La Concepcion, Honduras
My first night in Honduras, I was informed that I would have my own clinic and see my own patients. I was allowed to diagnose and prescribe without a preceptor. I felt very nervous, what if I miss something? what if I diagnose the wrong thing? I woke up early trying to read all the medications we had available and refresh my memory on all the pediatric doses, and I took time to pray.
As I sat in the hammock in the middle of beautiful Honduras, the weight of what I have learned over the past 18 months hit me. I could count on one hand the number of people within 100 miles who had my medical skills. PA school has not just taught me about medicine, it has given me skills that saves lives, relieves pain and suffering, and provides healing. In our nation where health care is readily available and accessible to everyone, that statement does not bear so much weight. Now travel with me to Honduras, on that hammock, you do not own a car or even a large animal such as an ox or a mule and you live more than 100 miles from the nearest doctor. Those were my patients.
Entire families came into the clinic together. If I thought my exams in school were tough with 1 English speaking patient who had 1 main problem (that was not even real), this was organized chaos with 6 people speaking Spanish with a laundry list of problems each. My Spanish leaves much to be desired but did well with a medical student translating. The problems were common, mostly simple issues: headache, upper respiratory infections, joint pain, rashes, yeast infections, etc. Minor problems when you have ibuprofen and tylenol and hydrocortizone cream and fluconazole easily accesible at Walgreens down the street. In La Concepcion, I was able to provide relief in to me what seemed like small ways, but meant more than I understand to them.
A few of the lives you touched:
A 10 year old boy had a rash on his stomach about the size of an index card that had been there for almost a year. It was very itchy and provided the young man much discomfort. It ended up the boy was allergic to his belt! Hopefully that rash is long gone by the time I am writing this.
53 year old woman with untreated COPD from years of cooking in the house over a wood fire without ventilation to let out the smoke. Provided some inhalers to help her with her daily functions.
2 year old boy with fever, chills, and watery diarrhea for 48 hours. Something that simple can cause death in small children if untreated. I saw him 2 days latter doing much better already.
I saw about 90 patients and cannot list them all. Part of me wishes I had saved the life of a 5 month old baby to sound heroic for my sake. But the reality is that this organization has brought general health to the community so that we can provide basic needs and the people are in better overall health because of it.
Thank you for all your support. I hope to do many more medical mission trips in the future.
NC Adventure Race
*A special thanks to Matt for letting Mark use your bike!!
Medical Mission Trip
Honduras
I have the opportunity to go on my first medical mission trip this winter. It will be a unique chance to provide medical care to those who otherwise would have none. It will also be a challenging learning experience for me utilizing my Spanish skills and practicing grass roots medicine without access to unlimited laboratory testing.
I hope to keep you updated through this blog as to our experiences and share the precious faces of the people I get to meet.
Back in Hyderabad!
“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Mt. 9:35-38 Mark and I leave here in less than a month and currently we don’t have anyone to take our place. Please be praying that God will send workers because the harvest here is plentiful! Commitments are good and purpose is good, but I wonder sometimes if we cling too hard to the things of this world that we are not willing to let go when the Lord calls us.
Tonight, the founder of this organization is coming. She is flying in to stay for about 3 weeks. We have never met her in person only briefly over Skype. It will be interesting living with someone we have never met before, but our house is very big and I think we will get along well. We hope to tie up some loose ends with her before we set off back home. We are both ready to return although packing our bags and leaving here in less than 4 weeks does not seem real to us yet.
Mark is really excited to start law school; I think everyday he realizes more and more how much he will like it and why it is a great decision for our family. I am starting to look for jobs and figure out what to do with my life. I am planning on starting a private practice for nutritional counseling!! I am thrilled to finally be at a place in life where I can try to work for myself. If you know anyone who would like nutritional counseling or have any great marketing ideas, please let me know! My plan is to get a part time job and begin building a clientele in both St. Louis and Winston-Salem. We will see how it goes J In addition to all this, I have decided to apply to physician assistant school! After many years of prayer and debate over whether to attend medical school or not, I have decided that physician’s assistant school would be a MUCH better fit for me and my goals. For those of you who are not familiar with the position of a PA they work under the supervision of an MD and can go into any specialty and change specialties throughout their career. School lasts for 2 years then you go straight into working. So for example, I could get a job as a pediatrician’s PA and I would work in a pediatrician’s office and have my own patients – diagnosing, prescribing, and treating. Then in two years I could decide to become a neurosurgeon PA and assist with neurosurgeries. PAs tend to have better people skills and bedside manor than MD or DOs. They also are allowed more patient interaction and work more directly with the other health disciplines making sure the communication between all care givers is strong. However, it is extremely competitive to get into PA school so that will be up in the air for a while and if my private practice takes off with flying colors, I may postpone it to a later date.
We have puppies! I think I mentioned them on here before, but they are SO cute. Mark and I spend probably at least an hour a day just playing with them and watching them. Only 4 of 6 made it this far, but I think these ones will grow up strong with all the Pedigree we feed them! I will have to post a picture – they may steel your heart.
That is all for now, we will be back to the States July 6th and hope to move to North Carolina the first week of August!
WiFi Finally!
Some pictures of our trip to southern India:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2122818&id=19504794&l=51b8857b20
Hi! It feels fantastic to be back on the internet without running up a bill. Currently, I am sitting across the family room from Brishon watching the sun set out the window of our villa overlooking the city of Istanbul. Words won't do justice to the beauty and uniqueness of this city. We flew in today from Izmir and all afternoon we have been gasping over how wonderful this city is. It feels like a combination of London, New York, Dubai, and Miami...if that is possible. Our villa is situated on an artsy street of mostly young, local Turks. We are on the 4th floor and have views overlooking the water way that runs through the city and divides Asia from Europe. We can see most of the main historical buildings right from our villa. This place is wonderful. Down the street about a 2 minute walk is a restaurant where we can get a full dinner for $2.00!! The food in Izmir was pretty expensive so we are happy to be able to eat a lot while we are here.
I am happy to report that my wonderful husband has gained back most of his weight in the past 3 weeks here in Turkey; not to mention he has LOVED gaining it back eating up everything he can. Here in Turkey we are able to get meat without bones, cow's milk, sandwiches, and salads. Okay I am going to travel back a few weeks now and try to recap some of my thoughts...Marks will come later.
We had the opportunity to visit southern India which I breifly talked about in a previous post. Kerala (the state we visited) felt very different from where we live. Just like America, India contains so many different climates and cultures. My main experience with India has been hot and dry, but where we visited it was cold and wet. Then we went to a beach town. We got to take a ride on a boat through the back waters where people live on these little islands out in the middle of these channels. I wish I could have visited one of the houses and seen how those kids grow up. They have to get in a boat to go anywhere except their neighbors house. The islands were really small like 2 small houses could fit on some and others had a whole street of maybe 10 houses. Tourists can sleep on boat houses in the water. Seeing cities like this makes me think how there are so many different ways to live. Driving a car to an office wearing "business attire" is really a small fraction of how most of the people in the world live. If you are sitting in an office wondering if life has to be the way it is...my answer is NO. Life can be so many different ways; you can live in a shack in the slum and work as a stone cutter or you can live in the moutains of Munnar and harvest tea or you can live in the back waters of Allapey and fish for your food off of your front porch or you can live in Turkey and lead tour groups throughout the historical locations here. The Indian teachers we took with us on the trip truly enjoyed seeing the mountains for the first time! They were overjoyed really! A kind of funny story about the teachers traveling: Every meal the teachers complained that they could not find anything they liked...all they eat is rice and curry/biryani...all they eat in southern India is the SAME! They said the currys are not good and the biryani is not the same. MARK AND I CAN'T EVEN GET A SANDWICH IN THIS COUNTRY and they are sad because the curry has one teaspoon less chili powder than the one they are used to?! haha. They also complained because the rice grain is larger than theirs...okay call me crazy but rice is rice. It tastes the same. They say it gets stuck in their throat...I advised them to chew; haha. It was fun and funny at times. I love them. They really are fantastic.
Our next stop was Nepal, which is pronounced "Naypaul" we quickly came tor realize. I can spell it for you in Hindi when I see you. Mark and I have gotten pretty good at reading Hindi but our conversational skills are exceptionally limited because we rarely hear anyone speaking it. We also don't know that much vocabulary. Currently I can count to 10 in Spanish, Turkish, Hindi, Telegu, and I am working on Arabic (thanks Heatherlyn). I already wrote about some of the highlights of Nepal. The scenery is unbelievable but the clouds try to hide it sometimes. Our guide was really funny and always asking us if we had problems...muscles problems, foot problems, arm problems, hydration problems. haha. I always had muscle probelms (I just don't have enough). We met a lawyer from England who is around my mom's age with 3 children and 1 of them was coming to Nepal, he had been traveling for around 3 months. She was bringing him some heart medication he needed but arrive a few days earlier than him so she decided to do a trek into the mountains by herself (well she got a guide but not friends or family)! She was really fun. Her only goal was to make it down alive :) She is not in steller shape just adventurous and enjoying herself. Meeting people like that is so inspiring. How cool would that be if your mom or one of her friends decided she would come meet her child in a developing country and then get bored and go on a long mountain trek on her own! Europeans seem to take 6-12 months to travel all around the world when they are between 18-24. Americans should embrace this practice. Why rush into your job? Get out, see the world and make contacts throughout it. We have met so many Europeans our age just traveling around. They mostly use ground travel and stay at cheap hostels and such. Nepolese people are very warm and friendly. The mountain towns were quite fascinating. Everything is carried into the mountains and they farm and mountain by making tereces. The babies were really fat. I don't know what they feed them. All the women give birth at home without pain medication. No other options for them...my guide said it is no problem for them, haha. I am not so sure the women would agree :) I don't think that will be my last trip to Nepal, Lord willing.
Turkey, not the animal, has been a breathe of fresh air for Mark and me. We love India and the people, but we are westerners through and through. This entire experience has made us love and appreciate our own culture much more than ever before. I am so proud to be an American and I love that I get to return to the US without any resistence. Some people think that the world hates Americans. I strongly, strongly disagree. Everywhere I have been and everyone we meet think fondly of Americans. Unfortunately, they all think Americans are rich (not so good when you are very poor like us), but they like Americans. Americans in general are friendly and generous. That is what most people expect of us and not once after meeting well of 200 people from too many different countries to count has anyone reacted negatively to us being from the US. Most of the countries we have been in, it is VERY difficult for anyone to get an American tourist visa. Many people dream of one day visiting our great country. Most of them will never have the chance. All governments are corrupt. I may not always agree with mine, but I am so thankful for it. So yes, I am American and proud of it.
My family and friends arrived a few days ago!!!!! WOOOHOOO. It has been SO SO SO much fun. We are having a blast. We went scuba diving and to Ephasus. Incredible. I feel like I am living a dream. All the money in the world wouldn't be better than this. We had a girls day and visited the Turkish baths. It is Barrett's first trip out of the country (besides Mexico). He is having a great time. It is fun to have all my siblings together. We laugh so much. We have started a Neu family singing group, but it consists of Barrett, Heatherlyn, Patty, and myself. Brishon is the manager. We sang for our taxi driver. I think he liked it. I am going to work on putting up some of our pictures. Mark will write even more later. Thanks for keeping up with us and I hope you can enjoy some of our adventures with us through this.
Current Location: Izmır, Turkey
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120097&id=19503603&l=ddbcfcb8b3
Usıng a Turkısh keyboard ıs posıng me some challenges so please allow me some grace. Mark and I both would lıke to wrıte about 500 pages about the past 3 weeks of our lıfe, but our adapters do not work wıth the Turkısh outlets and we are payıng too much for thıs ınternet access :) Here ıs a very short summary of where we have been...Fırst we took one of the most paınful rıdes of my lıfe on an Indıan traın for 26 hours to southern Indıa wıth the teachers. It ıs 110 degrees ın Indıa and the traın packs people ın lıke cargo. It was by far the most dıffıcult travel of my lıfe, but we made ıt to Cochın where we were then ınformed we had to get on a 6 hour bus rıde ınto the mountaıns. Half of our staff was throwıng up because of the curves ın the roads and the elevatıon ınto the mountaıns. After 32 hours of really rough travel (no aır condıtıonıng for any of ıt) we fınally arrıved ın thıs gorgeous town called Munnar that has mountaıns flowıng wıth tea bushes. I really do not have tıme now to even hıghlıght the detaıls but after we survıved our traın rıde back to Hyderabad we boarded our plane to Nepal 13 hours later. Nepal was fabulous. We felt lıke we went to vısıt famıly...we were greated by Kezıa and Barry,s frıends who took us out to dınner and set up a fabulous trek for us. I almost lost my legs ın the mountaıns...I am not ın shape at all and we walked over 40 km ın 4 days (24.8 mıles) and we walked up over 1 mıle ın elevatıon. Most of the trek was up and down hardly every flat. The scenery was lovely and the tea houses we stayed at were so much fun. Every nıght a bunch of trekkers stop at these tea houses. Most people fınısh hıkıng around 3 or 4 pm and the rest of the evenıng we made new frıends. We met people from England, Belgıum, Slovokıa, France, Italy, Spaın, and the lıst goes on. Everyone spoke englısh though so we could communıcate and get to know each other. Mark wıll detaıl much more of thıs later on. I loved ıt and would do ıt agaın ın a few weeks ıf I could. Now we are restıng ın Turkey enjoyıng the beautıful weather and delıcıous food. Mark has had some serıous weıght loss sınce we moved to Indıa because he does not lıke the food very much. Thankfully, Turkey has lots of western food and we are eatıng lıke royalty! Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. We have been gone over 3 months now and wıll not be back for 2 more months. Heatherlyn, Barrett, Barry, and Patty meet us here next week. We are thrılled to see more of our frıends and famıly. We feel so blessed to be doıng what we are doıng and we are lovıng every second of ıt even when we thınk we are dyıng on an Indıan traın!! We wıll wrıte much more later.
Americans eat Donuts and Muffins.
One of our projects for the past month has been trying to set up bank accounts for every one of our teachers. The assistant manager at the bank has been working with us and has been very friendly and super helpful. She spent some time in the US, in Michigan actually, and the title of this post was one of her first comments on Americans. She went on to say that she really likes our country, while there she ate lots of bread, butter, and cheese. I enjoy talking to her, and like I said she has been a lot of help. I said this has been a project for the past month, and that's really how long it has taken, and we really do not have a single person who has received a bank card, account number, or anything substantial like that. Who knew? When I thought about this I envisioned getting people into a car, driving to the bank, all set, right? Well yeah, in the US, but this in India. The majority of our teachers don't have ID, even a single piece that is just them. There might be a picture of them with the rest of their family before they got married on their rice ration card, so an electric bill with their father's name on it as proof of address. It's amazing to me. These are 25 - 42 year old adults who I guess just never needed anything before. One of our teachers has an income tax ID card, with her name spelled wrong, a wrong birthdate, and the wrong address. This is the government issued ID? I suspect it has to be counterfeit, but the bank would accept it if everything was spelled correctly. So anyway, we have about 8 complete applications on the way, and hopefully more when we get back from traveling.
I've been riding the motorcycle around recently. We have a Royal Enfield Silver Bullet. It is kind of a retro styled bike, apparently it looks like a 50s bike, but it's only about a year old. Lance hit a pig a while ago and I think it kind of messed up the shocks, but if I take it slow over the many speed bumps it's fine. I'll try and post some pictures soon.
So yeah, to say I am excited for our upcoming trip(s) would be an understatement. I have wanted to go to Nepal since I was a small child. Barry hooked us up with his friends and we'll be trekking around Pokhara and Chitwan, and taking a trip to see Mt. Everest. I'm sure I'll be back but this will be just about as good as it could possibly get for the week we'll be there. Turkey is going to be awesome as well. We have our own villa in both Izmir and Istanbul. Darjeeling will be a nice and relaxing end to the trip.
I feel like I should write more, but that is all I have for right now, so talk to you later!
BRISHON HAS ARRIVED!! We picked up my sister at the lovely hour of 3:30am. She is still getting over her jet lag, but we have already been shopping down town at the general bazzar and to the schools to meet the teachers. Yeah for our first visitor!!!
Chance of a Lifetime
We are thrilled for the opportunity that we have before us. It is a chance of a lifetime! We will be traveling for over 6 weeks to 3 different countries with our friends and family. This is our itinerary:
Karola, India - Brishon, Mark, Liz, and the teachers at our school for 7 days via train (26 hours each way!!). We will be traveling local Indian style - sleeper car train and $15/night hotels. It will be an adventure!
Nepal - Brishon, Mark and Liz will fly up to Nepal for 8 days. We hope to do some trekking into the mountains and stay at tea huts! Brishon plans on getting dreadlocks and freeing Tibet...I may join her. It will be busy :)
Agra, India - On our way to Turkey, we hope to spend one day traveling to the Taj Mahal.
Izmir, Turkey - Mark & Liz fly through Dubai where we hope to get a hamburger on the way to Turkey. Brishon, Mark, and Liz will spend 10 days enjoying the Mediterranean Sea before being joined by Barrett, Heatherlyn, Barry, and Patty to go see where Paul from the Bible was in Ephesus and take a ferry to a Greek Island to camp for a night. Liz is hoping for some beach time.
Istanbul, Turkey - All 7 of us will fly to Istanbul and spend 5 days touring Istanbul. We will have to say goodbye to Heatherlyn, Barrett, Barry, and Brishon at this point.
Darjeeling, India - Mark and Liz will fly back to India and spend 7 days in Darjeeling which is nestled in the Himalayan mountains and is famous for its tea. We will go on tea tours and tastings!!
Then back to Hyderabad for one and half more months starting up the new school year. With such a large itinerary, our budget is small, but we are okay with a little roughing it. We welcome any monetary donations...Brishon is going to free Tibet, come on! haha Our current plan is to return to St. Louis around mid July.
We are well aware of the fact that we may never again be able to travel for this extended period of time with as many friends and family. Every step will be well documented via our blog, pictures, and video. Please be praying for safety as we travel. It will be good for us to be going out of India at this time because it is their elections during the month of May and the Taliban has said their goal is to assure that the elections do not happen peacefully. Not to mention the average temperature in our city is around 115 degrees F in May.
Brilliant Husband and Picnic Day
Mark got into Pepperdine and Wake Forest law schools! We are both getting really excited about the new journey ahead of us. Tonight, Mark was saying how he is getting so excited to learn the law and have such a different perspective on many facets of life. Of course, we are deciding to be on one side of the country or the other. We can't be like normal people and decide between two schools in your state or anything. We know that either place will settle our life in very different locations and likely set us on very different courses. Both schools have great things to offer and either place we will do well. I have to admit that I am very thankful that I don't have to attempt to live through another Michigan winter ;) The truth of the matter is I am not that great at driving and the added obsticle of snow just makes it plain dangerous for me and everyone else, and I am really not built for weather below 60 degrees. Our decision will probably not be made for a while. We may put down a deposit at both schools and wait to hear on financial aid and loans before making a final decision.
Last Saturday, we took our students and teachers to a "kids resort" for the day as an end of the year celebration. Our time there was really special. The resort was really unimpressive. I would imagine most American children would be super bummed about having to spend the day on this junky playground. It consisted of a 25 year old swing set, monkey bars, a few sea saw type things, and a tire wall (which was really cool). You would have thought we took the students to Disney Land. They were thrilled, running around, laughing, and playing so hard. It made me think that I never want to have a swing set or slide or anything in my backyard (my future kids will only get rocks and sticks to play with) because then other things become extremely exciting and they learn to have fun with the little they have. You should have seen these kids faces. They looked at the slides like the Batman ride at Six Flags. I mean they were excited and so happy to have one day to play on a playground something they never get to do. Enough about my future kids sad life...haha The trip was fun for us also. Being here two months, we have developed good relationships with the teachers and students. Being able to play with them for the day was delightful. The resort also had a pool with water that was a grey color and a creapy slide. The children loved it. When they finished playing in the pool, they all got out and changed into dry clothes (they wore clothes into the pool...all they have) then they proceeded back to the pool to wash their clothes!! haha. The kids would take their clothes and dip it into the pool then take it and bang it on the cement like their parents do. It made me laugh and smile inside to see these 5 and 6 year old children making sure to wash their clothes. I don't know one 5 or 6 year old in the US who knows how to wash their clothes by hand none the less would think on their school field trip to make sure and wash them before heading to lunch! When I was a kid, my mom was lucky if I took two minutes to ring out the swim suit before throwing it into my bag. Oh India, I love it. I have fallen in love with these kids who amaze me every day. Life for them is so different then I have ever known life. In some ways, their life is much rougher, but in other ways, it is more innocent and free. Oh another story about the pool, we went to go swimming and they changed out of their school uniforms into their clothes to swim, but they all just stood by the pool and changed...80 children ages 5-11 years old just stripped down and put on their other clothes. 11 years old is kind of old to me to be stripping in public. Mark and I talked about it and decided that they don't have the luxery of privacy. They poop on the side of the road because they don't have bathrooms; everyone can see them. They shower in public. They don't have a big house with a bathroom and closets. These people have one room in their house - their kitchen/bedroom/familyroom/dining room. The bathroom is outside. However the older women are very modest. At the end of the day we had a "rain dance." They turned on some overhead sprinklers and blasted Indian music and the kids danced for over an hour. It was really fun!
Check out the pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2113771&id=19504794&l=1cd367ee68
This past week we were invited over to three of our teacher's houses for lunch and dinner. It is humbling and a blessing to us to be invited into their homes. We truly enjoy their food (although we won't eat curd), love meeting their families, and seeing inside their personal lives. First of all, in their culture, the guest eats while the hostess serves. Two of the houses we went to they just watched us eat. One of the teachers had been to a fasting and prayer meeting all morning, but did not eat until after we left. She stood and fanned us while we sat on the floor of her 6x6 tent eating. I can't tell you how hard it is to accept a gift like this. I know this teacher makes $100/month salary and she has made me this delicious meal with appetizers and meat. We have no idea what a meal like that costs them, but then to sit there and be served and fanned. Everything in me wants to stand up and take the fan and give her the food, but it would be so disrespectful to not accept her gift to us. Mark looked up at her and said, "I am pretty sure I will be fanning you in heaven for a long time" :) Another teacher took us into her home and allowed us to sit on her bed so we did not have to sit on the floor. She brought us one course at a time and watched us eat. They feed us SO SO much. I have no idea how they eat so much at one time. They will scoop like 3 cups of rice onto your plate for the first half of the first course. Lately, I have been trying to shove it all in, but it makes my stomach hurt so I am going to have to ask for less next visit. Their hospitality, excitement, lack of stuff to impress, and pure heart of service is humbling, challenging, and beautiful. I hope I can take a little tiny bit of the hospitality of this culture home with me. I am reminded by them that I don't need a nice apartment or chairs for everyone or great entertainment. The company and the food is more than enough. I challenge anyone reading this to invite someone over for dinner this week. You never know you may be entertaining angels! After we would finish eating, they all bring out their family photo album. Typically they have wedding pictures and a few other random pictures. It was really fun to get to see more of their life outside of school and when they were younger etc.
Two things the Lord is teaching me recently are #1 being poor is not bad and #2 God doesn't need us to be rich. Yes these people don't have air conditioning or running water, but really they complain less than I do. They expect less and work for more. They value what they have probably more than I do, but just like me they want more. The desire for more seems to always exist no matter what one's economic level is. The people here are not starving by any means. They eat plenty - the government provides monthly rice rations. They have a place to sleep, families to live with, and their neighborhood is safe. Obviously starving children and no where to sleep is bad. That is not the kind of poor we work with. On Sunday, we spoke at a church about who we are and why we are here. The people at that church encouraged me so much. It was so beautiful to see people come into church who know they NEED God. At a church of ~40, around 25 or more of the people went up for more prayer with the pastor after church. Women and men on their knees before God pleading with him for whatever it may be that they need. Sometime I tend to have a mentality of the church needs me. God needs my service, my money, and my time. Yes the Lord wants those things, but I am the one who needs Him.
I need to write more often. It seems I have a lot to say...For those of you who made it this far, thanks for taking the time to check in with us. We are both falling deeply in love with India - the people, the culture, and the cows walking around where ever they want! We also both deeply miss American food. If I could eat anything right now, it would be a fresh salad with many chopped up vegetables with mahi mahi on top. They don't eat nonfried vegetables here. For some reason that sounds amazing to me right now. Mark really wants to eat Quiznos. He craves the chicken carbonara sub with a bottle of Oberweiss chocolate milk and a big piece of chocolate cake with a side of pizza and a cheese burger and some non-spicey potato chips and waffle fries and some bacon...okay he has to stop now. He is still going with his list but I am stopping for your sake. Go enjoy your American food today and think of us as you eat!
Not too much going on...
Things have been fairly standard here the past week or so, which doesn't mean it's not exciting and fun, just that I don't have much to write about. We are adjusting to the half days fairly well, starting at 8 and being home by 1 is not such a hard schedule to keep, and it has freed up some time for something else, Hindi lessons! We asked Angi, the hindi teacher at one of our schools, to come over every afternoon and help us learn Hindi. I'm proud to say that after one week I can read and write the alphabet, I can count, tell you the major parts of the body, and use several everyday phrases, for example, "hello", "may I come in?", and "shutup!", amoung others. It's great to start to see meaning in all the lines and squiggles, and I feel like a whole new part of India has opened up for me. I can't imagine what it would feel like to learn to read a first language for the first time. I think the majority of the parents of our students can not read and write. Hindi is fairly easy to learn, it's a lot like English in that there are individual letters with sounds, and you just combine them to form different sounds and therefore words. Once you learn the alphabet you can pretty much read anything, you just migh not know what it means, which is where I am now. My goal is to be able to have a conversation, and to read the newspaper by the time we leave, which will be difficult, but I think possible. The hardest part will be....
We're going to Turkey! We had been planning this for a while, but decided on dates and bought tickets tonight. We will be spending two weeks at a villa near the town of Cesme, which is on the Aegean sea, there is a ferry to a nearby Greek island, and it is a short bus ride from the ancient city of Ephesus. Heatherlyn, Barry, Patty, and possible Barrett will be flying out as well. We'll all be in Cesme for a few days, and then we'll spend the last four or five days in Istanbul. It will be a very long period of travel for Liz and I, because we will be traveling around India for a week or two, and we'll leave right from Darjeeling (at the foot of the Indian Himalayas) to travel to Istanbul. It should be an awesome trip, the only problem will be keeping up with my hindi...
There are finally clouds! In fact, we have been having a bit of thunderstormy weather the past few days. It has only really rained once, but that was great. It cooled everything down (the temps are well over 100 in the middle of the day now), and helped wash away some of the dust. It was very windy, I think I saw a piece of our neighbour's house fly off. We'll be here for the beginning of Monsoon season in July, I'm kind of excited to experience that, although I have the feeling it is just rain for like 3 days straight.
I am proud to annouce to everyone that my wife, Alizabeth Van Wieren, is the newest columnist for the Deccan Chronicle! Liz sent in a nutrition article just to see if they would publish it, not only did they do that, but they asked her to write one a week, with a per article salary of 1000 Rs! That's $20, of course, the checks are supposed to be sent to our house, and this is a country where official addresses include things like, "near the very large cow barn" or "first house after the watertower", so we have yet to recieve anything. I guess you could say the Deccan Chronicle is the local paper, the Deccan plateau is the geological underlying for Hyderabad and Bangalore, but when the locality includes upwards of 15 million people it changes the meaning of the term a little bit. I'm very jealous, haha, now I want something to write about, but the only architecture and design part of the paper is only focused on how people can improve the Feng Shue of their house, only it's not feng shue, it's the Indian version, of which I know almost nothing about. So I'm at a loss with what to write about and for the time being will just have to bask in the success of my amazing wife.
Speaking of my wife, it was just a few days more than 6 months ago that we were married! I suppose that is a big milestone, I'll certainly take it over the alternative. Back in September who knew that we would be living in India for 6 months? only God I suppose...
and only He knows what will happen in the future. I haven't reveived either anything from any law schools since the acceptance letter from Wake Forest. It is a little nerve wracking, because by now it is really a week or two past the time (8 weeks) that they all say I should know by. To make matters worse, I checked the status of Michigan and Georgetown, my two top choices, and the website says both schools have made a decision concerning where I will be attending school this coming fall. So a letter with my name on it is out there somewhere, my parents just haven't recieved it yet, which somehow makes it worse I think. Liz and I both agree that already having been accepted somewhere makes things much easier, and really, I have like a less than 10% chance of getting in to either school so I'm expecting a "thanks but no thanks" letter, but I still hold out hope. Not Obama style hope mind you, but hope that doesn't have anything to do with burdening my children and grand children with crushing debt and ridiculous spending. Thanks for that BO, I can't wait to pay 90% tax, I can't wait so much that I will definitely be taking Off Shore Banking 101 in law school and then moving to New Zealand. Sorry, so yeah, I really want to hear from some schools this coming week...
That is apparently all I can think of right now, my sister Megan passed her Series 7 test with flying colors, which I think makes her some sort of certified Investment Account Representative, or she could go by the alternate title, "Super Nerd", with the adjective in this case referring to the amount of nerdiness, not some kind of special nerd ability or power. Haha, I don't know if she has ever read this. Ok, I think it's time to go, but I would like to plug Heatherlyn Faith's blog, as she wrote a good piece on being an alien in a foreign country. The address is here: heatherlynneu.blogspot.com
Brishon is coming to visit!!!!! YEAH!
Our first visitor, Liz's older sister, Brishon will be coming to stay with us for a month or so here in India! We are stoked to have our first visitor. Anyone else need a vacation???
Pictures of tourist day in Hyderabad!
Check out all of the pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111101&id=19503603&l=6630e023b8
Hyderabad Tourists! 15/3/2009
Yesterday, Mark and I took the tourist tour of the huge city we live in called Hyderabad. We marked out all the major tourist attractions that we wanted to see and hired a driver to take us. One of the men on staff at the school came along with us as well and helped to translate our desired locations with the driver. We thought we would see many white tourists, but we only ended up running into about 10 white people in a city of more than 10 million. Also, I ended up being the tourist attraction of the day for the Indian tourists. Haha. Everywhere we went, people were taking pictures of us and around 5 people got up the guts to ask us to take a picture with them. The rest of them tried to discretely take pictures with their camera phones. If you see me on some website, I wouldn't be too surprised. I have no idea how many random strangers took my picture yesterday. Everywhere I turned, I would see another camera faced at me. Whenever we posed for pictures, other people would come around and take the picture of us also. Haha. I wanted to shout "go visit the US, there are a lot more white girls where I come from." We had a really fabulous time getting out of our corner of the city and exploring the beauty of this city. The places we visited had 2 prices, one for Indians and one for Foreigners. The Indian price ranged from Rs. 5-10, our price was Rs. 100-150. They did not check ID, just the color of our skin. Oh India. We will create and ablum on facebook in the near future which can speak louder than my words.
I do have one story from the day the I would like to share. Where we live is primarily Christian and Hindu with a small percentage of muslims. The teachers at the school all express a dislike for Pakistan and equate muslims with terrorists. However, when we went to the other side of the city it was predominately muslim. Most of the women were wearing all black with their faces entirely covered except their eyes and they had Pakistan flags flying all over the place. I felt like I stepped into an entirely different middle eastern country! It was really shocking to see such a contrast in people who live less than 15 km from each other. Also, it was creepy to be around so many people who support such a violent and ruthless opperation. I am really glad to be living where we live off the beaten path and in a peaceful neighborhood. The entire city has been completely peaceful for the past few years and I pray that those areas continue to have peace and turn to Jesus.
HOLI!
Yesterday was Holi, the Indian festival of color. We bought large bags of colored powder and the teachers and kids celebrated by covering each other in various shades of pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, and many others! We put some pics up on facebook, and if you don't have facebook you can see the pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2110349&id=19503603&l=1fece
Enjoy!
We've been here more than a month!
So we've been here for more than a month now, and for the past week we've been all alone, the only people in a city of millions who want their skin to be darker and not lighter. Lance left Hyderabad to once again eat steak and not have to argue for 5 minutes when he wants to buy an orange. The first week of Opportunity Foundation: The Mark and Liz chapter went rather smoothly. There was absolutely no "these Americans are much smaller than the previous American, and don't have crazy facial hair, let's do what we want from now on!", so lugging my sumo suit half way across the world turned out to be a complete waste of luggage space. Seriously though, things have been great, and we've been able to focus on a few things that really needed improving, like the cleanliness of the baby care center. Today I drove to the Grand Bazaar with Naveen, our "Guy who knows where to get things" and picked up a load of more school supplies. I want to try and describe the Grand Bazaar, but I'm sure that any attempt will not do it justice. I think all 12 million people of Hyderabad were there, and I had to drive my SUV down the road that started out at about 12 feet wide, then went down to about 8 when they dug a trench along one side. This was a two way road, with cars, motorbikes, bicycles, auto rickshaws, and people all trying to get somewhere else. It was crazy. I'm glad tomorrow is Sunday. Next week should be a lot of fun. It is the celebration of the Indian holiday Holi. I'm not sure what the means, but to me it means wear white and buy huge quantities of brightly colored powder and then throw them all over your friends. It should be a lot of fun.
Here are a few random things I've been meaning to write about, but the posts were eaten by the internet, or I just didn't take the time because it's hard for me to write something less than 1000 words...
The other day I realized that I have not seen a cloud the entire time I have been here. Not one. It hasn't rained here since October, and yet there is much more water here than what I hear they have in California. I can't imagine what the monsoons must be like to put this much water in the ground. The air is so dry I don't even worry about spilling water, it dries almost instantly.
I've been playing cricket with the kids and some of the teachers at school, and I really enjoy it. That said, I've never been to a match, which can last upwards of 20 hours for league play and 80 hours for international. It is definitely the national sport of India, which means worldwide there is a very good chance is has much more than a billion fans, which would seem to make it one of the most popular sports in the world by that measure. I can see why it's not nearly as popular in America, although any sport that breaks during every game for a meal would certainly seem to have at least somewhat of a following in the States. Playing at school is great, because pretty much all we do is bat and field. This is a lot of fun, although it's hard for me to adjust to playing with small children. Some of the kids can hardly even swing the bat, and Indian standards for coordination don't exactly match up with American children. So, when the small child connects on the first pitch the ball goes up in the air, and I catch it. Whoops, he looks happy, and then very sad as the other children mob him and take the bat away. I felt really bad, but thankfully to go all the way through the class only takes about 5 minutes, so he got to bat again.
Our teachers are not what you would call internationally minded. Most of them have spent their entire lives within a 150 km radius (about 93 miles Mom). Despite this, every one of them knows about nearly every famous Indian American or comment or story involving India from America. The comment Joe Biden made about Indians working in convenice stores? everyone knew that one. Sanjay Gupta? yep. Bobby Jindal, including his political views? oh yeah The latest story was Americans calling Indians "slumdogs" on the street. People talk a lot about India and China being nations rising to take center stage in the world. Liz came back from China saying there is absolutely no way, and I'm inclined to say the same thing about India right now. India has over a billion people, but only 35 million pay taxes, and 21 million of those are employed by the government, in jobs they can not be fired from. The news of the US economy dominates the news, almost as much as the national elections taking place in the next few months. India has made a lot of advances, but everything is based on the US. Call centers, IT, software companies, all of the up and coming jobs and most lucrative occupations are based mostly on the US and our economy. This is not a knock on India by any means, and it may be able to achieve great things, but I think a lot will have to change (see Liz's previous post).
I'm learning Hindi! It's a lot easier than I thought. I'm still anxiously awaiting to hear back from more law schools. Keep in mind that we're open to anyone coming to visit, we've got plenty of room!
Liz's Thoughts, Questions, and New Insights...
Have you ever sent money to an organization overseas such as an orphanage, school, or mission project? Where does that money go? How do you know? A good PR movie? Someone you know went there once? A convincing website? Americans are fabulous because we love to contribute and donate toward good causes. The unfortunate reality of where that money goes has become somewhat disturbing since I have been here. According to 2007 tax returns, Americans donated over 300 billion dollars. That is claimed on tax returns; much more is likely donated than that, but it is not recorded. Where is that money going?
Without going into much detail, the organization we work for was founded by a Christian American and run by local Indian Christians. In the past 4 months the budget has been significantly decreased and all the staff (~30) were given raises in their salaries. It became evident that the leadership needed to change and more accountability needed to be in place. Well, I have a few thoughts...
#1 This culture lacks a sense of accountability, justice, and truth. The biggest bully wins. In the US, we don't deal with bullies often; at least not like Indian bullies. It is literally the largest man is in charge and you do what he says or you are removed, hurt, or possibly killed. Thankfully, Mark is bigger than most Indian men! The lack of truth permeates every fascet of this place. I went to buy oranges, the guy quotes me 12 Rs per orange, which the actual price should be 4-5 Rs per orange. He will not barter with me - my skin is white, therefore I am rich and I can pay 12 Rs or not get any oranges. Now, I can afford to pay 12 Rs per orange, however the principle makes me sick to my stomach. When my Indian friend asks they are 5 Rs, but when I ask they are 12. These are not people who depend on white people for their income; I may be the only white person they will see in 5 years. We have still only seen 2 white people (Russians) since we arrived 1 month ago. Then we go into a clothing store to buy Mark an Indian outfit; they charge us 20% more than the Indian customer. Same thing, no justice, no set price, no accountability to give me a fair price. They lie to my face and I know they are lying and I am unable to do anything about it except walk away.
#2 We think we know in modern America what they need in rural impoverished areas. For example, we have a daycare center that is run by local people. I love to spend time over there with the babies, but my one qualm is that the non-potty trained babies do not wear diapers. My thought was that they could not afford the diapers so I developed a plan to get the babies cloth diapers so the floor does not have puddles on it! Much to my surprise, when I proposed the plan to the center, they all laughed at me!! Little did I know these babies have never worn diapers and I could put it on them, but in 5 minutes they will have it off. Poor people don't wear diapers, lesson learned. We spend a lot of money trying to impose our culture on theirs in ways that are not helpful and sometimes funny to the local people. Another somewhat ironic American mentality is to send our people to countries full of millions of people who desperately need jobs, pay thousands of dollars for the plane tickets to have the inexperienced Americans do the work for one or two weeks because the locals need the help. Of course, there can be wonderful, well thought out missions that truly do help, and I don't want to be disrespectful or negative toward short term missions, but do you see the irony? We want to help, but who are we helping?
I don't have an answer to my problem except be hands on with whatever organizations you support. Don't trust what you hear. Question everything. Maybe some of you read a headline or two about the movie Slumdog Millionaire and how they paid the children, but somehow the money "disappeared." That is India. I am not surprised one bit by that. The people are wonderful, but accountability and fairness are not alive in this culture. It is late; I need to get some sleep. These are some of my questions, thoughts, and lessons I am learning hands on while I am here.
One last thought, I read the Indian paper every morning and their biggest enemy is Pakistan. It is amazing because they have numerous articles about how the US is sending "aid" to Pakistan and these people know better than any US Politian that the money being sent is not going where it is supposed to go. Pakistan is the same way as India. Their system is currupt and the bully always wins. After being here for 1 month, I am certain there is no way on earth it is getting into the right hands. The same is true for Hamas...What are we doing?
Our Lunch Table Turned into an Operating Room
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This has been the most shocking moment for me (Liz) in India thus far. After we finished eating, I walked over to see one of the children being tended to by one of the teachers who showed me the gaping wound on his chin. The wound clearly needed stitches, and I begin to think through how we could take this child to the hospital only to realize that they had cleared off the lunch table and were signaling him to lay down on it! (Notice Mark's water bottle with the blue cap by his head!) I am completely confused at this point because the only people around me are 1-5th grade teachers as well as one of our preschool street kid teachers. Then I see an old black bag that looks like it could be my dad's travel toiletry kit and out comes scissors, a tube of something and that bottle of orange liquid you see in the picture. Then it all clicks, the preschool teacher had come over to our location to give him stitches right here on our lunch table. The poor little guy was shaking and wincing because it was done without any anesthetic and with a large hook which didn't really look much like a medical utensil - maybe a fishing hook; I don't know. Needless to say he grabbed it out of an old film case and when he was finished put it right back into the film case. Let's just say I hope I never need stitches while I am here ;) To top it all off, the punishment for the boys who had pushed him down and made him cut his chin was to watch the procedure.
Let me describe the whole scene again - One preschool teacher pulling out his "toiletry medical kit" laying the boy on a lunch table out in the middle of the school with the 6 boys who pushed him crowded around watching while the boy winced in pain. Once it was all finished, they informed us that it would have cost about $30 US dollars to take him to a hospital so it was much better that we just did it at the school. I do have to say, the stitching was great and once it was all said and done the boy went right back to class. The parents were never contacted or notified though I am sure they noticed the large bandage on his chin when he arrived home after school.
The teacher who stitched the boy is self taught through working with an MD for ~5 years and provides medical care to the people in the slum. He lives in the slum as well. The people do not have money to go to local hospitals or the patience to go to government hospitals. From his experience, he helps however he can and requires no payment. He is a fascinating man who seems to really care for this community. Can you imagine a US doctor who tells his neighborhood of 1000 people that he will care for them for free whenever he is able?
Lance and I with Krishniya. He is our full-time security at the school. I repeat, full-time security. He really wanted to have his picture taken with us.
Who wants a house in India? 22/02/2009
I (Mark) haven't posted for a while, but things have been going great! India continues to amaze us. It's hard to believe we've been here two weeks already, that seems long and short at the same time. I have been driving around town recently, which has been at times both a lot of fun and a bit nerve racking. We found this little restaurant that has a huge selection of delicious cakes and pastries, they're super cheap and the place is really nice, but it's about 20 minutes away in a busy part of the city and my first drive was there for dinner. I think Liz was freaking out a lot more than I was, and driving at night only compounds all the problems, but we made it safely. Then we found out later that Liz does much better if she's sitting in the back seat and can't see too much of what is actually going on, haha. The first time I drove to school I hit one of the random bumps and dips in the road going a little too fast and one of the teachers hit her head on the roof of the car (!) she was laughing though, and everyone was laughing about it, so I guess she was alright. The last few days have been exciting for the people that live in the area that our main school serves. Last week we found out that the Chief Minister from Hyderabad was coming out to dedicate a large low-income government housing development, sort of project housing, near where we were. It was a very large complex on the other side of the rocky hill/dump that is on the edge of our slum. The community leaders were busing everyone from the community, as well as anyone they could find who was sitting around and wanted 20 extra rupees, to the dedication site. Busing isn't quite the right term though, I would probably call it trucking. Anyway, the plan was to "attack" as they said, I probably would have termed it an "ambush", the CM when he arrived with an overwhelming throng of people yelling and asking him to register their land. All the members of our school were asked to attend because we are seen as leaders in the community, and we're the most educated people in the area. So that included Lance, Liz, and myself. All we really had to do was show up and "show our faces" so that the people of the community knew we were there to support them. So we did that, and after we had enough of standing in the sun we started leaving when we were stopped and questioned by some Indian police/government security officers. They wanted to know where we were from, to see our passports, visas, what we were doing there, stuff like that. I suppose if the three of us were Indian we would have been worried, but being American we thought it was funny. It can be amazing what a little confidence, authoritative tone, and maybe most importantly, white skin can get you in Indian. They said they were going to send someone to the school the next day to look at our credentials, which they never did. Anyway, we left long before the CM arrived, but apparently the attack worked and he agreed to let the residents register their land. This is a big deal because now instead of squatting they will actually own the small plot of land that serves as their home. We're talking maybe 30'x30', or something like that. So that is amazing, and something the people of the slum have been working towards for years. So on Saturday the government sent people to help register the land. So I followed two of our teachers, a photographer, and a guy with a small blackboard around the slum. At each plot the photographer took a picture of the owner standing in front of their house/tent/foundation/empty plot holding the chalkboard with the plot number on it. The teachers would record their name and the picture number in both Telegu and English in the log book, and the picture would serve as their de facto deed. All I had to do to claim a little piece of India for myself was find an empty plot and get the photographer to take my picture holding the little chalkboard. With the going rate for luxury house construction at $8 a square foot I was tempted, but decided there were probably people who need it more than me. Also, the teachers, Uma and Rajitha, sent me back to the school, saying "you are suffering greatly in the sun" (it was midday). After I assured them I was fine and I would keep going with them (I wasn't going to admit defeat when they were fine), but then they said I looked really red and they would meet me back at the school in 10 minutes. I'm happy to report only a very minor sun burn.
I know this was long, but be thankful, I had about three times as much as this written and the computer deleted it, and I really don't feel like rewriting everything, so I'll just have to do it later. I have so much to write, but so little time. kind of. We don't have school on Monday, it is a Hindu holiday. Apparently they celebrate by fasting, which doesn't sound like much of a celebration to me, but it will be a long, relaxing, perhaps boring weekend.
One a different note, I have been accepted into Wake Forest law school! I'm excited, just to know that I got in somewhere, and the opportunities and options that that opens up for me. Wake is not my first choice, so I'll have to wait and see what else happens, but I was excited. It kind of makes everything real, like I'll actually be starting somewhere when we come back from India. I was really surprised it happened so fast, mostly because that would tend to point to it being an easy "yes" for them, which I wasn't expecting. My first choices, Georgetown and Michigan, have each had my info for more than a month but haven't made a decision yet, which I think is good because that means I wasn't a definite "no", but I'll have to wait and see what that means in the end. Anyway, Liz and I would both appreciate your continued prayers for us here in India, and for what our future holds!
Dinner with Entertainment at Father Anthony's 19/2/2009
Every day here thus far has been full of some sort of adventure. On Sunday night, we were invited over to the home of the headmaster, Father Anthony, of a private school we are partnering with for dinner. We arrived and he showed us the quarters of the 100 boys who board at the school; (remember, every where we go we are stared at and treated like celebrities). They had a 3 course dinner prepared for us and served us each course. It was delicious and fun to socialize with locals who have pretty good English. When dinner was finished, we headed out to find all 100 boys lined up outside and about 20 of them all positioned with their instruments. They had brought us seats and we sat down around 9:00pm on Sunday night to have this band composed of drums and trumpets play us some music including the Brady Bunch song, the Sound of Music, Titanic, and Eva Maria. Haha it was so cute and funny and never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that was going to be an experience we would take away from this adventure!
The infamous 25 things... 15/02/2009
Based on the "25 Random things about yourself" craze that is sweeping facebook at the moment I thought I would attempt to write 25 random things about our life in India, thus far...
1. Instead of a ring on the left hand Indian women tell the world they're married with rings on the second toe (the pointer toe?) of each foot. As of last night's shopping spree Liz is properly designated as a married woman.
2. There are a surprising number of Christians (at least in our area)
3. I have seen separate cargoes of two huge waterbuffalo, about 20 propane tanks, and about 15 oxygen/acetylene tanks in the back of three wheeled, lawn mower engined, most accident prone vehicle in India auto rickshaws.
4. We have at our disposal an SUV, a 20 person bus, one of the aforementioned auto rickshaws (with a huge dent in the front from an accident, but it still works), a motorcycle, and a scooter.
5. Every Truck is elaborately painted with designs all over the front, and each one in the self proclaimed "Kind of the Road"
6. The one rule of Indian driving: if you are in front you have the right of way, to do pretty much whatever you want
7. There are people in India who have never seen a white person.
8. The only white people we've met/seen were two Russian Nuclear Engineers
9. The only meat that is socially acceptable to eat is chicken and mutton
10. The ice cream at McDonald's comes in the lid of the American size
11. The staff at the school just laugh at us when we say things are too spicy.
12. With a right hand drive stick shift car you shift with your left hand, but the gears are in the same order, so everything is backward
13. Fresh chicken = live chicken next to the counter
14. People prefer spicy to sweet
15. In a city of nearly 10 million people we have spotted 1 overweight child
16. The bus doesn't stop for you to get on, you have to run alongside and jump
17. the weekend = all day Friends marathon on 2 channels
18. Everyone works Monday through Saturday
19. The military shooting range has a target in the middle and a sign that says, "hit the target and win a free beer or 25 practice balls" (for the nearby military golf course)
20. Liz's "wedding" rings here cost about $4.50, I won't say what they cost at home
21. On the way to school we stop and get breakfast at a road side stand, usually a kind of rice flour crepe with potato curry, a "dosa", or pancake balls, "wada", each for about 15 cents
22. Every day for lunch we get a packet of rice with curry, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we also get a hard boiled egg
23. They haven't received any precipitation here since October, but there is still plenty of water.
24. Our Valentine's Dinner was McDonalds
25. A Saree is just 6 yards of fabric, how it is tied and worn differs with region of India and caste
Here are some answers to questions I received from Nicole which I thought I would post for everyone:
How is your schedule there? Do you work all day everyday or does it vary?
- Our schedule is basically 8:30-4pm M-F and 8:30-1pm Saturday, but really we are always thinking and planning at night and sometimes during the day we are just waiting around for something. India is a slower culture than the US so we have to wait and wait for stuff to happen. We are doing mostly administrative type things and finding ways to improve what is already going on. I really really like doing this kind of work rather than just repeating the same job every day. Our work is not hard and I don't feel tired from doing it. Especially now, it is exciting and new.
Will you guys look for a church or is there one you will automatically go to?
- We don't have a church. My friend who is here does not go to a church. The one he knows of is really far away and lasts most of the day so since we work Monday through Saturday he doesn't like to then be gone all day Sunday as well. We hope to find a church. One of Mark's parent's friends actually trains pastors all over the world and just so happens to be coming to our city this month. When he is here, we hope to find a church we will like. Part of the problem is that many local churches don't speak English, but we think we can find one close enough.
What does it smell like?
- When we got off the plane, I said, "It smells like China" and Mark goes "It smells like Thailand" It does not smell bad to me at all. Surprisingly, the people even in the slums seem to keep pretty good hygiene. They brush their teeth and shower regularly. We haven't had any issues with weird smells thank the Lord.
What kind of food do you eat?
- We have been eating a variety of foods. We have had local food which consists of rice and something spicy as well as American food such as Dominos and McDonalds. We eat lunch at school every day which consists of rice and some kind of spicy sauce. I actually like the school food (I am so thankful because I have to eat it anyway). It isn't too spicy. For breakfast we have toast with peanut butter.
Do you cook?
- All we have cooked is eggs. We can get eggs really cheap so we eat eggs and toast for dinner sometimes.
How are the squatty potties?
- I actually have not used a squatty potty here. We have a western toilet at our house and a western toilet at school.
Are there big scary bugs?
- There are tons of mosquitos which drive us crazy, but we have this thing that plugs into the wall that is not approved by the FDA which seems to keep our bedroom and bathroom free of mosquitoes and they are the biggest problem at night, but our bedroom stays mostly mosquito free. We had a large spider in our room this morning which Mark quickly killed.
Do you have a pet?
- Yes, we have a pet. Two actually: Sugar & Spice. 2 stray puppies hang out at our house and I started feeding them because I couldn't watch them waste away in front of me. I felt too sad. I won't touch them though because I am sure they have many diseases that I don't want.
Do you have a favorite kiddo yet (or one that you really feel connected to)?
- There is a little girl in our babycare center who is extremely gentle and sweet. She is very thin and looks to be about 1 year old, but they say that she is 2 years old. We are unsure if she has some developmental delays, but i go and hold her every day. I think I am going to try to start feeding her some formula every day also. She seems really malnourished to me.
Do you and Mark have any sexy Indian Valentines day plans?
- Our Valentines day was really fun, but definitely different. We went to dinner at McDonalds with our friend Lance who we are living with. The McDonalds was packed. Apparently, it is THE place to go on Valentines day! Then we shopped around down town and got chocolate desserts at a bakery we found, all 3 of us!
How do you do laundry?
- We have a washing machine at our house to do laundry.
Liz's weigh in: 55 kilos (-1.5 kg)
Mark's weigh in: 76 kilos (-1 kg)
Jet Lag is wearing off... 2/11/2009
The picture to the left is a picture of the babycare center children. The make up is to ward off evil spirits. Check out the PICTURES tab.
In the past 3 days we have met with the headmasters of two different private schools to discuss the idea of our children advancing into their schools after 4th grade. Both seem extremely interested in partnering with foreigners like us. It is really odd how much power we have here. Today we met with the community leader of our city to try and get our students birth certificates. In India, students can go to any school until 4th grade, but 5th grade must be a 'registered' school. We are working to provide our slum children the opportunity to go to an accredited school, but our biggest hurdle is birth certificates. Our children don't have any birth certificates. Therefore, we met with our community leader to attempt to get them birth certificates. We think they will be able to get them, but I want to tell you about the meeting. I found it somewhat funny. We walked into this house full of about 10 men between the ages of 35-50 sitting in plastic lawn type chairs watching TV wearing all white. Then I was introduced to Sir Punch, the community leader. He was wearing a sheet wrapped around his waist with a towel over his shoulders. He made the men move to give us a few lawn chairs to sit on while we talked business. Thankfully, he appreciates the services our school provides to his community and seems to want to help us.
You may be asking yourself, what in the world are your jobs over there. We really aren't exactly sure, but due to a number of events, our schools are in the process of changing leadership and my friend who has been here for quite some time leaves at the end of the month for the US which basically makes us the "headmasters" of the schools. We planned to teach PE and art and we still hope to do that at some point, but we will not be doing it on a daily basis. We want our work to be beneficial in the long run and to fill a job that then needs to be replaced is not as long term as investing in the teachers and building a team of leadership in the school that will last. We have 15 teachers and ~10 teachers aids of sorts. It has been fun to start to get to know the teachers. Most of them are women around my age. Many of them are married and have children. Their English is better than the children so it is easier to communicate with them. We have offered to speak with them to improve their English and they want to meet 3 times every week!! I found that rather ambitious! I hope to use the Bible as our discussion point and make it a Bible study discussion. Many of our teachers are Christians, but many are not as well. Please pray for the Lord to prepare their hearts and use Mark and me to show them Christ.
Another funny fact... We have a baby care center (basically a day care for infants to 3 years old) and whenever we go visit, the babies all cry and get as far away from us white folks as possible. They are scared to death of us. I hope to spend more time there so they get used to us and aren't so scared.
The children are precious and want so badly to impress us and their teachers. It is night and day to an American school in many senses. The other day one of the head masters came to check out our school and the children waited an extra 40 minutes after school ended so she could look around and visit each class room. Can you imagine in an American school that at 3pm the teachers said oh you can't leave until we say you can?! The children were ecstatic to be observed by the headmaster. Also on Friday, we are taking the 5th graders to be tested at one of the private schools and we don't need to even inform their parents or get a permission slip signed! Many of their parents can't even sign their own name. They have to sign with a thumb print because they cannot read or write. This is the first generation of their families to read and write.
Our school year ends the 2nd week of April for summer break and will begin again the second week of June. We are unsure of our summer break plans at this point. We have a big home if anyone wants to come visit! We would LOVE to have you. This is an open invite. - Liz
First post from Hyderabad! 2/9/2009
Well we made it here safely. It was a very long trip, but it was much better than it could have been; we were upgraded to first class on the long flight from Newark to Bombay! We each have a lot to say, so we thought we'd do the "thoughts" thing again....
Liz's Thoughts:
It is WARM!!! I LOVE it. The temperature out side seems to be about 70-80 degrees and sunny and beautiful. When we arrived, Lance took us over to the schools which have 1/2 days on Saturdays, and we met all the children. Much to our surprise, there are NO other white people here, and people stare at us like a fish out of water and treat us like celebrities. The children went crazy when we arrived all surrounding us saying "good morning ma'am" and "good morning sir." At one of the schools, I got out and about 50 kids came up and I had 2 little girls maybe 4 or 5 years old holding my hands and two little girls holding my legs. The rest were swarming around waiting for a chance to say good morning to me. I wanted to sweep them all up in my arms! They spent the next 10 minutes staring at me. We have a communication barrier. Most of the children only speak Telegu although the older ones can speak some English. Now, we are on a mission to learn some Telegu and attempt to teach them some English. Our slum is a large open area with multiple tents without running water or electricity. The women spend the day pumping water from the well and cooking over open fires. What a different world! The teachers are from a variety of places. We have about 15 teachers who live in the slum we serve, near by slums, and the city. Their understanding of English varies - some extremely well, others minimal. The school is founded by a Christian lady who wanted to help in some capacity in India. Currently, the school is undergoing a change in leadership which Mark and I hope to play a vital role in establishing a strong team of leaders. Currently, we are praying about where to spend our time and how to best use our gifts with a long term focus. It is exciting to be apart of something that is growing and changing. We want to make sure that we don't take up a role that will drop to nothing when we leave. We want to make a lasting impact on this place as we know it will make in us.
Our home is somewhat in the country which is nice because it is quiet at night except for our security guard who walks around blowing his whisle and tapping his stick?! We feel safe. Our house is built like a fortress. We have strong thick bars on every window in the house (better security than I have ever seen in the US). It would take a large metal cutter to get into this place or a cement destroyer. This is getting long so I will hand it over to Mark, but we are doing fabulous and both feeling well.
Dietitian Measure of health 2/8/09: Mark 77 kg
Liz 56.5 kg (according to the scale in our house)
Please be praying for us to keep our health and know where to best serve.
Mark's Thoughts:
Haha, like Liz said, it isn't Michigan in February! Things have been great so far. The kids were so excited to see us when we visited the school, and they are all so sweet. I'm so glad we can be a part of giving them a little bit of education or helping out in any way. I'm surprised with almost everything about India so far, except maybe the traffic. It's about what I expected, it's so weird to be traveling on the wrong side of the road! It will be interesting to start driving myself. Our accomodations, and really just everything that is available, have been much better than I expected. Our house is really nice, and we have a Chevy SUV type vehicle to drive around in. Yesterday Lance took us around the immediate area and showed us where to buy fuel, get groceries, buy clothes, get lunch, stuff like that. Our house is great, like Liz said, built like a fortress. There are bars over everything, but it's not like a prison, they're more ornate. All the floors and counters are marble, and we have a few really nice balconies. The furniture is all great, there is a leather couch, and satellite TV. If someone told me my first real morning in India I would be eating peanut butter toast and watching Friends I would have never believed them. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'll ever forget we're in India, but it is already apparent that we have a few luxuries that I didn't expect, and that I'm sure we will REALLY appreciate come months 4, 5, and 6. Liz and I were worried about losing a lot of weight because of the food, but I don't know if that will be a problem. The grocery store carries Lays potato chips, Oreos, and Axe body spray, so everything is not foreign. Stuff like that is expensive though, so I don't plan on eating too many Oreos, although they also have Tim Tams, and those are usually just too good to pass up. It is interesting, because things are not ridiculously cheap by any means. Lunch for the three of us was $14 yesterday. Our bottle of shampoo was around $3. The houses in our area are a couple hundred thousand each. India is not a poor country, but there are definitely poor people, and the gap between those who have and those who don't is huge. It can be hard to fathom. There is a Tommy Hilfiger store just like any you would expect to find anywhere in the states less than a mile from an area where people live in tents made of pieces of wood and whatever scraps of tarp and rubber they could find. We've seen several Hot Topics, which would seem to be really, really out of place, considering all the women wear saris. We'll have to actually go inside one sometime and see what the Indian version is like. This is getting long too, and I could write another few pages, so I'll leave it at that for now. Please keep praying for our continued health, and for the kids we're working with! and send emails, we love that!
- Mark
1 Duffel and 1 Backpack! 2/4/2009
Liz's Thoughts:
Six months contained in one duffel and one backpack. I can hardly believe it; we leave tomorrow flying St. Louis to Newark to Bombay to Hyderabad. It will take us ~2 days, 3 planes, and over 14 hours of layovers. We are thrilled to finally be going.
Liz is excited to: - fall in love with the kids
- live in warm weather and without snow :)
- learn a new culture and all its customs
- spend more time with Mark
- hang out with my friend Lance
Liz is nervous about: - the food
- Mark driving in India (don't hit that cow...oh or that small child)
- weird bugs
Many people have asked if I am scared. No, I am not scared at all. God never gives you more than you can handle and honestly, nothing will be harder for me that living through a Michigan winter. I did that; I know I can live through anything!
Mark's Thoughts:
I'm very excited to be leaving tomorrow, and I can't wait to see what things are like in India. I feel like it will be over so fast and then it will be right on to the challenge of moving and starting law school. This will be an eventful year! Hopefully the first of many, because who wants to be lame?
I'm excited for: - driving in India - left side of the road, right hand drive, left hand shifting!
- exploring the city
- teaching the kids and working with the school
- the opportunity to travel to other countries (Himalayas!)
- reading the India Times
I'm nervous about: - the food
- spending all night in the Bombay airport
We're so excited!
p.s. I'm going to miss the snow and the lake!
The Lord has given us the opportunity to travel to Hyderabad, India! Our travels will begin at the end of January when my job at Holland Hospital comes to a close.
