Monday 22nd February, Visit to the School

These pictures are of the laboratory at Kothara School which we donated to from Kelbrook all those years ago. It was very moving to stand in it this morning. I 've no idea just what our money went towards. The laboratory is the only specialist room in the school. Otherwise it has 10 classrooms off a central square and a few offices and storerooms. Mr Chaudre, the Head, (in the picture) has been there since the late 80's but he has no memory of the lab being equipped. Anyway, there it is and, as the school as 350 pupils it should get some good use. It was a delight to see the children learning and we see them playing every day as their playground is on two sides of our Guest House.

Tomorrow we leave early for this conference, travelling all day, arriving into the night, most of it by train. It should be an experience. We would appreciate your prayers for it.It's the main thing we are contributing to whilst we are here and we would like to feel we have done some good, however small.

This will be our last post, we imagine, for a week. We travel back all next Monday. We are not sure whether we can get on line, or will have time to blog even if we can, whilst we are away. Thanks again for the comments. And we will be in touch in a week's time.

Photos at last

At last! Some photos for you. The top right is of the new Outpatients Department openend in 2002. It sees a lot of action ,some 150-180 patients per day, Mon -Fri. This is where most of the professionals we have been meeting work most of the time, but not exclusively so.

The top left picture is of the Hospital's main gates off the road. The bullock cart speaks for itself. The litle black vehicle to the right is one of the pack-'em-in scooter type taxis which are all over. You see 12-15 people in one of them no trouble. We think they go by the name "tuck-tuck"
but htis may not be right. You wil se the schoolgirls i nthe foreground. They are puplis at Kothara School which we are to visit today. We'll make another post for that.

The third photo is of the young couple at the wedding reception of last Sunday week, as mentioned in the blog for then.

Sunday

hi everyone
Today has been a quiet day. Andrew preached in the morning service here and we went along to sunday school during the afternoon for 45 minutes. They use fuzzy felts just like St Giles and Plaxtol do, so we felt very much at home and understood the story even though it was in hindi. We could also join in the actions of the songs.
After church we were invited over to coffee with Dr Asha and Dr Steven and spent a pleasant time chatting about rural life in the UK and India. Out here the poor live in the country and the rich in cities, it seems as though this is often reversed in the UK. Because Kothara is in the middle of nowhere this is making it extremely difficult to recruit doctors to the 2 vacant posts, and they would be glad of prayers that suitable candidates with a vocation apply soon.
The wireless connection has not been working for most of the day so we have done numerous puzzles (thanks Coba) and even resorted to watching some Indian TV -A is currently watching Aston Villa v Burnley so you can see how desperate things are! Back to work tomorrow!

Saturday 20th February

Dear All,
Largely uneventful day today. More preparation for Naini next week and then just chilling out in our guest house. The great joy was of seeing Kate, Omar, Ben and Mikey on webcam whilst skyping this morning. We really must get fully fitted up with all the gear when we are home.

Advance warning : the blog will very likely need to stop from next Monday onwards for a week. We leave for the cousellors' conference at Naini, Alamabad, on the Tuesday. We will be very busy and don't know what intenet access we will have. We will do what we can, but no promises.

Best wishes, Andrew & Elizabeth

Friday 19th February

Evening all.
Main thing today for us was doing our first seminar. This was for the nurses and was on basic counselling skills. We have done loads of such things before in our time so why we were so nervous is a mystery, but we were. It went off all right too. The nurses were fine, intelligent and co-operative. The nurses hold a key position as they are on the wards for long hours and often enough the patients will unburden to them. As one of them said today,
" Yes, they tell me when they are thinking of committing suicide."
Suicide has been selected as a topic for next week's conference, asked for by the counsellors themselves we understand, so it sounds to be a real problem. We had not heard much about it until arriving, not that we've picked up anything about it happening on site. It certainly must be shattering to realise you have this dreaded disease and it is no surprise that many must contemplate ending it all. So, if we assisted these nurses at all with some basic skills then, well and good.
The hot weather continues and we are glad of the cool in the guest house. We have now tried two indian breakfasts, poha which is fried curried rice and nuts, and patatas, which is curried mashed potato and is salty and had with chapatis. Walking round the campus we came across a teak plantation, planted by a former general secretary of TLM. Teak is grown all over the area and looks suprisingly wandy and not at all solid. Lots of trees are beginning to lose their leaves as the weather hots up, but thankfully it is still cool at night. We keep reading of the freezing temp in the UK and hope things improve for you soon
Bye for now
A & E

Thursday Feb 17th

Hi All,
Sorry to be late with this but we lost wi-fi last evening, something which happens a bit here we gather.

Life, here has settled into a routine somewhat. Chapel after breakfast at 8:00am. Then we have spent the mornings in preparation for this four-day conference at Allahabad (to the North from here. A "short" 10 hour train journey awaits us next Tue). In the afternoons we have crossed to the Hospital campus and been meeting the staff. Two more interesting people yesterday. A fascinating time in physio learning about the various treatments for ulcerations and the importance of the surgical sandals ( "chappas", we think they are called) made for patients. We learnt that these too are stigmatising and that they are now trying to manufacture more trendy footwear but still with the microcellular rubber soles which are moulded to each individual foot. and then an interesting chat to the pharmacist.

Our evenings are atmospheric, it feels like being in a hill station under the Raj. The servants, gone now from serving us our supper. The place hushed with shadows and the tropical moonlight, the fans turning softly. And we spend our time doing puzzles and writing emails and blogging.
Bye for now
A & E.

Wednesday 17th Feb

Dear All,
First a reply to some of your comments, for which thanks but none yet abusive enough to click the "Report Abuse" button which I want to do, so come on guys get going.
For Sally F - no, we haven't yet mastered posting photos, though we intend to have a go, before much longer. We'veonly just started bloging at all - so give us a chance, Sal. For Brian A - we will be catching a train next Tuesday to go to Alhahabad. "Only a 10 hour journey", they tell us. And once we join the travelling party from the UK in March we will be catching at least two more.Will let you know all about it.
Today we spent the morning preparing our seminar for the nurses on Friday pm and then some of the stuff for the conference next week. Elizabeth is an extremely difficult woman to work with. All her ideas are contrary to mine. This meant we spent much longer doing this than I had imagined but the arguing was fun after a bit.
As we finally declared an end to hostilities and were about to sign the peace treaty we were skyped, no less! Our first ever skype. A bit faint but perhaps this was because it was from NZ. We are just so international these days. Someone called Karen Warne who is co-ordinating the conference. Amazing to be here in the middle of India, talking through the laptop to someone on the other side of the world. We were on for ages and all for free. Later we got a skype message from TLM UK Head Office. We have put our nearest and dearest on our skype list but needless to say, after years of mocking us for being so untechnical and out of date none of the kids has accepted us yet.
Rest of the day was doing more interviews with staff. Some very touching. A man who has worked here for over 35 years first came when nobody would come and work because of the fear of contagion. A young man who had a good job, packed it in because he was missing christian fellowship and wanted to get back to going to church. He has taken a significant drop in salary but has no regrets at all. He had a lovely smile. It was very heartening talking to him.
That's about it for today but one prayer point : Leeds Utd lost again last night, 1-2 at home to Walsall. It's getting serious guys, we need to pray.

Tuesday 16th Feb

Today we did two main things.
First, we watched some eye surgery - cataract removals. Never been one for watching such stuff on the telly but it's diferent when its live and for the good of the TLM patients here. We saw six of them done, took about 15 minutes each. Kothara provides general eye surgery for the local community and has lots of customers. They pay half the rate private hospitals charge and the income shores up the work with leprosy patients which is offered free of charge. Also there are connections with the leprosy work because leprosy sufferers also have cataracts and can't see properly to look after their hands and feet, so it's good to have the facility.
Second, we spent the rest of the day intreviewing various staffers to find out their stories and what their work here involves. We met the chief nurse, the radiologist, the accountant, and the reception team. Oh, and we saw the lens workshop for the specs making dept, an ingenious place with a variety of marvelous antiquated machines which cut, grind turn out the lenses.
A good day, again lots of info.
Elizabeth would like continued prayer please for her back which gave her more trouble than ever last night - an unacountable pain in the lumbar region.
cheerio
A & E

Sunday and Monday 14th & 15 th February

Sunday was good for us. There was a very pleasant Holy Communion Service in the Chapel here, led by Dr Asha (no problems with womens' leadership here, then - hooray) and the speaker and celebrant was Rev Dr Tantarpale of Amravati who did Saturday's Bible study. He kindly invited me to help distribute the elements. All very nice. Several pre-school age children were present who found no difficulty in behaving well through an hour and fifteen minutes of adult worship, thought they made up for it, belting around the place afterwards.
In the afternoon we were taken up to Chikhaldara, a hill resort an hours away at Satpuda, 3,600 ft high. Huge cliffs with spectacular waterfalls in the rainy season so we were told, though sadly for us they are dry right now. Paid our first visit to a Hindu temple where we gave a nod, but no offerings, to Goddess Can't remember her name, goddess of money. Again the traffic and the wayside villages are unforgettable. I'll have to settle down and try to write a free-standing piece on the village scene. No time tonight 'fraid.
In the evening we were invited to attend the wedding reception for a young couple recently married in Mumbai. This was held in the field immediately outside our guest house. The groom's brother is on the staff here, we gather. A big enclosure was made replete with cream and purple hangings and a platform with a big silver two-seater throne for the happy couple. Here was some singing, a reading, a sermon and some prayers as they are christians Then they garlanded each other, cut the cake and stuffed wedding cake in each others' mouths. Then all the relations and guests started filing up to give gifts and pose for pix. There were fireworks (good ones) and then food and dancing with all the children bopping around and the adults looking on. It really was very nice, and I usually hate these things (apols to those of you whose family weddings I have attended) The was the ubiquitous video-man of course, who came right up to us during the singing, which was in Marathi, the local language. It seemed only polite to try and mouth some words rather than stand closed-mouths. So this unfortunate young couple will one day soon look at their wedding video and wonder who on earth were those odd, white strangers gawping their way like goldfish at their reception.

Monday.
Today was our first working day at Kothara. After morning prayers we joined in the morning ward-round with the doctors and the counsellor, Metali. We learned more of the medicine involved in treating the disease and, later, from Metali, some of the patients' stories. There was a man who had been dumped at the hospital gate beaten up and abandoned by a hostile family. A man who had come to the hospital in secret giving his family and neighbours an alibi of some sort, to avoid stigma and loss of business in his locality -a far from unusual thing according to Metali. There was a farmer whose labourers had refused to turn up for work once the word got out about his leprosy, though his wife remained suppportive. And much more.
The latter part of the day was shadowing Metali in the Outpatients' dept and, between patients, talking to her about her modus operandi. Here there was a poor tribal family where two women had to be told their skin patches had biopsied postive for leprosy. This is where her work in helping them come to some terms with the bad news is so vital. Altogether, it was useful learning for us though a lot of tiring listening, especially as all conversations are in the local language. Counselling here is on a different model to that in the UK, much more integral to the giving of straight health advice and much less formal and structured.
We would appreciate prayer as we feel a little daunted about how to connect and share with the staff and patients. We have been asked to lead a session for nurses on friday, and then one later for the doctors. Meanwhile we hope to see some operations tomorrow and continue to immerse ourselves in the place.
Bye for now
Andrew and Elizabeth

First day here

Saturday was spent being shown around the Hospital and then talking to the Superintendent Dr Xavier. I have given an account of this in our weekly e-mail update, which all you should have received. If there is anyone out there in cyberspace who hasn't had it, please e-mail us on a.procter@live.co.uk. Otherwise we were happy to chill out the rest of the day, in our guest house, also described in the e-mail.

More anon,

Andrew & Elizabeth.

Arrival at Kothara

Dear All,


Our first post from Kothara Hospital where we will now stay for a month.


Thanks for the (nine) comments from you - all lovely to receive. Two were from St Mary's Kelbrook. Do you rememeber our Home & Overseas Project from the 80's?We raised money for the School attached to Kothara. It made my heart lift to be puling in through the entry gates with their TLM sign, which I recalled from photos we used at the time and to be actually here.I remain very proud of what we all achieved in the Project and remember the big cheque being held up for the press photo with Hugh McKee of TLM being there and Bob Fort and Doug Hall. The idea for it all came from Liz Grose as I recall, who said in the PCC we could not refurbish St Mary's without we did something for those much poorer than us. So we did it pound for pound (just discovered by the way the indian laptops don't carry a pound sign on the toolbar) and raised money on an equal basis for our church and for Kothara TLM Hopsital School. Yesterday we saw the School and the uniformed kids. It's a happy/sad story. It's no longer a TLM School but a state one, though still owned and managed by TLM. The reason for this change is that the numbers of leprosy affected children have drastically reduced since the 80's. Dr Xavier the Director here told me that when he came here in 04 there were only five kids in the school. So they made it over to the govt. The decline in numbers of kids is less that they don't get leprosy but that the stigma is less and they don't get thrown out of their families like they used which is great. Dr Jai says he can get us into the school to look around and maybe see the laboratory which we donated.



Apart from that perhaps a few notes on Goa will interest you. We saw loads of birds: Brahmin kites, sea eagles, a green bee-eater, a fantastic big kingfisher, egrets, cormorants and some "flying fox" fruit bats, hanging on trees like big handbags until they took off showing a ochre coloured underbelly and a big wingspan. You don't want to be a bit of fruit around those guys. Animal - wise ; three mongoose crossed our path one day, there were water buffalo - they paint their horns red for some reason and cows wandering free down the roads.



We got bikes one day and cycled in the locality. The houses varied from hovels to sizable villas, not unlike some of those around Plaxtol. These last were in vibrant colours usually, vivid lemon, bright cyclamen, orange, acid green, shocking pink prevailing. I was imagining the notes from the Parish Council meeting, planning application section if someone fancied a creation like one of these in The Street - the word "Objection" came to mind. Its a fishing area. They go out in narrow dug-out canoes and dive for shellfish, clams and mussels mainly. We saw them doing this and also the women sitting patiently bashing the shells open with hammers.

Other than this we just spent our time enjoying the hotel and the beach. Elizabeth has forbidden me to tell the tale of her altercation over a sunbed with one of the huge, fat, blingy, shaven headed Russian mafia men who adorned the place (returning with a different girlfriend each year, according to a local jeweller, who locked up most of his stock when they came in, he said). Frankly, I would have let him have the sunbed, but not our E. I was just glad not to discover myself joining the the South Goan Diving Club briefly, wearing their new concrete diving shoes.

Out transit to Nagpur by two internal flights on sat was interesting. The flight leaving Goa Airport was 54 minutes late, so we expected to miss our connection in Mumbai, only having 40 minutes between flights. However on touchdown in Mumbai they announced the Nagpur people were to announce themselves. When we did this, the hostess summoned a bus just for us and took us over the tarmac straight to the Nagpur plane. As we climbed the stairs we expected to find it full of impatient people waiting for us, but it was completely empty. For a wild moment I thought we were to be flown by private jet, but in fact they loaded up after that. We had been bothered about missing the connection because it would mean missing those kindly waiting to pick us up at Nagpur and the whole thing seemed an answer to the prayers of those supporting us.

Nagpur is a city of some 200,000 people and they were all out on their scooters that night it seemed as we had our first taste of Indian urban traffic. If not a scooter then a push-bike and if not that then a tuck-tuck, a three wheeled affair with a cabin behind a scooter. These light vehicles are all over the road like lice. The buses and trucks (not too many private cars) plough through them regardless as did Silas our driver who rarely got off his mobile phone.
We then had a 4 hour drive to Kothara on a narrow bumpy road full of the above plus lorries. When darkness fell not all of them had lights. It was a hair raising journey with horns honking continuously as we swerved round vehicles and cows and people.
We arrived at Kothara about 9.30 pm and were made very welcome in the guesthouse with a double ensuite room. This is not what you are imagining, believe me, but comfortable if spartan and all the elderly equipment works, including a flush loo.
Bye for now
Andrew and Elizabeth

Arrival in India

Dear Blogees,
Many thanks for all the offers to follow us and our progress.
This is just to explain that our time here begins with two weeks on holiday with eight others ,friends of ours, at a rather nice place in Goa. So you can go easy on the earnest prayer for a bit. There is no internet facility a our hotel so we wont be coming on line much.
We get to Kothara on February 12th and so will begin proper then.
Even so it is great to be in this amazing subcontinent. We have seen the proverbial cows walking freely down the busy street already, water buffalo and seaeagle. All this as well as the dust, street trading, insistent hawkers and many, many wonderful smiles.

Lots of love, A & E