my words are few.

I asked God to teach me. To break my heart. To show me. To open me. To humble me. He's doing all of that in ways that I never would have expected.

There is no way that I can begin to describe what I've experienced today. This morning, after breakfast, we talked to 5 village health workers for 3 hours.  They are the real deal. These women are the main source of CRHP's success in communities in Maharastra.  Most of the women are chosen from their villages by the doctors here at CRHP.  What makes them unique is that they are usually from the lowest caste, or they are outcastes for one reason or another. One VHW (village health worker) that we talked to today had leprosy, and so was kicked out of her village. CRHP selected her to be trained at the compound. Another woman was kicked out by her husband because she didn't have any male babies.  When women are kicked out of the house, they are lower than the lowest caste - they have no value.  But CRHP selected her to be trained too.  CRHP then teaches the women basic and practical health knowledge: how to deliver babies, how to tell when a woman is pregnant, how to cure illnesses all the way from the common cold to things like TB and leprosy.  They are taught to practice medicine with limited supplies and resources already available in their villages. AND, all of these women are illiterate.  It is incredible.  Their villages have responded to them, accepted them, and the VHW are eliminating malaria, bringing infant mortality rates down to near 0%, and at the same time throwing away the caste system. AMAZING.

We took a break for lunch, and afterward, we went with our whole group into the market. HOW CAN I DESCRIBE THIS?!?  It was the craziest, busiest, most explosive place I've ever been to.  We walk through super narrow streets, where tons of people are walking and cars and motorcycles drive down.  There are stores everywhere. Pigs digging in trash. Goats crossing the street. People selling veggies. Cows laying down.  Children from the school ran outside to greet us and ask our names like we were celebrities.  Groups of old men stared.  Women yelled at us to buy their chickpeas. Wow.  We ended up in a sari shop :)  I bought a sari! It's magenta-colored with some really pretty teal and silver accents. Now I need to learn how to put it on! A tailor is coming to CRHP to fit the fabric to all of us that bought fabric today. How exciting!

Lastly, in the afternoon, we visited a slum that is across the street from CRHP.  I still don't understand the difference between a slum and a village, but I think it is that most of the people are nomads... in between jobs, and they are mobile people in general.  This slum is being transformed into a village with the help of CRHP and their village health worker. But we walked through it today, with a guide of course. Poverty looks the same around the world.  And my words, any pictures that we took.... none of it can do justice to what we saw today.  The condition that these people are living in is indecribable.  But CRHP is helping these people find work through the skills that they have, and the conditions in the slum is overall increasing.  Also, the VHW has been working to help people have toilets... a huge improvement.  Now, 60% of these houses have toilets! That itself has a dramatic effect on the health of this 3,500-person community. More to come on the slum later.

Time for bed over here! My brain and heart are tired.  I'm thankful for these experiences that are teaching me so much about the world and about Christ and His people.  All my love to loved ones at home.

Love,
Car