No news on the stone front. Surgery on Tuesday.
With that out of the way, I want to start this week’s blog where Rae
ended hers last week, writing about the Dalai Lama. I have always been
intrigued by His Holiness (that’s what we who are his close friends call him)
and quite looked forward to what I anticipated is a once in a lifetime
opportunity. Kind of like a convocation, all of the miscellaneous speech,
comments and folderol were mostly useless. However, unlike most convocations
the Dalai Lama’s speech was quite good. There was nothing really profound or
earth shattering. His humanity, goodness, intelligence, and sense of humor were
all evident. I enjoyed hearing from him very much.
His speech was followed by a question and answer period in which he
answered pre-screened questions from the audience. The Q&A session made it
clear that although he is a holy and spiritual man he has spent the majority of
his life also as a political leader.He gave few direct answers; usually using
the questions as more of a general topic area in which he could talk about what
he wanted. Surprisingly, the most direct answer he gave related to the issue of a free and independent Tibet. He made it clear that he was no longer a political
leader, having relinquished that title and responsibility. That he supported
the solution supported by the vast majority of world leaders in which Tibet
would be part of China but allowed to carry on its unique culture, tradition
and language. The one place I thought he might prevaricate, he spoke directly.
Also this week I had my first birthday in India. Given how generally
bad I felt, plus work and teaching seminary, we didn't do much to mark the occasion.
I had birthday messages and/or conversations from all the immediate family.
Additionally, despite the challenges of no real oven and having to use a small,
table top toaster oven that produces uneven heat, Rae made me a delicious apple
birthday pie. It won’t come a surprise to many of you that a birthday pie was
more welcome than a birthday cake would have been. I have often said Rae can do
anything. Overcoming the challenges of our kitchen has just reinforced that
belief.
The rest of my week was made up of the usual: work, Church service, and
kidney stones. In order to avoid having to be admitted to the hospital a day ahead
of time, I spent three different trips
and in total much longer time than I would have if I had just gone into the hospital
today. In any case I am now medically cleared for surgery; cleared by the anaesthesiologist,
had a CAT scan so the last known location of that little sucker is clear; and
cleared with administration. All that is waiting now is the procedure itself.
Woohoo.
Also last week we mentioned buying a few Christmas decorations. Adding
those things with the few items we brought with us, Rae has made our flat look
as much like Christmas as possible. At the bottom are some pictures to share the mood.
With that, I am going to turn it over to Rae to wrap things up.
Rae here. This week has not been
as exciting and event filled as last week, but I guess that is to be
expected. Kidney stones have pretty much been
the theme of the week. Poor Phil has
mostly felt crumby and so we have had a quiet week when it was allowed. He has still soldiered on and other than the
multiple trips to the hospital for tests and more tests, he has gone to work
each day and carried on business as usual.
We are sending a few pictures of our little tree and our nativity. If you remember in last weeks’ blog I
mentioned all the gold cord I was able to buy.
I tried to take a couple of close ups of the tree to capture some of the
ornaments. The bows I made from all that
cord, and the elephants you see came in a long strand that I had to figure out
how to separate and make into separate ornaments. The other night the branch
president and his counselor came over to see how Phil was doing. They liked our tree, but seemed to think it
was rather strange that I would hang elephants on it. I love my elephants and will be putting them
on my tree for years to come. I’m going to keep watching for other things that
will reflect our time in India, and continue to add to the collection.
The next challenge is how to hang them with no hooks. Can we say twist ties cut into pieces and paper
clips that can be bent, so glad I brought paper clips? Some of these tasks were a bit tricky since I
don’t have my usual supplies and miscellaneous stuff that I’m so famous for
with all my grand kids. I can’t tell you
the number of times I would get a late evening call from one grandchild or
another who needed to do something for school and would call to see if I had
what they needed, and usually I did. Those days are over for now but I find myself
hanging on to some random and rather strange things, just in case. I never knew it would be such a challenge to
find wire and other things that I just had at home.
Last week I got brave, (for me) and went to Lajpat Nagar market by
myself. I had quite a good time going
back to the fabric stores and buying the fabric that you see at the bottom of
the tree. I was quite surprised when I heard someone
saying “that’s the lady from the church” and saw a mother and her two kids that
I had met at our branch Halloween party.
They are not members, but their grandmother is and they had come with
her. The market is a very busy place,
and it was extra busy that day because the it had been closed the day before
and was going to be closed the next day, because of elections. So, I was
shocked to run into someone that I sort of knew.
One thing that I always dread about going there is that I always seem
to be targeted by beggars, particularly mothers with babies. They don’t take NO for an answer and continue
to dog me and sometimes even tug on my sleeve.
They have been known to follow me across the market, out to my car and
even after I’ve gotten into my car. I HATE
THIS. I hate not giving to them, but we
have been counselled by numerous people that we should not give them
money. This is something that I’m not
sure I’ll ever get used to. Our driver Robinson advised us to carry some
packages of nutritios biscuits in the car, which we give to beggars. They won’t
all take them, and some are not very happy not to receive money, but we believe
those who really are in need will appreciate them
The picture looking out the window is to show the stars that we got, also hung with the famous gold cord. They are made of paper and collapse down flat. They are available in a large variety of sizes from a few inches to a few feet and also come in many colors and prints. Ours are all the same size. I know they are a bit hard to see, but since so many of you have been posting pictures of your snowy landscapes, I thought you'd be interested to see our dusty landscape.
Well. I’m sure you've had enough of my ramblings, so I’ll close for
now. Next week we’ll be able to tell you
about our hospital experience.
Namaste.
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