Mandwa Mahal and Bhoramdeo Temples, Travels in India

Mandwa Mahal and Bhoramdeo Temples
(A visit on Tuesday, July 14, 2015)
Continuing our trek around Chhattisgarh, India, about 17-18 miles away from Kawardha, near a large lake and its dam, through the hills, tribal villages, and herds of cows, we headed toward the first of two temple visits. The village of Chairagaon lies there, among green trees and alongside very low foothills of the Maikal range. At each turn of the roads are goatherders, cowherders, but as there are hardly any people living in the area, one only saw these plus an occasional car or motorbike on the road.
Here is a link to what it is like while driving through the cows!

Mandwa Mahal is a small Shiva temple built in 1349 by Fani Nagavanshi King: Ramchandra Deva, after his marriage with the Kalchuri Haihaya Queen Ambika Dev'i. The temple is facing West. It is known as the Khajuraho of Chhattisgarh due to its resemblance to the famed temples of Khajuraho and that group of monuments.

It has several sections including one underground which is the "inner sanctum", accessed by steep stairs. Inside this, was a holy man sitting with candles, garlands, oils, and flowers.                          
One can make a prayer in the inner sanctum and leave an offering for Shiva or go outside to the stone figure and leave offerings and prayers.

Around the rear of the temple, one can see many roughly-carved figures of erotic couples in many positions of the Kama Sutra. The sign at the entrance to the temple ground stated that this represented a type of worship and influence of the cult of the contemporary period. The sign was so badly chipped, rusted, and destroyed that it can barely be read.

Next, we went a few miles further and came upon the Bhoramdeo temple complex. The area approaching the road to the temple had blockades and old advertisements for the temple. Apparently, the government is/was trying to make it into a tourist destination. A short walk from the parking area took us to a lovely lake with giant lily pads, swan boat rides, and a few vendors selling their wares in front of the temple.

The Bhoramdeo temple is a stone temple dedicated to a form of the god Shiva and built during the reign of Naga Vansi, king, in the early 11th century. The temple was built by Lakshman Dev Rai in the Paramara style of Malwa. Various kinds of art (I read "Vaishnava, Jaina, and Shaiva sculpture styles") are all found in the temple houses on the grounds. The temple itself is also said to be in Nagara architecture.

The temple complex is named Bhoramdeo after a ubiquitous tribal god Bhoram deo (a form of the Shiva god). As you approach and see the temple for the first time, it is quite striking! Large trees cover the grounds and some of the temple, bathing all but the tallest structures in shade.One can see how it was left to the elements for centuries without being widely discovered in the quiet solitude of central India. The main entrance faces east and the lesser two face north and south.

                     
The entrance sign reads: "The temple is equipped with a sanctum antechamber, a three-porched square assembly hall, a super structure of seven horizontal and vertical segments, four ante "fixesin". There is a superstructure above the porches and the antechamber. Outside along the sides of the temple, there is "a riot of images" depicting sex, war, dance, and music and this is supposed "to represent the ephemeral world of senses, giving way to the darkness, silence, and emptiness of the chamber (sign says "bomb chamber") inside where communion with God takes place".                        
                      

Entrance to one of the lesser temple side structures (below)

                     

There are other small structures on the grounds that resemble 8th century brick temples of Chhattisgarh. There are a few small statues and images around the temple grounds that were assembled mostly from the Chaura village and represent 12th to 15th century. 

Then, there are some erotic statues and symbols of Shiva that are said to be from the destruction of the Khajuraho temple of the 10th-12th century. There are so many pieces that the Bhoramdeo temple is also nicknamed "The Khajuraho Chhattisgarh" as with the Mandwa Mahal structure.   

Sacred phallic Lingua surrounding an egg

Sacred lingua covered by a cobra's head - you can see where offerings have been left                              

According to the Director of Archeology & Culture and culture board in Kawardha, this temple is "one of the finest flowers of Medieval architecture". 
There was a gigantic Shiva statue on the hill across the lake, but it was VERY obscured by tree cover so I didn't get any photos of it. After leaving the temple grounds and making our way back to the ambulance in which we had come, we saw a large herd of cattle and could hear their bells. I treasure this video and I wish we could have stayed longer.
Video of grazing cows and their bells
Some had bells on their tales and others around their necks....bells of all sizes. It was beautiful and calming to hear them! It almost sounded like a faint gamelan orchestra coming to order, but also reminded me of the Buddhist temples in Katmandu, Nepal, where there is an occasional cacophonous time of instruments in between chants and prayers. This was more gentle and lovely though, and brought images of a distant time and the onset of quiet evening on the mountain in waning half shadow.

Teaching at the Rambo Memorial School and Working with the Nursing Students

Mungeli, India update: July 13- July 15

Yesterday was the New Horizons Pluto flyby - SO EXCITING! I told as many folks as I could about it and hope to check into the internet later on to see the news. It's very hard not knowing the play-by-play on this long-awaited and much-anticipated space event, but it'll never lose its cool factor and I'm positive images will be forthcoming from the massive amounts of data for at least one year following the flyby. I wonder if they will choose a Kuiper belt object for after the Pluto adventure!

Monday, I had my first classes at the Rambo Memorial School and things went well! I worked on singing with the 7th graders and we had lots of fun! As it turned out, I ended up teaching third graders through tenth graders in sometimes three and sometimes four classes each day. The littlest ones are SO CUTE and so polite! Each class stands when a teacher enters and except for the "usual suspects", most everyone pays attention and asks questions etc. My classes were offered as an "extra" and mainly for those students interested in learning about music and singing. Each class was absolutely packed. Most of the students liked the singing, but not all of them. This year, I had two classes without a teacher in there with me. I feel like I needed someone in there for the occasional question a child asked, for discipline a few times, and for translation of what I was saying and the instructions bring given to the class!

Everyone wanted to shake my hand and say "Good Morning Ma'am!" :-) A few of them dare each other to come up as I'm walking in the schoolyard and say "Good morning" or "How are you?"...I answer and they smile, giggle, and run.

Each evening, I work with the nursing students on singing technique and the songs they use for daily morning chapel services. I also prayer with them and help them in planning some of the chapels. I was also asked to speak several times which was a huge and wonderful experience for me! Neither the students at the school or the nurses at the hospital are used to singing in their head voices, so that's one of the things I'm re-introducing and trying to get them all to integrate. All of the Hindi folk music that I've heard has been in chest voice with some nasality, but it works well for the language and the songs which may have clapping and instruments going on.

Tuesday I taught three classes at the school. One class of grades 3-5, one of grades 6-7, and one of grades 8-9. The school has almost 200 new students this year, making for a rough total of 950! This is a fantastic trend, but they have almost no room as it is. Some construction is being done, but it appears to be rather slow. It is also very loud and going on all day during classes. They are using both the "new" and the old school buildings. I must add here that the new classrooms are overcrowded, filthy, and without proper ventilation (not to mention air conditioning). The old buildings do not have electricity. The bathrooms are unspeakable and a teacher even recommended that I not go inside. In spite of all these things, they are doing the best they can and providing a much-needed education for hundreds of children! The teachers are good and quite dedicated. It is very clear that they love their kids and get frustrated by the lack of proper facilities as well as the lack of resources in general.
After the school day, I rushed back to take a shower as it was BOILING HOT outside with at least 1,000% humidity and I was a big bowl of sweat. Dr. Anil Henry, the head of the hospital took thus year's group of missionaries to see two temples at the edge of a low mountain range. He had to go to the town of Kawardha first for a court case (a child hurt in a terrible auto accident died after two months in the hospital and he was there with the family to testify against the driver) so we went along for the ride and waited in the ambulance while he was in court. As if an ambulance pulling up to a courthouse wasn't enough, there were nine of us inside and all very different-looking so we periodically drew crowds of folks wanting to have a look at us. I found again this year that we were something of a culture shock to just about everyone. In most cases, people from the surrounding villages of any town or those in small towns seemed to never have seen anyone different from themselves, at least live and in person. After the court case was done, Dr. Henry took us to a very large dam and lake. We got out to stretch our legs a bit and then continued on to the temples (See next blog post).

Mungeli, India 2015

A Visit to Mungeli, India - Mission trip - Summer 2015
I've returned to the Christian Hospital Mungeli  and the Rambo Memorial School
This year, the internet was less consistent than last year so I emailed myself these blog posts and am just now getting around to posting them! 

It's Sunday in Mungeli and I'm back in my room after a trip to the local church down the road followed by a walk into the town. It is SO HOT! I needed a cool down break under some fans and with some water. I arrived in India last Thursday (MSY--AMS--DEL) and spent the night in the boiling hot & stuffy Delhi airport on a reasonably comfy bench until my early AM flight to Raipur. I was so sleepy that I got off the plane in Nagpur and thank goodness they checked my boarding pass and told me I needed to get back on board! Arriving in Raipur, I waited for my friend Kahala and the driver to come and pick me up for the ride to Mungeli. When they came, it was decided to stop at a grocery for some necessities some of the other visitors to the Christian Hospital needed and so picked up some lunch to go while we were there. The drive to Mungeli was full of a million annoying stops and so bumpy I'm surprised all my internal organs made it intact! The driving is actually pretty scary here. One must drive at top speed, dodging cows, dogs, people, motorbikes, cars, and huge trucks. Often, when passing another vehicle, it's an outright game of chicken, seeing who will give in to getting back in his lane. The other consideration in all this is the road quality. New Orleans, I hate to tell you this, but the state of Chhattisgarh has you beat, by a factor of about a million. The craters in the road are sometimes as big as your car and dangerously deep. You can usually dodge them, but if you accidentally go through the wrong one, you may destroy your car or truck. If people slowed down slightly, it would help, but I learned last year that everyone here is used to it all. I gave up worrying about it and just tried to trust that we'd make it. I figured the driver didn't want to die today so would be at least a baseline level of careful. Seatbelts might help. Maybe.

My first day here, I had to rest immediately and I later went to dinner to meet two girls from Denmark and four Americans (from Butler and Eureka colleges). They are a terrific group and we shared dinner in the guest house.
The next day, Friday, I had NO jetlag because I had beena wake for so long and slept like the aforementioned boulder! I attended the chapel at 7:30 AM and I was so surprised to receive such a fantastic welcome! The nursing students were all there and many remembered me from last year's visit!!! They are SO SWEET!!!!! At the end of chapel, I was introduced and one of the girls gave me a beautiful garland of marigolds!!!

Christian Hospital Mungeli

We left chapel all together to go downstairs and see the new medical equipment that had arrived. It's high definition and to be used for their Urology work.

                                           

I was asked to bless the new medical tools so I said a prayer asking for blessing and longevity of use as well as for God to guide the hands of those who use these new tools. 

Dr. Anil Henry, the wonderful head of Christian Hospital Mungeli and a great surgeon, said a few words about the equipment and showed them to everyone. 
This was followed by DELICIOUS jelabies and spicy samosas. Jelabies are soft, honey-filled pretzely swirls of goodness. 

Samosas are little fried pockets of potato and onions and heavy spices. They give me heartburn, as most of the food here does. I also had taken my first Doxycycline pill (for Malaria prevention) and those tend to give me heartburn as well so I stayed with sampling the jelabies :-)

It was time for morning rounds in the hospital. Last year, I did this a few times and would stop back by sometimes in the afternoon to see some of the patients. The morning group consisted of Dr. Henry, one or two other doctors and nurses, and some of the visitors. I noticed there were several malaria patients this year, including one with cerebral malaria who was not doing well. Malaria is endemic to this area and is especially rampant during monsoon season. About halfway through the rounds, I actually began to feel quite ill. I thought I was going to have to throw up so I quickly left ICU and headed outside. The EXACT same thing happened to me last year on my first day. The Doxycycline gave me severe heartburn and some nausea and I did throw up. This time, I didn't throw up, but I realized I needed to eat something quickly or I would. You're supposed to take Doxy with either food or a milky substance and I had simply had a couple of crackers. I think that's why I didn't throw up though - at least it was something. So, I went to the guest house, where I stayed last year and where the Danes and American students are staying. It's also where Tripdte, the cook, makes Masala chai and meals. I ate an egg and felt immensely and immediately better!
After breakfast, I sort of made my own "rounds" and saw lots of familiar faces, visited the nursing students' classrooms, and came back after lunch for a nap, still exhausted from reflux and ok, maybe a tad bit of jetlag. I went in the early evening to work on singing with the nursing students and had great plans. The American students came too and we waited almost an hour, but no one came. We think the message didn't get through and that's my fault because while I made a small announcement, I didn't find the person in charge of their schedule. No matter, we went back to the guest house for dinner and had some fun conversations.

me in the middle w/ Issac and Grace, fellow missionaries

Saturday, I attended morning chapel and had breakfast. I visited various departments until lunchtime and then went back to my room to rest instead of eating. That Doxy is a MEAN and TERRIBLE medicine. In the afternoon, I contacted the school and then did some work for projects at home. Early evening brought a super fun time with the first-year (and four of the second-year) nursing students! We warmed up, something they've never done before! It made them think I am totally crazy, but I could tell from their giggles that some were enjoying being silly with their voices :-) Next, I talked to them about the differences between head voice and chest voice and when to use them. After I demonstrated it a few times, they did it with me. It will be a constant reminder during the next couple of weeks. I introduced two songs that the second-year students learned last year and they did them with pretty good success. Then, I talked to them a little about the functions of music in worship. We sang one of the songs I taught them and since we had reached the end of the hour, called it a night. 

My lovely nursing students!

Today, Sunday, my roommate Kahala and I went to the Mungeli church which is a Disciples of Christ congregation and attended their morning service.

Mungeli Christian Church

It was quite lively and about two and a half hours. I really enjoyed hearing so much of the Hindi language and getting to meet some of the townspeople, but I didn't understand a single word of the sermon and it was difficult to maintain concentration. There was a praise band and while it's not necessarily my preferred style of music, it was very moving to hear everyone singing together and wonderful to see people smiling. Afterwards, we walked the rest of the way into town and did some errands and looked around.

We ended up at a new store to buy laundry detergent and several people wanted to take a picture of me and with me and wanted to hand their babies to me for pictures. I did do some group photos, but handling babies was so not going to happen. I remember this happened at the Taj Mahal last year. I suppose I do look extremely different, being so pale and with a mess of red hair! it was a bit much today though so we left and came back to the hospital. This evening, we attended the hospital chapel and then went for dinner in the guest house. Tonight after dinner, all of the missionaries got together and went through our visit prayerfully and sang a few hymns. That was super nice. This particular group of missionaries is bonding very well.
Monday holds my first visit back at the Rambo Memorial School to see some social studies presentations, meet with some teachers, and to get started teaching some music classes. I think that I may be heading to Bilaspur on Tuesday afternoon  after school to see some temples and then eat at a roadside restaurant on the way back!

Mungeli, India Mission Trip: Working with the Nursing Students

In addition to teaching music and later, giving some spacey NASA-ish talks at the RamboMemorial School, I am getting to work with the nurses and nursing students for about 40 minutes to an hour daily. They are so wonderful and so sweet! I see them all around the hospital in the afternoons and evenings and they are always smiling and ready to say a hello and chat a bit or help me understand what is going on with a patient. My music sessions are to help with their chapel services and provide some instruction that can make the small groups better when leading the congregational songs. I am also helping them to consider adding some prayers and Gospel message and/or a few minutes of a mini-sermon / the word / a testimony from someone to the chapel services. At present, there are some extremely lengthy songs, one psalm, the Lord's Prayer, and more singing. The pastor that used to be on staff left last year so the service has morphed slightly is more like a prayerful singing time than a structured service (which is completely fine). I am hearing that some would like to incorporate more prayers and some would like less verses in some of the many lengthy songs.

I am teaching them about head voice, chest voice, and different styles of singing (basically some of the the same lessons I am doing in the school classes.) The nursing group also doesn’t know how to read music, but I'm teaching them some basics so we will make some progress! 

I noticed right away on the first day here in chapel that they sing everything by rote and most of the English songs are from a pretty terrible book of texts called “Adore”.  I think they think that I know all 500 songs in there, but I don’t. I know very few “contemporary praise songs”. They may not change their whole way of singing, nor should they, while I’m here, but at least they will learn a bit about reading music and some new songs. I am thinking of how I can send them some newer hymnals and/or some more musical materials. My hope for the music instruction that I am giving is to present the tools to continued independent learning in music and maybe one or a few of them might choose to pick up an instrument one day. The hospital owns a keyboard in the library where we are holding chapel services (b/c of the rains and flooding in the actual chapel) and Dr. Anil Henry, the head of the Christian Hospital Mungeli, owns one which I took to the school. Dr. Henry sings very well! He also seems to really have a love for good music and music in any style done well. He listens to the singers at the chapel services and makes good comments when he gives his morning announcements. I like him because he has a vision for this hospital, vision for the nursing students (both to be good nurses and to be confident and independent women who know their options in jobs and in life), and he is a kind and gentle man with a twinkle in his eye that tells me he has a sense of humor and is very observant.

I love hearing the nurses and students singing in Hindi. I am in awe of the lengthy melodies and all of the ornamentation that I hear. The style of singing reminds me of what I heard in my many visits to Bulgaria and the throat singing styles which are loud and chesty. Many people say that it's "flat", but I have heard Bulgarian (and now Indian) choirs as well as many others, that sing perfectly in tune using the throat singing as long as each sectional part is in perfect unison. Sometimes, I hear microtones as well, adding to the already eastern tonalities. It really sounds cool! I have some video from a couple of the morning chapel services and when the internet is back in full force (or maybe when I get back home in August), I’ll post some videos of some cool Indian music sung by these lovely ladies.

Mungeli, India Mission Trip, Working at the Rambo Memorial School

Today, I attended the morning chapel at 7:30 and then the nurse’s rounds. After breakfast, I wandered around a bit and headed over to the Rambo MemorialSchool. There are 750 students at the school in grades 1-12 and it is an English Medium School. After meeting with principal Avanash, I went with him and Prashanta to a classroom where they had gathered two classes together or fourth and fifth graders. I taught them a song: “Jubilate Deo” (attr. Michael Praetorius), hoping to get to where we could do it in a canon and then began telling them about the differences between head voice and chest voice and what bel canto singing style is. I talked to them about the differences between some kinds of folk music and what classical styles of music included. Then, I started teaching them some basics about music and notes. I showed them various kinds of notes, the staff, and lines and spaces.

They were SO EXCITED! After this, we sang Jubilate Deoagain and I went on to another classroom with two classes combined. After the same lesson, I helped one of the teachers with some phonetics and followed that with another class period of combined classes and then another! Whew! It was super fun, but intense. I wanted to make sure that I was not going too quickly for them as I was teaching in English. There were several teachers there in each class in case anything needed to be explained in Hindi. I thought about it in the third and fourth classes and had them take a fun selfie with me! There is one above and here is the other! 

After 7:30 chapel, followed by morning rounds with the nurses and doctors, I will be teaching three classes per day at the school and then will have sometimes have free time in the afternoons. In the evenings, I will work with the nurses and nursing students. I hope to give them some “new” songs, teach them a bit about reading music so that they can have the tools to continue learning on their own if they wish, and to have them learn the differences between singing chest / throat singing and using the head voice more. This is a huge HUGE concept to practice. In the midst of all this, I want them to laugh and have some fun :-) They are fantastic students!!

The school itself is partially new and there are construction plans ongoing. As far as I know, they do not have any instruments including a drum or a keyboard. Music is not a normal part of the curriculum either and everything I am teaching them is brand new for them. During the year, I am planning to try and get some people together to send some instruments that they can use and some basic music instruction books. If you would like to help me, please let me know at choralmusicrules@hotmail.com

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!

                   

Arrived in Mungeli, India

Today, I flew from Delhi to Raipur, India. Once there, a Christian Hospital Mungeliambulance picked me up along with Dr. Lisa and Shane Roberts from California. Shane is a nurse, technician, and loves photography like me and Lisa is a Social and Behavioral Sociologist at Loma Linda University doing research here on women who have had stillbirths, prevention, care and mental state afterwards. They are both fantastic!

The road from Raipur to Mungeli was INSANE and I am so indebted to the makers of Bonine motion sickness medicine! I don’t think I would have made it if it weren’t for that! Our driver, Arun is fabulous and carefully dodged people walking, carts, bicycles, motorcycles, cattle, water buffalo, and even monkeys (!!!) In addition, while I know firsthand that New Orleans roads and potholes are even worse than Charleston’s used to be and can truly swallow a car and several people….the road to Mungeli potholes can (and did) swallow whole trucks and take the rest of the road with it. There were a couple of times when I thought the ambulance jeep might fall over, but somehow it didn’t.

We stopped at a little roadside spot where there were a few shops and a line of people outside waiting to buy whatever was being cooked. Shane said it was probably samosas (? Triangle-shaped puffs with chic peas and potatoes inside), but instead, it was fvardas (sp?) which deceptively look like tasty oatmeal cookies and in reality were burning hot, spicy discs from the netherworld, full of chilis and onions and black magic. (Actually, I ate half of one and when the burning began to feel like I’d had three shots in a row of Romanian Tuica, I gave up, for the benefit of my esophagus.)

All along the way, I marveled at the green countryside, low, broken-down houses, rice fields, and the giant monkeys. About ¾ of the way there, the jeep broke down, but Arun and Shane fixed it. While they were fixing the car, I noticed the most intensely old and crumbly house a small distance away with two rather emaciated cows in the front. It looked like part of the brick abode didn’t have a roof. Then, I noticed a satellite dish. I started noticing them at many of the small, crumbling houses.

Once we arrived in Mungeli, we took out things into the guest house which is at the base of the hotel staff/doctor apartment. Every building around us looks awful and is in shambles. We met Kavita, our housekeeper and cook, who had a marvelous hot lunch for us. I remembered immediately after lunch to take my Doxycycline pill (to prevent Malaria). Then, we went to the hospital and met several people. Lisa showed me around a bit and then we met up with Shane at some chairs in an outside hallway. It was here that my body decided to reject the malaria pill and I started throwing up. Whee. First day and I am the one throwing up at a hospital. I went back to the guest house and luckily, it stopped pretty quickly. After a shower and some rest, I was ready to walk around in the evening and meet some more people as well as eat the chicken curry for dinner. I met Kahala Cannon as well. She is a dentist from Tennessee and had come last year, but decided to come back and stay for a year! I am really looking forward to tomorrow and meeting Dr. Henry as well as attending rounds, chapel, and classes!