Destination: David & Lois Rees Hosptial (Yerpurdu, India)

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!