Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Road Trip #2

Hey Everybody,

I just got back from another long road trip and didn't have WiFi available... so here's an overview of the last few days.

Sunday was a nice day, we drove 2 hours to Chennai where we had church with the Chennai 1st Branch and I was pleasantly surprised.  Although it was only a branch, there were maybe 60-70 members present and all of them were very well educated in the Gospel and gave some excellent talks and lessons.  The Indian culture of education and hard work was definitely evident.  That was great and then I just relaxed the rest of the day after we got back.

We left early Monday morning to a colony about 4 hours away and were able to see maybe 30-40 patients.  We haven't seen this colony in over a year so they were really excited to see us and so grateful for what we were doing.  We had to go up a steep road to set up our clinic and these patients who had really beat up feet and you could tell were in pain just moving around were helping us take tables/chairs up the road to set up the clinic.  It was really awesome to see.  After that we went and visited a big dam nearby and the gardens behind it... then we got set up in our hotel, had some dinner and went to bed.

Yesterday was really awesome, we got up early and went to another colony close by and helped 66 patients!  It was a little crazier because some of the volunteers stayed behind to help with school (it started this week) so I was running between doing blood pressures, helping with the ulcer washing, and blood sugar testing... it was awesome!  We finished up at the colony a little later but we went down and saw some waterfalls that were in a nearby government protected jungle.  We got in these little saucer boat things and went down this river, I had so much fun.  We headed home after that and got back at around 11:00 pm... and today we have another longer road trip planned.  Hopefully I'll have WiFi, but if not know that I'm doing well and having a blast.  Enjoy the pics/videos!

Our roadtrip begins

3 hours later... still going


 

Some of our patients
She kept saying "Tank you tank you", it was
really cute. 
That hand gesture also means
thank you.

Dam... 




Kids playing off the side of the dam

There are Utes fans all the way
in India.
This guy traces out our patients' feet so he
can make special sandals for them. 

They stayed around to say thank you and take
a picture with us. 

Monkeys!!!!


Our crew didn't understand why we thought
monkeys were so cool.
Just about to jump...


Yup... that's going to happen 








Always trying to make that sale,
no matter where we're at.



Fishing New Testament style







Saturday, May 30, 2015

Vacation Day

Today was a really nice break from all the work we have been doing.  We went to the beach city of Mamallapuram and explored the ancient ruins they had there and went to a really nice beach resort.

The grounds where the ruins are at said that these date back to around 600-700 AD, and they were still in really good condition, so that was cool to see.  The hagglers selling tourist stuff were super annoying, one guy was by my side for at least 20 minutes trying to get on my good side saying things like "Oh... you're from Utah, yes things are very different over there in Europe I'm sure".  I did give in and buy a really cool carved out rock, but only after bartering him down 800 rupies.

Then we went to the local beach resort and enjoyed the beach and pool there.  The waves were awesome today and we were able to do some epic bodysurfing.  The salt water was so strong though I could hardly stand it.  Needless to say, I'll be coming back with an Indian tan for sure (or burns).

We decided to walk around the city a little more and found a cool little pizza place that served Indian style pizzas which were super good.  After that it was time to go and we got back here around 5:00, ate some dinner and that was that.

Solid day... enjoy the pics!
Downtown Mamallapuram 




The Panoramic turned out kinda weird







This one's a more modern temple, probably built
within the last 50 years
Ideal Beach Resort: If you're ever in India, you
know where to go



Rocking the 3/4 length pants
Cool temple outside our restaurant
Group pic with the selfie stick