After a few days in Vizag...

Well it's been a wild few days since the last update. We finished the last leg of our journey from Bombay to Vizag on Saturday. Bombay was so huge, and such a mess. We saw masses of people living under bridges in absolute squallor. There were children begging everywhere, sometimes 2 & 3 years old...truly heartbreaking to see. Trash cans overflow everywhere, with dogs & people digging through them, and there's almost as much trash just laying in the street.

We got our first taste of how the roads work in India...it's non-stop chicken in the road, except everyone goes left just before the head-on...of course only after lots of honking and getting death-defyingly close. Rear view mirrors are optional, as most trucks even have printed on the back "Please honk horn please". They use some sort of honk radar to navigate, usually as fast as possible, right in the middle of two way traffic roads, and as close as possible to other 'vehicles' (this could be a car, big truck, three-wheeled minicab, motorcycle, bicycle, or a herd of livestock if you're rural). People live right next to the roads often...we've seen fights, weddings, and even people threshing crops on the highway (yes the cars drove over the crop to thresh it). The funny thing is, we've all had our chance to sleep in the cars now, which seems impossible...but somehow you get used to it.

Arriving at Love n Care ministries was definitely a relief. The grounds are very clean & nice compared to everything else around. Our quarters are quite decent...running water, lights, A/C, ceiling fans, and we were surprised to have rooms for the married couples, and shared rooms for the singles, by sex of course. Our hosts are amazingly gracious. Everytime you enter a room, the children run to get you chairs, and if allowed to them, drinks or treats. Meals are always served to us, and have been delicious. So far only a big meal for a nursing school commencement was the only super spicy thing. The cooks keep the 'zest' under control.
You cannot walk down a hall with a greeting from the children...the girls will give you {hands in prayer}"Praise God", and the boys a handshake along with their name, asking yours in return. Once you shake one hand, you get about 50 more right behind it, "Raj, Ravi, Sunil", etc.

The ministry work has been cool. We've had two day trips to do eye clinics. The eye clinic & some of the villages are ~70km away, which takes ~2hrs by car, and is very exhausting, in part because of all the pollution. The first day was using the autorefractor to provide the prescriptions for villagers & give out glasses. The next day was a visit to the eye hospital where they do up to 50 cataract surgeries in one day. It was amazing to give people sight, when they would never have had the option before. They were very grateful in most cases, and it's easy to see how the quality of life and productivity will improve from this.
The villagers are generally very sweet, it's neat to see how different the Christians are, and how excited they are to meet us. Most of use have graciously turned down invites to eat with them, but we have visited some of their homes. They typically live in ~10x20' concrete block houses, or some are in thatched huts. We sang songs, painted faces, laid on hands & gave prayer to those who asked (typically the women will veil & bow their heads in front of you), and we shared the gospel & testimonies with the help of some of the Telugu speaking pastors who went along. Getting photos taken was a popular thing, with lots of smiles and giggles after stoically posing for their photo.
Some of us also visited the local hospital. Conditions are pretty spartan...the labor & delivery was just a table, for instance. The surgery room is sparsely equipped. Apparently keeping doctors in the facility is tough, as well. It's hard to imagine that this was an improvement at some point...many people here have no access at all to any medical treatment.
Some of the ladies (Rachel, Krendi, and Reagan) have been spending time at the Love n Car facility teaching the kids to sing, dance, and act. They have been super excited, and there are plans for them to do a performance before we leave. It's so moving to see all the orphans they have here so happy...singing at the top of their lungs, praying with deep affection, and just generally having a great time. The contrast to the kids we saw on the streets was such a joy. The work the staff gruels through here is so worth it, there is no labor in this chore when you see the results..

Updates may be rare while here...the power & water is spotty, and the internet is completely unreliable & unpredictable. The sad thing is, they've gone to great trouble and quite a bit of expense to get "hi-speed" with a fiber feed from the street. Even with that, 7KB downloads are the best you can get, and the upload seems much worse. We managed on VOIP phone call, and it was surprisingly good. Hopefully we'll be blessed and get lots of uptime during our stay.


The few photos I could get uploaded for now:
http://www.wheelspecs.com/gallery/2007-02-20-Vizag