The Gift of Pain

"I was recognizably human; I had at least the usual complement of legs and arms, but I might have been some shameful piece of garbage. There was something indecent about the way in which I was being furtively shuffled out of life."

~ Peter Greaves, a leprosy patient

From the book The Gift of Pain by Dr. Paul Brand

Washing the feet of the leprosy afflicted is a tender moment and a special opportunity.  For a few moments I held in my hands the awful, physical effects of the disease as I dealt with disfigured limbs and open sore wounds.  But in those few moments I also made a very clear and distinct statement of compassion. Instead of shunning away from the individual and treating them as something less than human, I embraced them.  I picked up the despised piece of flesh and gently washed it without shame or disgust.  My hands became healing hands, comforting hands and accepting hands for a human being.

Love is the best medicine we can provide to these individuals.  In one of the colonies we met our last patient of the day named Joseph.  He was a strong believing Christian who spent his entire day singing hymns and praying.  Joseph was also blind and almost completely deaf.  Both feet had been amputated and he generally moved around using the palms of his hands.  Joel and I helped lift the man from his house to a wheelchair so that we could more easily transport him to the ulcer care centers.  His ulcers were on the palms of his disfigured hands.

 The entire time that we pushed him to the different ulcer care stations and cleaned his wounds it seemed that he didn't even notice our existence and what we were doing.  He just continued to sing and pray.  After he was all taken care of and wrapped up it was time to take him back to his home.  Joel and I once again picked him up out of the wheelchair.  We placed him in front of his house so that he could enjoy the breeze. As we began to walk away we heard him say in clear and perfect English, "Thank-you."

Hearing those words had an astounding affect on me, it was difficult to hold back the tears.  Despite the poor living conditions and poor health of this man, he showed gratitude to our attempt to make his life better.  For a man who might be considered to have nothing, he still found something to be grateful for and found a way to express it.  How much more do I need to be grateful for all of the blessings I have in my life, including the gift of pain. The gift of pain allows us to recognize when something is wrong and fix it before more serious problems occur.  One of the reasons leprosy is such an awful disease is due to the fact that the leprosy patients eventually lose the ability to feel pain and thus continue to stand in a place without shifting causing ulcers or step on a nail without feeling it and only realizing it days later when the foot has been grossly infected.  Thanks to the gift of pain, we can maintain a healthy existence and yet it is a gift we often despise and wish did not exist.

Dear Theerti

Dear Theerti,

Happy Birthday!!

I wanted to make sure you know that even though I will be on the other side of the world, I will still be thinking of you on your special day, the 15th of August. Unfortunately, I could not stay. I have some other business to take care of in the United States but I will always be thinking about my dear friend in India.

These past three weeks have been an extremely rewarding experience.  Each day from the moment we met I have looked forward to our epic games of chase and seeing your beautiful smile.  Although I don't think that being the catcher all the time was completely fair, I would never trade those moments with you for anything. You were so fast and ran for so long I often thought I would never catch you. We played so well that even the other kids wanted to get in on all the fun.  We made a great team as we worked together to catch the other kids and make the game fun and entertaining for all.

And remember that night when we watched "Meet the Robinsons" you wanted me to sit next to you but 5 other boys were already using me as their human mattress. It didn't stop you.  You took my arm and yanked and pulled me closer to you, somehow you managed to get me close enough to talk to you.  Along with that night, you made my days tutoring in the library so much more fun when you poked your head in between each class period just to say hello.

Finally, the nights you saw me pass your window as I was returning from family time and you whispered, "Ray, Ray," until you got my attention and I looked up to hear you say, "goodnight." Those nights created a perfect ending to a happy day.  These past three weeks you have become a cherished and wonderful friend to me, a best friend. I hope you will remember me in years to come, but more importantly I hope you understand that I will never forget you. I hope you continue to be a friendly, kind and determined woman.

With much love from your friend,

Uncle Ray

Weekends at Rising Star Outreach

Weekends here at Rising Star are tons of fun.

We went to a beach town called Momallapuram, on my first weekend here and as you can see from the picture above I saved the entire town from a gigantic rock sliding down the hillside.

Ok... maybe that rock has always been there and will never budge.  The English empire tried to pull it down  with 9 elephants and it didn't even move.  I think the locals call the slope with the rock a butter bowl.

We saw ancient ruins of a Hindu temple up along a hill that overlooks the city. Where I found my inner peace and saw tons of mountain goats all over the place.

We then hit up an awesome beach resort, where we swam in the Bay of Bengal.  It was warm, refreshing and very salty. I am sure that water had healing effects.  We then jumped into the perfectly blue resort pool to rinse off whatever might have been in that ocean water.

The second weekend was our Delhi and Agra trip. On Friday we took a two hour bus ride to the airport and then another 2 hour flight to Delhi.  We met our tour guide at the airport and loaded into a 15 seater bus. The Monsoon season started the day we arrived in Delhi so we got to experience a beautifully wet Indian tour.

We first got take a bicycle rickshaw ride through Old Delhi.

Seeing Hindu Temples, Gein Temples, Muslim Mosques and even a McDonald's

Markets of every kind including the famous Old Delhi Spice Market most of which in the rain.

After a nice visit in Delhi and some food we took a 6 hour bus trip to Agra where our 5 star Hotel and the Taj Mahal resides.  Early Saturday we ventured out to the Taj Mahal, the "Palace of Jewels." It was breathtaking to say the least.  Our tour guide explained that the Taj Mahal, is monument for a true Indian love story.

This mausoleum was built by a Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal when she died in 1632.  The Taj Mahal is perfectly symmetrical, except for the tomb of the Emperor himself since he had planned to build a black Taj Mahal across the river but was imprisoned by his ruthless son at the Agra fort. The Taj Mahal took 22 years to complete and is made with the highest grade white marble which is as hard as iron and decorated with fitted jewels and precious stones like onyx.

After getting inside and checking out the porch around the Taj Mahal the monsoon hit again and we ended up dancing in the rain at the Taj Mahal.  After wards we headed over to the Agra fort that served as both a Palace for the Mughal empire and a military compound.  It was here that Shah Jahan was imprisoned until the end of his life in a tower that he could see the Taj Mahal from a distance but never again enter until his death.  The Fort had a legit moat with crocodiles, then surrounded by lions and the emperor's army: talk about security.

It was incredible to see the Glory of India up close and personal.  The next day as we headed back to Delhi we stopped along the way to ride an elephant.  What a great way to end a magnificent weekend.

Medical Day

"Good medicine treats an individual, not merely a disease."

~ Hippocrates

Medical Day is a very special, and emotionally spiritual day.  On a typical medical day we head to the colonies to perform ulcer care for the leprosy patients.  We set up an area, usually in a home of one of the patients with different booths. First off they come in and grab their file and have their blood pressure measured, sometimes that will include their blood sugar level. Once they have been checked by the doctor who will prescribe any needed medicine, access their conditions and update their file, the patients come to our other designated areas to take care of their ulcers which is usually found on their feet.  First booth: their bandages (if they have any) get cut off and their toe nails get clipped. Second booth: their feet and ulcers get washed and scrubbed with soapy water. Third booth: Oil gets applied to their dry skin around the ulcer and along their feet and legs.  Fourth booth: a nurse cuts off the necrotic tissue and applies a balm to the ulcer. A volunteer assistant then bandages up the ulcer.  

Some patients are very sensitive to the pain of the ulcer and even the slightest touch can bring on tears of pain, others on the other hand hardly notice the nurse digging into their ulcers to cut away the dead tissue.  The fact that some patients feel pain is a good sign that they haven't completely lost the nerve tissue in the area of the ulcer.  The lack of pain is the main reason most of these ulcers occur; because, without pain being a warning sign to them that something is wrong they continue to walk on a wound making it worse or they don't shift from a pressure point like we would when things get uncomfortable thus creating a worse condition for their ulcer.

However, more important than the medical care that we treat these patients with, the greatest healing we can do is to provide a great degree of love and respect to these individuals who have been rejected from society.  We had one patient come in who was the grandmother of one of the students here at the Peery Matriculation School.  She was full of energy and presented herself at the door with a loud, high pitched, "Vanakum" which is a greeting in Tamil.  I had the opportunity to put oil on her feet and legs.  When I was finished she took her two hands which were missing fingers and took them to her lips and kissed them and then touched my cheeks with her hands as a way to say thank you and express her love for us volunteers.  We then exchanged I love you's in both Tamil and English.  It was a tender moment that allowed me to truly understand that more than washing their feet and putting oil on their legs, the love we share as fellow human beings is the most important service we can share.

Special in Every Way

" We are less when we don't include everyone."

~ Stuart Milk

The first time going out to medical we got to visit a special needs school/home where we did height and weight measurements and a doctor performed a checkup on each kid.  This was a special opportunity where I was completely in my element because it allowed us to play and interact with these special kids.  There was one kid, Ashok, who was the tallest of the bunch and pretty strong.  He suffered from an extreme form of autism and couldn't verbally communicate and was also physically disabled, but he was smart and communicated very well with his hands and gestures.  We clicked and did high fives and fist bumping right from the start.

Within moments of arriving I was swarmed by these children eager to get attention and love.  Several of them just wanted me to hug and hold them, there was even one boy who started dancing with me to an unknown beat.  Once we got the children through the checkups we sang songs with them that included several hand gestures like "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree" or "head shoulders knees and toes".  They did a great job in following.

Somehow, Ashok and I started doing fireman holds with the children where we would form a square by interlocking our arms to form a chair for a person to sit in.  We would then lift up a child and carry them around calling them kings and queens in Tamil which is Raja (King) and Reena (Queen).  Being able to pick up those kids and call them Kings and Queens was a special moment for me as well as for them.  Similar to the leprosy patients, individuals with special needs are also considered outcasts of the society and instead of being taken care of by the society they are shunned away, left as nothing better than the trash that lines the streets These children are not trash, they are children of God with incredible spirits: completely innocent, full of love and with a special capacity to trust and forgive quickly and easily.  It was a special moment to have them feel included and loved, and at least temporarily treated as the royal spirits they truly are.

Construction Day

"Whatever good things we build end up building us."

~ Jim Rohn

Construction day is a physically exerting experience, but very rewarding. On Wednesday, we headed out to one of the leprosy colonies to be helping hands in the construction of bathrooms and septic tanks. These projects are funded by the people themselves thanks to the success of their businesses, that were made possible due to the micro-loan program provided by Rising Star Outreach. As volunteers we help lower the cost by providing free unskilled labor, but the materials and skilled laborers are paid for by the leprosy patients who own the property being built on.

The colony that we went to was the most well developed out of all the other leprosy colonies. The people there has made huge improvements thanks to the micro-loans. There is a very good carpenter and barber in the colony as well as an art school and a community sponsored old person home. When we arrived there was music playing through these huge speakers at the community center. The community center was built last year by pooling all of their money together so they can celebrate life with each other. There must have been a party that day because it was the first time our construction volunteer coordinator, Kim, has heard music played on loud speakers at the colony. The music was uplifting and created a fun environment.

Our project that day was moving several piles of cinder blocks from the road to the back of the house where an outhouse would be constructed. At first we tried picking up one or two bricks from the pile and walking them behind the house as we tried to avoid running into each other. After the first two houses like this we decided it would be easier to do a pass along train from the front to the back. The music continued to play and Brenda and Kim started to really get into the music and dance as they passed the bricks along. There were two other women sitting in front of the house watching us and they had the biggest smiles on their faces as they enjoyed the dancing entertainment. Watching them made the work easy and fun, I had a smile from ear to ear. I would have joined them but I was lifting the bricks from the piles and had little opportunity to dance along.

The day seemed to zoom by as we worked hard. As we were walking back to our van we run into this tiny little woman with the huge bottom bottle glasses. We told her that we liked the music and emphasized it so she could understand with dancing movements, the she started dancing right back and it was awesome. I took a picture of her and our Coordinator, Kim. Try to imagine this little old woman dancing.

Returning to the colonies we stopped and got some delicious ice cream and then came back to the campus and after resting and taking a much needed shower went to play time with the kids. Somehow I got roped into doing the swings by a sweet little kid who said, "Uncle, please push." When it was discovered that I am an expert swing pusher I was not allowed to leave the swings for the rest of play time. The hardest part was convincing the kids to get off the swings in order to allow other kids who have been waiting to have a turn. They would just look at me with those big brown eyes and ask, "Uncle, please... just one last time." Unfortunately, they are not that good at keeping their promises of it truly being the last time, but somehow I was able to create a fair system of only pushing the kids three times before they had to get out. It was an exhausting day with construction and swing pushing but at the same time it was a truly fantastic, worthwhile day.

Education Day

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

~Nelson Mandela

I woke up on Tuesday feeling great. I suppose that I was dehydrated, but my health has been nursed back to me along with my appetite. Here on the Rising Star Campus the volunteers are assigned into three groups: cobra, scorpion and shakti (power) that rotate responsibilities each day. My group is scorpion which includes myself, Stacy, Savannah and a mother daughter duo: Brenda and Quincy. On our first rotation we were assigned with Education.

Here on Campus there is a wonderful school for the kids called the Peery Matriculation School. When we are on the education round we sit in the library as they usher kids in to be tutored in either English or math. We spend forty minutes with each kid, helping them complete the assignment we have been handed to give them. While tutoring them in English we try to focus on pronunciation and comprehension of the text. With math we focus on making sure they are getting the right answer.

We each have an opportunity to tutor five wonderful kids through out the day. My first two kids were boys and we worked on their English. Even though they understand spoken English fairly well and do a good job in speaking with us Americans, they still have difficulty in reading and writing in English -- mainly due to the fact that our language is not phonetic. Since they struggle with the written language their desire to read is low. But we helped encourage them and due to our persistence kept them motivated to push through the assignment. It was easy to tell who were the more focused students and who would require more patience.

Math turned out to be a much easier concept to tutor since most of the students felt comfortable with numbers and their times tables. The biggest struggle was the eventual boredom of doing math problem after math problem, but we helped spice it up with some friendly racing competition.
The best parts of doing education is the opportunity to watch their morning conclave. Here they do the daily announcements and say their national anthem/pledge all lined up in front of the flag pole in their cute little school uniforms. Their attitude was completely different from what I saw the night before, where the night before they were rambunctious and at school they were calm and disciplined. Another great benefit is the opportunity to eat a typical Indian lunch with the students on the ground under an open dining pavilion.

Working with the kids in helping them build a brighter future through their education was rewarding. Although there were difficult moments in focusing on the short term assignment, I maintained focus with the vision of the long term benefits of education, especially English, in the lives of these children. Within the caste system here these children are considered the bottom of the pile due to the circumstances the families and circumstances they are born in, but working with them I see so much potential. Their education is the key to unlocking their full potential so that they can rise above the expectations this society has placed upon them.

Arriving at Rising Star Outreach

Monday morning I woke up around 4:00 am absolutely not feeling well with diarrhea, vomiting and a loss of appetite. It was a bad way to start the day. When the restaurant at my hotel opened for breakfast at 8:00 am I bought two 7ups with the hopes of it settling my stomach which seemed to help. By the time I checked out and made it over to the Marriott Hotel to meet up with the other volunteers of Rising Star Outreach and make our two and a half hour trip to the RSO Campus I was feeling better.
It was so great to meet up with the group and start to get to know everybody. We all happen to be L.D.S. and were all excited to get started with the program. Halfway through the trip, I started feeling ill again. With all the bumping on the road and constant stopping and going it was inevitable that I would use the throw up bag I luckily saved from the plane. Once I had released my inner sickness the world started to become a better place again and I was able to take the rest of the journey with ease.
As we drew closer to the campus we passed through the village on our way in. There were grass roofed huts that were quite the site to see as the roofs nearly came down to touch the ground. When we reached the road that led to the campus, there were piles of rocks plopped down in the middle of the road. Derek, the volunteer coordinator with us, explained that a month ago the road was starting to get paved but nothing more has occurred since then. "This is India (TII)," he explained, which is a common phrase to express that not everything goes as planned here in India.

We finally reached the outside gate to the campus, which is a huge lot of land full of mango and coconut trees. They showed us to our rooms at the elephant house, boys on one side and girls on the other. Our rooms are accommodated with air conditioning, and bunk beds. In our group we only have three boys and about ten girls, the smallest group this summer. The bathroom is accommodated with several bucket shower stalls, and squatter toilets, along with one western shower and one western toilet for emergencies. The kitchen is stocked with American food including cereal and peanut butter and place chill our water bottles. There is also a comfortable hangout room equipped with guitars and comfortable couches.
After and orientation we had the opportunity to go play with the kids at their hostels which are on the other side of the campus. They call us Auntie and Uncle, which is the cutest thing in the world, and they all opened right up to us. I showed a few of the boys a "secret handshake" that became a big hit and once I made my infamous elephant sound the requests never ended for "one more time."

After a few hours all of us were completely worn out when we returned for dinner on the rooftop. Our meal of red rice, sauce, and (luckily) some chicken was accompanied by a lightning show of an approaching storm. There is a tradition here that during our meal we all get a chance to stand up and share our High and our Low of the day. It was a great way to hear the best and worst of everybody's experiences that day. After dinner we head back over to the hostels to an assigned "family" group led by a house mother for family time. My housemother is Grace and volunteer that I am paired with is Hillary. Male volunteers can't go to the girls' hostel but the female volunteers can come to the boys' hostel; therefore, my family group is made up of very rambunctious boys. Already, I have a great amount of love for these children. When we came back it was safe to say that we were all worn out in the best way possible.

Church in India

On Sunday I made the trip to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, of which I am a member of, located in the basement of a large business building. Surprisingly, when I arrived the service was all done in English including the hymns and the lessons. I was amazed at the strength of the branch which was completely ran by native Indians. While there they were preparing two young men to go and serve missions within the next couple of weeks who stood up and bore their testimony of the church. We were then entreated by two wonderful and entertaining talks of a Mother, daughter duo: Sister Margaret and Sister Ursala. I was impressed with the strength of spirit among the members. During the Sunday School lesson Sister Margaret shared her powerful testimony of the the atonement of Christ as she taught us about the Crucifixion of Christ. After our meetings we were then further blessed with the opportunity to see the baptism of a young American boy, John, whose father works at the U.S. Embassy in Chennai. It was a very special day and service at church, I definitely felt right at home and had the opportunity to meet some volunteers of Rising Star Outreach including those who are here long term such as the volunteer coordinators and those volunteers who were leaving the program. It was exhilarating to connect with fellow Brothers and Sisters of the church as well as interact with fellow Americans once again. The reunion gave me great hopes of encouragement that I made the right decision to come to India and work for Rising Star Outreach.
I would also like to briefly talk about my trip I made on Saturday to Chinamalai where a Church was built over the cave where St. Thomas supposedly stayed and then ran away from while escaping an attack of Brahman Priests only later to be killed on a Mount about 2 km from the site by being pierced by a spear. Along the wall near a tiny hole where he escaped a hand print can be seen which is rumored to be the hand print of Thomas himself. Also in the cave was a very red rock which also supposedly contains the footprint of Thomas. Near the cave was a holy spring where as the story goes was a place that Thomas with a staff hit a rock and water came out. Similar to the story Moses. However, it was very difficult to see the spring since the door to the site was locked and through the windows it was very dark. Along the site of the Church there were several statues depicting scenes from the life of Jesus especially his final hours of torture, crucifixion and burial. This was quite a remarkable site to see. The pictures below are from this Catholic Church where the cave is.

Exploring Chennai

I started my exploration of the Chennai City at the T. Nagar Ranganathan Street Market which is suppose to be one of the places with the largest gold and silk exchange. The street was littered with paper, crowded and full of street vendors selling items from common housewares to fine silk scarfs and sarees. I felt comfortable however looking at the items and doing some souvenir shopping. It was exhilarating being a part of the rhythm of the city. While looking at some sarees in a shop one the ladies working there asked me if I was married. I told them no, I was just looking at sarees for my sister. She then smiled and asked, "You, me get married?" I just laughed and replied no. I don't believe she truly expected any other answer but it made me smile. The hardest part of being on this street were the beggars, especially the women with a sleeping child in their arms, who persistently asked for money. They kept following me throughout the street and even to the rickshaw to continue to ask for money. My heart went out to them but due to principle of being out here to help the lepers and outcasts in India realize that they can do more than just beg I had to deny them of my money.

After I was finished exploring the street I carried my journey to the Santhome Cathedral Basilica to see the tomb of the Apostle St. Thomas. Aparently his remains have already been removed and carried to Ortano in 1258 where they are still housed. At this basilica, however, there is a shrine that preserves a small bone from the hand that touched the side of Jesus after His resurrection. They didn't allow us to take pictures in the tomb but I did take some pictures of the Cathedral on the outside and inside.

I next went to the Kapaleeshwar Temple, which is the oldest temple in Chennai. It is a temple for the Hindu-diety, Shiva, who is respected as the Supreme God who with his right hand holds the power of creation and with his left hand holds the power of destruction. He is always represented as an eternal youth due to his authority over death, rebirth and immortality. Shiva is also the father of Ganesha, the God of good luck who has the head of an elephant and the body of a man, and the father of Murugan, the God of War and Victory who has six faces. The temple has around 10,000 statues built that depict Hindu stories of Shiva and his family and they are all hand painted by 300 men within a month, every ten years. Within the temple there is a wedding hall that was being prepared while I was there and I learned that married women will wear a silver ring on both of their second toes.

After visiting the temple I took a trip to the Marina Beach along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The beach itself is not exactly pretty but it is one of the longest beaches in Southeast Asia measuring around 12 km long. While there I got to ride on top of a white Arabian horse full speed along the coast. It was quite the adventure to enjoy the seaside breeze and look out on the murky waters of of the Bay of Bengal. Surprisingly there was not a big crowd along the beach but I could see from a distance several big ships anchored to the port and huge red light house keeping guard of the beach.