This morning we woke up around 9 to Kamal ringing the bell—the bell is how she lets us know that she needs us for something. We talked to Joy on the phone and planned a few things for the day and then ate breakfast. My fever had gone down and I was feeling much better, but Katie’s rash had gotten even worse in the night so Kamal took her to the doctors next door. The initial reaction the doctor had when he saw Katie’s legs was, “Oh my goodness, you have a serious case of chicken pox!” We explained the situation though and he decided that it was best for her to go see a skin doctor. Thank goodness we are staying with Kamal because she has all kinds of connection in Allahabad and was able to get Katie some help right away. We went down the street to the dermatologist and waited for a little before seeing the doctor. He told Katie that she was having an allergic reaction to the mosquito bites and gave her four different creams and medicines to take to make it better. It was scary having to go to the doctor, but he did seem to know what he was talking about. What is interesting is that after we met with the doctor, we just walked into the next room and they filled the prescription—there are no pharmacies or Walgreens here. And four different types of medicine came out to around 100 rupees—which is about two dollars in US money. INSANE! Katie is hurting, but she is handling it really well. I honestly am very proud of her because I think I would be freaking out if I was in her situation. But all we can do is try and get her better at this point and avoid mosquitoes at all costs! It also was really good to find out that the rash is not contagious—for Katie’s sake and for everyone else’s sake. When we can finally post pictures we will but let me just tell you that it is not a pleasant looking thing. I literally think that part of the reason no one dared to mess with us on the train or at the train station was because Katie’s rash was so intimidating.
After our doctors office excursion, Joy’s son picked us up again and took us to the local police station so that we could register as residential foreigners and get our permits. It was really nice to just drive around Allahabad and see everything in the city. Then, we stopped at Joy’s house (Holland Hall) which is where all the children are currently staying. We got to meet the eight children that are staying with Joy and Grace (his wife) right now. The children are AMAZING and were so excited to see us. They kept calling us Didi (which means older sister) and just smiling at us. It was such a humbling experience to actually see the faces of the children. We had done all that work to just get to Allahabad, and the moment we saw the faces of the children, it was all worth it. These children are amazing and so full of life. Their stories are heartbreaking, but through all their suffering they have been able to hold on to their spirit. Katie and I are both so excited to just start working with the children!
After meeting with the children, we sat with Joy for a while and talked about our schedule for the next two months. Joy wants us to spend some time with the kids and teach them English. He also has set up several meetings for us with other organizations and people that work with SOUP. We are very excited to begin our work and just learn more about the day to day functioning of the organization. It was just an incredible feeling to meet all the children and sit and talk with Joy in person. Joy also invited me and Katie to come along with him and his family to Agra one weekend for a baptism. We were so excited because we have been trying to figure out a way to go to Agra and see the Taj Mahal!!
After meeting with Joy, we went out shopping with Kamal to buy shampoo and detergent and other little things that we needed. She introduced us to all the local shop owners so that they will recognize us when we come back! We also stopped at the mobile phone store and bought a phone! It took a really long time and it still isn’t activated yet because we need to bring back all types of paperwork for it, but we have a phone and it should be working by tomorrow! Katie and I took a rickshaw ride home all by ourselves hahah and successfully made it back to Kamal’s house. It is nice being in a smaller city like Allahabad because everything is much less overwhelming than in a huge city like Kolkata.
After lunch, a man came to fix the AC in our apartment!! Wahoo! And then Katie and I finally unpacked all of our things. After a week and a half of basically living out of suitcases, it was really nice to unpack everything and settle in somewhere. And now the apartment feels a little more like home. We really need to get some more cleaning supplies though because the apartment is so dusty. Actually, everything here is dusty. We can’t wear our contacts for too long because the dust and dirt just starts to irritate our eyes. But despite all the dust, it is just beautiful here. We are still trying to comprehend the fact that we are here in Allahabad and everything is going well!! It’s unbelievable how lucky we have been so far with everything. We can’t wait to settle in and buy everything we need and then just start living and working!
0 comments:
Post a Comment