An Indian Journey through Lent, Day 19
The contrast between Lena’s and my situations currently was never clearer than today. When she was called out to the hospital sometime after midnight for the - was it the fourth time this week? - I didn’t even wake. When I did wake at about 5.30am and began to prepare for my day, Lena woke and slept again, several times. Though she stayed in bed until about 9am on this alleged day of rest her sleep was not restful. She was still processing the horrors she’s been exposed to over the past week.
My day included preaching a 45 minute sermon, some in Hindi, most in English and a little in Swedish, all of it translated. I preach occasionally when the local pastor is away; as an ecological consultant I function as something like a local preacher in the church we attend. After church we had time for a relaxing coffee, lunch and our weekly Skype session with my parents. Later in the afternoon, however, she was rung again, and informed of another motor vehicle accident. So off to the hospital she went again while I got on my bike and went for a 2 hour, 40 km ride down the hill to a village called Paatlikull, then back up the hill again. A couple of months ago we were trapped in Paatlikull by snow for several hours, but there’s no sign of snow now! I can assure you that I reached there faster than I returned!
And now it’s time for bed and she’s over at the hospital again while I once again function as communications manager. At least we had last night away together. Thomas, a local hotel manager, and I have discovered that we were very nearly born on the same day, so we held a joint party in his hotel. It was a lovely, relaxed occasion. Despite, and in part because of the desperately hard work Lena’s doing we feel very accepted here.
The contrast between Lena’s and my situations currently was never clearer than today. When she was called out to the hospital sometime after midnight for the - was it the fourth time this week? - I didn’t even wake. When I did wake at about 5.30am and began to prepare for my day, Lena woke and slept again, several times. Though she stayed in bed until about 9am on this alleged day of rest her sleep was not restful. She was still processing the horrors she’s been exposed to over the past week.
My day included preaching a 45 minute sermon, some in Hindi, most in English and a little in Swedish, all of it translated. I preach occasionally when the local pastor is away; as an ecological consultant I function as something like a local preacher in the church we attend. After church we had time for a relaxing coffee, lunch and our weekly Skype session with my parents. Later in the afternoon, however, she was rung again, and informed of another motor vehicle accident. So off to the hospital she went again while I got on my bike and went for a 2 hour, 40 km ride down the hill to a village called Paatlikull, then back up the hill again. A couple of months ago we were trapped in Paatlikull by snow for several hours, but there’s no sign of snow now! I can assure you that I reached there faster than I returned!
And now it’s time for bed and she’s over at the hospital again while I once again function as communications manager. At least we had last night away together. Thomas, a local hotel manager, and I have discovered that we were very nearly born on the same day, so we held a joint party in his hotel. It was a lovely, relaxed occasion. Despite, and in part because of the desperately hard work Lena’s doing we feel very accepted here.
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