Things as usual… (Sept. 24 to 27)

Well, this weekend was pretty normal for here. We went to church, ate lunch, headed out on another Adventist Youth walk/sermon in the mango groves activity and then we called it a night with a movie. Sunday was laundry day, which took up a majority of our day. We’re settling into the work schedule and are still enjoying rounds with the doctors. We did get two more snakebite victims in the ER but that’s becoming pretty normal… We also had a case come in on Tuesday morning that was pretty interesting. A kid began having seizures after hitting his head on Monday. Unfortunately the only thing they can do at the hospital here is administer first aid and then send him to Vijayawada for further treatment.

That is one of the main problems with the hospital here. Giffard Memorial Hospital has so much potential to be the leading facility here in the region but in the past few years the administration has been unwilling to put the necessary funding into improving the hospital. By that I’m basically talking about hiring the appropriate specialists that the hospital needs to treat all kinds of cases. The only doctor who isn’t a family practice doc is a gynecologist who isn’t actually employed by the hospital but has a private clinic outside the compound. The sad part about this is that the hospital has 5 wings and 4 floors of which they are only using two floors and maybe 2-3 rooms on each wing. Also, since most of the community knows that GMH will only be able to administer first aid in the ER before sending them on to Vijayawada, most of the big cases go directly there without even stopping by GMH.

With some funding and doctors this hospital could be the go to hospital but it’s not even close to its full potential.

But nonetheless we’re having a great time here and learning more each day! SMing hasn’t been a cakewalk but hey, that’s not why we came over here! Blessings to you all back home, we miss everyone for sure!

Peace

Impromptu Birthday Party (Sept. 21)

So I know this entry is taking a step back in time from the previous entry but I felt the need to write this in it’s own space simply because it was quite the event, it took us completely by surprise, and finally it illustrates the concept of “Indian Time” perfectly.

Now to start off with we already eluded to Indian Time previously in this blog so if you’ve been following you’ll know a little bit about what we’re dealing with here. Okay, here we go. So it all began with our good friend Raj calling us up in what sounded like an urgent tone to invite of to his house for dinner that very night. We hadn’t eaten yet and he said he wanted us to be ready in 20 minutes. That wouldn’t be a problem even though we had just finished up playing volleyball for the evening and were dirty and sweaty, so we agreed and he told us he would pick us up in 20 minutes.

We rushed back to the room bathed, put on our clothes, and headed out to the ER entrance to wait for Raj. I might add we had never been to Raj’s house otherwise we would have just walked, as it wasn’t but 4 blocks away. We sat for about 35-45 minutes before we called up Raj to check on the status of his 4-block journey to the hospital. He said he would be there soon and we headed back to the room to grab some cookies to take to his house as a gift since that is the polite thing to do here in India. (Take something sweet or flowers or something like that)

We kept sitting and waiting and chatted with some nursing students that we just met and finally after about another 30 minutes or so decided to eat the cookies we were planning on bringing to Raj’s because we were starving! Keep in mind we got done with volleyball around 6:30 and were ready to leave by 6:50, so now it’s somewhere around 8:15 and we haven’t eaten since 1 this afternoon. Needless to say, we didn’t feel to bad eating the gift for our host at that point.

We decided to walk towards the front gate of the hospital and wait there. We did some “freestyle walking” by walking across these poles that are about 1 and a half inches in diameter and seeing who could walk on the top of the poles the best. After that we moved outside the gate on the curb and sat there. We waited another 45 minutes or so and finally Raj rips up on his motorcycle with a friend on another motorcycle to pick us up. At this point it’s a about 15 minutes after 9 so this means we sat waiting for over 2 hours waiting for dinner.

Now you’d probably expect, as we did, that dinner would be ready and the table set when we got there but you would be wrong…When we pulled into Raj’s house (which is actually home to not only he and his wife but also his brother and his wife and 2 kids and Raj’s parents and another family who rents part of the house plus at least one other person who rents a room) dinner was still being prepared…Raj apologized for it taking so long for him to come get us and then told us it would be probably another 45 minutes! He also informed us as we got there that it was his wife’s birthday...perfect. We watched the ladies cooking the special rice and soup that originated in the Middle East and was brought to India hundreds of years ago and sat around and chatted with everyone who was there.

It was actually really cool watching them cook and then Raj began showing us around house. There were 2 geese that were making noise in the yard and we asked him what they were for. He told us they made great “watch dogs” and also for eggs. He continued telling us about how is father loved keeping dogs, geese, chickens, and monkeys at the house…The last one there caught our attention and we immediately inquired about the monkey. They had a pet monkey! We went down to the tree it lived in and took a look! It was pretty sweet to say the least. It was pretty small and had a tail that was at least 2 and a half feet long hanging down. Raj kept saying in a funny voice, “Oooh, you’re a bad monkey!” Evidently if you have food the monkey will come and snatch it out of your hand, but other than that Raj assured us the monkey was quite well mannered. After that we headed back upstairs to their large upper deck had chairs all set up for what looked like a meeting. We found out shortly that they were also going to have a worship, which turned out to take another half hour or so! I’m all for worshiping God at any time, anywhere but my goodness we were hungry! Anyway, we had worship, which was mostly in Telugu and comprised of two song services and two separate talks.

We finished worship and then things got a bit weird…They had Raj’s wife sit up front and brought out the birthday cake which had a single candle on it and was very nicely decorated. I’m being specific with this because what came next was awesome! Raj lit the candle and all of a sudden a 6-inch firework flame shot out of the candle! At the same time this happened, what I thought was one candle was actually a flower closed up and once lit it opened and on the end of each petal was a small candle which was lit by the firework part of the candle as it opened! It was the COOLEST birthday candle EVER! It also had a little speaker part in the candle that was playing the tune to Happy Birthday!

Anyway, that was awesome but remember I said it became a little bit weird? Here’s where that happened…They began cutting the cake and then Raj, his parents, and Raj’s brother and kids came up and each of them fed a little piece of cake to Raj’s wife, Suzanne. She fed them each a piece back and this went back and forth for about 3 or 4 minutes. And to top it off no one was making any noise; it was just kinda awkward silence… Finally though we had prayer and started eating! By now, it was 10:15 or so and so we simply ate and then headed back to the hospital. Of course we, thanked Raj and his family profusely for their hospitality! (That was for you mom J) And then we walked back and headed to bed. All in all it was pretty fun and very Indian! A good experience for sure!

Our first week of work! (Sept 20-23)

Well it happened! We finally figured out when and where we’ll be working for at least the next few weeks! I say that because right now the hospital is looking to hire a dentist since the one they had left right before we got here. Once the hiring of the dentist is complete I (Jeff) will be working with him or her in the dental clinic! I’m pretty excited about that!

Okay, well for now let me tell you a bit about where we’re currently working. We actually started work by helping out with a diabetes screening clinic that is held here at the school of nursing every 6 months or so. It was pretty crazy! We ended up checking about 200 people’s blood sugar. Which is saying something since we only had two testing devices. (I’m not sure what they’re called…) The interesting part about this was that the lab technicians pricking people’s fingers didn’t use gloves, which would never happen in the US, but hey, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

This took up most of the day and so when we finished with the clinic we headed over to the room to eat lunch. Right as we got our plates filled our wonderful, magnanimous leader, Dr. R. N. Prabhu Das, BS. MA. MA. MS. Phd, (I’m not kidding it says that on his name plate at his desk) came and asked to see us in his office. We quickly finished eating and headed over.

When we arrived we sat down and he explained our jobs to us. I would be working in the pharmacy…and Zach in the Out patient department. This was better than teaching English for sure! So we finished the day out with some volleyball and then to bed for some rest before starting our new jobs. Oh and also, Dr. P sent us out the door with notes for our bosses just like we had from teachers in 2^nd grade…I say that with a load of sarcasm, but I’ll tell more about that later.

Our first day of work was pretty fun, I think for both of us. I started it off by handing out drugs like candy and basically learning where everything was, like the anti-venom for when we get snakebites. (That happens quite frequently) Zach discovered that he’s basically the secretary for the nurses in outpatient but the nurses were super nice and it looks like he’ll get to give some shots and take vitals for the incoming patients.

We work from 8:30 to 1 and then have a 2-hour siesta from 1 to 3 and then come back and finish off strong with 2 hours of work from 3 to 5! It’s not bad at all! Anyway, the rest of the week went pretty normal, ya know, a few snakebites, a few cases of typhoid but nothing too serious.

Now, let me get back to the Dr. Prahbu das stuff. I sarcastically mentioned the teachers not he sent with us but here’s the background to that. Ever since we’ve arrived in this lovely little town, emphasis on little, we’ve of course been exploring the town by foot even though one of the first things Dr. P said when we got here was not to. That may be a Gilbert thing or just a brother thing to disregard the overprotective warnings from a man with a mustache the size of California (If you turned Cali on its side). This exploring has been mostly in the daylight but we do go out almost every night to buy bananas and other fruits or a nice cold beverage. We’ve run into no trouble, never felt threatened and have always used good judgment when navigating the crowded streets but still Dr. P told us to never go out without a local at our side. This was partially because he didn’t want us to get ripped off by the vendors and partially for our physical safety (he didn’t want us to get hit by a autorickshaw or something like that) but mainly he’s playing the role of a “helicopter parent” who doesn’t want their precious child to skin their knee…Anyway, this really hasn’t been a big deal for us though because Dr. P is never around the front gate when we leave and the security guards are pretty useless so we just do our thing and he doesn’t know, so no worries.

Well this Saturday night we headed into town to grab a Limca (Indian Lemonade drink) and we happened to meet Dr. P at the gate. He asked us where we were going and why and why we were doing that so late and why we weren’t taking someone with us and on and on. We explained we had been doing this for weeks now and it was okay and we were just going into town for a few things. He explained to us again that he didn’t want us out after dark and we should always take someone with us and that if we got hurt it was on him so we needed to do what he said. We politely said we would be fine and told him we were going to go. Meanwhile one of our friends had stopped to talk to Dr. P and Dr. P told him to go with us but we talked him out of that, thankfully, mainly because our friend Satir seemed to be in a hurry somewhere else and we didn’t want to be a burden on him. Anyway, we ended up going but Dr. P told us to never go out after dark again…we went the next night…

Anyway, Dr. P tells the same thing with travel. When we travel he wants us to have someone with us to take care of us and make sure we’re not doing anything stupid and the list goes on and on… Needless to say, we don’t plan on always traveling with a flight attendant escorting us from gate to gate like when we were 12 and 9 years old, that’s just not going to happen.

Suffice it to say, we are going to take advice with a grain of salt from Dr. Prahbu Das. Don’t worry mom, we’re not going to go walking through the “Red Light” district of every town we come to but we didn’t come over here to stay in the hospital compound every waking minute. =)

Anyway, week one of work was great and I’m looking forward to week two!

Blessings!

Found some Wifi!

Well, it has been quite some time since we were able to post stuff on here but now there's tons to read so enjoy! I've been writing every other day or so on my computer just waiting to find a bit of free internet to upload it all. Our internet in our room is not working still and the only way to get the internet I'm writing to you from is to sit outside the registrar's office...So this is the first time we've come over and done this.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the stuff we've wrote and hopefully we'll talk to many of you soon when we have internet in our room!

Blessings!

J & Z

Our first Sabbath lunch at someone’s house! (Sept. 18)

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We were invited to lunch at the Enjati’s house this Sabbath! Mr. William Moses Enjati is a very wealthy retired man living here in Nuzvid. He and his wife actually immigrated to Canada in 1967 and lived there until 12 years ago. He’s a short, stocky man with a big mustache and a friendly smile. He knows everyone and seems to be greatly respected in the church and community.

His house is within walking distance from the hospital in the “rich” part of town. Here in India everyone flaunts his or her wealth and generosity. This is very evident in the Enjati’s house, which is unmistakable by the huge sign on the house that reads “Enjati’s Elegant Estate”! This could not be truer! The house sits in a 1-acre piece of property that is completely surrounded by an 8-foot concrete wall. Everything is painted white and the house is very large even by American standards. Everything is very, well elegant, from the hand carved door and furniture inside to the marble floors and huge chandelier in the entryway. We were ushered in by a servant girl and then sat down and talked with Uncle Enjati, as he instructed us to call him, while we waited for lunch to be set by the other servant girl. Turns out he has 4 servants, 2 guys and 2 girls, and he fired 2 gardeners on Friday because they weren’t working hard enough. He’s a super nice guy and lunch was wonderful! We had potato salad and fresh vegetables with bread and of course rice and curry.

His wife is very nice and he told us all about his sons who live in the US and Canada. One of his sons just moved to Spokane and his grandson is going to UCA! Small world for sure!
After lunch we sat and chatted with him for several hours. He gave us all the news on Nuzvid and the politics (or politricks, as he liked to call them) that surround the hospital and organization. He seems very well connected and informative on how to work within the Indian way of doing things. I think Zach and I were both very thankful for his advice and insight into Indian culture.

After that we headed back to the room and I’ve been here updating the blog! (Even though I still haven’t actually uploaded it online as of Sept 18) Tonight we may go into town and then head to bed early since they play volleyball at 7:00 AM on Sundays! Anyway, we also may go to Vijayawada on Tuesday with Uncle Enjati if we are still working out our work situation.

Until next time, blessings to everyone and we miss everyone more than I miss showering! (Bucket bathing is getting old…)

Blessings!

Police Registration (Sept. 15)

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Okay, so I know that Zach and I have had our run ins with the police in various forms over the years (mostly in the form of being caught for speeding…) but this interaction with the most inefficient police I’ve ever seen was truly unique, tiring, and most of all, frustrating. According to our visa requirements anyone staying in India longer than 180 days (us) must register with the state police within 10 days of arriving in India. So we began that process last week with the copying of our passports, which was unbeknownst to us. This wonderful Thursday morning we were called over to the registrar’s office around 9 o’clock. No big deal since we had already been up a few hours and were looking for something to do. But today upon arriving in the registrar’s office we were told that we were heading to Machilipatnam (3 hours away) to register with the state police. The registrar, Robert Franklin gave us 10 minutes to get our things ready to leave and then we were going to be leaving. We rushed over to get water and a book and some food and came right back. We could have taken all the time in the world because we ended up leave about an hour later… That’s just India though!

Once we got under way, we stopped for snacks and diesel for our super small car. This car is called an “Ambassador” and looks like something straight out of Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Mr. Franklin explained to us that this car was a great design and had been largely unchanged since about the 1950’s. It’s kinda like the VW beetle; if people still want it and it works, why change it? As it turns out this car was quite uncomfortable to ride in for 3 hours with 3 large guys crammed in the back seat…We found that out almost immediately. But it was good to be back to the crazy driving in India and we set off for the police headquarters.

Once we got there we went into the offices for registration, which were extremely dilapidated with geckos crawling around on the walls and plaster crumbling off the walls. The guys working there weren’t in police uniform but acted as if they were kings of the world. This is the general vibe you always get with people who are given even a little bit of power in India, at least with government people. It is a delicate task dealing with these guys as we soon figured out. The normally confident Mr. Franklin changed into a very humble person, showing these police employees they were indeed as important as they thought they were. This went on for quite some time before we left even though nothing had been accomplished. Evidently we needed the signature of the commandant who wasn’t there at the time so we would come back in a few hours. We also needed to fill out some forms online, unbeknownst to us, and so we headed to the nearest Adventist school to use their internet. We spent about an hour and a half trying to fill out the forms online but this didn’t work. Apparently there are several government officials who want to split the state we are in, Andhra Pradesh, into two separate states and they were all on strike right now to get that accomplished. Because of that the government sites weren’t working. Since this wasn’t working we headed off to eat.

We left and went to eat at this restaurant that was quite nice and had air conditioning! It was dimly lit and there were about 20 servers in the restaurant for about 40 patrons, so needless the say the service was very good, almost too good. =) We ate rice and curry and had ice cold bottled water which was really nice after being hot all day. When we finished eating we headed back to the police headquarters and another round of groveling at the feet of the almighty, mid level, authorities. Evidently the commandant was still not there so after an hour or so we left to waste a few hours until we could come back and get stuff taken care of.

We drove about 45 minutes away to the beach. It was nice to see the Indian Ocean for the first time but the beach wasn’t much to look at. Like most of India it was littered with trash and the water was nice chocolaty brown color. There were some people swimming but most were just walking the beach and standing around talking. It’s funny that everywhere we go there are usually several people, mostly guys, who run up to us and want to talk or take a picture with the two white foreigners. I’m sure many of you reading this have experienced the same thing while traveling abroad but for us it’s still quite strange. It’s fun being the extreme minority but I’m sure in a few weeks it will be a little annoying. =)

After the beach we headed to see the Adventist boarding school that used to be open just a quarter mile from the beach. It’s fairly run down now and no one uses it anymore but according to Mr. Franklin this used to be a big destination for Pathfinder campouts and Adventist Youth outings. This property would be really nice if it was taken care of but sadly it has fallen prey to neglect and disrepair.

Mr. Sam Moses, the vice president for academics was also with us and he wanted to find the fish market in town and buy some fish. Evidently the fish here is amazing and he is a big fan of it so he insisted on going. We headed back to town but never found the fish market, I’m not really sure why. They talked back and forth about it in Telegu, the regional dialect, and then we headed back to the police headquarters.

Once back at the police headquarters we went into the main building that was guarded by bored looking guards who were leisurely carrying Kalashnikovs. We went inside and waited for about 10 minutes before being ushered into a small courtroom looking room with several rows of seats and a large wooden desk. At the desk sat the commandant in all his regalia. The room was air conditioned and completely quiet. We sat down and Mr. Moses went forward and explained what we were trying to do with the registration. The commandant looked over our papers for no longer than 10 seconds, quickly signed the top document. We stood up, bowed slightly to him with our hands in the traditional “praying” way and he gave us head bobble and that was it! We spent no more than 1 min in with the commandant and everything was good to go! The efficiency was explained to us later by Mr. Franklin by telling us the higher up you go the more educated the individual and therefore the easier they are to work with. Makes sense, I guess!

We then headed back to the first office where the previous police officers were more than willing to help us now that we had the commandant’s signature. It still took us 2 hours or more to process all the paperwork but it did get done. I’m sure there were several bribes along the way by Mr. Franklin. That tends to be the norm here when dealing with government agencies.

After the documents were all taken care of it was almost 7:45 so we headed back to the same restaurant for dinner. This time we had Chinese noodles, which was a great change from rice and curry! Following dinner crammed back into our “Ambassador” and started the 3-hour drive back to Nuzvid. It was a long drive and I’m glad we only had to do it once, but it was quite the interesting day and I’m thankful for that!

This day made me thankful that we don’t have the high level of open corruption that India has back home in the States. It’s amazing the differences that are seen between here and there. Next time I’m standing in line at the DOL to renew my driver’s license I’ll be a little bit more patient knowing I won’t have to bribe “Frank” or whatever the guys name will be! :P

Blessings!

Cell Phone! (Sept. 14)

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We purchased a cell phone tonight! We figured out that it will be extremely cheap to call the US from India on it and so maybe we’ll call people soon! It will be free with Skype once we get internet but until then the cheap cell phone will have to work.
We also got our first taste of traveling in India via motorcycle! One of our friends here (his name is Raj) took us to buy the phone and he brought one of his friends with him so Zach and I hopped and went racing through the streets of Nuzvid. It was night when we went which added a bit of craziness to the whole thing and it’s also weird driving on the “wrong side” of the street. It was super fun and Zach and I have been looking into buying a used motorcycle for the time we’re here. Hopefully that’ll work out, we may just not tell Mom! =)

Waiting… (Sept. 12-14)

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So we’ve discovered something here in India, this is the phenomenon of “Indian Time”. And by that I mean the fact that everything can get done whenever it gets done. That being said, we’ve been waiting to get our work assignments from the president of the hospital and school, Dr. Prahbudas. This has been hard simply because he’s a hard man to track down and even when we do he seems to put us very last on his priority list. To illustrate this wonderful point I’ll tell you a little about how Monday went.

We woke up and got over to Dr. P’s office around 8:45. He was just getting there and was unlocking the door of his office but already someone was waiting to talk to him. He did pause and chat with us long enough to tell us we needed to get our passports copied. As we hadn’t been planning on needing them we had left them safely locked in our room, so we headed back to get them. We returned and copied the passports in his secretary’s office. We were then told he had gone to lunch and wouldn’t be back until 3 that afternoon. So we headed off and ate lunch, ran into town, and hung out in the room until 3. We returned to his office just after 3 and were told to wait for him in his side waiting room, which is nothing more than a bare room with metal chairs along 2 walls and a fan above. We sat there for over an hour before we realized he had told us to wait and then he left for some nursing school meeting… Sooooo, we set out to find him at the meeting but he was up front speaking so we gave up for the day and headed into town for a nice cold drink.

So that was day 1 of attempting to see what we’re going to be doing. Day 2 went almost the same way but worse. We again went to his office with our copied passports in hand ready to be told what we’re doing. Again we were told to wait in the prison like waiting room. We sat for 2 and a half hours! That’s not an exaggeration, we timed it… Once Dr. P came out to talk with us all he did was tell us he needed our passport copies (we already knew that) and that he would need to register us being at the hospital with the police here in town and get our ID cards. This would take a couple days so he told us to go rest until he had all that figured out. I’m not sure how much rest this amigo thinks we need, we’ve pretty much been resting since we got here and now that we’re all rested up we’re get restless and ready to do work! So we headed off to find something to do…we ended going on a 2 hour or so walk out into the countryside among mango groves and up to the hill we had walked to on Sabbath afternoon with the Adventist Youth. This was pretty nice but wet since right as we left the hospital, the first torrential rainstorm hit Nuzvid with all it’s furry! Most people we passed on the way out were taking shelter under buildings, trees or in their auto rickshaws. They all smiled or openly laughed at the two white boys who were to dumb to take shelter from the storm but we didn’t care, it was really refreshing to feel the chill of the rain after standing in our own sweat ever since we arrived here.

When we made it back to the hospital it was time for dinner so we ate and then watched a movie. After that the day was pretty much over so we read a little and headed to bed.

The next morning we were in no rush to get up since we had only wait on our registration with the police to get taken care of. But we were about halfway through breakfast when there was a knock on our door and a man told us that Dr. P wanted to see us. So we stopped midway through breakfast and headed over to his office.

We made it to the front of the hospital where we ran into Dr. P. He told us to go see the registrar of the school whose office was in the same building as his. We found the office and he immediately waved us in even though he already had 4 people sitting in his office. This was totally different from our dealings with Dr. P! Mr. Robert Franklin was the name of the registrar and once he finished with the people he was with he began telling us what he needed from for the registration. It seems Dr. P handed over the job to Mr. Franklin. We were instructed to get all our flight information as well as 10 passport photos each and then we would meet with him tomorrow to go to the police headquarters in a nearby town to file all the paperwork. This would happen in the next few days.

So that brings us to tonight. Zach and I went on another walk around town to explore some more of the city and then went and got our photos taken care of. This was one of our more expensive purchases we’ve made so far at 130 rupees for 20 pictures! (That’s about $3.00 US) :P By then we had taken up most of the day so we headed off to play volleyball with the college students and faculty.

Every night they play for 2 or 3 hours and we’ve been playing with them since Monday! It’s been so good meeting people our own age and some of the hospital staff on the court! It’s pretty funny though because we’re the tallest guys there but they still play on a net that’s about 6 inches taller than the men’s nets we play on in the US. I don’t really get that since everyone here is shorter than we are, often by 6-8 inches! Nonetheless it’s really fun to play and I have a feeling we’re going to be playing a lot this year!

It’s been an eventful and yet boring past few days. I’m starting to feel bad because we’re here staying in a pretty nice guest room, eating café food that is usually brought to us and yet we haven’t done any work! I think I can speak for Zach and I both when I say we are getting quite antsy. Hopefully our registration with the police comes through quickly in the next few days and we can start working.
As far as working goes though, they’ve told me (Jeff) that I’ll be working in the dental clinic when our papers come through, which I’m very excited about! The problem with that is there is no dentist here right now… But they tell me there should be one soon. We’ll see when that happens though!

Zach had a bit a shock though when Dr. P told him he would be teaching English in the high school! I laughed a little bit when he first told Zach that! We’re both trying to work it out for both of us to be in the hospital since that is why we came here but we’ll see what happens. Being a student missionary isn’t always about certainty and this would be an excellent example. I think it will work out in the end for Zach to be working with the doctors but we’ll see.

God will use us wherever we are if we let him. That is one comforting thought in these days that we have to wait for our work assignments. In the end, things will be okay.

Wedding Craziness (Sept. 11)

The first weekend we’re here and we are informed that the principal’s son of the elementary school is getting married on Sunday afternoon. Now at first we’re thinking this will be no big deal for us, we don’t know him so we’re not going to go to this wedding. That was our plan but evidently here in Nuzvid and all of India for that matter everyone who is remotely acquainted with the family is invited to the wedding. Soooo, since we met Mr. Moses on Friday, we were invited to his son’s wedding on Sunday! Funny how that worked out…Anyway, we dressed up and headed to this wedding. When we got to the church the wedding was just starting and we took our seats. When we looked at the program we saw that the service was going to be a long one…That suspicion was confirmed later when Mr. Enjati, who we met on Friday, told us that each person sitting on the platform was going to talk for at least 5 minutes each. At an American wedding that would have been no big deal because there are only about 2 people up front that would speak. At this wedding though, there were about 20 people all sitting in a row behind the altar. This was in addition to the 3 groomsman and 3 bridesmaids. And so the service began…

The service was pretty much the same as an American wedding in both look and how it was performed. Even the bride had a regular wedding dress and the groom was in a tuxedo. It differed in time though, by about an hour. We sat there for about 2 hours while everyone up front said their little piece and then there were the vows and other stuff. There wasn’t a kiss or exchanging of rings but there was an exchanging of garlands of flowers. These garlands were huge! They put any Hawaiian leis to shame! That part of the wedding was super cool and during this time girls were coming through the church handing out handfuls of yellow flower petals to through at the couple as they walked out of the church. It was really interesting to see the subtle differences between this Indian wedding and an American one.

Like I said before the wedding service itself wasn’t very different from what we know from home but the reception was something I’ve never seen before. The entire elementary school yard was transformed into a festive party with banana leaves woven around trestles with bright colored ribbons intertwined. Chairs were everywhere for the more than 1500 guests to sit and mingle while we waited for the bride and groom to change clothes and come to the reception. I guess what they do here for a Christian wedding in India is have a “Western” styled wedding service and then the reception is very traditional Indian. There was a large multicolored tent set up in front of a stage with huge speakers blasting Hindi music to where if you were within 100 feet of the speakers you really couldn’t talk to someone. A huge elaborate sign that had the names of the couple decorated the stage. (It read “Amit with Linnet”) Also in the center of the stage was gaudy throne like, 2 seat, couch that had bright red suede upholstery with the rest of the couch covered in cold leaf.

People milled about talking while we waited for the bride and groom to arrive. This took about an 1 hour 45 min. Once the bride and groom arrived food was served. This was not in a normal way though. Feeding 1500 people is not an easy task and so what they did was feed people in “shifts”. The elementary school cafeteria holds about 300 people and so every 20 minutes or so 300 more people would rush into the café and sit down at long tables. People only sat on one side of the table so that service with metal buckets of food could move up and down the tables to serve with ease. This was like nothing I’ve ever seen before! To me it felt like we were all eating at a prison or something similar to one. Food was plopped down with ladles or large spoons on large (18 in), foil covered paper plates, which each person had, by the servers as they practically ran past! It was very chaotic and frenzied! We of course ate with our hands and finished within 15 minutes. The food was extremely good and filling. One of the curries was beef though and I must say I did not enjoy that one at all… The reason being is that they had not bothered to only put meat into the curry but had left small pieces of bone mixed in with the curry. Needless to say I avoided that one! When we got up we rinsed our hands outside at a row of water faucets and the next group of guests crowded into the café to eat.

After that it was quite late Zach and I ended up leaving and going to bed. We fell asleep with the sounds of fireworks going off from the wedding. All in all it was so amazing to see this different way of having a wedding. This was by far the largest wedding I’ve ever been to and I’m sure that we will see at least one or two more before we leave. An Indian wedding is certainly worth the experience but it’s not relaxing!

Blessings!

Meetings, meetings, and again…meetings (Sept. 10)

This Sabbath was quite filled with activity. Church here starts at 9:15 with Sabbath School and then at 10:00 we move into group study, which was very nice. Following that we head to the main service at 11:00. The service here is just like any other Adventist church service you’ve been to but here they do the service in English and the regional language of Telegu. The pastor’s sermon was quite rousing and the very good on present truth but there was a hilarious aspect to it. Whenever the main speaker would use emphasis with his voice the translator would exaggerate it at least 2 or 3 times over! It really kept you awake through the hour and a half sermon! We got out of church around 1:00 and headed over to eat our first meal in the cafeteria. Up to this point all our meals had been brought to our room in a 4 tiered metal lunch pale thing. It was nice to sit down in the café and eat with people our age and we got invited play volleyball with them during the week! I think they just want us for our height! :P

Sabbath afternoon we went on the Adventist Youth outing which was a hike to a nearby hilltop, which gave us our first view of Nuzvid and the surrounding area. Nuzvid is surrounding by very flat land but there are a few hills nearby that abruptly jut out from the flatland. Everything is very green and it’s truly beautiful when you see everything around. During the hike we stopped in a mango grove and had another hour and a half Adventist Youth meeting…Sabbath is a lot of sitting and meetings. But after that we headed back to the compound and walked to the store where we were able to purchase our internet connection device. I’m actually writing this on my computer and then I’ll post it later since we still haven’t gotten our device to work… (as of Sunday Sept. 11) but I’m sure we’ll get it working in the next few days.

Getting the device took some time so by the time we headed back to the hospital it was pretty late. So we tried unsuccessfully to get the internet to work and then headed to bed. Zach was exhausted so he went to bed around 10 but I forced myself to stay up until 11:30 just to get my body into the groove of the time zone. I think it’s working because I woke up at 7:00 this morning and felt pretty good!

Well, I think this is all caught up! A fair amount has happened since we’ve got here but nothing to terribly exciting. Hopefully I’ll have more interesting bits to share here in a few days! =) The plans for today are: Laundry, go shopping for a few more items and maybe a cold drink and then we may walk out to this technical institute that is just outside Nuzvid. Who knows what else the day holds for us!

Blessings!

Getting to India (Sept. 8-9)

Well, we arrived in Nuzvid without incident around 4:00 PM on Thursday, September 8. Even though our flight arrived in Hyderabad at 3:30 AM it took us over 12 hours to finally reach the hospital. This was due to several reasons. First off there were some complications with the vehicle that was going to pick us up from the airport so we actually ended up sitting at the airport for 3 hours waiting for Vara Jacob to come pick us up. We didn’t know he was trying to work everything out and we had no way of reaching him so we simply waited. It was actually really fun sitting at the international arrivals gate watching the sunrise and watching people come and go.

When Vara and his son Andy arrived we hopped on a bus instead of the SUV we were going to ride in headed off for Vijayawada, which is the large city nearest Nuzvid. The bus ride was, shall we say, everything I expected it to be? It was crazy!!!! But so much fun! Everyone in this country drives like me on 20 cups of coffee! There were several times that I sucked my breath when a huge truck whizzed by close enough to see the beads of sweat on the drivers forehead! It was quite the experience! And lastly, California drivers are like grandpas driving in this country! =)
We stopped for breakfast in Hyderabad. This was our first experience of the fine local cuisine! Zach and Vara hopped off the bus and grabbed food. We each had several round fried bread ball things with a spicy paste as well as japatis with a yellow curry. The curry came in little clear plastic bags and was sooooo good! It was also fairly spicy for breakfast food… But I must say that even though this was not a traditional breakfast for us it was absolutely amazing!

We continued racing through the streets of Hyderabad and on into the countryside where we saw all kinds of farm equipment working rice patties and herds of goats and cattle. May I also mention that the horn on the bus really only stopped honking for about 30 seconds… Zach and I slept a little in spite of the blaring bus horn and we arrived in Vijayawada around 12:00 PM. At the bus station we unloaded from the bus and reloaded into a Chevy diesel SUV. The four of us with our driver were cozy in the smaller SUV but it was nice to see the country in a more up close and personal way! We ate lunch at a restaurant called Minerva Coffee Shop which I’m pretty sure didn’t serve coffee at all…But the food was again, outstanding! Zach and I are getting used to eating with only our right hands, which has been pretty easy since silverware doesn’t really exist! We get to play with our food as we eat it! That part is pretty fun!

Following the lunch stop we headed to a place to pick up an internet mobile device so we can get internet anywhere we are. (Evidently this is the best way to do it here). But we couldn’t buy it for some reason at the place in Vijayawada so we continued on to Nuzvid.

When we arrived at the hospital we entered through the main gate. The hospital was directly in front of us as we entered and we proceeded to around to the emergency entrance on the right side of the hospital. This seemed to just be another back door to the hospital with an “Emergency” sign fixed above the door but nonetheless we unloaded here and carried our bags in the doors and immediately down a hallway to the right. This hallway was about 70 feet long and had all the guestrooms on it. We were shown into guestroom number 5. The first thing I noticed was the air conditioning unit in the window! Haha! This was luxury man! There were two twin beds and two wide, low dressers. The room has a bathroom with a regular toilet, sink, mirror, and a faucet with a bucket for…showering! Yup yup, no shower just a bucket and faucet, which is actually super nice and easy to use. I think we were both a bit worried at the time but now it’s no biggy.

There was also a walk in closet and another room the same size with another sink and a low, tile counter that runs along the back wall and left side of the room. Also, on the counter was a water jug with a faucet for drinking but Vara told us not to drink it. Now though, we do and it’s totally fine, we just use our Steripens to purify it. =)

We were extremely tired and I’d be lying if I told you we were completely comfortable being here. Home seemed a million miles away and the fatigue of travel was setting in. That coupled with the mild homesickness was fairly overwhelming but we set about unpacking and situating our room how we wanted it to be. This took about an hour and a half and when we were done I finally felt like I had some sort of home. This was a good thing and I think it did wonders for both Zach and I mentally…not that I’m a psychologist or anything! :P We met the nursing supervisor, Evangela, who’s office is just a couple doors down from our room. She is quite short, which isn’t really saying much here in India, with a huge smile and always wears her white nursing uniform complete with the little squarish nursing hat. She has been so helpful and always knows the answers to any questions we might have. When we asked her about washing clothes she quickly replied that there was a washer that was not being used in storage and she had someone bring it to our room immediately. It’ll be nice to wash our own clothes!
While we were relaxing in our room, reading and trying to see if there was any WiFi here the president of the hospital and school came and introduced himself. We talked for a bit but really introductions were all that was done since we were almost too tired to talk! His name is Dr. Prabhu Das and he is quite dark in complexion with a whispy, balding head and one sweet mustache! I remember thinking that maybe I’ll be able to beat him in a mustache competition by the end of the year, but probably not! =)

After the meeting we decided to get some rest for a couple hours, which actually turned into us sleeping until morning! This happened around 7 PM and I woke up at 5 AM without an alarm. I couldn’t fall back asleep and so I went for a walk around the hospital grounds. I didn’t see anyone except for the security guard who said cheerfully, “Good morning, Sir!” as we passed each other. Everyone is so polite around here it’s almost funny in comparison with the U.S.! I finished walking around and came back to the room and read my book until Zach woke up a bit later. We both showered and then headed over to meet with Dr. Das. We were taken over to the office by someone and then immediately were given a tour by a man by the name of Satir. He was extremely friendly gave us the tour of the nursing school, business school, high school, elementary school, and church. It was good to see where everything was located and when we were done he took us back to talk with Dr. Das.

We chatted about how our trip was, how our living quarters were and such and then he asked us how long we would be here and what skills we had so he could place us in jobs where we would be most useful. It was pretty funny chatting with him because I got the sense that he knew were coming and that was about it! I definitely got a laugh out of that!
The following days have been filled with a lot of down time… I’m sure things will pick up when we start working and such but for now we have done little but go to church, eat, and walk around exploring the compound. We did go into town with Vara twice to buy little items for our room like soap, laundry detergent, and toilet paper but these short walks into town have been the only real outings we’ve had. We’ve met many new people but the names all run together right now. I’m sure we’ll get to know many people in the weeks to come but right now we are not really on a schedule and everyone else seems to have one.

Not there yet...

Well, considering this is our first posting on our India blog and we're not in India yet is a bit ironic! But hey, you get free internet where you can!

We are currently in the amazing Abu Dhabi airport awaiting our last flight to Hyderabad, India. It's fairly surreal finally being in a place that is truly foreign. As the evening call to prayer sounded over the airport PA system, I think it finally hit me that I'm not in the US anymore and I'm not going to be for quite awhile. I'm certainly content with this but at the same time I'm missing friends, family, and home.

Well, we're pretty tired so I think this will be all for now. I need to set up my Skype account, or at least figure it out again! =)

Until next time,

Jeff and Zach