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Published: January 8th 2017
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On Sunday, October 2, we attended services at a large temple (church) that Harvest India built not that long ago. We sat up on the stage behind the pulpit as Suresh preached, and Ruth shared a word as well. I remember that it was hard to tell what was being said, so we played a little bit of a telephone game while we were sitting there, whispering to one another, “What did they say?” and going down the line sharing what we had heard. Us girls has to cover our heads with our scarves while we were there at the church. There were rows of children (mostly older kids) who sat on blankets on the floor, in front of the pulpit. They all sang songs in Telugu. Looking out at the rows of children, it was like a sea of color. They wear such colorful, beautiful clothing in India! Some of the kids we recognized from the dance performances the night before. Once the service was over, we all stepped down from the platform and helped serve communion. We quickly tore pieces off of a loaf of bread and then handed out bread and a cup to drink from. The children
closed their eyes and placed their hands out in front of them as we placed the bread into their hands.
I remember that it was one girl’s 16
th birthday, and I guess the tradition was that you handed out candy to people on your birthday. So she gave us all little candies, and we all wished her a Happy Birthday. It made an impression on us that here it was HER birthday, and she was giving US candy, where in America, everyone would be showering the birthday girl or boy with gifts.
After church, we decided to go into town to buy some medications at a pharmacy. See, in India (like in Mexico), you can just walk into a pharmacy and buy whatever you want…you don’t need a prescription. You can buy inhalers, antibiotics, etc. Most of us were in the medical profession (4 out of the 6 of us). I decided to buy an inhaler, as the one that I had was at least a few years old. I hardly use an inhaler, but might as well buy a new one in India if it only costs $1.80, right?! We searched through a book there at the
pharmacy to compare the active ingredients to those in American prescriptions…wanted to make sure we were buying the correct items. A couple of people stocked up on some antibiotics, too. It was an interesting experience.
Later we went to a Mercy Camp and helped to pass out food to some locals—mostly children, but some parents and elderly individuals as well. Children and elderly individuals greeted us with bouquets of flowers.The kids sat down in rows and waited as we handed out a small banana, an egg, and a piece of bread to each person. Apparently some of these people who show up at the Mercy Camp only get to eat once per week. Hemantha carried the bowl of bananas, while I passed them out, one by one as we walked down the line. Later I helped hand out some eggs. I had to be careful to only use my right hand! Can you imagine having to go to a Mercy Camp, sit under a tent, and wait for someone to pass out 3 food items to you? As we passed out the food, many of the children would ask us, in their Indian accent, "What is your name?" I
would smile and tell them, "My name is Courtney. What is your name?" They would then tell me their name, and I would say, "Nice to meet you!" This occurred over and over again. Haha.
Towards the end of it, several men showed up and caused a ruckus…I’m not even entirely sure what all happened, but it was chaotic there for a few minutes. One teenage boy showed up and asked for a selfie with me…I didn’t know where he had come from, where he got a cell phone, or how he knew what a selfie was, but I took a picture with him. Apparently there was a popular song in India a few years back called “Selfie,” so that might be how some kids in India seemed to know what they were. Anyway, the boy grabbed my hand as we were walking, and he was trying to talk to me, though I couldn’t understand him. The guys in my group stepped up and started walking along with us to make sure that I was not going to be kidnapped or voluntarily walk away with him or something. Lol. I didn’t really know what to make of the situation
but was just trying to be nice to the boy. Kind of a weird situation!
Then we went to the small Medical Center nearby, which was just a small room filled with local Indian people needing to be seen by a doctor. Maybe there were other parts to the Medical Center...I'm not sure! There was a doctor known as Dr. Kishor who volunteers his time with Harvest India and sees patients at lots of different sites of theirs (the Medical Center, Medical Camp, Leprosy Colony, etc). This man stays busy! Anyway, there was a line of people, and Dr. Kishor gave them a super quick physical exam (we’re talking like 15-20 seconds) before he handed them medications for whatever ailment they had.
When we got back home, probably about a dozen of us took a walk around the block. I had a little chat with Nancy, Suresh’s youngest daughter, as we walked down the streets around the neighborhood. It was getting dark out.
That night us girls went downstairs to the 1
st floor and talked with the tailor who would be making us some traditional Indian outfits. He measured all 4 of us girls, and we picked
out the fabric that we wanted him to use to make our clothes. I decided to buy 2 dresses (punjabis?) and 1 sari, and then we were being given 1 sari for free. Each outfit was only around $10 or $12, and it would be nice to have some authentic Indian clothing. And that was the end of day 2 in India!
Be sure to view the other pictures below!
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