down to days

We are down to the final days! Last minute events include packing, going to the store for odds and ends I don't have at home, packing, reading the required book Jamkhed, packing, making copies of our daily events calendar for the parental units, packing, worrying, praying, and packing.

The book that I'm reading, as mentioned above, describes the series of events that led Drs. Raj and Mabelle Arole to be the creators of the Community Rural Health Project.  It's truly amazing what they have created.  Through their training at Johns Hopkins for their Masters in Public Health and also through their experience growing up in India, they recognized the health problems faced by the underserved and poorest populations in India.  They then targeted these issues, realizing that health care must involve both curative and preventative medicine.  For example, they kept seeing repeated cases of cholera.  The Aroles soon realized that it was not enough to just cure the disease and send patients back to their villages, (where poor sanitation and unclean drinking water still prevailed) for they would end up at the hospital with another case of cholera again soon.

So the Aroles led a response to these issues: trying to eradicate all social and economic problems that so heavily influenced patients in these rural areas.  They raised funds for the building of wells, providing clean drinking water to villages.  They educated a few people from the villages to become village health workers - and they in turn cared for the village with simple and practical health care knowledge.  The Aroles empowered the underserved, and empowered women, to have the tools both socioeconomically and medically, to improve their health and their lives.  Through this, they also defied the caste system in these Indian villages, because the communities understood their reliance on each other and on the village health worker, regardless of that individual's caste. It's completely incredible.

Reading about all of this fires me up, because it involves both social justice, and caring for those who have been forgotten.  Health is so intimately related with quality of life, and all people deserved to have an opportunity to have optimum health.  I can't wait to see all of these issues and solutions in action in Jamkhed.  I'm looking for all the ways that this trip will educate both my mind and my heart. Thanks for listening to my rant.

6 days till departure.

just under the two week mark!

Here it is: a map of the country of India. Where we are going, although it is kinda blurry, is the pink Regional State in the southwest part of India called Maharastra.  That's where Jamkhed is.  And, crazy enough, India has it's own time zone - it's 10.5 hours ahead of Michigan.  Just some info that we've learned in the past few weeks.

So I'm starting to pack things up as our departure date draws nearer.  On our packing list are some interesting details, including packs of tissues to use as toliet paper (for squatty potties that supply no toilet paper for you), 5 safety pins for the women to pin up and wear sari's (can't wait for this!), a tub of peanut butter for when Indian food is not very appetizing, and an around the neck passport holder for the times when we're in the city or otherwise sight-seeing. 

I can't believe it's almost time to go.  At this point, I go from being really excited to really anxious.  I'd appreciate any prayers for safety, especially all of our plane rides, and for God's blessings on our trip.  Well, that's all I have to say for now.
-Carolyn  (13 days till departure)

on to the next big thing...

The 2010 volleyball season has come to a close. It began in mid-August and ended on November 22 with the National Championship Finals. The fact that the season is over means so many things, but in regards to this trip, it means that our trip to India feels closer than ever. And we ARE closer than ever - just over one month away.  How incredible. I'm having increasingly more conversations about India.... with Prof. Feenstra, parents, friends, random people who ask what I'm doing for Interim, and Nick.  It's like I need to talk to everyone about it for different reasons, but all of those conversations are bracing me in different ways for this experience. Some things I've recently realized and/or learned:

1. India is far away. Really far away.
2. India will be an uncomfortable. And smelly.
3. I won't be able to talk to people back home except via the internet. (I knew this all along, but it has actually sunk in)
4. I will miss home and people back here. (Didn't ever think about that before...I've been too excited)
5. God is setting me up for the experience of a lifetime. I know He will break my heart in what I see and experience there, but I am excited. The part of my heart that is passionate about travel and other cultures beats faster when I think about this trip.

That's all for now folks.

34 days.

numbers.

Today we had our first meeting as a group, and let me tell you.... I'm stoked.  We're going to India. For reals.  When I walked into the computer lab (where we were meeting), I saw Michelle Busscher there - a fellow senior nursing student.  My first response was to exclaim, "Are you going on this?" And she said, "Yeah! Are you?!" To which I replied, "Yeah!" So we're pretty excited. And a bit surprised that we didn't know about this before today. I'm also pumped about the other students going on the trip - I know a few of them from classes or other random times (Jordan was at my apartment one night with his friend Jeremiah visiting Abbie, and Dana is a nursing student that I've never really known until now...), and there are new faces as well.  Seems like a really great group, and I can't wait to see all the friendships that God forms on this trip.

The rest of our discussion revolved primarily around numbers. Here's the breakdown:  Newark to Mumbai is a 15 hour plane ride (yikes)....India is roughly an 11 hour time difference from Michigan...we will likely not be able to communicate with people back in the U.S. until about 3 days into the trip (sorry Mom!)...the bus ride from Mumbai to Jamkhed is 8 hours. Numbers. Lots of numbers. Speaking of numbers...68 days till departure.

explaining the title.

Throughout the Bible, there are many times when people are confronted with the magnitude of God's sovereignty and wisdom, and it causes them to be speechless. Job, when he sees all the ways that God is Lord over creation and he realizes how foolish he was to challenge God, says, "I spoke once, but I have no answer - twice, but I will say no more.” Ecclesiastes 5 says, "God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few."  These passages are reminders to us that we are too often self-centered and myopic in the way we view the world.  We too easily forget how limited our lives are in comparison to the great and intricate plan that Christ is constantly working out in the universe.  Through this Interim experience, I hope to be able to gain a broader perspective on this world through my interactions with people so unlike me culturally, but at the same time so alike me because we are loved by the Father.  My prayer for this trip is that I will be confronted and amazed at God’s sovereignty and faithfulness, even in the far places of India.  I hope to be so confronted and challenged, in fact, that the only appropriate response is to be speechless and in awe of a completely almighty Lord.  May my words be few.

(76 days until departure)