This is India, ergo things don't always go as planed. It's a go-with-the-flow kind of place that lives by the quote "come what may and love it". I said in my last post that I was going to be traveling with the medical team to provide medical care to the leprosy afflicted. That did not exactly go as planned. We DID go with the medical team to assist the leprosy afflicted but in an indirect way. By indirect I mean that we transported them to the hospital and accompanied to where ever they needed to go. At first I thought it was the biggest waste of time. I mean, I have not the slightest clue of how to navigate my way through an Indian hospital that is so cluttered and crowded that it could be mistaken for a theme park. So all I was was this 90 year old leprosy afflicted patients shadow as she navigated the place like a pro. However, little did I know that I was her saving grace just by making a presence. Just because I am white I was able to cut this precious lady's wait time in half and get her admittance into the hospital over night care without saying a word. Its corrupt but effective. Maybe that was the reason why I received so many stares and dirty glances from the other patients waiting in line silently telling me "be gone white boy, be gone!" If I am ever going to be sick on this trip it will be because of that hospital. It was so unsanitary that I could feel my body soaking in all the diseases that permeated the air. Every breath I took was another bullet loaded in to the gun that was going to soon be fire upon my immune system. Obama is a silly man to be messing with american health care. I don't mean to get political but it's true.
That was yesterday. Now for today...
Today my group was scheduled for education. We taught the youngsters, depending on their age, reading (in english, my tamel is not quite up to par), writing, and math. For the record, I now have a greater respect for all elementary school teachers ( my dearest mother ). The proverb "patience is a virtue" is nothing short of doctrine. For some of the kids it just clicked and they flew through the stuff and for others it was a struggle. Luckily I only had one struggler. The rest caught on pretty well. There is this one boy named Sunjay. The kid is a genius. He is only in the third grade and he's bustin out algebra like its easy. Not that the other kids are even doing algebra in the first place! The standard addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc, was too easy for him. He told me, "Nelson Mandela you give me challenge! This to easy!" So I whipped out some simple algebra problems and gave him a decent explanation of what to do and then I watched in amazement as he did every single one without questions and with complete understanding. Not only is he good with numbers but he's a reading machine. He read this book Chicken Licken, which is a spin off Chicken Little, to me without missing a beat. We have become best buds. I'd adopt him as my little brother today if I could.
We're packing for the Taj Mahal today and we're leaving tomorrow for the weekend. Im pumped to see what a seventh wonder of the world is all about!
Don't forget to check out my cousin
David Shockey's blog!
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