SMILE school

We went from dinner to the home of Pastor Job, where we met the pastor and his wife, along with another churchplanter (Ebenezer) and pastor (Moses). They showed us the square where there was a big market place today (every Wednesday), and where the health camps will be held next week. They also took us around the corner to the SMILE school (pictured). This is a school where children who are very poor, and often have to work as laborers, are given 2-3 years of education by the government, to try and bring them back into the mainstream of Indian schools. Up until they enroll in SMILE schools, they've had virtually no schooling, despite being 10-14 years of age. Learning English could really help change their futures, and we hope to give them a jump start.

Now these kids are ready to learn, let me tell you. They were walking up to Barbara and telling her their names, and asking her name. They were so excited that we were coming to their school, to help them learn English. They followed us around for blocks, talking with us in Tamil, other than a few basic words of English. You can't help but want to sit down and start rebuilding their future with them.

From there we went to another village near Salem, Suramangalam, and arrived at the office of Dr. R. Mohan, who was seeing patients in his simple office. He greeted us, had someone bring us some soft drinks, and told us about the 28 years of work he's done, helping the poor of this community. He has organized many health camps over those years, educational sessions to teach the people of the community the basic health and hygiene principles that can make a huge difference in quality and length of life. Dr. Dana Anglund will be spending a couple of days shadowing him. He let us sit in his consulting room, as he saw several patients, and here is posing with one of his patients.