Day 36, Sept. 15

My stay at Chingleput was certainly stable. There was a great deal of movement driving hard from one place to another. We worked our way through many small villages with only grass huts. We saw, in other places, large factories under construction. India is a country of contrasts. While I was trying to figure out how to help others, one of the sisters we met took compassion on me. She is a physician practicing homeopathic medicine. She asked me she could help. I agreed and thereby learned a lot. She used a puntograph (?) to learn my medical history. Strangely she was able to tell me with accuracy what I had suffered from the last few years. Then, she determined what my body needed to get better and gave me the pills I needed. They actually work!
I was back to work as well. The first place we visited today was at Walabad where the young pastor was training the people of his parish to make church candles. They were embroidering saris. That is they bought plain saris at 300 rupees each, putting on them all sorts of gaudy stuff in order to sell them for 3,500 rupees. The finished product did look very good and worth the added price ice it took 5 people three days to finish one project. He did have a problem finding a market. I told him that since he already had a market with the churches, he could have his people make stoles. I showed him one of his Church Goods catalogues. He still wasn’t sure what I was telling him until I showed him the stole I bought from ST. Jude’s 50th anniversary. He still has the stole. He was impressed.
Beyond the Love & Care sites, Fr. Charles took me to parishes where there were recent or current building going on. This must have included half the diocese including the new church he dedicated a few days before he took over his job as Procurator of the Diocese. He knew building and counseled a number of pastors in my presence about how to proceed. A couple of times I gave in and offered my expert advice myself. It was h for me to resist. It was easier for them to resist me.
We were coming closer to another night. Only, this night involved an overnight train ride to Tuticorin. My train, the “Pearl City Special” (really) was to come in t 8:23 and depart t 8:25. So I needed to be at the right train car at the right platform (they think in platform numbers not track numbers). With that in mind, Fr. Charles and two houseboys from the Bishop’s House took me to the station 30 minutes early; found out the platform number and waited with me. It was over 30 minutes late. On our side we waited exactly where my car stopped.
This time I had a single berth. The compartments in 2nd class hold four berths; opposite them are two berths. Each of the two he privacy curtains and seems to me to be less under the influence of other people’s habits.
I did enjoy this ride better than the other two. Before I knew it, there was a new day in a new city.