Today was our last day at the care home, and I left feeling sad. I didn’t want to leave. It’s only been four measly days, but they’ve been full of heartfelt exchange.
These pictures are a few of the ones we took. This was the first project site visit we’ve had where we spent enough time to get to know the staff and clients well enough to start bonding a little. Everyone’s heart seems wide open at the care home, and so were ours…as a result, we learned a lot.
One of my favorite things that goes on in these faith-based clinics is called “devotion.” This is a time set aside in the morning, before work starts, to sing hymns or say prayers to praise God. It brings people together so amazingly, and makes you feel a sense of, well, devotion to the work you’re doing. Especially in such humble settings, where human lives are struggling quite a bit, it’s even more meaningful.
Since it was our last day, we had a special devotion time where clients got out of their beds (those that were able) and staff and volunteers (ie, us) gathered together in a room to sing a prayer. Dr. Gupta was on the phone for most of the time, but the rest of us were tuned in. We sang “Amazing Grace,” which I picked (seeing as this is Christian territory, I knew there’d be lots of songs praising Jesus instead of/beside God…decided that I’d try to jump in and pick a God-alone one!). Jacob, a patient whose photo (with his wife) is above, played lead guitar. Anyways, it was a beautiful song and afterward, Dio (a staff member) said a few words of thanks to us, Auntie Jennie said a prayer for us, and we thanked them profusely for their graciousness.
Saying goodbye to the staff members we got especially close to was hard. Of course it was only a few days, so I feel silly saying this. But Felix, whose photo is also above, and Om Prakash, Dio, Philip, Annama (the lab tech), Urmila and Anjali (who like her mom, is HIV-positive through no act of her own, and whose father, a truck driver, is also HIV-positive—unbeknownst to Urmila) and even Dr. Gupta (whose lectures were always stripped of any clinical/biological technicality because “you are all non-medical people”), and of course Auntie Jennie. Some people, you can tell just by looking at them that they’re good people. I got that feeling about so many I met at Sahara.
Tomorrow we’re going to visit the Women and Children’s Shelter for battered, trafficked and otherwise marginalized women and their kids. I’m really looking forward to it. The setting will be much less clinical, because the clients will be in better health (though some are HIV patients too, but not clinically ill ones). There are apparently about 70 children staying there. It should be quite an experience.
After work we went to Lajpat Nagar, a shopping bazaar that turned out to be nowhere near as fun as Dilli Haat. Then we went to Café Coffee Day, where I took the opportunity to get some of my first worldly love )Today was our last day at the care home, and I left feeling sad. I didn’t want to leave. It’s only been four measly days, but they’ve been full of heartfelt exchange.
These pictures are a few of the ones we took. This was the first project site visit we’ve had where we spent enough time to get to know the staff and clients well enough to start bonding a little. Everyone’s heart seems wide open at the care home, and so were ours…as a result, we learned a lot.
One of the dearest things that goes on in these faith-based clinics is called “devotion.” This is a time set aside in the morning, before work starts, to sing hymns or say prayers to praise God. It brings people together so amazingly, and makes you feel a sense of, well, devotion to the work you’re doing. Especially in such humble settings, where human lives are struggling quite a bit, it’s even more meaningful.
Since it was our last day, we had a special devotion time where clients got out of their beds (those that were able) and staff and volunteers (ie, us) gathered together in a room to sing a prayer. Dr. Gupta was on the phone for most of the time, but the rest of us were tuned in. We sang “Amazing Grace,” which I picked (seeing as this is Christian territory, I knew there’d be lots of songs praising Jesus instead of/beside God…decided that I’d try to jump in and pick a God-alone one!). Jacob, a patient whose photo (with his wife) is above, played lead guitar. Anyways, it was a beautiful song and afterward, Dio (a staff member) said a few words of thanks to us, Auntie Jennie said a prayer for us, and we thanked them profusely for their graciousness.
Saying goodbye to the staff members we got especially close to was hard. Of course it was only a few days, so I feel silly saying this. But Felix, whose photo is also above, and Om Prakash, Dio, Philip, Annama (the lab tech), Urmila and Anjali (who like her mom, is HIV-positive through no act of her own, and whose father, a truck driver, is also HIV-positive—unbeknownst to Urmila) and even Dr. Gupta (whose lectures were always stripped of any clinical/biological technicality because “you are all non-medical people”), and of course Auntie Jennie. Some people, you can tell just by looking at them that they’re good people. I got that feeling about so many I met at Sahara.
Tomorrow we’re going to visit the Women and Children’s Shelter for battered, trafficked and otherwise marginalized women and their kids. I’m really looking forward to it. The setting will be much less clinical, because the clients will be in better health (though some are HIV patients too, but not clinically ill ones). There are apparently about 70 children staying there. It should be quite an experience.
After work we went to Lajpat Nagar, a shopping bazaar that turned out to be nowhere near as fun as Dilli Haat. Then we went to Café Coffee Day, where I took the opportunity to get some chicken tikka (my first love, tied with m&m's) from a guy barbecuing on the side of the road. It was nearly as good as Tonic’s tandoori chicken yesterday (I think I only enjoyed Tonic’s a little more b/c it included AC and good music). We also invented some more Sejisms...don't ask...
The monkeys in the picture are from a family that lives in a flat across the parking lot from us!
No comments:
Post a Comment