Manali Missives 8/2014 An Indian Journey through Lent, Day 6

An Indian Journey through Lent, Day 6

Today was more typical of what I’ve been doing for the past few months in Manali. When I arose at about 6.30am the weather wasn’t conducive to outside exercise. It hasn’t been for some months now! Lena and I had our personal devotions, then got ready for the day. That included breakfast, “showers”, in which we scoop water warmed in a heater from a bucket over ourselves, airing the flat and making the bed, taking rubbish to the hospital’s rubbish bin (there’s a story about waste disposal in itself!), and getting filtered water from the hospital’s canteen.

During winter, which lasts from November until about now, the Hospital’s day starts with devotions in the Out Patients’ Department at about 9am. Theoretically, there is a roster for leading devotions; in reality, while the hospital’s superintendent Dr Philip Alexander and his wife Dr Anna have been on long leave more and more responsibility has fallen to Lena. In any case Mondays are the days on which all staff are supposed to attend devotions and a teaching session which the senior doctor leads. I’m not required to attend, but it’s wise to, and fun to play my flute and guitar.

After devotions Lena went on rounds with other doctors and staff while I returned to our flat and started communications work. After a couple of beautiful days the weather turned miserable today. It rained heavily, and became steadily colder until the rain turned into snow. I shared morning tea in the staff room of DayStar School, then went to see the principal to set up a planning session for what I’ll do in the school this year. In his waiting room there was a queue of wet, cold parents with appointments to see him, so I texted him instead!

After the usual simple lunch of rice, daal and one vegetable (today it was ockhra, also known as “lady’s fingers”) in the hospital’s canteen I had my daily Hindi lesson in our flat. At the moment I’m wrestling with the difficult task of learning verb tenses. Then back to administration, writing thank you letters to the people I’ve recently met and worked with, making contacts with those I want soon to meet, and doing a little work on the content of my presentations.

Lena came home at about 4pm. She’s always on call, so her workday is much longer than from 9am to 4pm, but at least she only has a 2 minute walk between workplace and home. When our cleaner came at about 5pm for a little while I ventured out into the snow to do a little food shopping. Our diet is a mixture of western and indian cuisine; today I bought muesli and a loaf of bread baked by a German baker and delivered to one of the “Himalayan” grocery store. Our evening meal consists usually of toast with cheese, condiments and vegetable toppings such as tomatoes and cucumbers that Lena has cleansed in a solution of Condy’s Crystals. Then it’s usually back onto computers to read novels, websites or to play games.

Pretty humdrum really!