Sunday in Porayar

Porayar has a large Lutheran community and I was invited to attend the Sunday service by Betsy Elizabeth Trust board member, Inbaraj. Pictured here is the large Sunday School. At the end of the church service a goat (pictured here with Inbaraj) suddenly appeared in the sanctuary and was raffled off to the highest bidder to benefit the church. Following church I was treated to more Indian hospitality when my landlady's mother and brother prepared a delicious meal for me, served on palm leaves. We dined Indian style, sitting on the floor, eating with our hands. The menu included fried fish and chicken, rice (always!), curry, and curd (plain yogurt) with fresh, raw vegetables.

Getting Around as a Family

Three grown men riding on a motorcycle is a common sight here and allowed by law. Families rely on motorcycles for transportation too. Pictured here are creche nurse Regina, her husband, and two children on their way to a wedding reception. Women typically ride side saddle in their saris, a balancing feat in itself! When you add a squirming toddler it becomes quite a challenge. The older children are adept at holding on. A national helmet law has been passed but is not yet widely enforced.

Tsunami and Its Aftermath

Although Porayar, which lies 1 km. from the coast, was not directly hit by the 2004 tsunami, many people lost friends and family members. I met one man who was swept inland by the wave about 1 km. and miraculously escaped with only minor injuries! Above is a chart seen at a local social service agency which records the loss of human and animal lives in the surrounding villages.
A mass grave is pictured also.
There was much evidence of recovery efforts along the coast with new housing and fishing fleets.
Fortunately people can once again enjoy the pleasures of the beach, even though bathing suits are taboo and way too revealing for Indian ladies. Women still go in the water sari-clad as did my friends Pushpa and Florence, creche teachers, and Florence's son. I couldn't resist joining them, even in my clothes, knowing we would be travelling back to Porayar by bus. The air temperature was in the 90's and the water was like bath water.

Kids, kids and more kids!!

My sunglasses were a big hit at the creche, even with the teachers, and everyone got a chance to try them on and see the world through, not rose but, amber colored glasses. Of course the digital camera is a magical invention and EVERYONE wanted their photo taken.
Often I would prepare to "shoot" a couple of kids and within seconds the "couple" had multiplied to a "bunch"!

Karuppai-Porayar's traditional birth attendant

In Porayar I was privileged to meet Karuppai (pictured here with Regina, creche nurse, and myself) who has been attending home births there for over 25 years. In addition to doing farm work she "catches" an average of two babies per month and receives 100-200 rupees ($2.50-$5.00) from those who can afford to pay her. Most women in this area deliver their first baby in a hospital, usually in the town or city of the mother's family, but then remain at home for subsequent births.

More on Porayar

As in Kodai I met with creche staff and parents in Porayar to talk about what they perceived as health issues in their community.
Recurring requests were for latrines; for an accessible, affordable place in the community to go for evaluation and treatment of common illnesses and minor injuries and to receive effective medications at low or no cost; and for someone to assist with and continue the work of the local traditional birth attendant/"granny midwife" so that women could have safe home births. I will be working with creche nurse, Regina, on the latter two issues and we began by purchasing some basic supplies and medications for her.
Once word got out in the village that I was visiting, I experienced a constant stream of "patients", people with a variety of maladies, some very serious or life threatening, who arrived at the creche to see me. I was at a loss as to what was expected of me. And I had little to offer. Fortunately everyone seemed happy enough if I just reviewed the handheld medical cards they carried with their diagnoses and prescriptions and encouraged them to continue follow up with the available doctors and nurses at the local government hospitals. Many asked me to pray with and for them.
Pictured at top is the parent meeting, next a family I met in which the mother had delivered quadruplets (spontaneous, not the result of fertility drugs). Two of the four babies survived, weighing 1.3 and 1.5 kg each and spending the first month of life in the hospital. This seemed truly remarkable to me. This mom, as is typical in Indian families, is the last in the family to eat after husband and children and it was pretty obvious by her physical appearance.
The families in Kodai typically have two children, while in Porayar four and more children are common. Not surprisingly the degree of poverty seems much more severe in Porayar.
We were able to help this family with rice and eggs and some iron supplements for the mom. Sadly this was only a bandaid for their chronic financial problems.
The bottom photo is of a family in which the father is suffering from diabetes and has a serious infection in his foot, precluding work. Diabetes seems to be rampant here, probably in part due to a lot of intermarriage and the hereditary nature of the disease. Controlling blood sugar through diet is extremely difficult when rice is the staple and eaten three times a day by poor families. This man had us all very worried. He wrote me a heartbreaking letter in broken English asking for help constructing a new house. At present the family is living in a flimsy palm branch shelter which will probably not survive the monsoon season. Again we sent rice and eggs and supplies for his wife to use in changing his dressing. I will be checking in with him when I return to Porayar at the end of this month (October).
The third photo is of me holding a baby brought in by his grandmother. The story was that the baby "cried all the time" and had been taken to many doctors who reportedly told the family the baby was okay. As I looked at him I noticed that he threw his head back and arched his back and was very irritable and difficult to comfort. As I talked with the grandmother I learned the baby had been ill with fever (maybe meningitis) and appeared to have suffered some brain damage. I suspect the family was told the baby was okay meaning nothing could be done at this point.

Health Care in the Creche

Seline's nurse counterpart in Porayar is Regina, pictured at bottom. As in the Kodaikanal creches, FIMRC (Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children) generously provides funding which allows the creche children to receive primary health care. Pictured here are some of the children in taxi driver Anand's Ambassador car, ready for the weekly 13 km. ride to Karrikal where they will see the creche doctor. We arrived to find a long queue of parents and children at the clinic. Regina and teacher Pushpa helped the children remove their shirts in preparation for the doctor who listened to their chests and treated their coughs and colds. Fortunately no serious problems this trip. Next stop- the pharmacy to pick up paracetamol (Tylenol) and cough syrup.

Creche Life

At Helping Hearts Creche in Porayar, cook Jayanti, prepares lunch for the children and staff. Here you can see her using an ancient implement for peeling ginger and cutting vegetables. Hard boiled eggs and fish are served on different days once a week. Chicken is a special treat once a month. No beef here. Cows are sacred animals in the Hindu faith. A HUGE pot of rice is always on the lunch menu. These children have hearty appetites and hungry stomachs.
In addition they receive breakfast porridge and a high protein snack before going home in the afternoon.
Following lunch the entire staff pitches in to clean up and wash the dishes at the water pump in the creche yard. A bit of coconut husk makes a great scratch pad for scrubbing pots and pans.
In the meantime the childen take a long nap after lunch. On awakening they have their hair combed and faces powdered with
talc in preparation for going home.

American "Auntie" Visits Helping Hearts Creche

In September I travelled with Hilda, creche manager, to the fourth creche, Helping Hearts, in Porayar. Getting there entailed a long, hot, hair-raising road trip of about nine hours duration. Driving or, in my case, riding in a vehicle in India is an experience unto itself. First we travel two hours down the narrow, twisting and turning "ghat" (mountain) road from Kodai to the "plains". All Indian roads are loaded with a variety of obstacles including, but not limited to animals (freely wandering cows, goats, and dogs), rock and sand piles, speed bumps (all unmarked), remnants of recent accidents like motorcycles lying in the road ("It can't be removed until the police complete their investigation. They will come in three days."), ox carts and always people walking (no sidewalks) and bicycling. I have no desire whatsoever to drive here. For one thing it would take forever to get anywhere with all the braking and stopping I would be doing. The Indian drivers just keep on going, horns blaring, passing slower and often very large vehicles like trucks ("lorries") and buses on curves, and anticipating that an animal is going to move out of the way (so far they all have). They are incredibly alert and focused and I feel amazingly safe with them at the wheel (although I usually opt for the back seat!).
Anyway we arrived in Porayar to a warm welcome from the staff and children. Hilda left after a couple of days to return to Kodai and I stayed on for two weeks to do the community health assessment, spend time at the creche, learn more about the area and do a bit of sightseeing. One of my jobs was to photograph each creche child.