Barak J. Davis: 06/11/07

Dear family & friends, greetings from the roasty-toasty land of India! Delhi has decided to imitate the climate of Death Valley, however we are doing rather well despite the drastic change in our environment. In fact I think we are getting acclimated quicker because the duration of our play times with the kids has increased. The more we can stand the more they want to play! I have learned how to play the incredible game of Cricket! All the students say that I look like some famous cricket player…it’s really only because I’m taller than they and I have a pale face! Cricket seems to be the favored game by all, young and old alike. So when they finally understood that I was telling the truth that I don’t know how to play they were astonished! Today in fact was our first experience. The thing the students enjoy more than anything is when Willie & I learn new games from them and play with them. It’s really fun especially because they are so competitive! They like the fact that I don’t just let them win and that I really “get into it” with them! They really love to pit Willie & I against each other. A new game that they taught us is called “kabati”. I guess this is a common game that Indian children play, kind of like how we have “tag” and “hid-n-seek”. This one is difficult to explain but pretty fun. They have a dividing line like a hose, between two groups of kids. When one kid crosses the line to the other side he attempts to tag one of his opponents and get back to his side, or at least touch the dividing line, all of this is while he is saying aloud “Kabati-kabati-kabati” as fast as he can and over and over again all in one breath. One breath is the key, because if the opposing side can catch or tackle him and hold him back just long enough for him to run out of breath without him touching the line or his safe side then he is out. So it’s really fun because I play with a different tactic than they do. I like to see how many students I can carry back to the line, only it’s not that easy and they’ve learned to each tackle a different part of my body at the same time! Usually I get dog-piled! Anyhow it’s a fun game but the heat can take you down much faster than the kids.
Well many of you may now know that I was accepted to the University of Louisville School of Medicine. It’s been nearly 3 weeks now since I heard the great news and many of you may have wondered how I reacted and how I feel now. It’s actually very funny how it all happened and still some of my family thought I wasn’t very excited. Let me set the stage for you. It was Friday morning and I was still not completely acclimated to the time difference and so I hadn’t been sleeping well. Pappa (Daniel Raj) pops his head in our room at 7am and asks me if I can give the messaged this morning to the teachers. This is the last day of our long week of Summer Camp VBS, and now I had a half hour to prepare a “sermon” which I’m not acquainted with doing in the first place! So I get to the school, prepare the keyboard and my guitar for a couple of songs in the event that I draw a blank while talking and need to have an impromptu time of song! :) There are now about 60 teachers all waiting for the service to start and so I begin to play the keyboard only to feel the phone vibrating in my pocket. I quickly give the phone to Pappa Raj because I didn’t immediately recognize the number. That was humorous because he couldn’t understand who was on the line so he hands it to Willie, who then stands up and says it’s for me. I told him take it for me and that I couldn’t speak. He keeps insisting and so I finally take the phone and hear dad on the line, so I quickly ask him if he can call me back in an hour. That was funny! He emphatically told me that was not an option! So in front of all the teachers, the room has now gone completely quiet except for the sound of my short responses to dad’s comments. I ask him what was so important and then he tells me that I had been accepted to med-school! I was shocked, excited, unbelieving, confused, not fully comprehending, and embarrassed. So I tried to explain to the crowd what just happened, but that only made them more confused, the excitement fell on deaf ears! :) So I finally had to walk out of the room and ask Willie to take over. It was weird because I didn’t know how to respond at the moment. The best way I can relate it is that it simply didn’t register. I know this would happen, because it’s the way that I usually respond to huge things like this, I have a less than acceptable reaction and then over time it really begins to sink in. I told Alison that night on the phone to try to understand this about me, and that my reaction (lack –thereof) was only intensified by my being in India and all of the emotions that I had been dealing with, as evidenced by my previous blog entries. It’s true my reaction was quite blah. However because of how God has been working in my life and the things I was realizing, my life, my plans, and entry to school was not the most important thing in the world. In that room alone were people with needs greater than anyone I had ever encountered in all 27 years of my life! And I was asked to speak to them? What did I have to offer them? How could I speak to them and give them encouragement on leaning on the Lord for their needs and tell them to trust in God through their pain? And these were the teachers, to venture beyond the walls of the school would expose the needs of countless others. Thus I think you may be able to partially understand that even though this was an answer to many prayers… truly a dream come true, something I’ve been working towards for over 10 years without the certainty that it would happen…that my perspective had been completely turned upside down. However there is a flip side to this experience, that is it has made me even MORE excited about using this commission in Medicine as way to serve the Lord! My prayers during my first week in India had become quite specific regarding medical school and to have them answered in such a way only after being in India was quite providential! I am certain that God wanted me to undergo this Indian Transformation before he would give me an answer to if, and where I would go to school. I needed to be reminded that this life is not about me and my own dreams and desires but about Him and how I can use my talents, time, and life for His purposes. I am filled with gratefulness that I have been chosen to attend med-school. It’s really exciting because I’ll be minding my own business and it will come to me, “you’re going to medical school when you go home!” WHOA! Yeah, then my stomach will drop and I will say it out loud to Willie, “dude, I’m going to med-school!” Then he says his typical, cute, funny saying, “dude, I know! That’s crazy!” So yeah, I’m excited! It’s just been a different path for me to reach the same level of excitement that Alison and my family felt for me the night they found out :) Well I need to go now, Willie has been finished for quite a while and is sweating for me, I mean waiting for me (I wish he could sweat for me!) The A/C is usually really nice in here at the café but tonight it went out and so now typing feels more like trying to pin down watermelon seeds than pressing specific keys!

Our A/C went out so we are having slumber parties in Mamma & Pappa's room! :)

Willie Is my new singing partner! Notice my cool outfit! it's called a "corta", i don't have any better pictures of it.

The kids love, LOVE my camera, and they love America so they wanted to pretend they were on a "ramp". L--> Purnima (my star student), Mamta (other star student), Krishna (not quite in the star catagory, but still a student)