A Slam Dunk of a Day

A Slam Dunk of a Day

It was a challenge to get up today, but luckily we woke up to some delicious butter masala dosas and pineapple. We started our day off by touring Kottayam district hospital. This hospital, paid for by the government, offered free medical care to patients. The district hospital is a primary level hospital, meaning that it isn't equipped to provide complicated surgeries. After seeing a public hospital we wanted to check out a private hospital for a comparison.

We traveled to Caritas hospital, supported by the Catholic church. It has a larger facilities and is kept in better condition. The people at the hospital were very nice and introduced us to the director of the hospital. The director shared information on the current Indian health care and fed us mango juice. Not only did we benefit from visiting, the director told us that our visit helped promote their hospital because foreigners visited. All that hospital visiting made us super hungry.

The group checking out the radiation machine at  Caritas Hospital.

We went to a restaurant that was split into two sections, veg and non-veg. We choose the vegetarian option. We were given banana leaves for plates and had an assortment of sauces and curries with chipatty and rice. What made the meal better was the authentic use of fingers as eating utensils. It was unanimously agreed to be the best restaurant meal yet.

Getting our banana leaves.

Chowin down on our delicious food.

After being well fed we decided to play with the kids in the neighborhood  What started off as cricket turned into badminton, soccer, and eventually basketball. It is impressive how inclusive the kids are, especially when playing basketball. The kids passed the ball around to us and challenged us to make a variety of shots including slam dunks by Mack and Mark and behind the back shots. Our shots developed into a 10 vs 10 basketball game. It quickly became a chaotic mess in the 12x12ft court.

Our chaotic basketball game.

The boys love to be in photos, Claire taught them the rock and roll sign.

Nathan running after hitting the ball in the cricket match.

Although the game was fun, we had to get down to business. We wanted to make a special goodbye through a dance and song for the school we have been working with. We decided to learn how to sing and dance to a traditional Malayalam rowing song they had began to teach us. It took us a long time to learn the dance steps, but we are on our way to making it great.

We were informed that we are participating in a cultural day and need to come prepared with something to show. We decided on singing “You Are My Sunshine” with harmony and rounds because they are not used to that style of singing. We also decided on“The Hokey Pokey” because it includes the kids in our silly American tradition. And lastly a cup passing game with a rhythmic beat. We will post the videos and pictures later!

After all of our hard work we received a hearty meal. Part of our dinner was spent freaking out over a large looking wasp that had entered the house. We tried multiple time to get the bee to leave through the door, including Lal smacking the bee only for it to return. Finally, after it had fallen were we able to throw it outside.

After dinner a few of the girls prepared for cultural day by getting henna. Sadly it takes henna around 2 hours to dry so they had others feed them. We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow, and now we need to head to bed.

Loves and kisses,

Mack (big cat) and Jenn