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