Dale’s Experiences in India Trip #2

Great Joy and Deep Sadness

I’m writing this as two parts, the first is related to my emotions and the second is some of the actual experiences.

Morning rounds are again, this my second year here, my favorite time of the day. It is so fulfilling to observe each patient in the hospital and see improvements day by day. Gyda, our Icelandic med student, tells me that she learns a lot from the questions ask by Dr. Anil and the discussion during the rounds. I frequently ask her for explanations as Anil is so fast. It is truly the work of G__ to see patients cut open yesterday doing so well today and going home soon.

There is another side of course which we did not experience last year, but this year we have had a number of deaths including a very young burn victim, a still born baby and others including the twins born this morning. The first born at home is OK, the second 3 hours later here did not. It is oh so important to see G__ in death as well as healing, having witnessed the compassion and care given by the doctors and staff here. Even though we don’t communicate, we hope the mothers and families of these individuals can know that we share their sorrow.

Last year every moment was a new adventure from the snow in London, everything in Delhi and then Mungeli and the hospital. What a life changing event, last year’s pilgrimage.

This year I started with a goal in mind for myself. One of my very favorite ministers, Rev. Bill Mackey said many times “It’s all About Relationships”. What an opportunity this has been for me to learn about relationships, from Anil and his staff to the Danish midwifes and student doctors, to the Wild college kids from Georgia to the Icelandic student doctor. In everyday life as an adult we have many friendships, but they are usually either more casual or something serious with potential for a long term relationship. Here I have had the opportunity to live closely with this diverse group for a short time and become much more than just friends and develop a close relationship that is sometimes difficult to attain in everyday America. It is my hope to bring home this ability to become more than friends without feeling the necessity to escalate to something more serious.

Part 2.

A few brief highlights of our trip include having a Tiger almost jump into our jeep at the Kahna preserve, observing many surgeries including a hip replacement yesterday and an emergence hernia repair. Others include many c-sections and hysterectomies (by far the top surgeries here), removal of a jaw cancer and a stomach cancer. There also have been serious absesses requiring skin grafts and a number of internal infections.

We had a wonderful picnic at the lake with the hospital staff and the school children had what they refer to as the “Annual Function”, a school wide outdoor event for children and families with each grade doing some type of dance or skit.

Chris and I are scheduled to leave on a train Saturday night at 9:50 PM for the Family Village Farm orphanage. It is a long train ride arriving in Katpadi at 1:48 AM on Monday morning. We will then spend Monday and Tuesday nights there and travel to Chennai for one night in a hotel before our flight departs at 5 PM for Delhi, then for home on AA293 which departs Delhi at 12:55 AM on Friday March 5th thru Chicago, arriving Atlanta about 5 PM, home for a shower and bed!!!

Another wonderful experience seeing G__’s world and how it functions.
I wish everyone could have such an experience.
Dale Williamson

Back Home Safely

Just want to let everyone we got home safely yesterday in Atlanta. Mark and I came home on Air France and Joseph came home on KLM and Delta. Rev. Ray Miles went home on American Airlines and I believe he arrived in Atlanta before us yesterday. Dale and Chris are still in India, so please continue to pray for them as they head to south India. They are spending a week in Family Farm Villiage at an orphanage. I am going to attempt to have every post a final blog to conclude this blog for this year's pilgrimmage group. Thank you for everyone support and love.

Safe in Delhi

We made it to Delhi today and toured much of Old Delhi and many of the monuments from India's history. Our guide, Vippan Dougal, was very accomodating and we even ended the night with some McDolnald's french fries and a dipped ice cream cone after some vegetarian Indian food. We are traveling to Agra at six AM to see the Taj Mahal in the morning, and we anticpate it as the ultimate conclusion to our wonderful journeys here in India. We can't wait to see our friends and families soon, and we pray for safe travels as we make our way back to Atlanta on Friday.

Last Day in Mungeli

Early tomorrow we depart Mungeli and travel to Delhi for the last two days of our pilgrimage. This trip has simply amazing, and I hope to get the privilege to return in the years to come. Yesterday we took the rest of the school supplies to the Rambo school, and all of the staff were overwhelmed with joy for the four suitcases. I sat with Principal Avinash and some of his senior staff and went through the contents for hours. As our trip nears an end we analyze our time and look for ways to supply future aide to Dr. Henry and his vision for the school, hospital and the community. We have thoroughly discussed practical ideas the improve life here and the mission over all. We look to expand internet, create a library and hopefully create and administer a clock-in system for the staff and students to improve accountability to emphasize everyone's commitment to their respective duties. We don't want to force change and Americanize Mungeli, because that would divert away from the unique spirit that exists here. I have mostly spent most of my time at the school, and it has been a blessing to teach and interact with that learning community. Others have concentrate their attention to the hospital and truly witnessing the high degree of care that is present in relation to other medical facilities in this area of rural India. The Christian Hospital of Mungeli has found a niche and continue to expand on specialty care. The care for the patients that can be helped or have been neglected at other clinics and hospitals, and they look to further serve this community with a cancer center and frequent eye camps to correct blindness.
I just finished my last cricket match and I will truly miss the authentic Indian feeling it creates in my body. I have bought to bats and look to play some in the States, but it surely can't be replicate outside this country. It reminds of our cul-de-sac kickball games or our backyard football matches of my youth. I have also played other sports with people in the community like badminton and basketball. It has been very nice to play these various sports after having concentrate on football so rigorously in college. I have continued to train here for a few kicking tryouts with a team in Columbus and Albany.
I will miss the loving community, the chapel services, the interaction with the people here, and of course the food. I look forward to returning home to see my friends, family, and of course Sara, my patient girlfriend in LaGrange. We have a going away party tonight, and I'm sure it will be bittersweet as we will miss Dr. Terry and Anil Henry and the community they have built up and inspired.
See yall soon (a word we have been teaching to the locals)

Ray's update

I’ve been thinking about the church over here in India. Yesterday I went to church at the local congregation for a while. In many ways it is the same as congregation of the Disciples of Christ in Georgia. The service was scheduled for 9:30 but didn’t get started until 10:00. The pastor spent the time telling me about the problems with his congregation, commitment was low, stewardship and giving was poor and they weren’t dependable enough for his liking. All this come through despite the language difficulty. Amazing how similar it is to the ways I spend the time before church.
There are some differences here however. They have no concept of Regional Ministers in the Church of North India. The best way to explain my position and ministry has been to refer to me as a bishop. That produc es interesting results in terms of the deference that is given me here. It is one of the difficulties of translating our church and its polity between cultures.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) became part of the Church of North India in the 1970’s. As is typical there were Disciples who did not go along with the decision so in both Bilaspur and here in Mungeli we have remaining Disciples congregations. Here in Mungeli the Church of North India congregation meets at 9:30 a.m. and the Disciples of Christ who became an independent congregation meets in the afternoon. In Bilaspur the remnant Disciples have their own building as well as being a separate congregation. Both hospital facilities (Mungeli Christian Hospital and Jackman Memorial Hospital) as well as the school and the church building here in Mungeli belong to the Church of North India even though they are supported by Global Ministries. Hospital, school and local congregation here in Mungeli are all expressions of the Christian Church in this place.
It is fascinating thing discovering the similarities and differences between the church around the world. In spite of all the differences we are indeed one family of Christ.

Charlies thoughts

Mungeli India…. What a place. I could not have prepared myself for the experience I have had. This is my first entry in the blog and I feel guilty for not sharing my experience yet. Things happen very quickly here so the days seem to fly by. I have been here for seven days now and truly loved every minute of it. When we arrived the ride from Raipur airport to the hospital was a very eye opening experience. The driving here is just a wild ride. It’s like riding a roller coaster on steroids! What a way to wake up after being on an airplane for a day and a half! Cows in the road, people everywhere and lots of horns honking! I have decided that if I were to move here I would definitely be in the auto horn or tire business! Just kidding but its true….So I was tired from travelling when we arrived at the hospital but also ready to go. It was a strange feeling. I was told early that I would have the ability to watch surgery and soon enough I was in an operating room with a hat and mask watching Dr.Henry cut open a young girl to remove infection from a bug bite. He made it look so easy and it lasted only a few minutes. We are able to go on rounds with him every morning so we saw how well she was doing. Okay so one surgery down and many others to go. Well that was just the beginning. We went later to a church that was being rebuilt but if you know Dr.Henry he likes to experience life. I say this because he saw smoke coming from a sugar cane field so of course we stopped. He wanted to show us how they make sugar. Who knew? What a great experience I had to watch the process of making sugar from the cane being fed into a machine to tasting blocks of fresh brown sugar. Yum…… Well we saw the church and watched everyone trying to figure out how to renovate it. I know nothing about construction so I took a stroll through the graveyard. Now if you can go through a graveyard its very interesting.
I am going to go a few days into the journey and tell you of a little four year old girl who I met on rounds who was burned over 65% of her body. I can only say that I felt a special bond with her. I don’t know why but her sad little face made me so connected with her. We were visiting so many patients every day but I felt like I needed to see her. The group was going on a safari the next day but I decided to stay here. Not only for her but also I do not like getting up at 2am!! I am really not a morning person here. I have to tell you that I am so glad I did not go with the group because I watched the surgery that day where they tried to remove infection. Later the group arrived home and told me of the stories of the day. They seemed to have a great time. I went to see my little friend and she was dying. I felt horrible. I watched the little girl pass but thanked God that she was not hurting any longer. I think he knew that she would always have pain and suffering. And if anything that her life did was touch mine which could start a domino effect to influence others to be thankful for their lives and what they have. That is what we do as Christians is to teach others through our experiences.
Oh I wish I could say more now but will in the future. Monday (tomorrow) is a very busy day at the hospital. I will tell you all about the surgeries later. To sum up this entry I want to say that all of the people I have met and interacted with here in Mungeli have been way more that hospitable and Dr.Henry is like the energizer bunny. He is such the major presence here. I think everyone agrees with me when I say that we all would like to be like him. He and his family is a true affirmation that God is working in all areas of the world. I have seen it and will see it more before I leave… Later and will talk to yall soon.
Love always, Charlie

Only a few days left

We just got back from our second trip to the Khuria (or Kuriya) dam, and it was even better than the first time. We swam a lot more and the food was amazing. We had mutton. potato curry, tomato chutney and rice. I am going to miss this food. A lot more people swam this time, and it is so tough to get the Indians in the water. Swimming is not very popular in India, so we have to get the life jackets out and take them out step by step. I can't imagine ever fearing the peaceful water like they do, but Mark and I were lucky enough to be swimming at the YMCA before we could really walk. Anil just adores the water and loves taking people out on his inflatable raft with a trolling motor. I believe our entire group braved the cold water of the 600 acre reservoir, located an hour north of Mungeli in the foothills of mountains.

Yesterday, we had our Annual Function at the Rambo English School. There were about ten dances performed and over a hundred students participated. We worked with thirty kids on the "I want to be like you," from the Jungle Book. I believe we got some really great pictures and videos of Mark, Joseph and I as we danced with the kids. We dressed in green pants (jungle) and red shirts for the fire that the monkeys badly desire so they can be like man. We also had tails and red arm, head and ankle bands. It was quite hilarious as all of the other dances had more traditional Indian costumes, and our third, fourth and fifth grade boys were clearly dressed in an amateur fashion. We looked like such a rag tag compilation of monkey man. Monkey man is a nickname I have gotten from many of the local kids, because of the way I dribble basketballs between my legs and fun loving attitude.

A few of us our talking in Anil's office and getting online, and we are talking about how much we miss hot showers. I think Lynn is going to try to get a hotel in Delhi so she can get one a little earlier. We are going to miss the Dust Bowl that is Mungeli, back not the bucket showers or the crunchiness dust in your mouth when you are driving on the unpaved roads. On the other hand, I would rather have to deal with dustiness now rather than the monsoons that come in a few months. Mungeli has been very good to us and we will all surely miss it.