(Above: Santhosh - yellow - with other HIV+ kids at our Monthly Children's Day last Saturday -- more pics are coming soon. Promise!)
Today we continued our efforts to purge ourselves of over 80 years of paper, history, junk and stuffed animals. Before we began I was asked to give the devotion before the staff in the morning. I focused on Galatians (of course) 1:11-18. But I specifically focused on the phrase “He was PLEASED to reveal his son to me”.
The heart of God: the excitement of his heart, the yearning of his heart, the heart beat of God is his pleasure and desire to even reveal his son Jesus to his enemies. So we spent 30 minutes contemplating the kind of God that the Bible explains the Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of the universe to be. And how we have an invitation, as enemies, to leave our former “track, road” of life and take God up on his promise of eternal forgiveness and the gift of his Spirit within. To follow the new “way, path, road” in Jesus. Paul did. And Paul reflects back to his conversion and says that Jesus’ heart for Paul was completely opposite of Paul’s heart for Jesus – until that day on the way to Damascus.
After this set aside time to meditate on the things of God… we began again meditation on the thing of the “Rees” family. There were some gems that we discovered yesterday: priceless photos, over 2000 slides from China, Burma, NE India, and Andhra Pradesh (current state that this phase of the mission is in). We tossed several machines that no longer work – but also found 8mm projectors (2) that are in working order and probably can fetch a lot of money for collectors! If there are any in India – cause they each way 35 lbs and they are NOT coming home with us! The point that we reached the summit of our project (see the destination is to actually make it back down the mountain, not perish on top!), was at 3:15pm. It was at this time that I began to place the REES collection of books (Usha & Emrys’ alone is 4 barrels so far…so…1500-2000 books?) BACK INTO the store room. So we have 4 barrels that are actually back in the storage room now! Only 20 more to go, and another 20 to sell!
We still have 2 barrels and around 5 small schests of “ledgers” from the mission to go through today (this is the last of the large projects overall in the room). The Hospital has 3 gray chests (2ft high, 2 ft deep, 4 ft wide) That I hope we can fit the critical ledgers from 1968 (year of establishment of the NPO/NGO here) all the way till 1990’s (when this cool thing they call a computer arrived here – I am actually using one now… they are neat!).
Quitting time came around 5:15pm as the power went out. This time, however, the hospital had power…we did not. Come to find out that our power meter shorted out (finally after 37 years) and we need to replace it. So after 2 hours of no power and “quality time” for Kathryn and I to lay in our bed opposite of each other and fan the other person (actually team work is 3-4 times more effective) – we finally got back our power. Just in time to make tomato, cheese and cucumber sandwiches! These are a great “cool down” treat after a long hot day. And we watched American Idol last night. I think that Adam kid is going to become to “caricatured” and just might lose this inevitable crown (like the Giants beating the Patriots a couple years back). I still am an Alison fan and I hope that Justin Timberlake wannabe is gone soon. It seemed that the ‘new’ judge (forgot her name) was taking some of the ‘Paula pills’, by the time the show was finishing she could not speak for the last two contestants.
I am bushed.
Prayers: that we find an important piece of paper if is here. A copy of the original marriage certificate of two family friends here in India. We are not sure if it is even here - -however, if it is—we don’t want to toss it by accident. So prayers that Usha’s eyes will be focused and head will be focused as she only contemplates these items for 2-5 seconds before they are burned tossed or kept.
Praises: Kathryn’s itchy palms have been now diagnosed as an allergic reaction to something “new” here. So we can chalk that up to over 2,500 new things that we have done since we were here! I am just glad that she is no longer suffering with the itch, and that her body is beginning to heal.
Thanks for your emails – keep them coming!!!! Comments are always a great treat before bed also!!!
Our love to all who read, think and pray for us. We need you and we don’t take your friendship and prayers lightly.
Today was great. I got a bar of Lifebouy soap. It is basically the fullest amount of lye in a bar of soap without blinding you or melting your first layer of skin. enough of the sissy Dove bars... I want power.
We spent 9:30-5:30 continuing the cleaning circuit in the living room. Actually it looks worse now, although we made some great headway -- only 3 more days (we estimate).
A shower and a few minutes here at the computer and we will be having a prayer meeting and Bible study in the staff meeting room in a few minutes. I am sure that will be normal, except it is my in laws anniversary. we'll probably watch some cricket and eat late after the meeting and then hit the sack.
No big news today. dominated by great memories stored in trunks and junk that should be burned.
Prayers: We are having Bible study tonight because there is a preaching convention in Chennai this weekend and many of the churches up here are going (since the sermons will be translated in Tamil, English and Telegu.). So please pray for Vincent and the other speakers this weekend. And for the listeners!
Praises: Suresh Attah found Emrys' Canadian citizenship card. So that was a huge relief. First to Emerys and by proxy all who live with Emrys.
Thanks for your emails these last few days to some of you out there... they do mean a lot. Even the boring stuff! theparoubeks@juno.com or comment here.
Today started like any other. Windy, cool (meaning 80-85 degrees). It was pretty cloudy as I ran. I finished outlining a book to help up change our paradigm and philosophy basically from looking at those who give to BSSI as donors, to investors. And seeing their money not as gifts, but investments they wish to have a return on (no a monetary return, but nonetheless they want their money to accomplish something). So, that 1st outline is done.
Things were going just as normal as can be…Tiffin (breakfast), morning devotions at the DLRH. And then we were dismissed from the staff room. Suddenly Kathryn smiles and says, “are you ready to help my mother clean out the storage room.” I had forgot about that during the morning.
What followed from 9:30 -6pm yesterday (actually only accomplishing 1/3 of our work, if that) was the slow movement of one 50gallon drum barrel after another out of this storage room and into the living room for evaluation. We are taking many pictures of this process (for your amusement, and our documentation). It was not “fun”, lets say. However from childhood ‘junk’, to Kathryn’s 700 children’s books, to then ledgers from 1920!, to discovering books from 1860-1910 from great grandparents, to Emrys’ photography collection from the 70’s, to finally a mother load of family pictures from the early 1900’s in Wales (Emrys father’s side) all the way to 1990’s.
My back is killing, my muscles seem to take about 30-50% longer to repair themselves in this climate, I have a headache, I went through 2 shirts (the pre-lunch, and post-lunch shirt) – but something happened amidst the frustration, overwhelming ‘stuff’ of it all, when we started this morning emotions were a little…mmmm… short. And when we finished my mother in law was discovering her husbands family that she had not known—or was seeing people she has met in her life as children. My wife was making homemade pizza (that we enjoyed around 7pm) and it was just neat. I can’t describe it any other way.
There are things that should have been burned 30-40 years ago that we are discovering. There are “trinkets” that don’t make sense to hold onto. But you also have the never opened original ‘Indian Barbie’ of Kathryn’s which I am sure is worth something. Or Roberts early 1980’s Michael Jordan cards. Especially the Indian made ones – I am sure there are not many of them out there!
So, last count I think we have around 46 barrels and around 14 metal chests. I told you it was a project! So I wonder what pain I will feel at the end of tomorrow, and what discoveries we will have made. (I also found out that our house has an attic yesterday… actually it is an outside stair case to a flat roof with a asbestos roof constructed over it, providing a place for the cats to sleep (I have never seen a cat here in 4 visits until yesterday) and more empty barrels!!!
Prayers: Pray for our bodies to keep up doing this sorting. BUT even more pray for two things. (1) Bascavel (an chaplain for the hospital) ‘met with an accident’ (as they say here) about 48 hours back. He is missing work this week as he recoups. There are little outside signs of the accident (a van ran into his motorcycle with both himself and his wife on it). We are praying for a fast recovery and that his internal tests (taken yesterday) will come back negative of damage.
Praises: (2) I hesitate to make this a total “praise” column request, since it will remain a prayer request, and a link on this blog for some time. But I was relieved to get a good connection tonight (basically around 100Kb’s in the village area is good). So that I could actually upload and catch up on the last week of “Baby McKStellan’s” life. I should just say Stellan. So rather that recap – do me a favor and visit that cute picture on the right column of this blog. You can read the whole story of Stellan McKinney about half way down on his mother, Jennifer’s, blog on the left. It is captioned “The doctors told me my baby wouldn’t live…” (something to that nature).
Okay. Thanks for reading…. And everyone should tell my sister happy birthday tomorrow on the 29th (mysweetlittlefamily.blogspot.com)!!! As we celebrate 31 years of marriage between my in-laws also on the 29th!!!!
God bless all the eyes that read this blog, Thank you all.
Today I awoke early, 4am, and needed to get some ideas on paper. Yah, just be glad YOU are not the one who lives with me – Lord help my wife, hear my prayer!
After exercise I was told (at least I got a 2 hour warning) that I needed to prepare a 40 minute devotion (actually 30minutes plus translation) for the Monthly Meeting of all the staff at the hospital.
It was great to see about 80 of the 100 staff assembled here today. Once a month the outpatient staff and all the local staff are required to be at DLRH for a review of the previous month and important events coming up. And some fun time (birthdays, anniversaries, tea). The chicken vindaloo was awesome. I wished that my friend Ed Hudgins could have been here. He would have broke out into a North Carolina southern boy reaction to the spices in that chicken I am sure! It was fantastic. We had a large meal compliments of my parents due to their 31st year of marriage (also my sisters 30th year of life – same day!!! How ‘bout that!)
Kathryn and I were honored at the event for our willingness to come out and to take on a new role in helping the future sustainability and investments of the mission here. Though we are still discovering what it exactly means in our roles – specifically my role. We do know that investor relations, communications and future strategic initiatives will be the general umbrella of our service to BSSI (and in part, the David & Lois Rees hospital). So at least I sound important! That is the key in life right? Long titles on business cards and several pieces of paper on the wall’s behind ones desk?
Really though – as we are here it is good to know that we are pursuing a deeper understanding of the Hospital, the needs currently, the dreams of staff and our parents… and also the GREAT potential for partnerships, long term investments, community investment and other avenues so that we don’t only offer the villages here medical help in a time of need/crisis but an economic network and community to help them reshape and recover their former life. I am honored to at least be in this part of the process.
I bummed around during the afternoon having conversations with several staff that were not in their meetings. 4pm the whole staff spend 1 hour cleaning up the grounds. Actually this is not normal at all and is a good way to show that we are here to serve and that no person is greater than another – even though our responsibilities maybe larger or in a different sphere. When there is a used gum wrapper on the ground, God doesn’t care if you are a PhD or a common construction worker. Pick up the trash! Many Christians would do well to understand this.
We also had a couple of girls who were here on internship leave today (we missed most of their time here over April). I was confused as to the real nature of their internship and the requirements from the local Bible College & Seminary in Chennai. It was a shock to remember the requirements of my 1998 trip to India (worth 2 credits) compared to the lack of requirements with these girls. Perhaps “internship” is a glorified mission trip during the summer and not for credit?
Anyway – now that they are gone and we have a little more room in the house, we are going to finally go through… prepare thyself…. “the storage room”. Don’t worry it will be documented. This room has been shuffled and re-apportioned (let us say) over the last 15 years since Kathryn’s grandmother returned to the U.S. due to age, illness and retirement. Needless to say that my earlier diatribe about cleaning up the trash, and that ‘no one is too good to clean up” will apply to Kathryn, Josh and Robert as we help Usha clean, discover and reorganize this 15 x 15 storage room!
There was no memory of supper last night for some reason. I was watching a Pakistani-Aussie cricket match when Santhosh reminded me it was his “Tom and Jerry Time”. *** side note to Matthew Naumann – we are trying to use “Tom and Jerry” like your “Scoobie-doo” time.
I only remember laying down with the intention of a 10 minute rest before working on installing our software and working on pictures so far…. And suddenly it is 3:15am and I am up… yep, be glad YOU don’t have to live with me. I know I am … wait… uh…
Prayers: Please pray for Emrys as he is under the gun getting his Canadian passport renewed (he will have to travel to Delhi this week to meet with the Canadian Consulate’s office). And continue to pray for our vision here, and that we can see and hear clearly what God is wishing for this hospital and the other work of BSSI in southern India.
Praises: Kathryn looks to finally have beaten back the jet lag monster into submission. Thanks for thinking of her. It is good to not see my wife suffering with an abnormal biological clock (as you all in the states are around 10 hours different that we are!!!)
Thank you for thinking of us, there are so many we think of in the US during the day. Any comments and updates from your side are always like a 10 mph wind coming down the mountains here after the electricity cuts off in 115degree heat (hint: they feel great!)
Well, so today there was no running/exercise program. We will chalk it up the Sabbath I guess. We rose around 7:30 just in time to see the power to go off for 1 hour. After eating some breakfast we had to separate the crayons to make sure every child (about 12 of them) has the exactly number and colors… all 24. One thing I learned today is that kids here don’t see crayons much—so the become a little obsessive about “mine”. Something to work on, their character, I guess.
Big lunch and I spent the afternoon discovering the 200 options on Suresh Attah’s new camera. Impressive. It’s like a professional camera, for non professionals. That pretty much ate up 4 hours of time, between a half an hour power outage.
Kathryn took another nap this evening, I got to meet the new doctor. I was really bummed when the former doctor chose to work full-time in the nearby city of 700K (Tirupati). He still visits to help out when he can. But the new guy is great. A retired doctor after 30 years in the Indian gov’t. He was a leprosy doctor for a long time. Now he has been trained in the last 5 years to be a vocal advocate (both to speak in villages and before committees) on the HIV problems here in Andhra.
I also got to talk for an hour with Balraju. I hope I didn’t murder his name. I don’t know the spelling yet. We talked about future projects and fund raising ideas from the stateside to compliment the need for infrastructure, education and agricultural investment in the rural villages here (so they can actually afford to be charitable someday with their money—instead of receiving it).
Had a late meal at 8pm. And fed the “mama” dog outside with some bread , rice and curd (like sour yogurt). All in all, a good day. We didn’t get to downloading our pictures and getting ready to post them. But I will soon. Hopefully tomorrow we will post several. (now I have to do it).
Prayers: please pray for clear thoughts and the commitment of a few principle figures here to have time to hash out these future ideas and current needs for the hospital. I really want to have a good start after 2 weeks here and I am ready to share and ready to listen to all proposals.
Thank you for following us. And we always thank you for thinking of us before the LORD.
Today was a special Saturday for the mission. As I mentioned before each month the children in the surrounding 3 districts with HIV report to the David and Lois Rees Hospital. It is a lot of fun to see so many smiling kids. With the 5 puppies around the front offices…it made for cute photos. But I am out of my time line.
This morning I awoke at 4:30am. So we are getting better with jet lag. I think Kathryn would write more on this blog if she wasn’t suffering so much with her jet lag this trip. I think she is taking it enough for both of us. Regularly in the states Kathryn can sleep from 10pm to 12pm the next day on Saturdays. Impressive, I wish I could do that! Please pray for her transition as the time is basically 10 hours different… so it tosses our bodies around. She slept for 8 hours off and on today and I just carried her to our bed now at 10pm.
After catching up on my two blog entrees… I went running again this morning. It was very humid today. I could tell. After 20 minutes of working out Kathryn said, “Did you just pour water on your shirt, or is that all sweat?” Yah, no water.
After an enjoyable cold water shower I discovered that I would be leading the devotions for the hospital staff at 9am. Thanks to my revival of Galatians over at saintjoshua.blogspot.com I was able to print off the introduction stuff and use that as a rough layout to speak on. Vincent translated for me. He is a good man. Always translating, so I gave him some heavy duty throat lozenges.
I worked with Kathryn more on the ‘logo” progression for the hospital (“branding” for the community), and kept up with my book outlines just in time to spend 11-12:30 with all the kids that were here with parents. I would guess that there were around 70-80 students today.
Each month parents bring their kids to get money for food, travel, medicine and extra nutrition supplements in a program that runs due to the Clinton Foundation. Due to conflicts with the gov’t administration, the Clinton Foundation will be pulling their money. So it would seem that we have our work cut out for us right away when we return—find funding for HIV+ children. I have to break it down per/child. But I think kids are an easy heart string…especially when you see the HUGE benefit a child can obtain with medicine, nutrition and education in the future. A HIV+ student can live to see 50 years (and all around that is great!).
Around 1pm the RAIN came. It was beautiful, a real monsoon rain in the middle of April (generally these rains don’t come after March). 30-40 mph gusts, cool rain falling, I was in paradise, if only for a moment. The whole countryside has been cool ever since today. About a 15 degree difference.
Kathryn and I slept from 2:30-5pm this afternoon. I was directed to open my eyes from my peaceful slumber by our resident director of the family (Santhosh). So we played around for a while, with Dusty and the other dogs also. The power is usually off here from 5:30-7:30am, 1:30-3:00pm, and 5:00-6;30pm. Today it was off till 7:45pm. So you really can’t do much except sit around and sweat. So I sat out at the table in the garden, with the cool breeze…and enjoyed some quiet time.
A meal with the family and an hour discussion with my father-n-law and here I am fighting the urge to lay down on the hard office floor. I am bushed, I need to just upload this… and sleep!
Tomorrow is church, down in Yerpedu. Looking forward to this very much. And a day to finally get all of our technical stuff in gear.
Thanks again for reading! JOSH Ps – Hey Matthew, just saw you became a follower.
It is truly better to go to the source of all things. The source of truth. The source of Mathematics. The Source of logic. The source real pizza. And I think I have found the source of true heat in the world. And we have not yet really begun to experience the “May Heat” as I hear many around us talk about. It is hot. Even for an Indian. It is Phoenix Arizona here. I am surviving, but wow. This is the real motivation to take my 110 kilo body (240 lbs) and get it to shrink to at least 210lbs (97 kilos?) by june 2 when we arrive back to the states. With no sugars, no real processed foods, no pop and certainly no “Edy’s French Silk” ice cream – I have the boundaries I need.
Okay, yesterday the power was out till 7:45 am, but by the time I could post-we were off to morning devotions at the hospital. I gathered it was the woman at the well (John chapter 4) but I could not really understand all the points. We have a new staff worker here at the hospital, a friend of Vincent’s (a staff chaplain and director at the hospital). I do not yet understand his body language.
Each Friday my father-n-law meets with the evangelist team here (of 4 men) for the day. Yesterday they had some personal stuff to attend to, so I hung out with Kathryn in the A/C (air conditioned) office and began outlining a good book on the ‘metrics’ of Nonprofits. Basically a change to a value driven form of fundraising. And changing your usually line of ‘100 men each year are a part of our program to re-enter society’ to a results amplified “return of investment” statement that ’80 of these 100 men will never step into prison again, make and average of 60% more each year than they did before their incarceration, and 42% are highly involved in a religious or civic volunteer organization.’ Now what would appeal to a business, investment and caring mind that truly wants results in the ‘service industry’ of nonprofits (often working in areas where many for profits fear to walk).
Okay. So we had a wonderful lunch together (I was very tired after exercising that morning and only having 3 idly’s). Then the LINK team (evangelists) arrived here at the hospital and we enjoyed around 2 hours of catching up with everyone’s lives, and hearing for about 60 minutes the new adventures that my brother-n-law, Robert, will be spearheading in India for at least 5 years in the realm of Bible translating. Some time for prayer and praise and our meeting was over.
I finally got hit with that darn jet lag bug. Kathryn has been napping 2-3 hours each afternoon since our arrival. I have not felt too tired until I collapsed yesterday onto the bed and slept till 5:30. Let’s just say I was not motivation to get up and go 5 kilometers down the road to Yerpedu (the local village here) to Vincent’s house for a small group gathering. As usual we talked about some verses in I Peter chapter 4. One of them told us not to grumble (murmur) any longer but to serve and love each other in the household of God. So I felt convicted as usual. And the Lord got his point across to me, and to a few others as we discussed.
We returned for leftovers from lunch (obviously a good thing) and I only ate one plate (letting me know that my body is starting to regulate its diet now, a good sign). Watched Lil’ Rounds and Anoop take the walk off stage for Idol. Helped Kathryn for an hour with the design of a “logo” to help the branding of the DLRH (David & Lois Rees Hospital). And then hit the sack after contemplating Galatians 1:6-10 for a few moments, again.
Good day overall. Nothing amazing, but actually regular, normal, boring days – not having to be the son-n-law and daughter returning home and meeting with people all day… is a welcomed change. Hopefully we will be a little more relaxed today (Saturday) as the HIV positive children come for there monthly meeting to celebrate all the birthday for the next month and receive their HIV medicine for the next month. I have learned that this medicine is soo valuable if take at a young age that an HIV infected child (usually during birth) can enjoy 40-60 years of life. And I hope they can see a cure or at least a complete stop gap on the advancement of the HIV virus in their next lifetime.
The Clinton foundations 5 year commitments to India are coming to an end and this important, and successful, monthly meeting for over 100 HIV kids in our half of the Chittoor district needs some funding. Please pray for this need – and if you would like to help this specific program that will have to be cancelled sometime this year… WRITE to me, comment this post. I am not sure how much the program costs. I know we use to get 10K from the Clinton Foundation each year – but I think only 2-3K is probably dedicated to this specific CHILD program for HIV+ (or HIVpositive) children. Seriously if your church has a goal to help the AIDS epidemic in the world, and specifically the innocent young life’s that have been infected by birth or blood transfusions – uh, we can hook that church up! And it will be used in an effective way!
Thanks for your 5 minutes today reading about our lives lived as you sleep! Good night or good morning to you!
…it is 5:20am, and all souls are now up at the Rees residence as the hand basin in the dining room we use to clean our hands after eating (we eat with just hands in India) has not broke and the only shut off valve is 100 feet outside the residence. Drama begins right on time. I hope you enjoy your Saturday in the states as you read this.
** we will try to get some pictures taken, and then uploaded sometime… maybe Sunday?
Greetings to everyone again, thank you for making our trip, the work here, and our friendship important enough to read, think and pray for over the next 40something days.
Yesterday – Thursday, April 23rd, our luggage finally caught up with us in India. I awoke with Suresh Attah at 3am and proceeded to the airport in Chennai. As everything was going way too well to be normal in India…and I had made a wise crack on our decent the day before concerning what else could go wrong (car issues)…our Mahindra Jeep began to have fuel problems. We were lucky at 3:20am to have a retired taxi driver turned businessman getting petrol (gas) next to us. He helped us enough to get the car going again.
I arrived at 3:45 as our luggage arrived and followed a young lady from Qatar Airways to the Chennai offices at the Chennai International Airport (code: MAA). Since I had my luggage 10 feet from myself… of course I had to wait for 45 minutes for the day shift supervisor to arrive to make one signature before I could leave. Ah, sometimes India and efficiency are like oil and water.
Back to the Rees flat on the north side of the city (Wiki: Chennai, India for more info), we loaded the roof of the jeep and left town around 6am quickly since the “Bund” (not Bunt I guess) could allow for large mobs, etc. We made it passed the boarder of Tamil Nadu into the state of Andhra Pradesh and we were safe…until the jeep started loosing power every 10 minutes, then 8 minutes, 4…2 kilometers…stop. We were lucky enough to stop near a mechanic shop who spent the nest 45-60 minutes tearing apart our fuel lines and cleaning all our filters. It seams that all the fuel lines and gas tank had been cleaned 3 months prior – except the read fuel line due to two rusted screws. Guess where the problem resided?
I appears that my father’s advice in the states about never letting your fuel tank get below ¼ applies even more in India. The diesel here is 3-4 times dirtier than the states. Still good enough to function, but you need to clean out fuel lines each quarter of the year. The gas had gone to 1/8th the previous day during errands and several pieces of dirt, string and even a small feather (yah, Kathryn and I were puzzled) entered the fuel line from the tank… and had been the true source of the problems. A 160 rupees bill and a 40 rps. Tip and we were on our way!
We arrived to the D.L.R.Hospital around 11:30 am unshaved, up since 3am, slightly sunburned, a little tired and sweaty just in time for all the staff that was working (light staff cause of regional and national voting today) came from the other side of the property to meet us. I felt like a slob, but they didn’t seem to mind the sweaty son-n-law. We were able to catch up with friends here already and to meet some new employees, including one who was on his very first day.
Today was mostly a time to unpack, rest, watch the IPL (India Professional League) Cricket matches (basically the ‘major league’ of India Cricketing—including international players during the off-season), taking long walk around the hospital grounds, and –of course—helping Santhosh build a train out of our empty boxes to sleep in last night. Oh, we also watched the rerun of American Idol. I was disappointed with the disco theme – that was ‘karaoke’ before anyone sang.
Finally I washed up with an Indian “bath” (basically a 30 gallon drum with water and a large 2 liter cup, scooping and pouring water over you). I could have used the showerhead, but it is all the same really. Hit the sack last night after joking around with Suresh Attah (and helping Kathryn feed the 5 puppy-dogs that are near the offices at the hospital.
Kathryn’s dog from 12 year back “Dusty” has been the faithful guard dog and father to 8-10 litters over the last 9 years. These puppies are usually semi-adopted by the security guards because Dusty has better genes than the other “dingo” looking semi-wild dogs around the hospital (for example, there are 4 small puppies near the HIV/AIDS guest quarters that are kind of looked after by the patients and guests of the hospital. However, these 5 in front have been underfed for at least 7-10 days and are beginning to look too skinny. KATHRYN to the RESCUE! We fed the dogs an old “idly” (a cream of wheat mixture shaped into a 3 inch flying saucer shape to tear apart and dip into several different “tiffin” (literally “non-rice” or rather “breakfast food”) curries and chutneys. They were very hungry and thirsty. Something tells me they will be very healthy young pups after Kathryn has 6 weeks to express her longing love for our “Claire-Bear” back home to these 5 little ones and their mother. Yes there is a good chance that a fraction will only make it to June – But it is true that God seems to put “Kathryn’s” into various dire situations all around the world (from a litter of puppies to a political exile camp in Africa).
Prayer Requests: Please pray for our plans over the next 3-4 days. We will be taking time to brainstorm and write down all the issues, dreams, tasks and logistics that are facing the hospital over the next 5-10 years. Specifically the next 2-3 years. Pray we do not get bogged down in the weeds as we are looking to frame 3-4 weeks of discussion based on these issues. Please pray for the LINK team here of chaplains/preachers who will be meeting with Emrys and myself on Fridays during the day to discuss the many economic, physical, emotion and spiritual avenues of the ministry here at the hospital and its continuing effects in the villages around here. Please also pray for stamina as it is wonderfully hot here during the day (100-120F) and we have had wind on from 2-8am in the mornings. Kathryn and I will be documenting the next 3-4 days as we begin to tear apart the 20x20 foot storage room in the Main Office here. Our goal is to re-organize it and see what discoveries we will make in the process. Dead or alive…ha ha haaah!!!
Thank you for your inclusion of our misadventures in your life today – I hope you have smiled and have enjoyed the many events of the day. (it is 5:30am, the power has just went out… and I am thinking… “when will I post this?” and “wow I am sweaty”))
I have decided that I will get back into the online commentary (actually it is more of the online “meditation” on short sections of the Bible daily to see what observations I make during the day). So you can check out saintjoshua.blogspot.com over the next 40 days to get into my spiritual head! When I return in June, I am planning to continue this with our dog each day… companionfortheroad.blogspot.com. NAMASTE!
Praise the Lord we arrived, with out wits but not our luggage, YET!. As I write this blog it is between 9:45 Indian time on Wednesday-we have now been IN India for 18 hours. I hope that our luggage is currently somewhere near the skies of Israel/Saudi Arabia. What a trip here!
We began Monday morning in the USA -- please understand that magically as a person flies to India time speeds up and you begin to loose the next day. Okay, so we began at 6am in our modest house in Lapel, Indiana. Rainy, stormy, windy. Having not looked at weather.com before leaving we were unaware of the hurricane size storm that was swamping Virginia, New York and even my home state of Wisconsin all at one time. Our flight left on time (10:00am) from Indianapolis to D.C.
As soon as we landed in D.C. we began planning our priority of Lunch. We found a wonderful “ethnic” restaurant in Concourse A at DullesAirport. Is it called “Dosi”. If you are ever at DullesAirport for more than a 2 hour layover, I would recommend this place. A little expensive – however – everything (yes even the bread) is cooked fresh and fired (prepared) after the order is issued. Very good food. We were satisfied….and so began the end of our enjoyable trip to India.
Our next connection flight to New York was suppose to board around 1:30pm. So we arrived around 1:15 to gate A4. We organized our carry-on to have easy access to books, etc. and eagerly awaited our United flight.Five minutes before our boarding the FSA (I think that is the agency in the USA) issued a “non-entry” command for LaGuardia and JFK airports due to 30-60 mph wind gusts. So our plane was delayed for 1 hour.Then one hour became 1:30minutes.Then 2 hours. Our “Jet Airways” (and Indian Carrier) flight from NY-Brussels-Chennai was to leave at 6:10pm in New York. For international flights you must make contact with the gate at least one hour before take off, when they shut down the gate.
So I was busy calling Jet Airways and punching strange buttons on the automatic voicemail system in order to talk to an Indian directly. I finally got through as the 3rd (yes 3rd) employee at Dulles opened a “Do Not Open” door near the same gate… now everyone was laughing of the failure of the employees to even know what is going on at the airport. Needless to say I had to then hang up and call from ¼ mile down the concourse. Having gotten through finally I then learned 4 minutes later I needed to sprint back to Kathryn to get her passport so that we could tell New York that we were still going to make it.. barely. Yes, I was that guy running down the concourse that you always see at least once while you are flying… the guy I use to make fun of!
We finally boarded at 4:15 and were on the runway at 4:30 in enough time to then be told that we were going to be delayed 90 minutes on the tarmac. So I had to call our agency (fellowship.com). Our agents boss, Dennison, was able to help us over the following hours. Okay, so we are on the tarmac for 1 hour (it is now around 5:45) when we learn that we will be delayed until 8:40pm for our departure… so it was decided to let us off the plane. 30 minutes later the announcement came over the PA that our flight was cancelled.2 dozen of us who were going to miss our international flights then proceed to concourse C, near gate 20 to wait in line for an hour to get “endorsed” flights from United with another carrier (so we will not be charged twice for one international trip). It was in line that we met a business man from India (now living in Virginia) that was flying back home to Hyderabad (capital of the state where the Rees hospital is located).His name was “Anand”. Kathryn talked to a southern belle who was the daughter of a Jewish Rabbi, and she was going to school in Israel.
So we had two new friends to help the hour go by.It was during that time that our fearless agent (Dennison) was overriding our current itinerary with a new one through Qatar (a United Arab Emirate) state about 500 miles south of Kuwait (you can Google it). By the time we got to the counter… it was all worked out and they took 2 minutes to endorse our new flights and we were off to concourse B to enjoy a Fuddruckers meal of a fish sandwich and chicken fingers.
Halfway through our meal we heard that we were being called to board our Qatar Airways flight 50 minutes before take off? I ate my fish as fast as I could… and Kathryn backed up our chicken fingers. We later guessed that Qatar Airways gets everyone in the plane so they can get the drinks and entertainment (each seat has a screen with access to movies, shows, news, games, etc.). Basically they are tossing free bread to the mob so that passengers have a great experience.
Rain picked up and we found ourselves sitting on the back rear right of the plane. Behind the HUGE engines (and I mean a Boeing 777 with just 2 engines… they were HUGE) and seated over the luggage compartment. So Kathryn watched for our luggage. A special vehicle carrying 7 pieces of luggage (our two pieces, and 5 other pieces from two families who were also scheduled with our same itinerary). The baggage guy proceeded to look at the numbers, his lists, take them off the vehicle, then on, then off and finally back on (rejecting them) and then Kathryn and I began to talk to 3 flight attendants (in order of responsibility) to see if that can make a call to the baggage men and explain why these pieces are separate! “No no sir, it will be on, it will be in transit” was the response. Basically, just get in your seat you do not understand international travel or our airline. FRUSTRATING!!!!!
Our plane then proceeded to move in the opposite direction of our luggage. We didn’t know if we should pray, cry or turn red in anger… we chose to do all three! It took about 3 hours to cool off and realize that when you fly you really have NO CONTROL over anything, only the remote in your hand of what you watch and the volume. And you can go the bathroom, when the light tell you it is okay. Other than this… you are a ‘guest’.Qatar’s service was GREAT. Best I have had since Singapore Airlines in 1998 on my first trip to India. We even had an ice cream service of food. (I know, rough life huh?).So I proceeded to attempt to stay up all 12 hours for the flight (to switch my internal clock), while Kathryn slept for 6 hours in the two empty seats in our row.
I was able to start watching three movies but did not stay awake to see any endings… in and out all flight. We arrived at Doha international terminal for our connecting flight to only realize that it is a special concourse for foreigners and not the main airport. So they can tell us information, but have now way to actually do anything. Another frustrating point as we were trying to get a commitment for the airline to send our luggage on the next day’s flight to Doha and then to Chennai. It is basically a huge “duty free”(non-taxed) mall with 12 flight gates built around the shopping center. Very impressive with their marketing. Really an inventive idea to get more money while people wait.
Frustrated again we boarded our Chennai flight and I ate a quick meal after take off and slept for 3.5 hours till landing. Obviously we knew our luggage was still in D.C. but we were glad that a customs agent met us as we walked to the custom gates and said that they have received several answers to our complaints and we needed to register a formal loss of luggage form and then it could be “telexed” to DC and Doha. So we spend 90 minutes figuring all of this information out.. and Usha Rees (Kathryn’s mother) and her cousin, Suresh waited for us outside. (If I write ‘Suresh Attah’ please understand that it only means = Suresh brother, or brother Suresh – it is a somewhat formal name for family members.)
5:45am Indian time (2 hours from our landing) we finally were home explaining the previous several paragraphs to an eager team of parents, brother, cousins, and Santhosh (whom you will come to know and laugh about in the days to come). We have been shopping, seeing friends, napping and eating today. Relaxing as we wait for our luggage to arrive in 5 hours (it is now 10:30pm as I finish this post).
There are elections tomorrow in our district where the hospital is located, and here in Chennai there will be a formal “Bunt” (curfew, closing) basically a calculated day of civil unrest and disobedience in relation to regional and national elections. We are hoping to pick up the luggage and cross the state line before 6am tomorrow morning so that we don’t risk getting caught in a 500-5,000 person mob.
So, we are safe, happy, glad to meet our new sort-of niece (Suresh Attah’s daughter) ‘Naynanapryia”. And glad to finally hug Santhosh, our new younger kinda brother in the Rees family… as it goes. Home cooked Indian food by Suresh’s mother-n-law and a bed to stretch out in after 34 hours of ‘travel’.
No matter what, it is a better alternative than catching a maritime vessel and spending 4 weeks in transit to India! More to come when we can write. We are headed to the Hospital in Andhra Pradesh tomorrow. The David & LoisReesHospital which constitutes about 75% of the work of BSSI (Benevolent Social Services of India).
Thank you all for reading this LONG post and caring enough to include our adventures in your life today.
Read our prayer below and prepare for a heck of a 34 hour experience in travel from Indy - Chennai/Madras India. We are too tired currently to catalogue the most interesting experience of our 4 years of travel. But I will later today.
Thanks to all who are following, praying and thinking of the Paroubeks.
We are ending our trip today in LaCrosse visiting Josh's parents. It has been a great trip. Vacations always seem short when you are visiting those you love, but always seem long when you are just by yourselves. Do you get that also?
Lord Willing, we will have confirmation numbers for our flights by days end. We have been charged the amount on the CC so that is a great positive. We just need to do a little last minute shopping and backing.
Tomorrow (Friday) we will travel to S. Illinois to drop off "Claire Bear" with some family friends while we are gone. Looking forward to seeing her get adapted to a new house for a day, and a little friend (daschehound) for her extended stay in corn country.
For those of you who are visiting our blog:
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We are awaiting our confirmation from our travel agency. they have been great. if you need a cheap ticket to a far away place... fellowship.com and ask for Leanne Leigers. Tell her Josh Paroubek referred you.
We are visiting WI and MN this week to say hello to friends and family... good times.
We are scheduled to leave June 20th. We will be posting our itinerary as soon as we get our confirmation in the next 48 hours.
Please be praying for our travels, confirmation, and communication.
We volunteer our time away from construction/nannying to help Benevolent Social Services of India (BSSI) a HIV-Leprosy-TB hospital in Southern India. (oh, we have two dogs also... Claire and Crystal)
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