Sorry there hasn't been a post in quite a while, many small things have happened, but few big things. Partly, this is because we didn't go away for the weekend (Kyla went to Kovalum with Lucy and some others, but Lisette is planning on going later and I wasn't really dying to see it, besides after getting back to the hospital on Weds I was ready to stay put for a while).
We did have a few little adventures. Weds afternoon, Kyla had arranged for us to go visit an orphanage nearby. She had met the Father in charge when he brought some of hte children to Dr. Banus office for check-ups. At 4;30, he picked us up in a Jeep with another priest, a German who was involved in the parent organization that started this orphanage. Apparently, they also run things in Europe which Lisete had heard of (SOS Villages for my more cosmopolitan readers) we chatted a bit in the car about the project and adoption in INdia generally (not done very much). Some of what the German Father (Father Francis) was saying stuck me as a little...off somehow. He said that the funders had wnated to start and orphanage here to help the children of Tsnami victims (we are landlocked, but they get children from around Tamil Nadu, apparently), but it was hard to get children because the government also offered funds so to extended families or grandparents if they would take in the children. He seemed to imply that most of these people would only take in children for the money, and maybe that's so (it can't hurt if you're going to bring in an extra family memeber to also have extra resources) but given what I've seen of families here, it doesn't seem out of place at all that they would rely on the extended famliy as a support network. In the doctors' family, though certainly wealthy by Indian standards, you often see the younger cousins being babysat by the older ones, aunts and uncles carrying kids around, and the grandparents are fully involved in their lives. Granted, they aren'ts RAISING the kids, and it must be hard to run around after a two yera old when your a grandparents (though grandparents are very young here, sometimes in their late 30s). So, I wasn't really feeling his pain that there weren't enough kids for his orphanage.
Still, when we got to the orphanage, I was impressed. It wasnt one building, but a series of 10 houses, each different on hte outside and arrranged in a ring around a mango graove. Each house holds about 10 kids (boys and girls, all ages) though only 4 were filled right now. Each house also has a house "Mother" or, in one case, couple, who lives in the house, cooks, cleans, looks after the kids when they are not in school, and makes them do their homework. There is a special team of two mothers who take care of the few kids not old enough to go to school yet. The houses were reall nice, very clean with one big sleeping room for the boys, one for the girls, a central living room, shared bathrooms for each (with showers), big kitchen (with fridge!) and suite for the mother. Most of the mothers choose to sleep with the girls, though, or in the main room with the smaller children. Every night they divide by ages to do haomework, then have prayers (though they are not required ot go and the children can have Hindu icons in their rooms if they are Hindu), have a home-cooked dinner and then sleep. Saturdays are for cleaning the house and more homework, Sundy is for Church and then free time. The kids that we saw were really happy, clearly adored Father Benjamin (who was in charge) and were delighted to see themselves in the photos on our digita camera.
We had some tea, then went on a tour of hte houses (where thechildren saranaded us with"Rain rain, go away") and the amin building, which wasn't completeed yet. This is going to have space for records, admin stuff, living quarters for the priests and volunteers (way nicer than ours), and a multi-faith room (with removable cross and Shivas?...I have no idea.) The place was really well designed, and Father Francis kept picking on every detail (window catches, where doors would be placed, ect) to make it perfect.
We went back to the kids houses for prayres (which wree in Tamil, so I couldnt follow at all), and then had dinner with the Fathers in the house they are staying at till the main one is completed. Father Francis told us about lots of good tourists attractions in South India that we might want to see, and a little bit about the changes he'd seen in the 20 years he'd been coming to India. It was funny that he was so expert in the developmen and sights of the area but, when we sat down, was the only one who used a knife and fork and didn't know what Channa masala was. We also had to teach him "Thank you" and "Goodnight" in Tamil. Anyway, aftera really nice dinner we were driven back to the hospital, about 9:30. Of course, Kyla and I stopped by the deleivery room to see if there was a birth in progress. There was, an we stayed up till 12:00 watching.
Other than that the only excitment was this weekend. I needed to do school stuff, and am trying to be mindfull of costs, so I opted to stay home. Still, on Saturday Lisette, John (the scottish volunteer wh ocame last week) and I took a quick bus trip to a local national park, just to wak around and see the sights. The park was lovely, a windy raod up the Ghat moutains, with lots of green palm trees, rivers and waterfalls, and little red salamanders. It was technically a tiger reserve, but we were not too disappointed not to have seen one. I asked if anyone knew what to do in case of seeing a tiger, and John wisely replied that it wa pretty much up to the tiger.
We had a really nice conersation too, about home and royal families, national holidays, and health care and politics, and TV shows. Apparently, the Dutch royal family has had some pretty interesting charaters as well (including a princess who was once a gangers moll). John is a medical student who went to St. Ansrews but didn't like it and wanted to take a year off to reapply to another school. We spent the late morning there, got back around 4ish. That night, we went out to a different resturant, known to the docotrs as "The Chicken PLace". Itwas downa back ally which looked like it was leading no where, but then you find a lovely outdoor restaruent, where they bring you pakota and side dishes and amazing Tandoori chicken (secret recepie, apparently) and then an omlette. It was delishious, and the prefect end to the day.
Last night we went to Dr. Gigi's house for dinner, which she kept promising we would do but hasn't scheduled. Her son (also in med school) was home because of flooding at this school, so we chatted with him and her adorable, very exhuberent 12 year-old daughter. I think she has a little crush on John (he was over there the weekend we went to Kochin), because she kept trying to manuvre so she could sit next to him and asking him to play Uno with her. It was cute. We had reall good rice-panckaes with chicken curry, fresh salad and masala fried sardines. After dinner, Dr. Gigi suggetsed that we might watch a Tmial movie while she did rounds. Her house in really nice, with a flat screen TV and lots of movies to choose from. Most of them wree in English, though and Tamli quickly got outvoted (even by me) for Armageddon, which seemed like exatl the kind of dumb Americna movie we were all craving. Truns out I can see why all my gy friends liked it in 8th grade. As bad movie go, though, it was pretty awesome. It also led to some funny discussion from Lisette about how it really wouldn't be so bad if the asteroid did hit...which earned her some looks from us. Lisette, Kyla and I were delighted to find that Dr. Gigi owns The Sound of Music, and are planning a girls movie night if she says ok (we could ask Jane, her daughter, I'm sure she'd love a sleep-over).
We stayed until the asteroid got blowed up, then suggled into bed at 12:30. Luckily, there was no sugery this morning, so I had a chance ot catch pu on some sleep.
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