12 August 2016
Waiting for the Good News Children's Education Ministry (GNCEM) bus to take us to Baby Care Center, Daspara School and construction site of new hospital. I have looked forward to this particular day! Took the bandaids to our friend on the street first who has blisters from wearing a donated pair of flip flops. The sores are not going to heal with his living situation--monsoon season, heat, flies, etc. He was tearing down his temporary home (lives with his son under a tarp) on the street in front of Baptist Church on AJC Bose Road. Long story of desolation and deterioration. I have put in a word with GNCEM about the son--would there be anyway for him to be accepted at the Boys Hostel? They will take the situation to the board and pray over this.
At Daspara School the students, guardians, and staff were packed in their auditorium waiting for us. There was music and clapping. We were presented with small bouquets and treated like royalty. My nursing students and I were humbled beyond words. My students performed a Bible Story (David and Goliath), then sang. Following, the students at the school were dismissed to their classrooms and my nursing team gave a hygiene class then a blood pressure class. Following we would check blood pressures of many staff and parent guardians, emphasizing course content that was just presented in class if pressures were out of range.
The tour of the hospital and its plan for future practice was given. It is an exciting time for GNCEM. Imagine the beginnings of GNCEM was started by a woman from South Korea who married a man from India! It is beautiful to see all the developments going on through prayer and donations to this worthy cause. At the present time the hospital has clinic rooms for a GP and Eye Clinic. Expansion will continue. I would later sit next to two Theology teachers over lunch. Such interesting conversation! The subject went to diabetes as one of the teachers has type 2 diabetes (this is a common disease among Indians and in the last 2 days, as a Certified Diabetes Educator, I have been giving consultations to pastors who have diabetes).
On the long drive home from Daspara School, we would first drop off a couple of kids at a dump site where they live and then the others would be handed over to their awaiting mothers along the city streets. I couldn't contain the tears as I thought of how rich these were in the sense that they would be able to go back to their families. I thought of my own "broken" family. I thought of my own mother--how I missed out as a result of her early death and my not understanding that her time with me as my mother would be so brief. These children were blessed to be received by their loving mothers. In spite of the poverty, they had their mothers.
This is just one day in a string of beautiful and challenging days in Kolkata, India for our 2016 Short-Term Study Abroad sponsored by Azusa Pacific University's School of Nursing.
Waiting for the Good News Children's Education Ministry (GNCEM) bus to take us to Baby Care Center, Daspara School and construction site of new hospital. I have looked forward to this particular day! Took the bandaids to our friend on the street first who has blisters from wearing a donated pair of flip flops. The sores are not going to heal with his living situation--monsoon season, heat, flies, etc. He was tearing down his temporary home (lives with his son under a tarp) on the street in front of Baptist Church on AJC Bose Road. Long story of desolation and deterioration. I have put in a word with GNCEM about the son--would there be anyway for him to be accepted at the Boys Hostel? They will take the situation to the board and pray over this.
At Daspara School the students, guardians, and staff were packed in their auditorium waiting for us. There was music and clapping. We were presented with small bouquets and treated like royalty. My nursing students and I were humbled beyond words. My students performed a Bible Story (David and Goliath), then sang. Following, the students at the school were dismissed to their classrooms and my nursing team gave a hygiene class then a blood pressure class. Following we would check blood pressures of many staff and parent guardians, emphasizing course content that was just presented in class if pressures were out of range.
The tour of the hospital and its plan for future practice was given. It is an exciting time for GNCEM. Imagine the beginnings of GNCEM was started by a woman from South Korea who married a man from India! It is beautiful to see all the developments going on through prayer and donations to this worthy cause. At the present time the hospital has clinic rooms for a GP and Eye Clinic. Expansion will continue. I would later sit next to two Theology teachers over lunch. Such interesting conversation! The subject went to diabetes as one of the teachers has type 2 diabetes (this is a common disease among Indians and in the last 2 days, as a Certified Diabetes Educator, I have been giving consultations to pastors who have diabetes).
On the long drive home from Daspara School, we would first drop off a couple of kids at a dump site where they live and then the others would be handed over to their awaiting mothers along the city streets. I couldn't contain the tears as I thought of how rich these were in the sense that they would be able to go back to their families. I thought of my own "broken" family. I thought of my own mother--how I missed out as a result of her early death and my not understanding that her time with me as my mother would be so brief. These children were blessed to be received by their loving mothers. In spite of the poverty, they had their mothers.
This is just one day in a string of beautiful and challenging days in Kolkata, India for our 2016 Short-Term Study Abroad sponsored by Azusa Pacific University's School of Nursing.
