself to recall all the overwhelmed, confused, naïve feelings and emotions I had when I still have no idea what to expect. It was strange, but it made me realize how confident and adjusted I’ve become in the last two months! I mean, given most of the time I am still really clueless, but I’m OK with being clueless (and for those who know me well, you know I usually like to know what on earth is going on and don’t like to be confused). But here, there’s very little that isn’t confusing so if every time I let it get me overwhelmed, I’d be fairly immobilized.
Random facts of India: When cars backup, instead of a beeping sound, they play little songs—its like a ringtone for cars!
Indian men have small bladders. I have gotten very good at looking straight ahead or determinedly at the road in front of me. But when you are riding side-saddle on a scooter, there are things that are just hard not to see as much as you desire not to!
Some major roads don’t actually have street names and business cards even put landmarks for directions instead of just an address.
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