Hinduism...

First, a shout-out to Robin Lichtenstein!  The VBS materials worked great this afternoon!  Pictures to come!
Todd spoke on fear this morning to an appreciative audience.  Pictures were taken of him standing at the front, making his typical gestures during his speaking. ;)
After our meeting, we went to Peter and Heather's house for a lunch of Chinese food!  During lunch we spoke to a former Hindu about Hinduism, the main religion in India.

Several interesting facts have come to light:

+Red or orange dots in the middle of the forehead mean that a woman is married
+Yellow dots mean that the girls just want to be attractive; they are unmarried
+Reincarnation is part of Hinduism, with man believed to be the final stage before heaven or hell
+Reincarnation is believed to occur 8.4 million times before the final stage of man
+There are 33 million gods in Hinduism; there are many major gods and many minor gods
+Shiva is one of the major gods, worshiped out of fear, called the Destroyer
+Chili peppers and lemons are hung from bumpers of cars, front gates, and other things because they are believed to protect people from evil spirits or evil "eyes"
+Another reason children have eyeliner or dots on their faces is because it is believed that it will keep them from the evil "eyes"; this happens mostly frequently in the slums
+Hindus might kill others because they say that sin cannot be eliminated without eliminating the sinner
+Other religions are viewed as a threat to Hinduism and are treated as such

This religion is alive in India.
We in the States have no idea what it is like outside of our comfort zones.  May we not cease to be thankful for what we have in both freedom and possessions and to remember those who experience hardship.  May we sacrifice our resources, our time, and even our lives in order to bring help and hope.

FYI

Thank you for your comments, however, some of your comments cannot be published because of religious references.  We have to keep our partners safe, so if you want your comment to appear on this blog, you must avoid these references.  We will be more free to discuss this with you when we return!
Thank you for understanding!

Deepak talks with Dennis and Todd at the medical clinic

Medical Clinic

Yes, this is our team in the middle of the street. There are no crosswalks in India, so every time we want to go to the resource center, we cross this busy street.  No one has gotten squashed...yet. ;)

These men and boys are waiting in the men's line at the medical tent.  We spent four+ hours running a medical clinic in the Nandal Slum in Delhi today.  Several stations were set up inside to assist these slum residents with their medical needs.  Our team members were working with other volunteers to provide rudimentary health care to the families.  We saw everything from skin conditions to eye infections to second-degree burns.  The burn victim was a tiny baby only four-six months old.  Somehow she had been scalded by boiling water in the home three days before the clinic.  Thankfully her mother had a ticket to the clinic, either before or after she was badly burned.  We are so happy that they were able to come and receive care! :)

A mother and her baby.  Aimee learned that in the Indian culture, parents do not want others to think that their children are cute or attractive.  To prevent this, many parents put make-up on their children's faces, like this little kid.

I'm acting as the photographer on this trip, but I did manage to get a few photos of myself with some of the people waiting in line.  Everyone loved to smile for the camera and then to see their image afterward. :)

This is the team of volunteers beside the tent where we held our clinic.  It was a great, hot, humid, and rewarding day.  However, it's only 3:45 in the afternoon on Saturday here in India...we still have a few things planned for the rest of the day.  :)

Things Hudson says...

Hudson says a lot of random things, so that's the reason for my title.

Hudson said that an airplane can survive a lightening strike without crashing.  Good to know.  We survived the plane flight.  Four hours from LAX to O'Hare, then fifteen hours from O'Hare to Delhi.

Look at our huge plane in the foreground compared the small plane in the background! 

We spent this morning having breakfast, going to the resource center where we will be working, and going to our hosts' home for orientation and lunch.  We are currently eating lunch as I type!  Later we are going to explore the neighborhood of Hudson Line and go to a coffee shop so that we can stay awake.  We're operating on jet lag and adrenaline at the moment.

Tomorrow we are going to work at the medical clinic.  Pictures to come after that adventure!

On the way to the resource center...

Lunch time at our hosts' house

Thanks for thinking of us!  Keep us in your thoughts as we work here in India! 

दो दिन

It worked!  The title of this post is "two days," written in Hindi.

Our team leaves in TWO days.  We had our last "meeting" yesterday where we got last minute instructions and some extra supplies to take with us (about 1,500 bottles of vitamins to take to a doctor for distribution + many blankets for the homeless).  Last night we got our roommate assignments.

We are still waiting on a visa for Charles; hopefully it gets here before Thursday, his departure date!

Until we leave on Wednesday morning, I'd say it's safe to say that we will all be very busy with last minute details.  We're almost there! :)

Interesting facts about India...

Well, our departure date is now only FIVE days away!  I thought I would share some India stats today, just for fun.

• The entire country is five and half hours different from Greenwich Mean Time.  (Why 5.5 hours?  I'm not sure, but it sounds fun!)
  
  
• The Indian flag is orange, white, and green with a blue "wheel" in the middle.
  
  
• The national animal is the tiger, the national bird is the peacock, and the national flower is the lotus.
  
  
• Because of its population, India is the largest democracy in the world.
  
  
• The literacy rate in India is 64.84%, or just under two-thirds.
  
  
• Twenty-two different languages are recognized by the Indian Constitution.  The most commonly spoken language is Hindi, followed by Telegu and Bengali.
  
  
• In India, 81.8% of the population is Hindu, 12.1% is Muslim, and 2.3% is Christian (this includes evangelical and nominal Christians).
  
  
• India is the second most populous country in the world, home to over one billion people.  This means that one out of every six people in the world lives in the country of India!

Source: http://www.webindia123.com/india/ and http://india.gov.in/

Namaste!

We are team INDIA and we are leaving for India in just EIGHT short days!  Please check back as we will be updating this blog during our trip!  Thank you for your time!