Fear Milingay!

As promised here are a few pictures. I have ton more and stories to go with them but you will have to come over for chai to see the rest. (Seriously, people I brought chai home to make!) Just looking at these pictures makes me want to go back. I hope you can see why I fell in love with this country and its people. Enjoy!

A forest fire

The children of Kana (you don't smile for pictures in India)


Swammi she is 3 and has quiet a personality, we had a lot of fun.


Joni, me, Jana

Bahtwari

Mossoorie

Well as they say in the movies, or at least the good ones, That's all folks! I have really really enjoyed keeping this blog. I didn't realize how much I enjoy writing. I am toying with the idea of starting another one just journaling day to day thoughts of mine, we shall see. Thank you all for reading. May God go with you wherever He takes you in this life. ~Anna

The end is near

No, the title is not a fatalistic statement. It is the truth. Sadly. I leave Moussoori tomorrow at 10am for the roughly 8hr. trip to Delhi. But lets not think about that now, ok?
Lets talk about this weekend. We left our house Saturday morning with Rani and her nephew Renau for our trip to Kanajack. Rani said the hike should take about 3 1/2 hours but its India and nothing concerning time is as it should be. First off the hike was more of a mountain trek. Although the path was very level, we are in the Himalayan Mountains and at a very high altitude. Needless to say this Midwestern flat plains girl is very sore! We were greeted at a village about 1/3 of the way to Kanajack by about 30 students that had just gotten out of school. They don't see many white people around here so they kept staring at us. Rani wants to build relationships in this village so we stopped. J&J and Rani sang Hindi Christian songs and then Rani told the story of the Prodigal Son. (When the son comes home the father does not kill the fatten calf in the Hindi story he kills a fattened goat :-) When she finished she asked if any of the children had heard about Jesus, not one of them raised their hands. Rani started right in and told them about Adam and Eve. It was getting pretty late so she told them when she comes back next week she will tell them more. They were so attentive! Then one of the mothers invited us over for chai which of course we accepted. Jana brought bubbles along so I started blowing them for the kids. They had never seen bubbles before and called them balloons! They had a blast running around trying to catch them! Needless to say I had fun as well.

About 3 hours later (4pm) we reached the first village of Kanajack. There are actually 3 villages that make up Kanajack. At the first one, Dona, we were given chai and constantly swarmed by people. Rani told the women that we were nurses and we immediately had a line in front of us!! They don't normally see doctors because they are so far away and if they do they only tell the doctor what is really wrong if they are female. Oh and they had no idea what blood pressure was. Yeah, try explaining that! It got a little overwhelming for me because 1) I don't know Hindi 2) Most of the women only spoke the tribal language of Garwhali so translation was very difficult for Jana, Joni, and Rani 3) The women were fascinated by my white (pinkish because it was very hot and I was a little bit sunburt!) skin and kept crowding around to touch it. hahaha Oh boy. But we did help a little I think and the women were grateful for someone to listen to them.

After that excitement we went to the village of Kana which is where to spend the night. There is a man and is family there who has recently become a Christian. We stayed at his house and they cooked for us! We had supper and then Rani, Ranu, and Joni took a 20 min. walk to the third village. Jana and I were so tiered we decided to stay with the children of Kana. There was about 15 of them or so. We were thinking we will sing some songs, blow some bubbles and tell Bible stories. WRONG!! The kids had so much energy!! We sang Hindi Christian songs (well Jana did...), played Chawli, Chawli, Billi ( translated is means Rat, Rat, Cat. It is Duck, Duck, Goose, because Jana doesn't know the Hindi words for that!) twice, sang Father Abraham with all the motions, blew bubbles, then played London Bridge twice, and took pictures (which is more exhausting then it sounds)!!! We were even more tired by the end! It was a blast though. I am more comfortable around the children because they don't care if you know Hindi or not and will correct your Hindi without being judgemental. Needless to say everyone fell into bed at 9:30. Then we got up at 6am and headed out. It took us about half the time to get back, in case you wondered. I asked out of curiosity on the way back how many kilometers it was one way to Kana, its 20 (for those of you who don't use the metric system its 12.5 miles.) that is with a roughly 8lb backpack. Wow, I am going to sleep well tonight! It was beautiful, a great way to see "the real India", its beautiful people, and well worth it.

So that is my weekend in a nut shell. How was yours? Keep yourself posted here for the next week as I am going to upload some pictures to the blog, just a few mind you as there are almost 200! Hope all is well. Thanks for following along with me on this journey. Your prayers and support have meant more then you know. Love and blessings to all.

Something different today

Your of this city/your the King of these people/ your the Lord of this nation/.../There is no one like our God/For greater things have yet to come/and greater things are still to be done in this city.
I have been immersed in Indian culture for nearly three weeks now and I have noticed something. I have made friends with Hindus, Muslims, and Seeks. Three groups who are known for hating each other. At the moment here in Moussoori they work alongside one another in relative peace. But there is something that these religions have in common, they have a strong believe in fate/destiny. The Hindus say that events were meant to happen because of something that you did in a past life or something that someone did to you. The Musliums say Inshallah or if Allah wills it. Now you can argue and say that in a sense Islam is close to Christianity in that we say we are to follow the will of God no matter what that maybe. But stick with me here for a min. Here in Moussoori all of these groups except the Christians pretty much look out for themselves and their kind. Sure they will invite you in for tea but as far as really giving to another brother in need it doesn't happen. Here in Moussoori it is the Chrisitans, both foreign and Indians, who are getting work done. They are the ones that set up homes for orphans, they give some of the best medical care in these parts (I visited the gov. hospital yesterday. Oh goodness that is another story for another time). It is the Christians who are arranging to visit villages and bringing needed supplies and fellowship from the outside world. It is the Christians who are bringing hope to a desolate nation in need of so much. We were talking yesterday about how big India is, over a billion people, one day it is suspected to surpass China. How cool would that be if it was a nation of over one billion Christians? Now I am not as niaeve as I may sound I know that this is an impossible task but I believe in an impossible God. The One who flooded the Earth, healed the blind, died and rose again. In any case I believe that my God is the God of this city/nation and has amazing things planned for it. It has been such a blessing to me to see these plans taking place. Will you please join with me in praying for the nation of India our Christian brothers and sisters here and especially those who have yet to know The One True God.
Thanks for listening to my long winded post. I hope to post on Sunday night again but no promises. Much love to all.

Don't be too shocked

My goal in writing this was to keep you all informed and less confused about what I was doing. Well I have failed on both accounts. But not intentionally mind you. I have learned in India how to go with the flow. The reason I have not been in contact more is because electricity here is speratic as is cell service. Water in the pipes comes and goes as well but that has nothing to do with me sending e-mails. I felt I owed you more of an explanation and that's the best I have. I appreciate all of you who have kept up with this blog even though it is not updated as often as I would like.

On the confusion side of things we went to Kahti Pani today (if you notice my spelling of places changes from phonetic to the correct spelling after I have visited...) that is about an hours walk away. I think I messed that up in my last post. I so enjoyed the visit today. The village is all composed of one family who actually come from a different part of India originally. When the team first started visiting these families they were told to come back whenever they wanted but they were not allowed to read a Bible. Then one day a family member asked if she could have a Bible and the rest of the village wanted one too! None of them are Christians but there is definitely great hope there. Today we visited 3 different homes (that means three cups of chai, and you have to drink it all or it is rude.) At two homes we read the story of Nicodemus and Jesus in John 3. It is an interesting story to consider when thought about from a Hindu perspective. The second home is the home of Pyle a 15 year old who is devouring her Bible. Her mother told us that any spare moment her daughter has she reads the Bible. How amazing is it that a 15 year old with no other Christan connects, except this once a week visit, is reading the Word? Please keep her in your prayers. I did some nursing as well. There is one member of the village who has high blood pressure so J&J try to keep an eye on it. I took her blood pressure and then the rest of the Pioneer team was wondering what theirs was! I am happy to report that everyone was healthy as far as bp's were concerned. We also picked peas. Yes, peas. The goal of the Pioneer team here is to build relationships in order to bring others to Christ. This means doing whatever needs to be done to build trust. So we picked peas in the fields. At the end the women insisted on giving us some. This is a huge compliment in Hindu culture. The people in Khati Pani have some of the best fields around and agriculture is their livelihood. Please keep this village in your prayers that the spiritual seeds that are being planted would continue to grow.

Tomorrow and Friday there is not much planned. We can't do much in town because of elections. People who are loyal to certain parties all close down their shops when votes are cast and when they are counted, which is pretty much the whole weekend. It's also a bank and post office holiday. I don't fully understand it so for us it just means no bazaar. We are going to scope out a government hospital tomorrow because we have heard a lot about it and J&J have never been there. I will let you know what I find out.... We will just be taking it easy before we leave on Saturday morning for Kanajack with Rani (J&J's Hindi teacher).

It is starting to hit me more and more everyday how soon I will be leaving Moussoori and India. I think its going to be harder then I orginally thought. I miss my family at home (I am not just saying that!) but am falling in love with the people and culture here. More and more with everything I expierence. Jana and Joni have been more then amazing gracious hosts. These women so exude the love of Christ in everything they do. To top it all off they are funny, we get a long so well. That is such a blessing. Please pray for me that the transition will be as smooth as possible for me as I come back to the States.

A short blog today. That's what happens when you blog twice in 24hours! I hope all is well with you wherever you might be.

Fact of the day: I had water buffalo for lunch. It was made by one of the team members and was amazingly good, partially because it was flavored with beef seasoning! Its the first red meat I have had in India. But it is technically illegal. Water buffalo are a relative of a cow and it is a law that you are not allowed to kill cows. But Muslims still sell it here and not much is done to punish them!

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away....

I apologize for the lack of communication with the home front. We had an awesome time in Utterkashi this weekend. We were in a village/town of Bahtwari at a Christian School. The village is in a valley surrounded by mountains with a river, or ganga, running through it. Breathtaking. I wasn't sure I would like teaching teachers that much, especially about things that seem so elementary (brushing your teeth, personal hygiene etc.) But the point was to make it so they could take the information we gave them and teach their students, most of whom do not practice these things. The staff was so thankful for everything we had taught them and by the end they were really getting into the demonstrations we had planned. It was so rewarding.
I finished up my last two days at the hospital yesterday and today. The days could not have been more opposite. Yesterday (Monday) I spent the day in the ICU with a 7 year old boy who came into the ER unable to breathe because of swelling in his face and airway. The performed an emergency tracheostomy and were giving him tons of different drugs to treat all the possible infections he could have. They have no equipment or medicine for pediatric patients, so they were giving half doses of medication. It was hard to watch because they family had no money to pay for anything so the hospital donated all the care. This also meant that he couldn't be taken to the city where he would get better care because no government hospital would take him. The nurses are not used to taking care of any patients, adult or child, with this kind of severe illness. It scared me a bit because there were times they were asking my opionion on things. Some of which I knew the answer to other times I did not. I really tried only to talk when I was asked as to not overstep my bounds. It was an interesting observation of Indian nursing care compared to American nursing care. I spent the day watching this boys vitals and calming him down because he would get so restless. It was hard because I don't know how to comfort him in Hindi so I just started praying. Despite the doctors best efforts I found out today that he died during the night. I have seen people die before but it is different with a child like this. The hardest part for me is to accept that everything that could have been done was in fact done, they just don't have the options of care that we do in the states. I am thankful for that tonight.
On the flip side today I saw my first life birth. A healthy baby boy! It was such a neat experience. (To all you mothers out there they do not give pain meds. here unless it is a complicated birth. Happy Mother's Day!!) The parents were only 19 (Yikes!) but they were so happy, especially because it is a boy, they are valued more over girls especially as first borns. I found it really neat that even though this family was Hindi the nurses prayed over the them asking God to bless this young life. What a way to celebrate International Nurses Day and my last day at LCH!
I am going to miss the hospital. It was hard at first but I finally started to find my niche and the nurses had accepted me as one of their own. It was such a nice feeling.
I cannot believe I only have one week left here. Its a melancholy feeling. I can't wait to come back and tell you all what I have experienced here. Tomorrow we are going to visit friends in the village of Kondrajack just an hours walk away. Then we have two days free and Saturday/Sunday we will be in another village that is about 4hours from here (again no phones or internet). I leave Moussoori on Monday as my flight leaves Tuesday at 12am. Wow this has gone by fast. I hope you all understand this quick update, there is so much more to share. Thanks for reading. Love to you all. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

What's in a name?

I want to start by saying a big thank you to my roommate from college, Rachael, who posted my last post for me because I wasn't able to get on here! Thanks roomie! :-)
Let's see the happenings here....Well I have spent the last two days in the hospital shadowing the nurses on the wards (the main rooms of the hospital). I won't go into too much detail lose you all but this has been a great learning experience for me as health care here is drastically different then in the states. Not all bad mind you, just different (and yes, I always where gloves!). The hardest part is that I cannot talk with the patients because I don't know any Hindi beyond, "Hi. How are you?" (Namastae. Op kay say hey?" Yeah, be impressed.) I spend a lot of my time getting lost in Hindi conversations of the nurses. Sometimes I can at least figure out the subject but other times I have no idea. I must be getting really good at pretending though because sometimes they start talking to me in Hindi even though they know I don't know any!! All the nurses on the ward speak English however so they translate for me sometimes, or at least try to include me.
At night we have been doing the traditional thing and having chai with friends. Indian people amaze me with their hospitality. It doesn't matter what is going on you are always invited in for chai and biscuits (the British influence still runs high around here!) Sometimes people come here but Tuesday night we went to Jana and Joni's (J&J from here on out) Hindi teacher's house. Her name is Rani. She had three American men stay with her this week while they were ministering in the villages and they gave a Bible study. Rani and her nephew are Christians but the rest of the family is not but they all came to the Bible study, which is neat. We sang a lot of songs in Hindi (some of the more popular ones I am getting to know!) then the three guys shared. After the study and chai they through an impromptu dance party. Even though I didn't participate (you IWU students understand...) it was a blast to watch!! I wish I would have taped it...
Today (Thursday) we went to the bazaar. It was an amazing cultural experience to be among the hustle and bustle. There are stores for everything wood, silver jewelery, chemists (pharmacy), grocery stores, restaurants etc. I need to work on my bartering skills however.... Probably the most fun was picking out my fabric for my salwar suit. The fabric store is floor to ceiling fabric and carries everything from cotton to silk in every and any color you can imagine. I won't tell you what color mine is because I want it to be a surprise when I come home! You can buy pre-made suits but most people don't. Then we went to the tailor, where my suit is now, and I picked out the neck line and got measured. I can't wait to see the finished product!
Tomorrow we leave for a village in Unterkashi Provence (north east of here). We are going to be doing some health teaching to teachers of a school there till Sunday. It is a 7-10 hour drive (depending on the roads) through the mountains, I am told it is gorgeous. It is going to be an exciting experience because J&J have never been there and resources are limited (aka clean drinking water(we are taking a portable filter), no phones,...) but we are staying in a "hotel" (the other option was rustic camping so at least I will have a bed!) Please pray for health for all of us!
This blog seems so random and inadequate I apologize. When I get home (hard to believe I have been here over a week and a half!) come over for chai and I will fill you in with all the details, lucky you! I am feeling more and more comfortable here everyday. Please pray that I don't get too overwhelmed at not understanding the language and the Christ will radiate through me even in my silence. Thanks so much for reading. ~John 16:33

Hindi lesson for the day: Anna is the verb for "to come" in Hindi. Jana is the verb for "to go"

HIPPA? What’s that?

Today was my first day at LCH, the hospital here in Mussoori. I have no idea what the initials stand for but I found out a few other things. It is a Christian hospital that is a part of a chain of hospitals kind of like Good Sam . So the hospital is pretty small and sends all the "hard" cases to Derha Duhn. They have 4 bed male surgical ward, 5 bed male general ward, same goes for the female wards, a nursery room (with one bed), a labor and delivery bed, a 3 bed ICU/post-ops, and then a 3 bed pediatric ward. There are rooms on the 3rd floor called semi-private and premium rooms. The semi-private have two beds and cost about 1,000 INR and the premium room is private and has a TV. That room costs 1,500 INR. As far as I can figure there are 4 doctors. One is a pediatrician, OB/GYN, surgeon, and an gen. med. doctor. They see patients in the morning at their offices in the hospital. People line the halls for hours to see a doctor. There is also an OT. The hospital has one ventilator and none of the nurses know how to use it. Oxygen is really only used in the ICU. The craziest thing is that they have no gloves except for use in sterile procedures done by the doctors. When I helped a nurse get an IV in I put gloves on that I had brought and she laughed at me! Needless to say I said many prayers for my personal health and safety today.

The day starts out with a chapel service that everyone attends in the lobby where I made new friends for the week! There are a group of 3rd year nursing students and some medical students from Christian Medical College in Bangalor, India (southern India) that are doing clinical at the hospital this week. This is nice for me because in southern India English is their first language and Hindi is their second so I learned a lot about Indian nursing school from them! After the orientation of the hospital I was sent by myself to spend the day in the Emergency Department. Here they call it the casualty department. That sounds really morbid to me! The nurses, one in particular, spoke very good English and was very good at explaining things to me. We had four patients that all were admitted to the hospital. So it was kind of a slow day, but it was nice to talk to the nurses. Trying explain things about the States is kind of hard especially explaining nursing school because it is fairly different.

I am feeling so much more comfortable here even though my Hindi is very limited. I am learning a few words and phrases but most things (especially at the hospital) I cannot understand. So I just smile and nod! Hahaha Thank goodness for Jana and Joni who graciously translate whole conversations for me!

I am having a lot of trouble with the internet here, especially when checking my e-mail. I am sorry! I will check it as soon as possible. I am not ignoring you. Thanks for the prayers. The weather is much cooler, in the 70s but people are still fairly sick with a viral fever. So please continue to pray. Hope all is well. Much love to you all.