Just Another Day in Paradise

The end of the hike after reaching the top.  "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what he has made..." Romans 1:20 

July 5 2011

8:30am:  While I am in Patti I want to try and keep a better journal.  I’m going to be able to journal multiple times throughout the day because of the pace of the program in the rural area.  We were woken at 5:30 to do Yoga for an hour.  I was too tired to laugh today, but still felt like the overall experience was too crazy to believe.  Afterwards Chris and I joked with Aki and when Dr. Paul went to take a shower, Aki locked him in and turned off the lights.  I guess that’s the way life is around here.  Mental note: stay on my toes.  I think Dr. Paul is actually in his 40’s FYI.  After eating my breakfast of two hard boiled eggs, a small bowl of porridge, and two cups of AMAZING Chia tea I walked out onto the hillside to relax and have a quiet time.  Being in such a beautiful place in complete solitude with birds chirping makes this feel much more like a vacation.  It was probably one of the best devotionals of my life.  I looked up to see a large white crane far away flying gracefully with the mountainous lush, green jungle as its background.  Talk about fake looking.  Since I’ve been up here I feel like God is providing me with everything I need.  “Alex you need some food? Ok I’ll have the taxi guy pull over and give you some…. Alex, you’re tired from Mumbai and want to relax?  I’ll take you to the most beautiful place on Earth and teach you Yoga and let you sit quietly on a Himalayan hillside.”  (That’s what I picture God saying to me haha)  Today we are hiking 2.5 miles deeper into the wilderness to take medical supplies to villagers.  This is THEE reason I signed up for this program.  I can’t wait!

PS: I hope my 2 eggs and cup of porridge was sufficient.  We will see…

(Me, Dr. Paul, Chris) A photo op. while we take a break
and rest.

6:00pm:  Back at camp drinking tea and swapping music with the other group members.  I am exhausted but it was a day well spent.  We hiked about 4 miles up and down and up and down big hills (a lot like elk hunting but not quite that bad) to bring medical supplies to a village named Buttoli.  You really need to be here to get the full picture.  The smells of mint and flowers next to the trail, the birds and butterflies floating about, the gurgling of the creak running through the valley made me feel like 7 years in Tibet or the scientists in Jurassic Park.  I was waiting to look up and see a T-Rex smashing trees running across the valley. 

Along the way we saw so MANY plants.  The funniest, one that will be most recognized, is sometimes known as the “sweet leaf” or “Mary Jane”.  Yeah!  There was marijuana growing on the side of the trail. Haha.  Dr. Paul pointed it out as a “good medicine.”  It might have been hemp though, but it sure looked like the big green leaves on the Bob Marley CDs.  We also smelled ginger, ate mint, saw lots of roots, um… it was so many different things I kinda forgot most of them.  I didn’t actually carry any medicine supplies because we had a porter who hauled everything.  I’m glad he did because the hike was pretty brutal.  As we walked Virabai (the pharmacist) and Dr. Paul kept throwing rocks and hitting the bushes with their sticks behind us to make us think it was a snake.  I repeatedly jumped and screamed which only egged them on and made them laugh harder.  It’s fun to have buddies instead of supervisors, especially when the doctor wasn’t the typical professional/serious doctor. 

Virabai (the pharmacist) going to the villiage.
(Mitch, I bet you wish you could dress like
this at the hospital. haha)

Once we arrived Virabai (the pharmacist) spread out all the medicines on a table and Dr. Paul sat opposite of him.  We looked at a bunch of patients taking turns to measure blood pressure and listen to lung noises.  It was fun.  At 2 we ate our small packed lunches they made for us.  I was famished because breakfast was at 8am and I had hiked for 2-3 hours.  On the way back it started raining and Virabai and I used his umbrella and took off ahead of the pack because we walked faster than the others.  We sat on the ridgeline overlooking the valley as we watched the rain waiting for the rest of the group to arrive.  Chris, Dr. Paul and I walked the rest of the way back together and we stopped to talk to a former epilepsy patient. When Dr. Paul asked for some of his Jackfruit, the man climbed up his tree, hacked down to watermelon sized fruits with his machete, and gave them to Chris and me to carry back to the clinic.  Tonight we feast on Jackfruit! 

8pm: Bowler, batsman and fielder.  Does anyone know what sport I’m talking about?  Remember I’m in India which was under British rule at one point…CRICKET!  Tonight Aki and Rinco caught Chris and I cricket.  We played for about an hour and then I got hit in the leg by a hard linedrive.  It’s only a tennis ball so it didn’t hurt that bad, but I was probably 15 feet away from the batter so I didn’t have time to react.  Everyone laughed.  Later we ate (no Jackfruit because it wasn’t ripe) and went to bed.

A child up in the village we hiked to doing the double thumbs up.

Word of the day: dhanyavad: thanks