Wednesday 20 January 2016.  1500 hours.  Mungeli, India.

 

(that makes it about 0330 in KC on Wednesday morning.)

 

the monsoon made a brief cameo on Tuesday evening.  it’s the dry season in this part of India but you’d have never known it.  monkeys, goats, cows, dogs, chipmunks (with loooong bushy tails like squirrels), lizards and the other local creatures that roam the land were pairing up last night thinking there was so much rain that Noah was soon to float by.  

 

he didn’t.

 

who did?  a young girl with tuberculosis (just the latest case of a disease quite common here).  a boy with such severe sickle-cell anemia that he’s now being evaluated after his brain bled and bled and bled in multiple places.  and several women who came in alone and are now sharing their hospital beds with tiny little gifts from God, each weighing in just under 6 pounds — a great result considering there are several little ones in the nicu under 3 lbs.  

 

(Click read more for the rest of the story…)

 

 

Tuesday morning brought us all the opportunity to join in a cccc mission trip tradition (at least when it comes to medical mission trips in places like Nicaragua): a trip into a remote village. 

 

we piled into one of the Rambo school’s 6 school buses (forget sly Stallone and think long-time director of Children’s Hospital Mungeli) along with the first-year nursing students and walked the streets of a small remote village, the students stopping in homes and talking to residents.  by doing this, they establish relationships and trust in hopes that when someone IS sick they’ll come for treatment.  all too often, patients come to CHM after weeks (or longer) of dealing with the local “medicine man” or other less-than-effective resources.  and sometimes, by then, it’s too late.  

 

every remote village is different — the people, the homes, the agriculture.  and every remote village is the same — kids thrill at having their picture taken or hearing their voice played back on a recorder for the first time. a sweet little old lady proudly invites us in to see her home and offers tea to strangers because in the Indian culture when someone enters your home that “guest is equal to God.” so you treat them as such.  one or two kids begin to follow us.  then one or two more.  by the time we’re headed back to the bus, we have a full-blown entourage of all ages and interest levels.  some speak English with us.  others smile.  still others wait patiently for the circus to leave town so they can return to what they were doing.

 

just FYI:  there are cows everywhere in India, except on your plate.  the animal is so highly revered that every part of it is used in some way (again, other than at meal time).  I bring this up because you should know that cow dung is fertilizer, fuel, sprinkled for blessings, touted for its antimicrobial qualities (NOT) and the perfect material from which to build that new living room wall.  i just thought you should know.

 

as Tuesday continues, the English teaching goes on.  ken’s signs continue to progress.  our photo directory of staff and students grows.  then dinner with the director and his wife (both doctors and both mean cooks).

 

just FYI:  the food here?  hell yes!!!

 

our Tuesday evening trip into town was rained out.  when so many streets are dirt roads, an off-season deluge can make Mungeli look like a mud-wrestling convention is in town.

 

but behold…for the first time this week, there is sun on this glorious Wednesday morning.

 

Wednesday morning begins with a call to the guest house (where we are staying on the hospital campus).  it is Teresa, a doc and the director’s wife.  a woman slated for surgery this afternoon is in bad shape. blood count is low and getting worse.  who among us has O+ blood is the question?  Off to the lab to find out.  Stephanie?  yes. Ken?  yes.  E.J.?  apparently so.  prohibited from donating in the US for years, here, it’s not a problem.  Stephanie’s first.  her blood is now in the fridge ready to go.  e.j. and ken?  waiting for their turn…set to donate right at surgery time so that the blood platelets don’t have the chance to die off. 

 

just FYI:  they called us looking for blood donations because people here are still learning about the process.  many don’t understand that blood regenerates and that they’ll be okay if they donate.  so while we help fill the gap, the hospital continues to educate families and the public (at least partially with a
n educational video made by Louise from team one) about donating blood.

 

with just under a week left here in Mungeli, it has already been eye-opening, educational, humbling and fun to serve here. 

 

God bless. 

 

ejb

 

 

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Sent from my iPhone so odd speellings and ranDom capitaliZAtion happen.