Matt Goes To India: 06/08/15

So sorry everybody for not having blogged in a while... it's been a crazy last couple of days and this is the first time I've had sufficient Internet and time to put up a post.

Like I said in my last update... Mike, Shane and I went on a 5 hour road trip to Trichy. It's really spelled/pronounced Tiruchirappalli but even the locals have a hard time saying it so they shorten it. It was us and a Rising Star Nurse, Ponkurry, that went to the new branch that they started there only about a year ago. They have bought a house and downstairs they have an office space and medical supplies and upstairs were the rooms and kitchen. It was really nice and although there weren't many staff, they were super nice people and overfed us every single meal haha.

Thursday we went to this really poor looking colony that actually was only discovered about a year back when the branch started. The people wanted nothing to do with Rising Star, even though they were in really bad shape; they were without electricity, their kids were running around naked and not in school, the overall health was terrible... So Dr. Susan (Managing Director and Medical Director) simply asked them to think/pray about it. They called soon after saying they had heard good things about Rising Star and would allow help. They soon had electricity, clean water, the kids got education grants to be enrolled in school and the overall feel of the village was very positive when we were there. These people had a complete change of heart because of the service that they were offered.

Friday we went to another colony and helped a good number of patients, probably 30-40. Our new crew included Dr. Kuppuswamy (super cool guy), 3 other awesome nurses and us so needless to say we kept busy, that's why there's not very many pictures of us at the colonies.

Saturday the Office Administrator Andrew took us to see the temples in Trichy. The Rockfort Temple is actually a bunch of different small temples/shrines built on these huge rocks in the middle of the city. That was probably my favorite place so far that we've visited, then we went to these other temples but weren't allowed to see most of it because we were Non-Hindu.

Sunday we came back on a charter bus so we arrived pretty late last night to campus. This morning we went out to the same colony I went to my first day to check on some patients we hadn't seen. And this afternoon was a heartbreaker, we had to give vaccines to the new kindergartners that were enrolled this year and some were not happy :(. Luckily we got them all taken care of and got them all of their dinosaur stickers.

It's been crazy busy, but that's what has made this trip so awesome. I've loved serving the people here in India, especially the ones you can tell have had a really rough life. Being able to relieve or give comfort in any sort of way has been so rewarding. Also gaining familiarity with the Indian Culture and seeing what this country has to offer has been incredible, I've had such a great experience and it's sad to see it all winding down. But I'll make the most of these last couple of days. Here's a photo/video overload of the weekend and also of past things that were taken by our talented photographer Shane Maryott.