Our final day of classroom teaching for our seven delegates was on Friday, then it is out to the village on Monday to assess them as group leaders for real. They have been fantastic! Not one of them can read or write but they have learned what we have shared with them really well. We have six women and one man and the ages range from 18 to 70. Each morning they have got up at 4am to catch the train to Tenali. Sudheer and his team collect them from the station in a vehicle and give them all breakfast as soon as they get here. Then they have a cooked lunch at 12.15 with a final teaching session from 1pm to 2pm - then it is time to get he train back to Vetapalam, their village.
Every morning the first thing they do is inspect their feet for cracks, new sores or infections. Then they soak their feet and hands in cool water to soften the skin, before rubbing in petroleum jelly. This retains the water in the skin and helps to soften it.
Topics covered in the training include care of eyes - leprosy patients lose feeling in the face and eyes can easily be infected because some cannot close their eyes or blink. Eye masks in bed and sunglasses by day help a lot to protect the cornea.
On Friday the class was held in the open air on someone's porch across the road. Our usual training room was the place for the weekly prayer and fasting meeting by the EARE Ministries prayer warriors. It was much cooler under the canopy and trees and it was a welcome break from routine for all of us.
A comic skit was performed by yours truly - to demonstrate all the wrong things in a comical way and they had to spot the deliberate mistakes - we were trying to vary our teaching style to make the learning points memorable for people who had no means of taking written notes.
We finished the day with an oral test with each person answering a set of prepared questions. Everyone passed their oral test and we concluded by presenting the women with a white sari and the man with a white shirt and dhoti (their 'badge of office' as group leaders.
Tomorrow (Monday) we go out to the village to oversee the practicals - where each leader will teach their group and we will check out how they get on. We are very happy with how well they have done. Praise the Lord!
Every morning the first thing they do is inspect their feet for cracks, new sores or infections. Then they soak their feet and hands in cool water to soften the skin, before rubbing in petroleum jelly. This retains the water in the skin and helps to soften it.
Topics covered in the training include care of eyes - leprosy patients lose feeling in the face and eyes can easily be infected because some cannot close their eyes or blink. Eye masks in bed and sunglasses by day help a lot to protect the cornea.
On Friday the class was held in the open air on someone's porch across the road. Our usual training room was the place for the weekly prayer and fasting meeting by the EARE Ministries prayer warriors. It was much cooler under the canopy and trees and it was a welcome break from routine for all of us.
A comic skit was performed by yours truly - to demonstrate all the wrong things in a comical way and they had to spot the deliberate mistakes - we were trying to vary our teaching style to make the learning points memorable for people who had no means of taking written notes.
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| Lifting a metal cooking pot off the fire with bare hands!!! Not good! |
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| Carrying rough sticks for the fire the correct way - wrapped in a protective cloth |
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| Our group photo, including the specialist shoemaker (left) who joined us for the day |
Tomorrow (Monday) we go out to the village to oversee the practicals - where each leader will teach their group and we will check out how they get on. We are very happy with how well they have done. Praise the Lord!
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