My experiences in India

Some of my experiences that didn't make it into the blog:

• going to a Telegu movie with a family
  
• feeding the elderly poor at an ashram,
• having my own private mass with the Bishop
  
• addressing 450 boys at junior college graduation ceremonies
• participating in the opening ceremonies for a new auditorium at the junior college
• speaking to 10th graders for an hour class
• participating in Stations of the Cross on Fridays
• having Mass by candlelight due to power cuts
• listening to stories from people who have taken assignments all over the world
• Chatting with the Chief Minister at a political rally
• Drinking fresh coconut water and sampling fresh sugar cane juice
• having lunch at convents and parish houses
• Attending mass for the nuns profession of final vows, and two different Silver jubilee celebrations
• Handing out scholarships to top students from St. Vincent De Paul Society
  
• 
  

Transportation in India

Time for another quiz about driving in India.

At night, it is proper to:
a. drive with your brights on so you can blind the coming driver,
b. drive without any lights,
c. drive with lights on low beams.
Answer, A. Try to drive with your lights on high beams and if necessary, switch to high beams when approaching an oncoming car so they can be sure to see you. Don't worry about blinding them.

How many vehicles can fit across three lanes?
A. three, one per lane.
B. at least two buses, a couple of cars, and as many motorcycles as can fit in,
C. two buses, a truck, two autorickshaws, a half dozen motorcycles, one full-size car and an ox-cart if you use the sidewalk, too.

Answer: C

The Department of Highways insists on safe road conditions. What can be legally used as dividers for a highway?
a. concrete, crash-tested barriers
b. metal guard rails
c. rocks found along the road will be good enough
Answer: C

Define a break inspector(s):
a. a state authorized, testing facility
b. A State highway patrol officer
c. a herd of buffalo lazily crossing the highway
Answer: c

What is the proper speed limit on a state four lane divided highway?
a. 60 mph
b. 60 kph
c. what speed limit?
Answer: c, there are none

What is the proper speed limit in town?
a. 40 kph
b. 40 mph
c. You're kidding, right?
Answer: C, who knows? it's not posted, nobody can go faster than a crawl, most pedestrians walk faster than the cars, and who's going to give you a ticket?

Traffic is slow in town. You're getting impatient. So it's perfectly acceptable to:
a. wait patiently until you can move safely.
b. pull over to the middle lane and go up onto the low curb dividing the highway and just scoot around the problem while everyone else is stuck,
c. whatever it takes.
Answer: B. But C is also acceptable. Using the sidewalk is also a proper form of moving forward in grid lock conditions.

You need to cross lanes so you can get to the other side of the road. It is proper to:
a. go around the block and come out on the other side of the street
b. wait until there is a break in the traffic, then proceed with utmost caution
c. plow right straight through at any point, just hold your hand out to signal that all oncoming traffic should give way to you.
Answer: C

You are pulling into traffic. it is only proper to merge in:
a. at an intersection
b. at an exit or entrance ramp
c. anyplace, anytime, anywhere
Answer: guess

Vendors are allowed to approach vehicles on the street to offer something for sale. True or false?
True, not only allowed but who else would entertain you while your stuck in traffic?

The intersection is in total gridlock. It looks like a medieval battlefield in the middle as everyone tries to advance across. The oncoming cars should:
a. stop and wait until the intersection clears.
b. line up across all lines, face oncoming traffic which is doing the same, and prepare to charge as soon as there is a break in the action.
c. turn around, go home as it is hopeless.
Answer: B. As soon as the car next to you moves, advance at top speed to ram your way through, yelling "Charge" if you wish.

Traffic is slow in the city. You decide that since you're on a motorcycle, it would be best to:
a. go home
b. use the sidewalk and go against traffic
c. wait patiently in your own lane
Answer: B, why not?

FOR EXTRA CREDIT:
You are driving a car in rural India when you accidently hit and kill/injure a person traveling on a smaller form of transportation. You should immediately:
a. try to aid the person. Call 108 for Er, or take him to the nearest medical facility for treatment under the Good Samaritan Rule.
b. call 108 for ER, then call for the police to come. do not leave the scene of the accident under any circumstances.
c. Abandon the car, run as fast as you can and hide until the crowd disperses because the villagers will attempt to kill you as a form of vigilante justice since you were driving a larger vehicle regardless of who was in the wrong. Do not attempt to save the car as they will strip in and it will be a total loss. Try for insurance reimbursement but don't bet the ranch they will give it to you.
Answer: RUN for your life. Do not look back. They may be gaining on you.

Extra-Extra credit:
What time is it when all of the above traffic rules start to seem normal and you are no longer terrified to get into a car?

answer: time to go home

Sights and Sounds in India

I try to take my camera everywhere I go in India. But no matter what you do, you just can't catch every great shot you see as you whizz by in a car.
And there are times when it just isn't appropriate to point a camera at someone just so you can show the folks back home, like the Leper who stood at the car window holding up his hands with no fingers. Or the garbage pickers who walk the city streets doing "recycling". They are women mostly and you can spot them among all the people by the kind of bag they carry. They may be my age for all I know.
Sometimes I don't want to keep a memory of what I see, like the skinny dogs that wander the streets eating from the garage piles or the puppy with flies eating at his ears. Who plays with them? In a world where there isn't enough to eat, there is no word for "pet". There are animals for work and for food, not for companionship and fun.
Other times, I'd love to yell "stop the car" so I can catch the picture of the cow "parked" among the long row of motorcyles lined up on the street in front of the shops. There was this cow, headed in, standing there parked, just waiting for someone to come out and kick start it. Or the alabaster traditional statue of Ghandi in the town square wearing the pair of real wire rimmed glasses that someone had placed on his face. Were they going for realism or did they just have a sense of humor?
India is more than a series of pictures, of course. It's a world of sounds, too. Like the sound of parrots scolding each other in the early mornings, or the chant of the Mullah five times a day calling the faithful to prayer. Or the 5:30 a.m. song and morning prayer blasting from the Cathedral loudspeakers. There's the white noise of traffic with its incessant honking of horns and the universal sound of kids playing in the schoolyards outside. For some reason kids always have to yell at the person standing next to them. Playing must not count unless you yell because they all do it. When I first got here, I heard all the sounds everyday. Now I have to stop to listen or I can't hear them anymore. Maybe it's time to come home when everything seems normal.

Street food in India

Indians love snacks and there is an amazing variety of street food in India. It's everywhere frying, roasting, grilling, sizzling, boiling, simmering, baking. The safest choice is always to pass but sometimes it's really hard to resist.

Random musings in India

The Indian numbering system is different than ours so I had a hard time using excel in my financial analysis.

• All numbers up to 99,9999 are the same as in the US.
  
• But the next number is one Lakh or 1,00,000. We would write 100,000. But they see it as ten 10,000s or one Lakh.
  
• Ten Lakhs makes up a Chore or 1,00,00,000, which to us is a cool million, 1,000,000.
  
• The terminology is easy to remember so when someone says so-and-so paid 1 chore for a house, you know that it's a million rupee mansion. But this gets pretty confusing when you are looking at a spreadsheet and your brain really wants the numbers to look "normal".

Signs I have seen in India:

• "Decent Hotel"
• "Gold Deposit Schemes"
• "leaptops"
• "Homely meals"
• and my favorite...painted on the back of all petrol tanker trucks: "Highly Inflammable"
  

ICU in India

No pictures today. I didn't think to grab my camera on my way to the hospital yesterday. It was not exactly a fun day in India for me. But it was a successful one. I did live to tell about it.

I have been trying to drink a lot of water due to the heat. But, apparently, I am not drinking enough since I began to have heat stroke symptoms again on Wednesday morning. This is the third time I've experienced them. The first time, I fought back to health without outside assistance, the second time I went to see a doctor at a Catholic hospital for a shot and some pills. This time I was admitted to the Public hospital where poor people go for free care and taken to ICU.

I decided that I needed an IV drip when my temperature shot up to 102 in a few hours. A young priest was assigned to take me to the Public teaching hospital since he was related to the head of Pulmonology. Fr. Suneel was able to call ahead and ask for someone to attend to us. I'm not sure if they have an ER and in any case, they were all afraid we would just sit and wait for hours if we didn't know someone on the inside. I asked Fr. Joseph to come with us as he served in Chicago for five years and his English is better than most of the people who live there. I made him promise not to leave him at any point and this turned out to be a very good decision.

About half way to the hospital, my extremities started tingling begining with my hands and feet and traveling towards my body, probably due to low blood sugar. By the time I got to the hospital I couldn't stand without help. Since the hospital doesn't have orderlies to transport you in, this turned out to be a problem. I got into a wheel chair and eventually put myself onto a bed wit help but it was difficult. when they finally decided to move me to ICU, I had to get up and transfer myself to a gurney- the beds don't wheel and there are no boards to transfer a patient. So I had to move myself.
Patients also bring their own clothes apparently since I was never put into a hospital gown. Since I had been violently sick, I was a sticky, wet mess and I stayed that way for several hours until Fr. Suneel went back with the driver to get some of my clothes. I was still burning up so I was ready to cut my own clothes off and I tried to indicate to get me out of my clothes. They were more worried about my modesty the whole time. Eventually someone got me into one of my own nightgowns. Had it been the US, they would have had those clothes off, along with my watch, bracelet and ankle bracelets in a jiffy. But nobody goes out without their bangles, so an IV was eventually started with bangles still attached.

I never saw most of what happened after we got there as I had my eyes closed. But I did stay concious and I tried to keep listening to all questions and answers. there seemed to be a lot of debate going on and two doctors concurred it was food poisioning. Eventually, they gave me some shots and started an IV but my temperature wasn't coming down fast enough, plus the power went off and the room quickly got stiffing hot. It had only a fan, no a/c. So it was decided to move me to ICU which had A/C. This is when I discovered that they couldn't wheel from the bed I was on and that I had to get up and walk the few steps to the gurney and get up onto it myself. This was not easy in my condition.

I finally opened my eyes, I was behind a curtain. There were flies trapped in the windows and flying around. Fr. Joe was swatting mosquitos. I could hear the death rattle of the man in the bed on the other side of the curtain. there was a port for oxygen but that was all the equipment that was there. The only other difference from the standard room was that I was behind a curtain, there was A/C, only one "family member" could be there with me (instead of the entourage that came with me), the oxygen port and the bed could be raised and lowered. That was ICU. There were at least 30 people behind curtains. No rooms, no monitors, no equipment. Toilets were down a very long corridor, no commodes provided- just a room with a drain and a water spigot. After three 400 ml of fluid, I didn't care if I peed on the front lawn.

I had an aide assigned to me and Fr. Joe gave her cash to stay and take care of me after her shift ended. She knew her way around inside the hospital and since it was not a Catholic hospital, we needed some help. Nobody spoke English in ICU. Father had to rely on Telegu, Tamil, and some of the language of Kerala to speak to the people who came in and out. Most of the staff came around to see what I looked like and to ask what I was doing there. I could hear the word, "American" among the tumble of Telegu converstations and Fr. said everyone wanted to know where my husband was. He said I came alone which was a big shock to them and that he was my only relative in India. I eventually told him that he should say he was family on my mother's side. At least my mom and my brothers get a tan and he's pretty dark.

When I was China, an American nurse who was living there as an expat with her husband and children, gave us a lecture on what to do if immediate medical attention was required. It was perhaps the most scary lecture I have ever heard. She was forthright, honest, specific and detailed. I'll never forget Roxanne or her instructions. So I'm going to pass them on here in case you ever find yourself in a foreign country needing emergency medical attention.

1. Always have cash from the local currency on you for an emergency. Cash speaks the loudest and it translates into any language even if you don't speak a word of it. Trust me on this one.
2. Know how to call for an ambulance AHEAD OF TIME and if they will actually come and where they will take you. This last issue can be a life or death decision. Have a back up plan if you don't get the answers to these questions that make you feel 100% confident. Write down the name of the hospital in the LOCAL language as not all cab drivers will ble able to figure out what you are saying, especially if you are aggitated.
   
3. Know which hospital you should go to and how to get there. Not all hospitals will take a foreginer. they don't want to deal with the hassles if you die. (Feeling "weak" in India is an everyday occurance and not taken as a symptom of anything since malnutrition is rampant, the heat is brutual and life is hard. So they won't take you serious if you say your are really weak. They'll probably tell you to home and lie down instead of running an IV drip or taking your temp.)
4. Be an advocate for the person you are with and have an advocate if you need medical attention. Carry a list of the meds you are taking and the dosages. No one ever asked me if I was taking any prescriptions while I was in the "ER".
   

I did three things correctly yesterday:

1. I insisted I needed medical attention.
2. I said I needed it NOW when they said I would be taken that evening which was six hours later.
3. I got the best translator in the house and made sure he stayed with me 100% of the time. He was also my advocate.

They did two things right: they called ahead to someone they knew personally and got me to the head of the line and Fr. Joe paid cash to get support and info inside the hospital.

Emergencies can happen anytime, anywhere. Have a plan before you need one.

Hindu art in India

I'm really behind in my blogging so I thought I'd just show some Hindu art until I can write another entry.

An Apostle in India

India has always been considered a spiritual place- 1,000 religions are practiced here and it's the birthplace of Buddhism. But since Hinduism predominates, most people do not think of India as a Christian country. Amazingly, the Church's history in India actually stretches all the way back to the time of Christ.
The Apostles were instructed to go out and spread the word to the whole world, so they did. I don't know how they handed out assignments, but St. Thomas got Parthia and India. India was on everybody's radar at the time because of its spices, which were sold throughout the Middle East. Thomas finally arrived on the west coast in 52 A.D. and the people of Kerala (who are Syrian Christians) strongly maintain that their forefathers were converts of this apostle. Catholicism is so strong here that the state has produced 1,000s of priests and nuns. Wherever he landed, he traveled throughout North and South India and ended up in Chennai, or as it was called, Madras. He was killed in 72 A.D. by some Hindu fundamentalists who were upset about all the converts to Christianity. I visited the site where he was killed on top of a hill where a church is now located. Then I headed to his tomb which is under the Basilica of St. Thomas in the picture. His tomb has been officially opended four times. The church has been built and rebuilt over the centuries. This last one was finished in 1896 and restored in 2004. It holds the distinction of being one of only three churches built over the tomb of an Apostle, the most famous one being St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. This may be as close as I'll ever get to experiencing what it must be like to visit the Holy Lands since they keep shooting at each other. I bought a book and a DVD so anyone who is interested can see the story of Thomas for themselves when I get home.

Holy men in India

The gentlemen in the picture are "Holy men" in India. They have renounced earthly possessions in favor of a spiritual quest and they rely on charity for their daily needs. I saw them while I was waiting for Fr. Bala when we were in Hyderabad shopping for supplies. I was able to just stand in the doorway of the store and watch the world go by and I saw several different groups of "Holy men" during the time I was there observing. To me, each group looked like they were "working the street". When I mentioned this to one of the priests, they commented that anyone in India can dress up in orange/saffron and become a "holy man", no training is necessary. Just put on an outfit and hold out your hand for money- a good reminder not to confuse "mystic" with what is simply "exotic".

Tomorrow I'm off with Fr. Joseph to find another holy man, the Apostle Thomas. He came to India in 58A.D. and he's buried in Chennai (old name: Madras). So I'm taking a break from working to learn some history and see a little of India. Check back in a few days for the story of Thomas.

Housing in India

This picture was taken in a one-room, thatched-roof hut in the "suburbs". The lady of the house is Fr. Ravi's sister and that's one of her boys who is a student. The other is away at college. The man in the striped shirt is Fr. Suneel. We went visiting Sunday night and called on a number of Fr. Ravi's relatives. This lady served us cool drinks and a snack outside on the "front porch" which is also where they sleep during the hot weather. That's her kitchen in the other picture and it represents about one quarter of the house so it's about the size of my garden shed. Her husband is a carpenter and he built the house. The roof is made of sticks tied together with twine and then covered with thatching. In the rainy season, it leaks. But the house was clean and well managed, very orderly and they have a tv. Everyone seems to have a tv in India except the priests who can't afford one. The village gets the dish and then they cable out to each house. Everyone seems to think it's perfectly normal to have a tv but not a bathroom.

This picture was taken in a lovely four room house in the same village. The man borrowed money to get to Kuwait where he worked as a manual laborer. Over 9 years, he paid off the loan, and saved enough to build the house. His two oldest boys are now work in construction and they are helping to support the family. They're putting the two younger sons through school. He told me the only money he spent on himself was for food. I believed him.