Bellarmine Chapel in Mission

Parishioner Joyce Kahle, CPPS, is currently in India, helping tsunami victims. Here are her updates on her work:

Hello from India for the last update!

The past two weeks have been full but very memorable. We finished formal clinics on June 10, but people continued to come to our church house for consults until the day we left the Tamil Nadu area on the 15th. That day Sisters Jiji and Rani and the postulants, Lourda and Stella went by car with most of the luggage back to Bangalore. Moly, Margo and I took a bus to Thanjavur, about 3 1/2 hours away, and had lunch, visited a famous Hindu temple there, and just hung out until our train left around 7pm. We had the "deluxe" accommodations with an air conditioned sleeper coach (a great step up from "tsunami camp"!!) and arrived in Bangalore about 6am on Thursday, June 16.

Just to update you on the story of the 5 y.o. girl, Shakthi, her grandmother visited us again before we left. The father still did not consent to let the child have the surgery, but the grandmother has not given up on trying to find a way for him to consent. We left money to cover some of the expenses (lost pay, food, transportation and medicines) with the Sisters in Trichy, who plan to stay involved with the people in the area that we served. They promised to keep us posted on what's happening with Shakthi. So keep praying!!

Before we left the aunt of another little 5 y.o. girl returned with the child. She was seen in our clinic back in April. At that time we could tell that she had serious effects from a congenital heart defect and we were amazed that she was alive. Her mother was dead and she is the only child of her father. He had spent very much money taking her to doctors trying to figure out what was wrong and using all kinds of treatments without success. After seeing Margo, they took the child to a cardiologist and had her further evaluated at the hospital in Chennai, and there they learned that her Tricuspid valve was not functioning. The hospital had to order the valve but would contact them when it arrived. We were elated!! We left money to help with expenses for them also, and we learned after we arrived back in Bangalore that the valve had arrived. The child is being admitted next Monday and will have surgery in one to two weeks. YES!!!

The sisters in Bangalore have welcomed us graciously and treated us royally! On Saturday we visited one of their houses in Mysore, a 4-hour drive from Bangalore. Lourda Mary and Stella, the postulants, live there and they we anxious for us to come. They took us to tour the Mysore Palace--quite fantastic with gorgeous wood, marble, glass, gold, silver -- much more than I could absorb but it was beautiful-- and that evening we went to a musical fountain/light show at a spacious Gardens. We returned to Bangalore on Sunday.

Most of our free time has been spent working on getting our photos organized on the computer, labeled and ready to transfer onto CD's for each of the Sisters who were part of the Tsunami Community experience. We made a special copy for Sr. Salomie, the provincial of the Indian Delegation of the ASC sisters here who left for their general assembly in Rome yesterday. (It was hard to say goodbye to her.) Today we finished the other 15 CD's and finally had time to use the Internet for a little while. We have tons of pictures to share with all of you when we return, so get ready!

This has been an incredible experience for me, one that will take some time to process over the next months and possibly years. I will miss the people here, especially the Sisters who have been so good to us and have been blessings for us. They are a great group of women and they have taught me very much about simplicity, prayer, community spirit and much more. Each one of them has been a vital part of this journey, as have all of you who have supported me with your love and prayers. We leave this evening and I'm sure there will be more tears not knowing if we will ever see our new friends and companions on the journey again in this life, but I also look forward to being home again with all of you. I've missed you greatly and it's time to return home.

We get into Dayton around 6pm Friday evening and I'm staying in Dayton that evening. Saturday I plan to drive home to Cincinnati, assuming that I can find my car somewhere!! It will be strange to drive again -- and on the Right side of the road! Pray for our journey is safe!

Love and blessings,

Joyce

This has been one very busy week!!! I tried to write an update to you all last Monday, but the internet here was having problems and couldn't be used. And last weekend, we all (the 4 ASC's and Margo and I) took some time to play at a nearby beach on Saturday and took a bus to Velanganni on Sunday -- two of the Sisters had never been to this famous pilgrimage site, so Margo and I were the tour guides!

We just had our last day of clinics here. Lots of mixed feelings about that! I'm going to miss the people--their spirit is incredible and their hospitality has been wonderful. Goodbye's are not easy for me, and seeing some of the folks who have come often--sometimes with some pain or illness and other times just because they wanted to say hello, to give us some fruit, or to tell us that our medicines worked and to say thanks--there were a few tears here and there, knowing that we will probably never see one another again. Some of the women wanted us to take them with us!

Much of this week, when we weren't having clinic, was spent working out the logistics of getting two girls seen by cardiologists and set up for surgery. It's a long story that I'll try to summarize. During the course of our time here, Margo discovered some congenital heart problems in three girls. We sent all three with a parent each and two of the Sisters (Jiji and a postulant, Lourdu Mary) to Thanjavur for echo cardiograms. That's a 3 hour bus ride each way.

Two of the three are needing surgery. The 5 y.o., Shakthi, can have the surgery in Thanjavur but the 19 y.o. Mariya, will need to go to Chennai, a 10 hour bus ride away. Of course neither family can afford the surgery-- they can't afford the time off work to go for the tests! We learned that surgeries can be done free at the government hospitals and the families were willing go but needed to accompany them. So it took two more trips to Thanjavur, once with Sr. Moly and Stella on Tuesday and back again on Wednesday with Moly. The grandmother was with the child--the mother lives there too but goes away for some work and also has a younger child at home. They saw the doctors, had more tests, and with a lot of talking and a letter from Margo, the doctors agreed to do the surgery. We were all so happy and everything was set for the grandmother to take Shakhti today and the surgery was scheduled for next Tuesday . The grandmother went to the village where the father lives to tell him and get his permission and he refused. He wants it to take place in a private hospital, but of course he drinks his money away and has never supported the child. He thought that we would just give him money for the surgery (not a chance!) and threatened to kill the grandmother if anything happened to Shakhti. We were planning to pay for expenses such as transportation and food for the mother and grandmother, and even give the grandmother reimbursement for the time lost from work. Unfortunately, they decided they couldn't take the risk, because the father was likely to carry out any threat he made. We were all in tears about that situation, but are praying hard that somehow he will change his mind. The child will not live many more years without the surgery, so if you could all join us in praying, I have hope that it will happen yet before we leave. Our last day here in Tamil Nadu is Wednesday, June 15.

The other story is happier. Wednesday Stella and I went up to Nagaputinam (a 2 hour bus trip) where we met the Director of Health Services for this area. We needed a letter from someone in the government for Mariya to be seen at the Medical College Hospital in Chennai. We got the letter, and that night Mariya, her father, Sr Jiji and Lourdu Mary took the overnight bus to Chennai, saw the dean, saw the cardiologist, had tests repeated and had been approved for the surgery. They took the Thursday night bus home and got here this morning. She plans to return to the hospital there on June 20 to be admitted for the surgery. Her father makes less that $5 a month, so of course we will be helping with their expenses. All of this is only possible because of the generosity of all of you along with your prayers. We plan to stay in touch with the families somehow to know the outcomes of both of these situations.

There are so many stories I'd love to share, but there is just not enough time now. But one funny one is about our adventure with the rats. We've all noticed them in the bath house, but when they started eating our food in the church sacristy, we bought some rat poison. It disappeared several nights in a row and when one morning the poison was still there, we thought we might have conquered the problem. Wrong! The one disadvantage is that we had no control over where they chose to die! It wasn't too bad when we found two in different places and could just dispose of them. But dead rats smell terrible, and one died in the rafters above the sacristy, which is connected to our living space! It took a while to locate it and it was a challenge to actually get up high enough to get it down -- a chair, to a table, to the window sill-- Margo was the brave one to do the climbing and I got to get rid of the mess after it landed in the toilet room! The smell lingered for days, even after we incensed, sprayed everywhere and had several fires in the garbage!

We start packing up now and are planning to leave for Bangalore on Wednesday. Then we'll have a little over a week to be with the Sisters there, perhaps visit some of their houses. One goal is to find a place to get all of the pictures we have taken loaded onto one disc and organized so we can give a copy to the Sisters here who have been with us. They have been wonderful, and our lives have depended on their presence here!

I'll try to be in touch again before we leave India. And I am looking forward to seeing all of you soon. Let's continue to hold one another in prayer.

Margo and I had a fun weekend in Pondicherry last weekend and survived the long bus trip back to Agastiyampalli on Monday. And I do mean survived—bus trips here remind me of Guatemala with people packed in the aisles like sardines. Fortunately we arrived at the bus station early so we got seats. Along the way, Margo held a little girl about 9 months to a year old who was sleeping in her sister’s arms (the sister was standing in the aisle) and I held a little boy who was standing by the seat in front of me but fell asleep propped up by the seat and all the people around him. When he was awake, he had refused to sit on my lap, but when he fell asleep he didn’t even know that I put him on my lap. Fortunately the bus kept moving except to pickup new passengers and let out others, so that there was enough air circulating through the open windows to keep us from becoming puddles in the seat! But the weekend was well worth the trials of the bus trip.

While in Pondicherry we purchased some books that both of us wanted to read. The one I’m reading, May you be the mother of a hundred sons, was written by Elisabeth Bumiller, a journalist who grew up in Cincinnati and spent four years in India exploring the lives of women here. Although the book was written in 1990, the situations of oppression that she describes still exist. The title kind of tells it all: unless you are married and have at least one son, you are as much as cursed. Often if it is learned by ultrasound that the woman is pregnant with a girl, the child will be aborted. Sometimes if the child born is a girl, she will be killed shortly after birth. Although the dowry was declared illegal many years ago, many of the lower castes (and the caste system is also illegal but still very much in effect), have used the dowry as a way to try to get ahead financially. If you have a daughter, you know that her husband’s family will demand a payment of some sort, money, car, jewelry, animals, etc. as part of the marriage agreement. If you are poor, you can’t afford that. Bumiller interviewed many women who shared their stories of pain, guilt and oppression.

Women here are still looked upon in many areas, especially the rural villages, as property. This was brought home to me in a very real way this week when a young woman who lives in the house across the yard from the church came to see us one evening. She had a headache, which was her excuse to come see us, but she really just needed to talk. She had completed the equivalent of high school, which for a girl is a major accomplishment, and wanted to continue her education but her parents told her it was time for her to get married. So she got married (very possibly arranged by the parents) and went to live with her husband’s family. (That is also a tradition, which is one reason a girl’s parents don’t want to put money toward an education – she won’t be living with them and so won’t be bringing in an income that will be of any help for them.) Fortunate for her, she did give birth to a son. (Sometimes if a woman doesn’t have a son, she is blamed for that and there have been cases here in which the husband and/or his family have poured kerosene over the woman and set her on fire.) But at the time of her marriage, her husband’s parents demanded more dowry than her family could afford, and ever since then, her husband and his family have been angry and taking it out on her. Her parents come from a village several hours away to visit her occasionally, and after their visits, the tension and anger is even worse. She is rarely permitted to go visit her parents. It seems that when the son was born, her family was expected to give very expensive gifts again, and only gave a portion of what her husband expected, so that has added even more problems. As she sat there crying and sharing her story, her husband came to the porch of the church (our house) wondering why she was taking so long. Her headache was a great cover, and I had taught her some acupressure techniques and had done some healing touch with her, so hopefully that gave her an acceptable explanation. She stopped by today to say hello out in front of the church when she was going to collect drinking water at the faucet up the road, and seemed to be better. Her husband and his family watch our every move, though, so I know she would have to be careful not to show that there was any problem. Needless to say, the women in this country have it much harder than I could ever tolerate, but I know that God gives us the grace to handle whatever comes in life. The women here are saints!

Margo and I are cooking both lunch and supper tomorrow and have to do some shopping for items we need yet. So far, one meal will be some combination of chicken and fried rice, and one will be Italian spaghetti and sauce. The chicken will have to be at lunch since there is no refrigerator – we’ll buy it on the way home from church in the morning from a place in the market where they take the live chicken, put it on a scale, then kill and de-feather it for us. We were going to do the spaghetti sauce from scratch but when we saw a jar of Prego sauce in a store in Pondicherry, we decided to give ourselves a break. Besides, you have to find a lot of juicy tomatoes to make sauce and that might be a challenge. So off to the market!

Know that I remain ever grateful for the love and support of each of you. I wish I could write individually to all of you, but given this computer keyboard that seems to omit most of my spaces if I type too fast, that could never be possible here. I love you and continue to hold you all in my prayers. Blessings to you and much peace!

This weekend I am writing to you from Pondicherry, India, a coastal town about 7 hours north of the villages where we are working. Margo and I took another break and came here Friday to enjoy another weekend sleeping in an air conditioned hotel and enjoying simple conveniences and some familiar "American" food. The electricity was off in our area of Tamil Nadu for about 24 hours the day before we left (which meant no fan, pumping water and carrying it from the neighbor's well for bathing and using lots of flash light batteries and candles at night), so those simple things meant even more to us than ever!

The number of patients we are seeing has begun to slack off a bit -- people are getting well with the great medicines we brought with us. Some are even coming back wanting to have more of the tablets we gave them in case they get sick again! For others we are hoping to find something comparable in a pharmacy here for them to take--simple things like Pepcid AC or Flonase. We still have people come for the first time with sad situations. Two people came with tumors that they have had for 2 and 4 years--one on his lip and the other on her neck-- and have never seen a doctor or had any treatment. We're fairly certain that they both have cancer, and it is doubtful if either will get any treatment. And some are returning feeling so much better and bringing a friend or relative to see us.

I really want to share a special joy I had this week and those of you who do Healing Touch or some other energy work will especially appreciate this. The first week we were in Maniantheevu, about 5 weeks ago, a woman came who lost her home in the tsunami and was very depressed. She ached and had pain all over, but we could find nothing specific that needed any medication. I tested her energy and she had very little energy moving anywhere. She agreed to let me do a healing touch session with her. It's a very primitive setting there-- we have some plastic chairs and a bench under a palm-leaf shelter in the sand, and the cows and goats roam freely through the "clinic." So the woman sat in a chair and I knelt at her feet to begin the session. Our eyes met and I just saw so much pain and sadness in her face that we both had tears in our eyes. I held her in prayer throughout the session and at the end, she looked peaceful and sai d she felt better. I remember thanking her for letting me work with her and told her that her energy was flowing and that she should continue to improve. I have thought of her often since then and last Wednesday, she returned. Her eyes sparkled and she was beaming. The Sister interpreter was busy at the time, but when we saw each other, we communicated with our eyes and didn't need an interpreter at all. I knew she was fine and later she confirmed that. She had come to bring her sister for help! It made my day!

We are still going to 4 villages and have talked to the priest in charge of tsunami relief in the Tamil Nadu diocese about starting clinic in another village. He hasn't gotten back with us yet. We only have a few more weeks to go, but that would still be time to be of help to other villages. Actually people have come from all over the area because they hear of the good medicine and great doctor that we have, so I'm sure we see people from more that those four places.

So let me tell you more about this weekend away! Pondicherry was a French colony (actually back and forth between the French and the British) and France finally relinquished it in 1954. The French influence is very strong. In fact, Mass this morning was in French, and for me that wasn't much better than Tamil, but thank goodness for ritual which is universal! There are different neighborhoods-- French, Tamil, Muslim--and it's been fun walking around the town and enjoying the cultures. There are quaint little rickshaws powered by men on bicycles that are used in addition to the little three-wheeled "autos". Margo and I rode in them a couple of times and paid the drivers at least double what they charged -- they were huffing and puffing in this heat taking these two very tired American women across town to their hotel and we didn't feel right just paying them less than 50 cents for the trip!

About a half hour from Pondicherry, there is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Auroville, an international city founded in 1968, and we spent some time there yesterday. Their vision statement says, "Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics, and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity." Right now it is about 10 Sq. Km. and hopes to purchase more land to expand. There are about 1700 members from India and 35 other countries and they are emerging as one of the world's key communities to offer experiments in creating viable environmental, social, economic and spiritually sustainable models for the 21st century. They are using renewable energy, organic farming, soil and water conservation efforts, reforestation work, education and health care to help bring about the dream. The atmosphere is very peaceful there and I enjoyed our brief stay. We spent time in the gift shop admiring their crafts including paper work, candles, incense and other items.

Today we went to Manallapuram, an ancient Hindu village from the 7th century famous for its Shore Temple and enormous stone sculptures. One of the sculptures is a life-size image of an elephant that is said to be the most perfectly sculptured elephant in India. It is in a group of five temples in the shape of chariots which were uncovered about 200 years ago. We enjoyed having lunch in a restaurant on the beach, walking around the town seeing these sculptures, and cooling off in an air conditioned restaurant having ice cream before beginning the two-hour ride back to Pondicherry. We go back to our village tomorrow and begin work again Tuesday. Margo and I laugh about wearing our hospital scrubs, (which are starting to feel like jail outfits) almost everywhere but people don't seem to mind. Two ASC postulants will be joining Sisters Moly and Jiji and us for the remainder of our work these next few weeks. The time is going quickly in some ways and very slowly in other ways, but it has all been grace-filled and blessing.

I continue to feel blessed to have the privilege of serving here and remain ever grateful to all of you for your love and support. We are both healthy and well, and also looking forward to seeing all of you in a month.

I started composing this letter while waiting for Mass to start. We were sitting on chairs in a semi-circle outside a convent of the Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, about 5-7 minutes from our "home". The electricity went off around 2 am (that’s when I woke up sweating) and so I was happy to be outside where there was nice breeze. It was amusing to hear the cows and goats in the yard next to the convent making their normal wake-up sounds. (It was 7 am.) We could hear someone in the town about 1 km away blowing a rather sick-sounding horn and accompanied by some drums and tin cans beating out rhythm for the Hindu music. I checked the sand around my feet to make sure there wasn’t an army of marching ants headed toward my toes. As people started to gather, I admired the colors of the women’s saris and the festive altar decorations. Even Margo and I dressed up in our "selwar kamis" outfits ( I know that isn’t spelled correctly.) It’s a long, mid-calf tunic type top with slits on the sides up to the hips, worn over draw-string baggy pants and a long scarf draped over the shoulders.

The priest arrived on his motorcycle wearing his white cassock. The red vestment he put on for Pentecost clashed with the hot-pink altar cloth, but all the colors just added to the diversity of the day. I reflected on the Holy Spirit coming in a variety of ways with many different gifts and colors, yet it is the same Spirit who unites us all across the globe as one people of God.

Our work here continues to be needed and when the people see us come in our little rickshaw, they wave to us and the children rum after the auto. One scene that sticks in my mind vividly is that of the people in Maniantheevu digging to make a pond deeper. (Sorry for the repetition if you received Margo’s letter last week.) The men were at the bottom, digging up the mud and the women were carrying large buckets of mud on their heads up the side of the hole and dumping it on the ground around the huge hole. The hot sun was beating down on them and the steady stream of women looked like something out of a movie about biblical times of slavery in Egypt. The first patient we saw there one day was a woman burning up with fever. Her blood pressure was up and her heart was racing. She had not been taking enough breaks to drink water and with the heat, sun, and hard labor, she was suffering from heat exhaustion. We gave her Tylenol for the fever, and I sat with her in the shade for a while, literally pouring water into her mouth little by little to get her to drink some fluids. The foreman came over and wanted her to get back to work, but Margo, talking in her firm doctor voice through one of the Sister interpreters, told him absolutely not – that she could go into heat stroke and die, and that he needed to see that the workers took breaks to drink water and get out of the sun. Fortunately, her condition improved a little and she agreed to go home. She had come from a neighboring village to get work, so a man took her home on the back of his bicycle. The work conditions there were obviously terrible, and we wondered how many other people there were also close to passing out from the heat and dehydration.

On a lighter note, Margo and I discovered that some of the simple things that we take for granted are scarce commodities here. Sister Moly usually tells the ASC Sisters who are coming next to work with us to bring the supplies that we are needing. She did not realize that we were low on toilet paper. Margo and I said we would get some in town. Little did we realize that people here rarely use toilet paper, and we received blank stares from people in the stores when we tried to describe it. We even asked the auto driver (who is now our friend) to see if he could find some! He could not! So we were down to getting out all our Kleenex tissues and when Sister Jaya left to go back to her convent in Trichi, (about 5 – 6 hours away) she was to send some back with the bus driver and our auto driver was to get it from him!! So Jaya left and in the meantime, Margo went to town yesterday morning and happened to see two small rolls of toilet paper in the local pharmacy near the internet site. The pharmacist had to brush off the dust before he sold them to her for what was equivalent to about 75 cents a roll! Jaya also sent some via the bus driver, so we are okay for a while. Simple things make us very happy here!

Margo and I are planning another weekend get-away next weekend and once again we are looking forward to A/C and other simple comforts. I’ll be in touch again then.

This update might be short -- I tried to write to you yesterday and then the internet connection started having problems, and I had to give up. So if we start the same problem today, I'm going to just quick send the message.

Margo and I really enjoyed our visit to Chennai last weekend -- ( right now that seems like a month ago!) Chennai is the fourth largest city in India, with a population of 6.4 million people! There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the lay-out of the streets, and the little map we had was very deceiving. We ate Chinese, Italian, and a good old American hamburger and we did finally taste a cold beer! You know that I don't even drink, but those few swallows of beer while it was still cold were great! We spent a lot of time getting caught up with email with a connection that was actually rather good there. The first day we walked very far, thinking the place we were going was just around the next corner. After about 5 KM in the heat and sun, we gave up and got a ride. An auto-rickshaw driver (that's the 3-wheeled taxi with no doors and a step up from a lawn-mower motor) took us to see some famous sites. My two favori tes were a church where St. Thomas, the Apostle, is buried that has a small museum about him connected to it, and the Little Mount Church, built on the site where he preached, lived in a little cave and prayed. He spent about 20 years here in India, and was martyred here for his faith. The people claim that a spring in the cave was formed when he touched the rock there and many cures have resulted from drinking the water. Both places had a very holy atmosphere and wonderful energy. We came "home" to our little Tsunami Community renewed in energy, although tired from an all-night bus ride. We are planning another weekend "get-away" two weeks from now, going to a town a little closer this time.

The last week was a busy one with visiting the four villages two or three times each, seeing over 210 patients, doing a few home visits to some of the people who are very ill, going to the salt fields to see the motors that have been rusted from the tsunami, and returning to see them repaired and working to pump water for the salt production process. It's rewarding to see the family so happy to have their motor working so they can again earn a living. The time between all this is spent with the tasks of daily living -- purifying drinking water for our little community (which right now numbers 6 of us), checking and replenishing our big bag of medicines that we take to two of the villages where we don't have a safe place to keep them between visits, sweeping the dust out of our little home (the church hall) several times a day so we can eat and sleep there, washing our clothes, (when the ASC Sisters haven't already done that fo r us that day), helping with dishes, doing my daily inspection for "ants marching" (usually finding some coming through at least one window or marching down the wall in the food storage area (the small sacristy room), getting the buckets of water filled in our "bath house" by using a hose connected to the neighbors' salt-water well, and just surviving the heat. This past weekend Margo and I cooked the main meal both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we made tuna-noodle casserole (quite a challenge with the noodles here, no oven) and orange-glazed carrots. Sunday's feast was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans with peanut and lemon sauce. The ASC Sisters were happy to have experienced some American food and are looking forward to the next time we cook. (Needless to say, I was also happy to have some good ol' American food or something that wasn't rice and seasoned with hot chilies!)

I'm going to close for now. This little booth is hotter than h--- and I've sweat enough for one day. I think of all of you often and remember you in my prayers. Wherever we are, whatever our ministry, we are all doing God's work and doing our part to bring healing and peace to the little part of the world where we are serving. Thank you for being with me here in spirit and for supporting this work. Your love and generosity are wonderful-- we couldn't be here without you.

Hello again from India!

It’s hard to believe that Margo and I have been here for a month. Every once in a while we will look at each other and say something like, “Do you believe we are working in a remote little village in India?!!” It still seems kind of incredible but many things bring us to the reality of it all. We are both doing well.

There are challenges--like the heat. The temperature hit 95 degrees in the “house” even with the fan running and all the windows open so there was an occasional breeze going through. I have purchased a straw hat to wear in the sun or carry an umbrella and that helps keep me from burning. We sweat buckets and filter many liters of water to drink every day and take time in between to nibble on something salty.

We are now seeing patients in four separate villages and the numbers average over 200 people each week. Our “auto” driver takes the two of us and at least one of the Indian Sisters who can translate, along with our bags of medicines, equipment and water bottles to three of the villages. The fourth clinic is on the porch of the church that we call home and the people there start coming early to get a “token” (number) to see the doctor. That’s our little way to have some order instead of the people crowding around, all talking at once! We have clinic Monday through Friday in the mornings and later in the afternoons, and each place sees us two or three times a week. Each village has its own separate “feel” in terms of the people, but all the people are very poor and affected in many ways by the tsunami.

We are treating all kinds of illnesses, but mostly respiratory infections, skin problems from the exposure to so much dust, bugs, salt water and sun, injuries, and pain -- lots and lots of pain. We have seen cases of TB that were diagnosed but the people didn’t take the medications that had been prescribed. We have heard that there is a national program for treating TB, so now we are trying to get the medication for them ourselves and educating them on the importance of completing the treatment.

The past two weeks, I’ve often had a class with the people who come just for problems of pain in their head, neck, back, knees and other joints damaged by the years of hard work and heavy lifting. With a sister translator, I teach them acupressure points to press for pain relief, exercises to help heal, relax and strengthen their backs, and the correct way to lift heavy items to help prevent further injuries. Those who come to the class then get a small envelope of pills to relieve their pain (acetaminophen.) That frees Margo up to see the patients with other problems who need medications infection or other illnesses. When the class is over, I join Margo as she examines folks, prepare medications for them and assist as needed. Often, someone will come complaining of something vague, like feeling “no energy” or having pain for over a year after some sort of surgery or giving birth. After checking their energy, I’ll often do a Healing Touch session with them with rather remarkable results. It is always such a profound experience to be with the people in this way and they are so very receptive and grateful. And they are spreading the word about what we are doing--sharing the pressure point techniques or referring family members for healing touch. Some people didn’t quite trust these new foreigners and it took a few weeks for them to observe the results in others, and eventually they will come with some problem that has been bothering them for a long time.

Many of the people have a habit of chewing a type of tobacco with a seed-like thing called arknut. They work in the salt fields and leave for work around 2am and return at 3 or 4 PM. They don’t eat much while there and they say that the chewing helps them have energy to work. We haven’t exactly learned what chemicals are in this combination but it is definitely causing major health problems. Their teeth are in terrible condition and we have seen several cases of mouth cancer. We stopped at the house of a man whose wife came and requested that we visit. The left side of his mouth was gone and he had huge tumors on his lips and face. There was really very little that we could do except try to help with pain control, but even that was minimal. The stories of different people we have seen could go on and on.

The work in the salt fields is very difficult. We have had the opportunity to observe the process in various stages and if it doesn't rain, the process takes a week. They first put down some red soil that prevents the water from soaking into the soil and stomp it down with their feet. Then they fill the plot of land with salt water, wait a day or two, drain it off, fill it again and wait for the sun to dry up the water, leaving the salt. They rake up the salt, put it in piles by each plot of ground and eventually it gets put into small bags and them larger bags. If it rains anytime in the process, they have to start over. They make only about $1.75 a day. With the tsunami, many of the motors that pump the water were damaged, and those people were left with no employment to support their families. So with some of the donation money we have received, and the help of a local person who has been an advocate for those most in need, we are helping people purchase the parts to repair their motors so they can once again be "self sustaining." So far we have repaired 3 motors and two more are in process.

I'm running out of time at this computer session and need to close for now. Margo and I have taken the weekend off and are visiting a city called Chennai, an 8 hour bus ride from our village, but well worth the travel time. Just to have a real bed, and air conditioned room, running water and a shower in fresh water instead of a bucket bath with salt water is a real luxury and we are enjoying every minute of it. It puts life in perspective and helps us really appreciate what blessings we have at back in the U.S. We are also enjoying some different food -- last night was Chinese and tonight we are hoping for something truly American and maybe even an ice cold beer!!

I'll write again when I have time. Know that I miss all of you and feel the support of your love and prayers.

Peace and love,
Joyce

April 16, 2005

Hi, folks!

Just want you to know that I'm alive and well, although probably a few pounds lighter because of sweating so much!

We saw about 200 people this week in the clinics! And I'm doing lots of healing touch also. The people are so thin and are in such physical pain from all the hard work that they do, it is very sad. But they are so happy and grateful that we are here. It's an experience I will never forget.

I don't have much time right now for a long message, but wanted to correct a phone number that I gave you last week. It should read: (call chapel office for this information).

I'll try to write a longer message later.

Peace and love to all. Miss you!

Joyce

Hello to everyone!

Greetings from India! The first several days in Bangalore we spent getting to know the Sisters, getting used to the time change, resting and making plans for our trip to the tsunami area. We taught the sisters some tai chi, acupressure and other techniques and they really enjoyed that.

On Saturday, April 2 we (four sisters and Margo and I) set out in two cars piled with our 9 huge duffle bags filled with medicines and supplies and toys along with smaller luggage of personal items. First we sent to a city in Tamil Nadu called “Trichy”, short for something I don’t know how to spell!), where we stayed overnight and picked up two more Sisters for the journey. On Sunday morning we left for the village where we are staying -- only about 175 km. away, but it took us 5+ hours to get here. Some of the roads were only 1 lane, partially paved and shared with busses, “auto-rickshaws”, which are 3 wheeled taxies, oxen-drawn carts, bikes, people pushing carts and people walking with their goats, etc. Meeting a bus or car coming the other direction meant one of us had to pull off the side of the road to pass. Our driver didn’t slow down for much, but used his horn a lot (common here) to get through the congested areas, so he made good time!

Our living space is in the open “hall” or body of a little church (sanctuary) in a village called Agasthiyampalli, only a few km from the sea, the Bay of Bengal. They only have Mass at the church once every 2-3 weeks, so we have taken over the space and made it home for 3 months. There is a small room behind the altar (used as the sacristy for the church) which has a toilet room in it. (That’s the basic home with places to put your feet and squat!) On Monday, some men in the village constructed a bath house behind the church for us made of woven palm leaves and sticks and banana leaves with a brick floor. We set up a tent to use for a kitchen until another little room was made next to the bath house to use for cooking.

Thank God the native Indian Sisters are with us! Some of them know Tamil, the language of the people here, so they have negotiated the construction of these new additions to our home. They have also taken over the meal preparation and have been wonderful. They spoil us by making special foods for us at first, but are concerned that we will get sick on other foods. Actually they are great cooks and we are enjoying the Indian food. Meals are simple -- mostly vegetarian, a lot of rice prepared in different ways with various sauces, different kinds of chutney, various kinds of Indian breads, fruit and other dishes like potatoes, eggs, and vegetables. Margo and I have taken over the job of water-purification so we can do something to contribute.

It rained from last Sunday through Friday -- very unusual for this time of year but probably a blessing since it kept the temperature down to around 85 or so in the house. The humidity is even worse than Ohio in August, if you can imagine that, so sticky and wet is the normal feeling. It makes a cool water bucket bath feel wonderful!! (I say “cool” as opposed to “cold” water because nothing is cold here.). When we are home we often plant ourselves under the one ceiling fan in the church to dry off. This is also where we eat, pray morning and evening prayer and sleep.

Before we could volunteer as doctor and nurse in India, we were advised to meet with the Health Minister of Tamil Nadu and to take a priest who works with an NGO in tsunami relief with us. That was an all-day experience but when we finally was the Health minister , he was very gracious, and gave us a letter to have with us giving us permission to minister to the people. He also said that if we had any needs we should contact him.

While we were waiting around for the priest to be ready to accompany us, we visited a famous shrine to Our Lady of Good Health at Velanganni, a town about an hour from our village. It is next to the sea and so we had an opportunity to walk down to see some of the actual devastation. The Shrine sustained no damage, but areas around it were destroyed. The beach is still littered with items displaced from the waters, although a lot of effort has gone into removing much of the debris. It was a powerful, sad and humbling experience to stand one the beach and know that that was the burial site for many, many people. We saw a palm tree there in which a young boy was found three days after the tsunami. I remember reading about that in the Cincinnati paper.

We went to the village where we are working the day after we arrived. There was really no place for us to safely stay in the village (at least, according to the Sisters here), so that’s why they made arrangements for us to stay at the church in a near-by village. All the people in “our village” of Poovamthoppu have welcomed us warmly. They have lost boats and fishing equipment, and the rice paddies were flooded with salt water so won’t be able to be used for 5 years. The people in this particular village didn’t lose their homes, though, but they are among the poorest of the poor, the Dalit or lowest cast. Most of the adults have had no education, but they are trying to send their children to school. That isn’t always possible because often the children have to work in some way, even watching the younger children, so parents can work. But right now, work is scarce.

It took us a couple of days to set up a clinic. Actually there was a one-room house in the village that was not occupied and we are renting it. There was no electricity, so a flashlight helped out one day when the sky was dark, but Friday some electricians installed a light and a ceiling fan (thank you, God!!) hooking up the power from the one house in the area that has power. We have seen about 45 people there so far and I had some time to start teaching some Tai Chi to the women and children who hang around the clinic, fascinated with these new strangers who smile a lot but don’t speak their language. They loved it, so I’m looking forward to doing a lot more with them. We have also been having clinic with the people in the village where we are living and have seen about 45-50 people there, too, in the two days that we have actually had for clinic. I’m going to have my work cut out for me doing Healing Touch with many people. They have worked so hard all their lives that back, knee, shoulder and neck pain is one of the chief complaints.

There is so much more that I could write about, but this has already gotten very long. Hope I haven’t bored you. The summer will hold lots of stories, I’m sure, and hopefully there will be time to write. We do have a cell phone here that the Sisters in Bangalore gave us, but so far we haven’t been able to use it to make international calls because there is a block on it. But if anyone wants to call us here, the number is (please call the chapel office for this information). The time difference is 9+ hours: 6:00PM in Ohio is 3:30 AM here. Internet access is difficult, and I’m having trouble picking up messages, but hopefully I can send this one.

Know that I’m doing well, thinking of all of you and feeling all the love and support that you have given me. I’m taking lots of pictures, but I doubt if we will be able to find a way to put them on the internet for you. Hope you are all well and enjoying a beautiful springtime. Keep me in your prayers, as I do you.

Peace and love,
Joyce

PS. I have not been able to open my AOL messages or write from AOL from here. So if any of you want to write to me, I have opened this yahoo account and hopefully this will work. Also if you are part of a larger group, like the parish nurses, and are the only one, please send this message to the others. And I'm not sure of Holy Name's email so someone please send this to them. Thanks! Joyce