Because of the weird weather, including lightening, thunder and rain, here in Nagpur, several of the staff have been out sick. Loren is filling the gap.  Pankaj came out of his room and complained that his arm was hurting so Loren wanted to have a look.  Indian boys are so modest that it was difficult for Loren to get him to take off his shirt.  Remember, I told you Indian men take their baths with their underwear on.

Anyway, Pankaj had a cyst the size of an egg under his arm.  It was oozing pus that almost made Loren vomit.  Immediately, he had the driver take Pankaj to the hospital. The doctor barley drained it and gave him three kinds meds.  The instructions were very unclear on taking the meds, luckily, the Madam Warden at RGI is a retired nurse, and interpreted how the meds needed to be administered.  This made us realize that we need to create a form to take to the hospital that would be filled out by the doctor.  This would give us better information.

He still had on the dirty shirt with all the pus and blood.  Again, getting the shirt off was difficult.  At this time, the housefather on duty was our guest cook.  Loren asked Sunil to take Pankaj and use disinfectant soap on the area around the cyst.  Having, no rag in which to accomplish this task, we had to cut one of the kitchen dishtowels in half.  Afterwards, Loren carefully brought the shirt and rag back to our kitchen where I had a bucket of boiling water with disinfectant soap.  My plan was to just going to let the pieces soak, but our dear little cook, washed the clothes and took them to the top of the building and hung them on the line.  I was so proud of his servant’s heart.  Let me tell you, this is totally out of his job description. (Yes, he disinfected his hands before he cooked our meal.)

On Tuesday when Joy, the General Director, returned, he went to check on Pankaj.  Tears rolled down Pankaj’s eyes as he said, “I have never had anyone care about me, or give me any attention.”  At the orphanage he was always afraid if he incurred a medical bill.

Pankaj had to return to the hospital, where we INSISTED that the cyst be lanced. Happily, I can report that Pankaj returned to classes today and will no longer have to stay in sickbay. Loren is still administering the meds and checking to make sure no infection sets in.

Pankaj is a nineteen-year-old semi-orphan.  His father died of a ruptured appendix, when he was eighteen months and his sister six months old.    Not being able to care for the children his mother put them in an orphanage. She barley makes enough money, by doing menial labor to feed herself. No way could she care for two growing children.

Feeling hopeless that there were few options available to him for higher education, due to the amount of money needed, he was thrilled to learn about the opportunity to attend Prakash. The director of his orphanage was instrumental in getting him admitted.

One of his greatest concerns is for his younger sister.  She is also in the orphanage in Pune.  She is intelligent, but being an orphan she has little hope for marriage.  The burden of finding a husband for her falls on his shoulders.  Having never been allowed to make a decision on his own, this will be very difficult for him.

Chand was one of the four students I earlier wrote about that had no travel money and consequently remained on campus during the Christmas holidays. He is a perfect example of our need to have uniforms for the students.  His few clothes are VERY used.

Shyness had kept him from showing hidden talents. He even walks on campus with his head down.  Moses, our Christian Ed Director, astutely noticed singing talent so placed him on the stage with groups for singing. Then “slowly-slowly,” he reduced the size of the group.  Now, Chand, with his excellent singing voice and resource of new songs, is the worship leader. You can see Jesus in his face.

The weather is still cold for February.  I am soooooo glad that at the last minute I put a couple of sweaters in the suitcase. The students wear their sweaters every day and thank each donor for providing this needed warmth.

Loren was up at 6 am this morning on a now normal early stroll around campus. Returning to the room chilled he went to take a HOT shower to warm up only to find we had NO water.  The electricity had gone off during the night and blew a fuse on the corporate transformer. Consequently the pump did not come on to fill the water tank.
Oh great…just one more charm of India.