rebellion

I have become a hellion while away. I am now driving motorcycles through the streets of India and have tattoos covering my hand, arm, and foot… ok fine, it’s henna, and it was a scooterish thing, but hey, when else have I been able to say that? The henna is actually amazing… Kingsley had a lady come do it for us that actually makes a living doing it! To do the four of us it took over four hours, but it looks so amazing! One of the girls also has large scribbles over her other arm… the teacher she works with in the CDC (Child Development Center) just took her hand one day during class and started working away, then when finished leaned back and proudly said, “My first time!”
A couple nights ago we went to pick up some more mosquito oil to try to combat the large red bumps that continually cover our bodies, even our eyelids, and the owner of the stand gave us “cracks” (firecrackers) to welcome us to India, so we set those off, then Kingsley taught us to drive the scooter. For those of you who have ever doubted my driving, I would like you to know that I’m the only one he actually lets drive it on the road, and he said I could drive his car, because “Thompson is a very good driver, I trust her very much!” (Everyone calls me Thompson because they just don’t get Aubrey)
Saturday there was a medical camp for all the CDC children. A big banner was strung with our faces blown up larger than they really are, and we really felt like celebrities or something. The only problem was we did basically nothing at this so-called medical camp… Jen and I, the nursing students, sat and watched the doctor, in order to absorb his knowledge I suppose. I actually hope I absorbed nothing though, because his diagnosis techniques were extremely sketch and he only used herbs tested on rats (I know all about them… he didn’t speak English so he just gave us the herb book to read) After approximately 2 hours of sitting watching him do whatever he was doing the kids were allowed to come talk to us, so we spent the next hour learning Tamil words (I know about 30 now), and singing with the kids, which was really awesome! The doctor worked for 7 hours, but thankfully we got to come inside about 4 to practice our songs for the next day… there were supposed to be 3 doctors but 2 had some sort of emergency.
Yesterday we drove for 3 hours to go to another church… the people there were wonderful and more of them spoke English, so we had a really great time with them! After many many pictures we went out to lunch in an auto (I’ll show you a picture if you ask) and then to a really cute little ice cream parlor with soft serve ice cream!! After the pastor showed us many home movie type things, we drove to another church where the service was on the roof during sunset!! Definitely in my top three favorite worship services ever! Think African American church worship to Indian songs… the piano player was absolutely AMAZING… who knew India had accomplished keyboardists? I asked him how he learned though and he said he asked God!! He didn’t even look at the keyboard, and everything was by ear. I was supposed to play the songs we sang, but somehow we lost the small scraps of paper that I had written the notes on, so I was (extremely wonderfully) unable to play! Afterward he had me play though and I played him How Great Thou Art, and he loved it so much he recorded it. He was just sure he could guess another song I knew, but unfortunately I know absolutely nothing else by memory, but I promised I would send him some recordings when I get back to America. During the service we each shared our testimonies, then they prayed for us and we prayed for them, and at the end they put towels around our shoulders and gave us gifts! The people here treat us like we’re queens, when really we’re nothing, and they are the ones we should be thanking and giving things to!! Before leaving training camp they warned us that many people don’t like Americans, but it is absolutely the opposite here…and I just don’t understand why. They also believe that our prayers mean more somehow, so person after person asks us to pray for them, but it’s absolutely our privilege! I want so much for God to absolutely break me of my pride while I’m here, to allow me to humble myself before others like I never have before.