I Sent You

"A story is told of a man who goes up to heaven at the end of his life and stands before God, his heart breaking from the pain and injustice of the world. He cried out, “God, look at all the suffering in your world. Why don’t you do something to fix it?"

God replied gently, “I did do something. I sent you.”"

Today was absolutely amazing, it's only my second day at RSO but we've already jumped right into things! All of the volunteers are split up into two groups and given their assignment. We rotate between medical, construction, and tutoring. Today I was lucky enough to be in the medical group and had the opportunity to go to one of the colonies of those leprosy effected. After having a morning orientation we hopped into the medical van and went to pick up Dr. Kumar. He is an absolutely incredible man, while we were on our drive to the colony he told us his story of how he came to RSO and its just so inspiring I feel I need to share it!

When Dr. Kumar was just a young boy, about thirteen, his grandfather was very ill and needed to have a surgery performed. However the surgery was postponed three times in one month because more important emergencies that needed immediate care kept coming up. There were only 2 doctors at the hospital at that time. One day Dr. Kumar was visiting his grandfather when he became extremely ill and ended up becoming unconscious. Dr. Kumar went to try to get a doctor for help but one doctor was helping a patient having a siezure and the other was helping a women who had ingested poison. By the time they reached his grandfather it was too late. After his grandfathers death he went back to the hospital and thanked the doctor for doing what he could, and when he looked for the other doctor he was told he had recently left for London. This upset him because now there were even less doctors to help those in need. (In India most doctors leave for the big cities or travel to other countries because they can get better pay there. There is about one doctor for every 500 people in America, but only one doctor for every 10,000 people here.) From that moment on doctor Kumar said that he wanted to become a Doctor and stay in his own country. He worked very very hard and was able to pass his test to get into medical school. However later on he says he forgot about the reason he had become a doctor and began to focus on the money. He started work at a large hospital in Chennai. One day Padma (a very important women who helped to begin rising star) contacted him and asked if he would help out at the colonies for his month off. After that month he remembered why he had decided to become a doctor and he says he has been saving grandfathers ever since.:)

After arriving at the colonies we had the opportunity to take and record blood pressures, glucose levels, and wash their feet. There are no words to describe everything I felt. It was overwhelming. There was so much love being exchanged. It was amazing to be able to teach these people that they were worth something, that they weren't untouchable, that we loved them and respected them enough to wash their feet and hold their hands. They are beautiful people, who have struggled so much and I have so much to learn from them. The colony we visited today was named Walajabad, and is built right across from an amazing cemetary which was started during a cholera epidemic. The peope were forced to move their when their village kicked them out. These people have been visited for about 1 or 2 years by Rising Star medical teams once every two weeks and so they have already begun to heal under Dr. Kumar's care. Rising Star now visits 42 leprosy colonies and is  currently expanding! I can't wait until I get to go back again. This Thursday we are going to a brand new leprosy colony where we will work with leprosy afflicted who have never seen a doctor before. Oh and another interesting fact I learned today was that RSO's medical clinic, Dr Kumar and his 2 nurses, is the first in India that treats the leprosy afflicted, and  now two hospitals will treat those with leprosy or from the colonies as well!. They are making huge progress in these colonies just since the last few years.  

Cemetary. For some reason seeing the ruins and wearing a Salwar made the fact that I'm really truly in India hit me. It seems so surreal being here, it's such a beautiful, magical place.

Standing in the cemetary, in front of me is the colony.

We returned from the colonies just in time for play time with the kids. Nothing beats play time after a long day of working, these kids really make everything worth it, While I was in the colony we met the parents of one of the students at RSO, it was so amazing to look at the dirty and poor surroundings and compare them to the beautiful and clean RS campus. It really hit home to me that what I am doing is so important and there is no organization that comes close to the amazing way Rising Star is helping to change these childrens lives and work to rid India of leprosy all together. Each step counts:)

These children have amazing futures ahead of them

9 out of 10 will tell you they want to become doctors.

Boys will be boys...

playing in the mud from the rain yesterday.

"Aunty Aunty one more one more"

After play time we had dinner on the roof, just like we do every night, its beautiful and the food is always amazing thanks to our wonderful house mother and cook Padmini!

After dinner we split up with our families. While I was helping an older boy with his math and English homework. One of the younger boys came over and laid down in my lap, he snuggled up grabbed my hand and looked up with me with those big brown eyes that I could practically see my reflection in and said, "What is your name?' He turned out to be four years old and refused to admit he was tired even though he could barely keep his eyes open(some things never change no matter where you are!) Carrying him to bed and being able to tell all of the little boys goodnight, telling that I loved them, and hearing them all say "I love you too Kenzie Aunty"(they say them in opposite order)  was such a special experience. I only hope that I can help them feel loved and special while they are away from their families and sometimes even siblings.

I know this post is long, but bare with me, just one last thing. Each night at dinner we each tell our high and low from the day so I thought it would be fun to include them in each of my posts!

High: Being able to go to the colonies and help wash the feet of people believed by their own people to be "untouchables" and getting to have an amazing talk with the girls in my group on the ride\back to campus.

Low: Dealing with the language barrier, I wished I could have talked to the people of the colony, it would have been really interesting to hear their backgrounds. And when I stepped on a huge group of ants and didn't realize it until they were crawling up their leg. But I haven't seen a cobra or scorpian yet so I guess ants I can deal with!

wwithgreatlovee,

Kenzie