Sunday, May 24, 2009

Day 11, Sunday, My whatever, 2009

I think I may have my dates mixed up or not. I was thinking David was leaving on Wednesday, but he's not leaving until Thursday so the numbers do come out all right.

Yesterday I had banana stump juice for breakfast. ie banana stem juice. oh, so yummy. Ich.

Dr. Baji came by yesterday. Among other things in our discussion he said that he can cure psoriasis with 45 days here and 3 years of diet restrictions: chicken, alcohol, eggs, and one other thing which apparently doen't pertain to me or I would have remembered it. He also says he can cure diabetes. Western medicine only treats symptoms and does not get to the source of the problem. If you think about it, he has a point. All the medications for diabetes are simply to help the pancreas to work better--not cure the problem. He also says that aspirin should not be given to children 12 and under because it may cause asthma. He also cures asthma within 6 months with Ayurveda medicine. It is his specialty. I know, all this totally goes against what we have been brought up with, but... He can show a success rate through this hospital with psoriasis.

This morning I walked in a light rain. Wasn't bad because it was warm. Later we had a downpour. Now it's about 1000% humidity. We went to visit the only Catholic Church in the area. St. Thomas Catholic Church. It's 2000 years old, founded by the Apostle Thomas. They can show you the original It's open air but has fans. The baptismal font is outside and is the size of a field--5 feet deep. There is a grotto (no candles to light) and a cavelike passageway with pictures of St. Thomas doing various things. There is also a Catholic School and a very large reception hall. Across the street there is a portion of the original lagoon St. Thomas sailed into along with a boat that certainly looks newer than 2000 years. Since St. Thomas came in, the water level has seriously dropped so they saved part of the lagoon. Lagoon has carpin it. Across the lagoon is a humongous statue of St. Thomas--His big toe is almost as big as I am. David took a picture of me standing in front of it, but it will be very difficult to see me. There is also a museum housing items like the original door, the poles used to pass the collection--similar to what we used to have at St. Thomas, wooden carvings 600 years old, Bibles from many different countries--olden days. Wooden and metal candlesticks. Amazing that these items are in their original form--not broken and fixed. Much of it is behind glass and no photos are allowed. Francis arranged for us to have a tour guide for both the church and the museum so
we got more than we would have gotten just by ourselves. There was a wedding going on so we watched part of that. Hard to believe that the wedding was the first time either the bride or the groom saw each other. I asked Francis what happens if you see him and you go, "Yuck?" He said it's too late. I cannot imagine.

No yoga on Sundays which was why we were able to go to the Church.

I don't think I have the right story on these huge, huge houses as we saw several more on our way to the church. Will have to find out. If these are owned by inresidence Indians, then we have the very, very poor which are who surround this hospital and then we have the rich, rich. No inbetween. Most shops were closed today. We drove past a Hindu temple which was the length of a whole city block with large openings on both ends. People were lined up to enter. Coming back, there were tons of busses, taxis, and tricycles waiting for people to leave church. A tricycle is a three-wheeled, motorized, covered conveyance. These are plentiful. There is a seat for the driver, and a seat for one or two people in the rear. There are also lots of scooters. Many
families have a scooter.
Tomorrow's topic--God willing and there isn't a monsoon that takes out the internet-- will be the staff.

Love and blessings to each and every one of you.

Mom/Peggy/Granny