Friday ~ 30 January 2009

Greetings from India Friday ~ 30 January 2009

Another beautiful day at Cuddapah School! Because we were unable to see all the students during the three days last week we held medical clinics, we decided to hold another clinic at the school & try to see the children we missed before & also dispense the medications to the students that Dr. Naik ordered.

It was absolutely WILD at the clinic today!!! I don’t know for sure, but I think we saw over 100 students today—new ones & ones we’d seen before to dispense their meds. No matter how many times I’d already told them to line up in single fine by the door, within a matter of seconds they were pushing & trying to get to the front of the line so they could see everything that was happening to the persons in front of them. We needed more people than we had available to handle the registration of the new children & also to find the charts of the students previously seen.

I had the charts for the children with orders from Dr. Naik in order & a box of charts for the kids with vision problems, but due to a lack of boxes, the other charts of children previously seen were in a large box in random order. When those children came in with complaints, I had to search through all the boxes to find their name. Another complication was that there are many duplicate names.

During the initial registration, we were unable to get complete names and didn’t get birthdates for the children or their standards (grade in school), so the only way I had to differentiate the different children was by the height listed in their charts. I was also trying to go through the standard lists I had entered on the computer to identify the students we needed to call out of class to come & get their meds.

Joy & I were planning to go into Cuddapah this afternoon for an hour or so to look around, but because we were so busy at the clinic we canceled our plans & stayed at the school and worked. I really need to spend Saturday night entering all the new students we saw today on my computer spreadsheet, so those needing glasses will be listed all together.

I should mention that I’m sorry some of my blog entries are so late getting posted. Internet service here is dial-up & only available at the clinic. Some days I haven’t been able to get on at all. The electricity here in interesting, too—it usually goes off about 11 am for 15-45 minutes, & again at 6 pm for about the same length of time.

Surya went into Venpalli & picked up our clothes from the tailor late this afternoon, so we’ll all be dressed in our Indian clothes tomorrow for Sabbath School & church.

I had a little chance to relax tonight between clinic & supper & before vespers with the boarding students. Sharla played her violin & then we showed the Jesus DVD (in Telugu) for vespers & the children seemed to be very attentive. I slipped out of the meeting early because I am exhausted, so I’m signing off for tonight.

Blessings from INDIA…where the people are beautiful, the children are irresistible, & the GOD of Heaven is blessing us richly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!