Manali Missives 6/2013
Christmas is over and 2014 is just around the corner. This year's celebrations have been totally different to what either of us have experienced. It is the first Christmas as a married couple that we have been on our own, just the 2 of us. We have celebrated Christmas in many different countries but we have always had our children or Swedish/Australian extended families celebrating with us. This year was also a white Christmas, a snow blanket covered Manali and surrounding areas some days before and made it difficult to get in and out of the town.
We left Manali in the middle of December and went to New Delhi to celebrate 30 years of married life. These 30 years have been filled with adventures, good times as well as bad and are certainly worth celebrating. We travelled to New Delhi on the "Volvo" bus which leaves Manali in the evening and reaches Delhi around 8am in the morning. The question arises if this is so that the travellers will be unaware of the winding narrow roads and the breakneck speed at which it travels! On the way to Delhi we had one woman who really did not like the winding roads, this event caused the conductor to walk around in the bus offering all of us a vomit bag. The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Delhi at about 7.30. Even before the bus had stopped at the Kashmiri gates we could see all the taxi and auto drivers discussing who was going to take us to our destination. We ended up paying more than double the normal rate to the auto driver, not only because we were "rich white people" but also because our destination was in the second richest part of Delhi. After a quick breakfast we were picked up by Drs Shyamala and Sunil Anand, the most hospitable and lovely couple, and taken to church. Dr Sunil Anand is the director for The Leprosy Mission India. After a nice lunch all 4 of us retired to our bedrooms for a nice rest.
Every country has its own smells and noises and we discovered that it can also vary from town to town. In Delhi there were the crows, the vendors calling out, the traffic, the dogs barking, the kites whistling, the vehicle horns (so many different varieties), generators starting up and humming away and happy children playing. In Manali there are no kites, no vendors and fewer vehicles. We have also discovered that the dogs in Manali bark mainly at night! There are also the different smells - incense, flowers, cooking oil, spices, sewage, urine and other unmentionable smells. Some countries can be quite overpowering on the senses, India is one of them.
I recently started rereading "Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts and in the first chapter the author talks about "the worst good smell" as the first thing that hits him as he gets off the plane in Mumbai. He adds - The smell of hope and despair, of greed and love, of decay and new growth- to my list above. The smell of Life and Death.
I really enjoy this book which is based on true life, and is the story of Gregory Roberts' escape from a prison in Melbourne. He ends up in the slums of Mumbai and there he starts his life as a helper to the poorest of the poor. Gregory Roberts now lives in Mumbai and you can sense his love for that country as soon as you open the book.
Going to Delhi was not only so that we could celebrate our anniversary and renew friendships but also to spend some time away from the work place. We had a nice break and enjoyed ourselves. even though Delhi is not the most romantic place as my brother in law suggested. i think that any place can be romantic, it all depends on whom you share it with!
Interestingly enough, the well known monuments we went to were not teeming with people and crowds the way one expects in India. On the other hand the Metro in Delhi, a very convenient way of travelling, had carriages that were so full that at times we could have done with a people pusher helping to pack the trains. People were very friendly, even the very persistent ones wanting our money to help us see the sights of Delhi on rickshaws or autos. Never in my life have I had seats offered to me as frequently as in the metro trains in Delhi. The first carriage is reserved for women and no men are allowed in there. In the other carriages there are seats reserved for ladies and for elderly and physically challenged. All the announcements were in Hindi and beautifully clear English.
We went to some of the famous monuments - The Red fort, The Old fort, Chandni Chowk (which is part of Old Delhi and is a very famous shopping street), Connaught Circus and Parliament House. We also went to a couple of the modern shopping malls which could have been in Australia. We saw the second part of the movie The Hobbit - The desolation of Smaug. David also visited a couple of bike shops to buy some tools for the second hand bike he purchased here in Manali. He has thoroughly enjoyed exploring the surrounding areas on his bike, but at present the bike is sitting in our spare room unused as the icy and snowy weather makes the roads here quite dangerous.
We arrived back in Manali on a Sunday afternoon, after an interesting bus ride. Interestingly enough I met a patient's mother at the bus stand in Delhi, she recognized me! This mother lives in Mandir, some hundreds of kilometers away from Manali.
It started raining almost as soon as we got out of Delhi and the drive was a bit slower than the previous one. On the seat behind us we had a classic snorer, he hrumphed and whistled, rattled and wheezed, stopped breathing for a while and then drew an enormous breath which almost shook our seats. He snored all the way from Delhi to Mandir where he and his wife got off. After a while the rain turned to sleet and then to snow. the meeting vehicles all had 3-400 mms of snow on there roofs. We got as far as Pathlikul and then the bus driver stopped and told us he was not going to go any further. Many taxis went by and picked up the passengers and took them to Manali at exorbitant prices. David phoned Dr Philip Alexander who sent a 4 wheel vehicle to rescue us. On the bus was a family of 4 from Bangalore who had tried getting to Manali the day before by plane to Kullu but the plane could not land and had to return to Delhi. Now they were stopped again but were enjoying themselves immensely in the snow. The flakes that were falling slowly to the ground were enormous and the 2 children (and the mother) could not hide their excitement. After a 3 hours wait the vehicle from Manali finally arrived, this is how long it took him to drive 15 kms!
It was a relief to get back safely to Manali, the superintendent has jokingly said that if they want snow in Manali they should get the Reichardts to travel!
We have been back in Manali for a week now and life is back to normal. David has been busy writing and sending out letters to school principals and pastors all over Himachal Pradesh Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. He has already had some responses and he is very excited about the developing prospects of travelling around and encouraging school children to think about the environment. While in Delhi we met up with the Al Gore trained climate change presenter and David and he had a very interesting discussion. They are hoping to work together in the future.
David feels that finally thing are starting to happen at a larger scale. He is also progressing with his hindi and is now able to read even though at a slow speed. David is forming a friendship with his young teacher who is a fairly new Christian. They are sharing bible verses via phone messages and David joined him on Christmas day for afternoon tea with some of his non christian friends. Krishna, the young hindi teacher, is also taking the opportunity to ask David questions of faith and how to share it with his friends.
On Christmas eve we went to some friends in Manali for dinner and on Christmas day after a 2 hour service we had a congregational meal outside. More than 700 people attended. We didn't get much of a holiday as I was back at work the next day. In the evening of Boxing day we went to the Dar ul Fazl orphanage and boarding school for some program but missed most of the program run by the children only to sit through an hour long sermon followed by singing by Uncle Wilson, a wonderful Christian man. David often quotes a saying from his Salur days - first the greeting, then the meeting and then the eating, so in true Indian style we had a meal in the school yard with 2 big blazing bonfires (aided by some kerosene). The people here love dancing and that is how the evening ended.
I continue to see children in the OPD, sometimes the staff ask me if I mind seeing older children, the ones in their forties or fifties or even older. We have been very short on doctors so we all do our bit to help.
On Friday I saw a 4 year old child, the mother came to me as she was concerned about the child not eating and walking. This little child had an enormous cleft palate and there is no way that he could eat any food as it would have ended up in the nasal passage. The child also had signs of cerebral palsy, and hopefully they will attend physiotherapy classes and get help from an organization based in Kullu.
I continue to wage war against parents giving their new borns cow's milk. We have small children who come with amoebiasis and other nasties as they have been given water or dirty milk. Today I saw a mother who complained that the baby was not putting on any weight. I discovered that she thought is enough to give the baby milk 3 times per day! Lately the most common complaint has been colds and coughs not unlike Sydney in winter.
My dream is to get more involved with the baby health clinic when the immunizations are given. It has been difficult to get away from the main OPD as so many sick people come and we are still short of doctors. There is an enormous need for education in regards to feeding children. I would also like to pick up problems when they are small and not when they have struggled for years like the child I mentioned earlier with the cleft palate.
We continue going to the home group on Fridays, we had a good discussion last Friday.
Snow has been forecasted for the coming 2-3 days, if this is so not many patients will be able to get to the hospital. This will give me some time to catch up on medical things but I worry about the sick people who will have to struggle at home. There is such a great need here for doctors, nursing staff, better roads, better medical equipment (the CT scanner is still not up and working) and environmental awareness. Most of all there is a great need for the light and love of Christ to be shared with all.
Lena
No comments:
Post a Comment