The weekend we spent there was not particularly medically oriented but I felt it gave us a great insight into the cultural aspect of what the people in the community do on their spare time. On Friday night, a pleasant couple from the UK arrived to lead a Christian retreat. They explained that they are missionaries stationed in India and had spent the last few years preaching there. I found it fascinating that they were so efficient at eating with their hands (a task I was never able to master).They told me that it definitely took them a few years to get used to it but that now it felt strange to use utensils.
Saturday morning, we woke up and headed to breakfast. Breakfast was my favorite meal of the day simply because of the amazing chai they prepared (they also have beans for breakfast sometimes, which I loved). After that, we headed to the church that was located uphill. The retreat was very interesting. The missionaries did not speak Tamil so they used an interpreter. I found the topics of the retreat to be pretty liberal but somewhat culturally insensitive. There were very bold statements made about differences of family life in America compared to family life in India that seemed to be very black and white. I could see how it would send the wrong message to someone who had never been to America but did somewhat clarify for me the reason behind misconceptions that some villagers had about life in the US. Overall, I felt the people of the community really appreciated the messages the missionaries were delivering. It seemed to be a great way to meditate and give them a break from their weekly routine.
After the service, Christine and I decided that we really needed some more Dark Fantasy. Dark Fantasy were these amazing cookies that we were hooked on the entire time there. As we were going to the store, we also decided that we needed to get a ball, then quickly realized that sending Christine and I out alone was a bad idea. We knew we wouldn't stop until we found a ball and ended up walking to Anaikatti to purchase a ball and a bigger cup for me to drink chai out of. Anaikatti was great! It was a small village in the middle of nowhere with everything you could possibly need (except toilet paper). We knew that this was where we could find a ball so we asked around and were directed to a small store where we got two balls and I purchased a Disney princess sippy cup. We suddenly realized that we were running late for "band practice" so we quickly headed back with our balls and princess cup.
Earlier that day we had been asked to play "Amazing Grace" for the Sunday morning service so we headed up to the doctor's house to practice. He had 2 violins, a guitar, a keyboard and an awesome accordion that he was really good at. We practiced the song a few times and I still thank Nora for her patience with my lack of musical skills. It felt really good to play the guitar in a group again and especially because it seemed to make the doctor really happy to have us over to play music with him. We practiced for a while and then it was dinner time. We had dinner, some of us went on evening rounds while others showered and then went up to practice again to get ready for the next morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment