11:30 with no crayons, clay, blocks, music or anything else to stimulate
them.
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Pre-school students at their
desks |
During recess one day, several of the teachers were talking with me
when one of them stopped conversation altogether by asking me "What do
you think about religions?"
When I stared at her, my mind racing, she went on, pointing to the
different teachers in her group as she said, "Christians, Hindu,
Muslims" (the students are also of all 3 faith groups).
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Dr. Henry shares the plans
for a new school |
Having no idea how to answer this question in a region where the
fundamentalists had railed against the observance of Valentine’s Day as
a corruption to the culture, two people in our group were never given
Visas because they put "mission trip" as the purpose of their visit, and
Christians had been rioted against in a neighboring state just last
fall, I took a gulp and said "I believe we’re all the children of God".
Faces beamed, smiles broadened, and I knew that I had given the
"right answer"! Soon thereafter one of the Hindu women insisted on
placing two of her "bangles" on my arm. Knowing how tiny Indian women
are compared to large boned, shall we say "healthy", American women,
please try to imagine how hard she had to work to finally get them on
me. Yet, my "right answer" meant the world to her, and she had to share
a part of her world with me. It’s an unforgettable moment.
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A newborn on
the way to meet her mother |
Another cherished memory occurred in the operating theater. A young
Danish medical student of both Iranian and Danish, Muslim and Christian
descent and a concurrent volunteer at the hospital stood next to me
administering IV medications into a patient’s arm. The young woman was
delivering in an emergency caesarean. Awake and anesthetized from the
waist down, the patient’s head and arm were directly in front of me.
Almost automatically I reached down to hold her hand. Not knowing
what I intended to do, the young Hindu woman seemed startled until I
whispered the Hindu word for ok, "tik-ay". She grasped my hand in
return. The young soon-to-be doctor leaned toward me and said, "You do
that so well." Seeing that I had no clue what he was talking about, the
young man nodded toward our clasped hands and said, "I don’t know how to
do that".
Amazed by the thought, and thinking surely everyone knows how to hold
the hand of a hospital patient, I joked and remarked "Oh, we can fix
that. When you go home tonight, all you have to do is practice with your
girlfriend", also a medical student volunteering at the hospital.
Other pilgrims in the OT observed what happened a few minutes later
when I slipped away to go and see the newborn. As I turned to leave,
unbeknownst to me the young medical student reached out to take the hand
that I was dropping. He continued to administer IV medications without
letting go of the patient’s hand, something reported to have been no
small feat. When I reentered the OT and saw him holding her hand, my
eyes welled with tears, for then I knew "He’s going to be a real doctor
now." The director of the hospital, Dr. Anil Henry, told me later that
the hardest thing he has to teach the medical students who come there is
"people skills". They know medicine, but he has to push the students to
get them to interact with the patients, and yes, to touch them. The very
next day, the director asked the same medical student to remove a
drainage tube from a young boy. As I walked by, I saw him reach out
first and take the young boy’s hand before he began his procedure. Here
I thought: someone has learned something that can’t be taught in a
classroom.
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