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.
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