Sangita - build it and they will come

This morning we packed up the van and headed out to Sangita Charitable Trust, an organization a couple hours outside of Chennai that serves widows and orphans. The North Coast Calvary Chapel (NCCC) team that we’re tagging along with was helping out today with a Medical and Eye Clinic that Sangita was organizing.

400-500 paper tokens were given to village leaders, who then distributed them to people in their villages who were most in need of medical care. Most of the people were widows, who Sangita serves in other capacities already. So in the morning, as we got ready to serve with Sangita, we saw people coming into the gates from the front entrance via public bus, some from auto rickshaw, and then many others who walked 1-4km through the back fields to reach Sangita’s property. Some could not walk and were carried in and out of a rickshaw. Villagers came in droves, friends and family from the same village. Watching them walk towards us through the fields was surreal. It reminded me of the movie “Field of Dreams”, only it was not baseball players, but people, mostly women, mostly older in age, faces worn and wrinkled but with smiles that revealed missing, cracked, and dirt stained teeth, wearing beautiful Indian saris, some wearing sandals but many without shoes at all, and some with long branches as walking sticks. Women come dressed in colorful and beautiful saris and men with plaid skirt-like wraps and wife-beaters, bringing nothing but that paper token, despite knowing they may have to wait for hours before seeing a doctor and going home. Some came with a dirty bottle of water, but most did not. No snacks, no food, just that paper token.

Once the doctors and nurses were ready and the people arrived, our team got to work. Villagers impatiently waited in line to trade their paper token for a slip of paper with their name and age that would later be used as their “doctor’s orders” / prescriptions slip. They then took that paper and waited in the waiting area, i.e., the walk/driveway within the gates of Sangita, the curb, the grass, the dirt, until they were called to see the doctor. Some of us spent time just talking to people… well, perhaps talking to them is an overstatement since none except one spoke English. It was a combination of shaking their hands, smiling at them, nodding and smiling at whatever they were saying, and trying to find whatever you could to make conversation with hand motions and the 2-3 words I sort of learned that morning. I spent quite a bit of time with the women waiting – we had so much fun! We laughed together, attempted to converse, got my cheeks squished and squeezed by old women, and…. I think I may have agreed to marry this old lady’s son. I’m not really sure but I think just may have. Clearly I had no idea what I was saying, nor what they were saying, but whatever, it’s nice to be able to commune with these women. I also think I committed to getting 2 nose piercings too (my parents would kill me if I did!). I wished I could speak some Tamil, the local language in that area, but you realize that just by being there, touching their shoulder, their leg, shaking a hand, smiling, laughing, speaking gibberish, nodding along when they speak back in Tamil, and just by reaching out and sitting with them means a lot… a mutual exchange of love and care.

After they come out from the clinic, with their doctor’s notes and meds in hand, the joy on their faces is indescribable. It’s as if they just found new life because of these pills. No matter how long they journeyed or how long they had to wait (some for almost 6 hours outside in the heat without food or water), they left joyful, returning the way they came. Those unable to walk were carried onto rickshaws. I helped two elderly women enter the fields, holding their hand and arm as they stepped down the 2 foot curb and into the fields. One was wearing sandals, the other was not. The resilience of people, the strength and joy, the camaraderie, friends supporting friends, journeying through life together.

It made me sad and helpless when women would give me the universal sign that they have no food and are hungry… what was I to do? And then back a the guesthouse about 50 feet away where our team rested and hung out was air conditioning, cold refreshing bottled water, and our huge lunches, many of which still had so much good food leftover that would go to the trash.
And then a touching moment. As people were getting antsy and trying to push into the door and see the doctor, some of the team decided to sing and dance for those who were waiting. Super cute! And then an old lady and man joined in as well!

After all that, the kids came home from school, and we played like crazy children with these precious little ones with way too much energy. We attempted to organize a soccer game but that was an utter failed attempt. Nonetheless, the kids had fun. The team had fun. I was pooped! But the kids were super cute. I got to know some of the older teenage girls, some of whom had been at Sangita for 7+ years! We did some small group English teaching, and then off we went to board a local public bus back to our hotel. Now that was a fun experiene for us, and the added plus is that we survived to tell the tale!