In Awe...

Yesterday, I visited St. Thomas hospital here in Chennai to fix up my head wound and met the most amazing woman! (Our team is having lunch with her today so I will await that before sharing too many facts for fear of stating them incorrectly.) She is a "Doctor, Sister," as she is both a nun and a doctor (the first female doctor in her order).

At 63 years of age, she runs and lives at the hospital as she takes care of patients 24-7. She was a shorter woman wearing a white habit and had such a presence that I got chills when I first met her. She spoke with great purpose and looked us deep in the eye when she spoke, thought of what to say, or listened to us speak. Even her movements were with purpose. We immediately noticed that she had only 6 papers on her desk - yet she runs the place! In the US, I don't think anyone's desk has only 6 papers on it! Stephen told us that she knew Mother Theresa. I can't wait to get to know her more at lunch today.

In the morning, Linda and I were off to construction. Since I missed construction on Tuesday for fear of infecting my wound, I gave up the opportunity to slap the cement siding on the wall with the masons as they are now done with this task. Nonetheless, we were still greeted with smiles, which I greatly appreciated. Recall that during my first week here, communications were grunts by straight-faced men. Now, we are teaching each other English and Tamil. Yesterday, we had the help of a neighbor who spoke a bit of English. They even started egging me on a bit. For instance, they were working in a very tight space yesterday and needed us to carry stuff to them. The only way to get through was to lift things over my head with my arms straight up. Quickly, they started to chuckle and would only call on me to do this. (How is it that people so quickly are able to pick up that I am the one to be egged on? And here I thought this only happens at home!) Also, the man who never smiled during the first few weeks smiled all day. I am thrilled that we have been able to build such relationships.

Last week, at the construction site (SEAM), there was a small kitten that was about one week old. Each day at SEAM, I would go check on the kitten with the intention of feeding it, time permitting. Sadly, I found out the kitten died. Given that it was without its mother and they probably did not feed it enough, it was likely not to survive. On the flip side, the one-month old kitten that was left behind at St. Joseph's is doing just fine. Her name is Raji. I get a kick out of watching this tiny thing trying to walk down giant steps to greet us after working with the novices each afternoon.

Sheeba taught us to make ginger tea. We insisted on learning as she makes amazing tea and we appreciate it helping any of the random ailments we have been hit with over the weeks. Basically, it requires boiling water into which one puts fresh ginger, tea powder, finely ground black pepper, and sugar. Once this mixture boils together, sift it into a pot, and serve. The key to making good ginger tea is the proportion of ingredients. Sheeba said that in South India, which is where she is from, they eat very spicy foods so their version of ginger tea requires a small handful of black pepper. She, of course, toned it down for us. Yummy!

Last night ended with my last shopping spree. We went to a market in Chennai with a gold store that was the equivalent size of a department store in the States - and it was filled with only gold and many Indian shoppers. There was also a silver shop and silk store. On the streets, people were selling bangles, fruits and veggies, colorful bags, and other knickknacks.

We often think of NYC as "the place to go." However, I love shopping here - the prices are reasonable and the materials, color, and tailoring are so interesting. (I am sure, though, that if I were born here, I would think the reverse.) I will admit that shopping here takes great control - I have learned that I must go with a list and set clear boundaries. Otherwise, I would fly home with 8 suitcases!