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We are glad to have an opportunity to write to you. We have had no internet connection until now, so contact has been impossible. As with many things here, the formalities have been longwinded with much form filling and waiting.
We arrived nearly four weeks ago and found we were to move into a newly built flat – so new the block was not yet completed and for the first week we were the only occupants. We were surprised to find it had nothing except a table and chairs and two beds with wet, badly stained mattresses. There was no drinkable water, no hot water, nothing to cook on, no bedding, curtains, pottery, cutlery, pans, etc. The flat was bare. We had to brainstorm priorities, we simply prayed and tried to keep our focus. The first thing we needed was water and then something to eat. We were in some shock for the first five days but we actively engaged in seeking out help. The wife of an American doctor came to our aid and took us to simple shops where we could buy pots to wash food in, towels, curtains etc. We slept on the dirty mattresses for nine days but could take no more and new friends later lent us camping mattresses. A week later we met up with Augustine and Valsa, Indian friends from our last visit and they brought things like a gas cooker (not safe enough yet to use). As foreigners cannot easily buy gas containers, he is asking around amongst Indian friends if anyone has a spare. They have also
loaned us pans and cooking utensils etc.
The unfinished flats meant that there was much building work going on, even throughout the night and we were isolated from everyone but the builders for a couple of weeks. We had no phone and there was no made road. We were surrounded by a pack of about 15 wild dogs that howled through the night and fought ferociously. It was scary coming back in the dark with no lights and wading through a building site. Snakes are common and we had to watch where we trod especially as the monsoons left deep troughs of muddy water.. We are well settled now though.
Many poor people are helping to build this block of flats and must envy our apparent luxury. They sleep on the building site, often in our doorway amidst the wild dogs etc,throwing bricks at them periodically to keep their distance.
Life here is very interesting and busy. Joy goes into the Christian Medical College Hospital in Vellore each day, leaving the flat at 7.15am with a walk through the college campus to get the staff bus. The public line buses are an experience beyond imagination with as many as 40 people standing but we are accustomed to using these now. Geoff has spent much time at the community hospital just across the road.
Joy is involved with extremely sick and dying people on the wards; patients with head injuries from traffic accidents, others dying of cancers and leukaemia. A bond of trust has grown despite the language barrier and patients and relatives approach her wherever she goes in the hospital. They tug her clothes to draw her attention and lead her to different wards seeking prayer for their relatives. It is a most humbling experience. Working with dying children leads to a deep rapport with the parents and cultural barriers are quickly overridden. Being white and female makes her instantly recognisable and news of her presence spreads quickly.
One day a week she goes to Karigiri, to work with Valsa, the clinical psychologist. She will share some therapy sessions, developing a self help group for leprosy patients and doing some work on listening skills and bereavement course. She will enjoy this but is in some awe of the long journey by public bus, followed by an auto rickshaw ride from the bus stand to the leprosy hospital. The buses are old and ramshackle and one feels very conspicuous and vulnerable. She now looks for a sitting woman passenger who will hold her bag in the tight squeeze. One night the crowd of passengers was too tight for Joy to get into her handbag for her fare. A friend’s pocket was cut out of his trousers while standing on the bus and his wallet stolen. We are glad the knife did not go any further!
Increasing amounts of teaching are being sought. At CMC Hospital she has been asked to train other chaplains in listening skills etc and another afternoon each week she will be supervising the staff team at Ida Scudder ward, the low cost health care unit for the very poorest people. This opens directly on to the road. At CMC she is starting an 8 week grief training for nurses and another similar 8 week course for the palliative care staff, many of whom are drained and carrying much pain from their work.
The poverty here is excruciating. With the monsoons the sewage and stench has been appalling. Sometimes there is no other way other than to wade through the huge pools of water. For the last 24 hours there has been a torrential downpour. The sky is overcast and it is humid.
Geoff has been orientating himself with the overall work of the community hospital this week. He has been out to remote areas with the clinic van. Outside the town is lush with vegetation now. The river is in full spate (first water for 15 years) and the fields filled with bananas, rice, beans, coconuts etc. Everyone here is delighted. The roads are simply awash when it rains and the sides where people walk, rutted mud with huge puddles.
The inpatients in the community hospital are very sick with diseases Geoff has mainly only read about; typhoid, acute kidney disorders, rheumatic heart disease, Dengue, much TB and HIV, also several current cases of meningitis. He has been getting an understanding of the context in which a peripheral hospital works from all aspects. He has gathered information from all the departments, including the laboratories, the pharmacy etc.
The outpatient clinic building attractive, new and airy. Work is needed re the diabetes care as expected. It is going to be a sensitive process but the people are open and friendly. Geoff has drafted a good deal of the clinic handbook and begun looking at record keeping and audit. He next will go through this with those working in the field and once these have been agreed move on to patient education and doctor training. There is an interesting possibility, still to be explored, of teaching further afield using telemedicine equipment.
In Vellore, there are very few places of rest or beauty but the college grounds are a real oasis and contain much wildlife – fruit bats, monkeys, chipmunks and snakes. Joy saw a monitor lizard, like an alligator but only about 18 inches long in a hospital quadrangle. It must be have been brought in by the monsoon. A friend described having to kill a 6 foot snake in his bedroom on the campus.
Vellore town is crowded, dirty and the roads treacherous. People sleep in the potholes. To contemplate crossing a road on foot is really frightening. The poorest people in general are wonderfully friendly and welcoming, always ready to smile and eager to try to communicate. There are of course many sick and accident-damaged people begging. The people recognise us in the small shops now and shyly wave when we pass.
We have been invited to Augustine and Valsa’s at the leprosy hospital on Christmas Day. We always delight in being at Karigiri and with this family. This is the home in which Paul Brand and his wife shared many Christmases.
We are in good shape. We never expected this to be easy and we think our anticipation was realistic and helped to equip us emotionally to deal with what we have found. Always there are new and challenging situations but what we would not be able to do alone, we can, through the grace of God.
We are very privileged to have this opportunity and to be amongst a people who are easy to love and eager to relate with. We have much to learn about becoming a world family.
We send Christian love to you all and are deeply grateful for your holding us in prayer. Joy and Geoff.
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