Hunter and I have been at the ashram for a week now and are finally settling into a routine. The kids are starting to look at their school work to get a feel for distance education before the holidays end.
Our typical day starts with breakfast at 8am. Breakfast varies from day to day with dishes such as; porridge with banana, chow mien, rice noodles in sweetened/spiced milk, lentils and rice or jam sandwiches and boiled eggs. This morning we had porridge and Sharlene commented on one of the patients quantities of extra sugar. He had a centimeter thick layer covering his plate (not bowl) of porridge. He couldn't understand why it was a problem and Shar said it was because it would rot his teeth. Amit was dumfounded never in his life had he heard that sugar rots your teeth. Astounding!
After breakfast Hunter and I head to the meeting room. Hunter reads or does some school work while I do my work. We sit in the meeting room with the doors and windows open and the ceiling fan on full. It is a balancing act of keeping cool and stopping paperwork from swirling around the room. Whenever I need to make phone calls I have to turn the fan off and sit in the sweltering heat. Today we had an extra special treat as the sewerage pit was pumped and the aroma wafted in through the window. haha
At 1pm we have lunch which is always a variation of lentils and rice... my favorite meal of the day. Some days this is accompanied with a salad of cucumber, tomato and spanish onion.
Dinner is not until 8pm which means a 7 hour break between meals with only a cup of hot chai at 4pm...way too long without food. So we snack on mangos or moong dal which tastes like potato chips.
Dinner is some kind of curry with chapati (flat bread) Most nights it is great except Monday night when bitter gourd is on the menu. We are going to make pasta on Monday nights.
Last night after dinner I hung out in the clinic... You see all sort of things in the clinic. One man.. Om Prakash has throat and tongue cancer and each day his throat swells up with lumps the size of golf balls which are full of pus these are drained each night if they don't explode during the day. I have never seen so much pus in all my life it pours out like water from a tap.
At the moment I am sitting in the Mundeer (temple) and the kids are scooting around on their ripsticks, it is a great place to learn as their are trees and poles all around the perimeter to hold onto. Suraj, one of the kids who had spinal TB and lost the use of his legs sits on the ripstick and manages to scoot around. Even Rasheed with his twisted and rigid body has a go...They are really inspiring boys. I will upload some footage onto YouTube soon.
Well my battery is dying and the mosquitos are biting, must go get repellent... I will write again soon
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