Mungeli, India Journal: Day 2

Today, I attended the morning chapel, currently being held in the hospital library because of the heavy rains. There was a fair amount of good singing going on and some prayers and then during one of the songs, a GIGANTIC clap of thunder sounded and the roof began to wobble down toward us and back. Then, I was told that it was a tin roof and that wasn’t thunder…..it was the giant monkeys jumping on the roof!!! These guys are rather large…

                   

At the end of chapel, we were introduced to everyone and then everyone dispersed. I attended the nurses’ rounds. Today was not a very busy morning so I went back to have some breakfast and afterwards Kahala showed me around the hospital.

We attended the doctors’ rounds and I got to see each patient in the men’s and women’s wards as well as a private room patient. There was an encephalitis patient, one with a back cast, one with splenomegaly as a secondary to what he came in for. I also saw two newborn babies in their incubators. They were in a quiet room by themselves. (Since Tuesday when this was written, there have been ten more babies born and two of them have died). The hospital does a ton of C sections here for two reasons: Malnourishment is high so bone structure demands C section and many women give at a birth very, VERY young age.

After these rounds and exploring the other hospital rooms, someone picked us up to go to the Rambo School. As I was walking across the schoolyard, tons of little kids came running up saying “hello, how are you” and extending their hands! SO CUTE!!! The older ones seemed more shy, but still said hello as I passed by.  I went in to meet with the principal, Avanash, for a while and we talked about what kinds of things the students knew and might not now about various subjects. After our chat, he took me around to each classroom and I got to meet each teacher and say hello to each class. As with my Bulgarian teaching experience, the students immediately stood up when they saw me and said “Goooood morning ma’am” They are being taught in both Hindi and English and the school has grown from 600 to about 750 students. Indeed, their classrooms are extremely packed and they not only need space, but better conditions in general. There is some construction going on at the school, but it is slow.

Tomorrow, I will begin teaching three or four classes (not sure yet) and then I may ride the school bus as it takes them home around various outlying villages. I’ve heard riding the bus is fun and I can see some of the countryside and smaller villages this way. I also met with someone who puts together the weekly Sunday evening service and I will be helping with that as well as meeting with the hospital nurses every evening for music (and English texts) time etc. So excited! Things are shaping up for me to do!

Mungeli is not as hot as Delhi, but it is hot. It’s also high monsoon season and rained almost all day today. I love it!! I tried walking to one part of the village to go to the market, but I was wearing sandals and they were slippery so I will try another day. I did manage to drop off some cloth I bought in Delhi to a woman living near the hospital who is a good seamstress and she will make me a sari “suit style” outfit from the material! To ask her to do this and another errand, we were invited into her house. It had a hardened mud/concrete mixed floor, partially no roofing, but the covered rooms have electricity, ceiling fans, cooking stuff etc. Items like toothbrush and toothpaste, hairbrushes etc. were kept outside between roof tiles. 

looking out from someone's house into the road

Interesting to be in someone’s house. 

The internet has been out here for some time in the town so I am writing daily, but will post all at once when I get the chance! I’ve taken lots of good pictures, but many were from a moving car and not the best. I plan on taking some time for photography in between breaks and monsoon rains!