The 10th Installment of India Adventures

Hi again, everyone! Thank you for faithfully keeping in touch with me and all that I have been doing. I cannot tell you how much I have appreciated and continue to appreciate your prayers and your support/encouragement during this time!

I last updated you on Friday and since then, not much has occurred. On Saturday, we spent the morning at Kalighat for the final time. I have to laugh about India because we were told to go to Mother Teresa's "Mother House" to get permission from the sister to take photos on our last day at Kalighat. We went early on Saturday morning to retrieve this permission form from the sister only to be told that we needed to write our names on a sign-up sheet the night before in order to receive the form. The sister was unwilling to bend on this rule, despite the lack of ever notifiying us about this rule and the small amount of time or effort that would have been involved in placing her signature on a form. I laugh about this situation because this is so typical of India as I have experienced it. There is little regard for rules that actually matter (ie. traffic laws, just trials, keeping sterile fields, etc.) but often, people are completely unwilling to bend on meaningless rules like permission forms.

Either way, we left "Mother House" without the permission forms and resigned ourselves to our lot. We headed off to Kalighat and were greeted excitedly by the sister who informed me that they had no other nurses that day. As such, Whitney helped me to do the vast majority of the dressing changes, including one on a woman with severe burns on her chest. I had watched the dressing change on her before and was overcome by heartache when I saw how much pain it caused her. I was so grateful for the Lord's mercy because this time, she cried far less. I'm honestly not sure I could have withstood her screams.

After Kalighat, we went back to Hope House (the place where we stay) and I spent the entire afternoon trying to get laundry done. NOT a quick process around these parts. I seriously think the people that wash clothes in the river have a more expedited process than our washer! It took me about an hour to get the washer to work and then it stopped every cycle and needed to be restarted. When it hit the spin dry cycle, it walked itself halfway across the room with all the vibration. It was quite the adventure. By 7 pm, I was very ready to go out to dinner with Joel, Candy, Baghita, and Whitney to celebrate the South Africans' (Candy and Baghita) last night in Kolkata. We had Chinese and Candy and Joel enjoyed chewing/spitting paan (a rather strange mix of mint, spices, dried cherries, nuts, and fig all rolled up in a banana leaf), which I will definitely need to try before I leave. We then returned to the Guest House at the hospital for a movie night before bed.

Sunday was a terrific day. I went to church at 10:30 AM and again to a youth service at 6 pm at the Assemblies of God church that is affiliated with the hospital. I LOVE this church. It reminds me in many ways of other churches that I have been to overseas, ones that I miss terribly when I am in the States. (no offense E. Free friends. It's just different!) There is about an hour of worship time and an hour worth of testimonies and a sermon. I was so thankful for this time. Sometimes I catch myself just going through the motions with the Lord. I take time to read the Bible and I check it off my list of things to do. I take time to pray and I cross it off the list. In the midst of my routine, I lose the passion and fire and freshness in my relationship with God. More than anything the last few weeks, I have just longed to encounter Him again. This Sunday was an answer to that prayer. The Lord spoke a number of things to me during the service that I truly needed to hear. In addition to this, seeing the youth and the leadership in this church gives me hope for the Lord's continued work and glory in India. Many are so passionate about Jesus and truly seem to be people of integrity. A good combination if there ever was one.

I was saddened, however, to hear on Sunday that a patient whom I really connected with in the ICCU passed away this week. She was actually discharged a week ago and gave me her address so I could write to her from the States. She was one patient I've cared for here who actually spoke quite a bit of English. I got the privilege of praying with her, reading the Word to her, and even meeting her daughter. I was sad to hear of her unexpected passing, but so grateful to know that she's with the Lord. Again, I felt thankful to have been in India during this time, even if it was only for those moments I had with her in the last week of her life on earth.

Now it is the start of another week and I'm sure that the Lord will have plenty in store! This morning, I was able to watch a hysterectomy and an open cholecystectomy in surgery. In the afternoon, I gave a hospital tour to a new volunteer and worked on some administrative stuff relative to the organization of the ICCU. This is the medical supply storage area (if only the photos could display the way that everything is haphazardly thrown into the drawers!). Think a little help might be in order?

Tonight was definitely the highlight of the day. I went with Sushma, one of the surgical nurses, to her house just a bit down the street from the hospital. There we met up with her friend Tanu who introduced me to fried fish eggs and homemade mango chutney. I also met her cousin, Richard, (who introduced me to masala flavored chips) and Sushma taught me how to make Indian chai properly. (you'll all have to come and visit to test my skills! :-)) Then Sushma and Richard took me on the tram (quite an experience in and of itself) to a market to get mahindi done on my hand. It looks SO sweet. I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them for you! :-) Afterward, we took a taxi back, got stuck in a ridiculous amount of traffic while we waited for the governor to go through an intersection, and then we had chai and biscuits with Tanu and Sushma's boyfriend, Soudip. It was truly a wonderful night laughing with new friends. I then returned to Hope House and joined the rest of the volunteers for a Bollywood movie (with English subtitles... hallelujah!) :-)

Praise the Lord for His goodness, whether we are in India, the US, the UK, Tanzania, or wherever else you may be. His faithfulness sustains us and His love endures forever. Let's love Him with all of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength this week! May He be our single-hearted passion!