Day 1---AIDS Clinic

Last Sunday, (a few days ago now), we traveled about 3 to 4 hours to a new village which has the AIDS clinic we (TEAM India) hopes to partner with someday. The team that traveled to India last year came to the same clinic to hold women's empowerment conferences, however, last year, they were under tents and traveled over 7 hours to get here....their driver got lost several times!

The pictures at the bottom will show the progress made on the grounds of the HIV/AIDS clinic. They now have a clinic with two rooms for doctors, one room for a lab (someday), a couple of rooms for in-patient, and another room for the pharmacy and registration. The pharmacy has a significant supply of medicines, however, they are still missing a lot of stuff. (That is my medical way of saying all of this medical stuff since I have no medical knowledge whatsoever!) The best part about all of this, the medical clinic just opened in August 2009 and started out providing clinic two days a week....and now has clinic almost every day of the week. They have a doctor who comes into the clinic for two hours each day...we had the chance to meet her...she was a great lady and soooo smart! Has such a heart for her own people and for those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

The first day at the clinic was a Sunday service and then a women's empowerment conference. After a long drive (not as long as some have seemed), we arrived to a clinic packed with women and children for the service. It was a great service...it included the "Everything" drama and was capped off with Alicia providing her own testimony in her journey to Him. It was so powerful....I couldn't have been more proud of Alicia...for her strength, for her courage, and for her passion to help those suffering in India. She was willing to put herself out there in hopes of helping just one person! Crazy enough, she did....I think she helped more than one person....one of the Indian women gave her own family's testimony and she was completely grateful for Alicia's testimony and talked about how her family was going through similar trials! Way to go, Alicia!

After the service, we had a women's empowerment conference for about 35 teenage women. For me, it was the best conference we had all week because it was so clear how much it was needed for these women. They hung on every single word....the hurt, the pain, the hope in their eyes made each session so powerful and so worth everything we prepared....or came up with 5 minutes before presented.

The other awesome part about the conference was having the opportunity to stand up with my mom and teach the girls....I have never been more a proud daughter and was so honored to speak next to my mother...she's pretty cool. The passion she holds in her heart for all of our Indian brothers and sisters is so incredible and so motivating....hence, why Pat and I are on this trip! Anyways, each topic we talked about revolved around how precious each one of these girls were...as I said before, how they hung on to every word makes me want to come back next year. I was up in the air until this conference....they need so much information, so much love, so much hope....they just need the world....they have the world in front of them, they just don't know it!

As for some of the other team members, they got to put the word flexible to good use as they were greeted, unexpectedly, by about 70 kids....we didn't know we were going to be entertaining the kiddos that day, so we didn't really have any of our toys or anything like that....so, Suzie, Casey, John, Jen, Alicia, and Sarah had a lot of improvising to do...but, managed incredibly well!

You may have noticed I didn't mention Stan, Pat, and Adam....yes, well, they started to wander off and later told us they were on cobra patrol...yep, your guess is as good as mine, but we didn't see any, so I guess they did their job well!

Over all the first day in our new city/village was pretty good....but I heard from a lot of the team members, and I felt it too, these three days were a bit challenging for everyone. I think we all hit a bit of a wall of fatigue, mentally drained, and then.....well, the smell in our new home away from home was NOT so pleasant!

The poverty in our new place, the people, the smells....just the surroundings all together were not the best we have had throughout the trip. Nothing unsafe or anything, just a step in a different direction I'm not sure any of us were prepared to take at this point in the trip....I think each new step is an unexpected one, but this one I think was tough for some of us....but, we made it through! Some of us had to put our scarfs over our noses as we walked through the halls or be reminded to wipe the "eeewww" look off our of faces, but we made it through. I'm not kidding you, there is nothing to really describe the smell in India....and in this place it seemed extra strong....and it happened the minute we walked out of the van and into the hotel. It was like running into a brick wall of curry mixed with some bodily smells and others.....all mixed up....not so pleasant....my words don't even describe it!

On a funny note, there was some famous politician was staying in the same hotel we were....his picture was plastered everywhere throughout the city! It reminded me a lot like DC and preparing for Inauguration and everything....the funny part, when we drove home for the evening, people were standing everywhere waiting for his motorcade. What we found out later is those people were paid by this political party to stand out there and cheer for him! What do you think our President would say if I called and asked him to reimburse me for my time Carla and I froze our buns off cheering for him in January?!?! Anyways, we all got a kick out of that one!

1. This is the tent the team taught under last year....obviously, they have had some rain....

2. This is the new clinic that was built since the team was here last year! Incredible, huh? It was a beautiful building and they have done such an amazing job to get it up and running!

3. Alicia giving her testimony! We are so proud of her...

4. The women at the women's empowerment conference.

5. This is just a little insight to the exhaustion and the smell we all have endured over the past few days. Really, Pat has been way more exciting than this picture shows, but I thought it was a good one of Janer!