Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Day Nine in India

First of all, it's a very bad idea to eat a large amount of sugar in the form of ice cream and/or chocolate when you are used to a fairly healthy, mostly vegetarian diet. You know... in case you were wondering.

Today we went to another village. This village is bigger than yesterday's. It is the third largest colony in this region. It was also very organized. I was amazed by the difference between this colony and the last. It was painted with bright colors. There was a clean meeting hall that doubled as a church. The children were happy and wanted to play. The homes were a little larger, and there was definitely some kind of village leadership in place. These people were still a leprosy-affected group, but somehow they had lifted themselves up. This may sound weird, but as I was leaving I couldn't help but think that if I had leprosy and got kicked out of my home, I'd hope to find a place like this. Today we had even fewer hands, so I took and recorded each patient's blood pressure and pulse rate. I loved this job. It gave me the chance to look each person in the eye, and to lightly hold their hand or arm as the machine did its work. Such beautiful people. Even though I was busy with this job, I did find time to play with some of the children. It was wonderful! I hope that we, Promethean Spark, are able to develop a full-time program with the colonies. This village would be a perfect place to start.

The rest of the night was peaceful and fun. I danced, ate, worked on the laptop, talked with my bank, bought my ticket to fly to Delhi this weekend, talked with family & friends, etc. I'm still so humbled by what I'm seeing and learning here. I hope that I can remember to remember these experiences when I leave. I hope that I will always carry this piece of India with me.

No comments:

Post a Comment