Crossing Borders to break down Walls

                                                        

Andhra Pradesh... Where to start... So Rising Star services about 12 colonies in the state of Tamil Nadu. Through research, talking, and going to leprosy affected meetings, Dr. Kumar and Padma have had hundreds and thousands of colonies brought to their attention that are needing medical help. Many have not seen doctors, and receive very little help and even attention for that matter. Dr. Kumar has been planning a trip to the state of Andhra Pradesh for nearly 1 1/2 years and this session that came in had just enough people for his plans to become a reality. The drive was 5 hours north and we had to cross into a new state (which is a FIRST for Rising Star) and we had our first encounter with the corruption of the Indian government. I am going to refer to a lot of 'laws' as rules, because these 'laws' change depending on who the person is and how much money is exchanged as to whether or not the rule is followed.


According to the state patrol, vehicles that cross the state line must show the original copy of their title and ownership.This r did not apply to rented vehicles and their drivers because they had some type of clearance Also, no more than 12 people are allowed to ride in a van, regardless of the amount of seats within the vehicle. We had exactly 24 people on our trip, including Dr. Kumar and our 2 drivers, so we were not worried about this rule. We had already rented a van (along with a new driver) to leave out from our small hidden village, but our 2nd van was driven by a Rising Star driver, and he did not hold the title to the vehicle. With this unexpected dilemma at the border we had to drive to the closest city and find a new vehicle to load into. Just so you know..it was AWESOME! :-) We are talking a pink giant party bus, with a tv, a random pole, flashing disco lights, and a shrine to 4 different hindu gods. It was impressive to say the the least. We had to also higher a bus driver, and on our way out of the city, he was honking to get a man to move out of the road. The man in the road kept mouthing off and starting to say things about the bus drivers mom (Dr. Kumar translated the event for us after). The bus driver jumps out of the party bus, punches the guy square in the face, shakes his hand out and mounts back onto his pink steed to drive us away.  We were all speechless and the only thing that broke the silence was Dr. Kumar's reaction of "This is why we love our Rising Star drivers."

We continued our drive, and were pulled over a few more times by the state police, once to see that Val, our bus driver who was no longer allowed to drive because we had to rent the party bus was told to get off because of too many people. It was funny to pull over, turn around and see Val standing on the side of the road for us to 'secretly' pick him back up again. So our anticipated 5 hour drive turned into a 9.5 hour drive to make it to our hotel. We were originally going to arrive at 9:00 am and make it to our first colony (that had 95 people) by 10, but we did not get to the city until nearly 2 in the afternoon with empty and hungry bellies. We were able to get some lunch, and I excitedly (or overly excitedly) ordered French Fries and an Ice cream cappucino.We then made it to our first colony and spent 5 hours solid testing blood sugars, blood pressure, cleaning/bandaging wounds and ulcers and meeting the people of these communities. 

The first colony was called Jyothi, situated in the thick of the green, mountain filled Tropical jungle with monkeys, and jaguars, complete with trees you could not even see through.  We heard stories of the jaguars, but we did not see any in the 5 hours that we were there. We were not sure how the people were going to react to seeing 20 white people who have become accustomed to loving and touching these people we so deeply care for. But as soon as we got off our respective vans, the peoples smiles were beaming and their hands were reaching out with such compassion and thankfulness. One of the men even went to their shaq store and brought out cokes and fantas for all of the volunteers. I did not drink any, but my favorite was the the closest one to coke that sported a "thumbs up" logo across its glass bottle. Near the end of our stay, the women brought us flowers and placed them in our hair. It is such a loving community to be able to live parts of our lives with! Since their was only 1 blood sugar kit, I was placed on the Diabetic testing with Laura Jane and Kenzi. Let me tell you, we got every single persons blood sugar there! Leprosy causes very thick calluses to form on peoples bodies, and often that place is on their hands, which makes testing blood sugars hard to do at times. We had a good system with my team though. I would check blood sugars with a straight needle, while another girl would use the pricker and we would share the meter between the two. We enjoyed our system, and Dr. Kumar was impressed that we tested every single persons blood sugar there, all 95. We found about 22 new Type 2 Diabetics and about 37 with hypertension.

Our 2nd colony we went to the next day was even larger than the 1st. This colony was in the slums in the middle of Tirupatia. Tirupatia has a VERY large temple in it that people will walk for weeks to come and just sleep on its steps. The temple has rituals of shaving off women's hair and we were not able to go, but it played a big party in the lives of those that lived within the cities borders.  At this new colony, we set up our clinic inside a building about 20 ftx12 ft, and managed to fit 23 volunteers, medical equipment, and waves of the 130 residents of the community. It is interesting how India works. In anything that happens that draws a crowd, whether that is riding a bus, a function, attending church, or even coming for treatment. Men always sit on the left side, and women always sit on the right. Families do not sit together, and women are assisted only by women or their spouse if he decides to do so. When we were setting up, a woman barely sitting on the steps next to her walker kept pointing towards me. When I sat down with her, she pointed to my feet and then to hers and spoke in Telegu (In Andhra Pradesh, they speak Telegu, not Tamil, so we had to have an interpreter for our Dr.). A man close by, pointed to my shoes (Chacos) and said that she wanted me to give them to her.


In Tamil Nadu, Padma has worked so hard with micro loans and teaching the colonies that they have means of making money and supporting themselves if they put in the effort to do so. Micro loans are provided to give them a start and this makes such a huge impact on the lives of those that are leprosy affected. In this new state that we were visiting, where we just broke through the border with a Dr. visit, these people have no understanding of how to support themselves other than begging. It is learned through generatians and it is done simply because it is what they have seen their parents do.  The line becomes where do people need help, and where does the help cause more problems. By giving shoes, it justifys the action of begging. By keeping, it leaves a woman who uses a walker barefoot around the streets of a slum. I kept my shoes, if you are wondering,  but it stayed with me and it is something that I am often reminding myself of.

" The line becomes...where do people need help, and where does the help cause more problems"

On our own in Chennai

We often travel through India in Rising Star vehicles driven by the Rising Star Drivers and with large groups (between 8-30) white people. Today, was a day of our own exploration. We were driven to the bus stop in Chingleput, our driver, Vamel found our right bus, gave us strict instructions on what we needed to do (women sit on the right side of the bus only) and gave us emergency contact information. He waved us off and we started our big adventure! The drive takes about an hour to get to the part of Chennai that we were needing to get to. And from that bus stop we had to find an Indian to help figure out what bus we needed to get on to make to the Spencer's plaza where the mall of Chennai is located. My camera died while we were there, so not very many pictures of the day. But the buses in India almost always have people hanging out of the door frames, holding onto the rail because the bus is so full.

There is no such thing as personal space in India. If you manage to get a sit, you spend the time getting bumped by bellies or I had a woman cuddle up next to me with your head on my shoulder and make use of it as a pillow. If your standing, you are constantly anticipating the screeching stops the drivers make. You will hear mixes of Tamil, Hindi, and English throughout the buses, or witness the long streams of lifeless stares that is most common on the bus as people zone out for their bus ride and just endure the journey to their destination.

We always managed to find someone to talk to, that would often be accompanied by that man personally walking us to where we were needing directions to go to. That is something that I love about Tamil Nadu. The nicest people live here. Literally.

The state of Tamil Nadu is known for having the kindest and most giving people. In India the way that people are greeted, is that you say your hellos and the next question is "Have you eaten?" The assumption is that if you have eaten then you must be good and feeling in good health. If you have not eaten, then something is not right and the initiator takes it upon themselves to prepare a meal and to dine together.

Much of our day was spent shopping, bartering, and being helped to our next locations. On one of our street walks, Kacy saw a man that reads palms, which we had talked on the bus about wanting to get done! She and I immediately jumped on the idea and it was worth the rs. 60 we paid! 

 He looked at my hand and he described past events that had happened (he talked specifically about experiencing a change in my family life) and described that my dads side of the family was very large and influential and very close with one another (True!). He talked about how I was independent and did not follow others in their directions, but I make my own path through out life. He also said in regards to marriage, it is something that does not act as a door in my life (meaning it is not absolutely open or absolutely closed), but more as a window that is open in my life and that If I find it, then it will be my own choice to pursue. He laughed explaining that it mimics my personality of not following a direct path but still creating my own. He also said that I would have a governmental type of job involving :commuting" (this specific word was hard with the translation) that I will work at until I am 60. I will have 2 boys and 1 girl. I will die soon after I turn 90 and at that time I would have 5 grandchildren. The sun is the planet that I follow, and my lucky #'s are 1 and 5 but #9 is not lucky for me.      

We were able to go shopping at FabIndia, the very popular store in India that is popular, especially among the volunteers! It is like an Indian version of a Pottery Barn mixed with an cheap Indian Anthropology. They have lighting and home furnishings, as well as jewelry, chitigars, pants, and salwars! The manager spoke English, so she actually set us up with a rickshaw that could drive us to a grocery store, and a store we had heard about from some friends. We were amazed when we got to our new location! A part of Chennai that no one knew existed! We are used to the trash filled streets, followed with piles of sand, skin and bone cows and sarees beautifully decorating the woman. Here we found trees, and sidewalks, a store that was indoors with back lighting to her jewelry. A massage parlour, and an outdoor restaurant complete with mood lighting and... COFFEE! :-) The restaurant had watermelon soup, feta cheese, the people all eating were dressed in western clothes and western modest skirts with hair flowing down their shoulders! We all sat down and were amazed that this side of Chennai even existed.

I imagine I feel very similar to a person of royalty who is always having things done for them and having someone available to transaction and translate for them. But today we had the opportunity to leave that net of safety, to travel 2 hours north to the largest city in Tamil Nadu, experience the bus routes, bargain, find food on our own, and manage to make it back to Chingleput where our Rising Star driver was gladly waiting for us to take us back home.