Here I Am

I am sorry friends and family for keeping waiting so long for an entry with real substance. I could blame it on being so busy but the truth of the matter is that a wonderful couple gave me the first season of LOST and I am finding out what all the hype is about. No, but really, since the moment I got back from my holiday with Claire (and I mean the night I got back) I have been pulling double duty. Even now I am on a stage at a double wedding and I am writing this journal entry (by hand to be typed later) just to keep myself from dozing off.

... Well, that is all I got written before it was time to go and now I am in my room. It is 9pm and all I want to do is lay down so not to be rude but I think I am going to put a LOST on and call it a night....

Of course I wouldn’t leave you with nothing...

Below is an entry I wrote a couple months ago but never had the chance to post it.

(Quick prayer request: Joyfulness would carry me through my days here. And that I would be an example of God's love to all the people)

11/27/06

Ok so today was a rather interesting day. At the front of the red-light clinic right at the bottom of the stairs is a liter of brand new baby puppies. So cute, but if I learned anything from the day Dr.Kishore made me hold the baby goat it is to avoid scabbies at all cost which means don’t touch baby animals in India. But while I was at the clinic I heard this atrocious squealing sound. So I looked out the window and there was momma dog and another dog chomping into a live baby pig as it struggled to get away. After I squealed, I thought to myself, is this some kind of twisted wild animal show? Evidently it was entertaining to some because a group of young children sat mesmerized watching the whole thing. I swear kids in India seem fearless. Nothing frightens them. It is very common to see toddlers literally toddling along any road as car, trucks, motor bikes race past them with only inches to spare; no flinching from child or driver and I have never seen a child run into the street.

Anyways, that is how my day started. After I left the red-light area I accompanied the doctor to the hospital where one of our girls from the RH home was having her appendix removed. Little did I know that when they said they wanted me to be there for the surgery, they meant they wanted me THERE for the surgery. Bare foot and with my “surgical mask” firmly tied over my mouth and nose I entered the surgical theater (as they call it). Really it was just a room with a big light and some surgical tools that’s it. The procedure started right away; I watched them cut her, open the cut and cut deeper, clamp the skin, etc. etc. etc. I can save you the gory details. Bottom line is please pray my appendix doesn’t need to come out anytime soon because I will gladly die before I go under the knife in rural India!

And all this was before lunch!

What a crazy life I live!