Mark's Reflections

Mark’s Mungeli,

Today I hope to write a few things I have experienced after more than a week in India. From our arrival in India to today, our trip has been nothing but extraordinary and unpredictable. Our first 24 hours in India were started with a night spent in the Delhi airport and an aborted take-off trying to fly to Raipur. In Raipur we were repeatedly warned not to film as we waited an hour and a half for our ride/ambulance. Regardless, we made it to Mungeli intact and in good spirits. The last 24 hours has been extremely exhausting, yet rewarding. Yesterday, Saturday January 23rd, we spent the day helping out with a Maila or carnival type event at the school (Rambo Memorial School). It looked as if well over 1000 people attended the event, that was held to raise money for the school. Our group, Landa, Toni, Joseph, Sam, Andrew and I (Mark) were in charge of the games. We were already quite exhausted after going on a day and half excursion to Kanha, a National Park, which is known for its wild tigers. I was in charge of organizing all of the games and let me tell you it was a lot of work. Although we had been planning the games for several days, we arrived at the school around 10 in the morning and worked until 7 in the evening.

In total we had 8 carni-esque games, which were intended to be difficult, if not impossible. We had over 500 prizes for the winners of the games, but at two rupees to play, thousands of chances were had to win the games we created. Besides the games we sold snicker-doodle cookies and had a jar full of raisins, which contestants had to guess how many raisins were in the jar. The selling of snicker-doodles was Andrew’s idea, and our group moms, Landa and Toni baked them to perfection. The most difficult part of the preparation was crowd control. The kid’s in Mungeli have no idea of what a line is or what order looks like. Generally, students who come from more economically well-off families cut in line or get what they want first and always the bigger or older kid cuts in front of everyone else, especially among the boys. So, we created a system of lines, made by metal rhubarb and yellow rope. For the most part there was some semblance of order and fairness. In all, I think the Maila or carnival was a big success in terms of how much fun the kids had and how much money the school was able to raise.

After the carnival and clean-up was over, we came back to the hospital compound to retire for the night. However, the night is never over just like that in Mungeli. A few of the nurses from southern India were cooking up a storm, making dosa and masala. Once again we ate too much, but you just can’t help yourself when the food is so delicious. Finally, we made it back to our room and watched Die Hard IV with one of our Indian doctor friends, Geo who is from Karala, in south India.

Today we had a day full of activities planned, yet just like most days in India our plans didn’t come to fruition. Instead of meeting our town’s cricket team and visiting the zoo in Bilaspur, we attended an Indian Republic Day practice, went to see a church renovation in Bishrampur, and are planning to attend our second wedding tonight. Indian Republic Day commemorates the signing of India’s constitution on January 26th, 1950. At the Republic Day practice students were reviewing their various marches, drills, and skits. The church in Bishrampur is one of the oldest in all of northern India. Abrupt end.

Sorry for the short post, but we are actually going to make pizza tonight for our group so we need to walk into Mungeli to get more supplies. Love y’all back home and keep up the prayers, we’re always in need of those.

Peace, (Shanti)
~Mark