Dehradun headlines

Monday October 26 2009 3 pm
NTC

I walked from the guest house to the library to see if they had internet yet. No internet anywhere on campus. Even Professor Matt Kuiper from Michigan (he and his wife plus their 3 children have been serving in ministry in various parts of India) can't get his satellite stick to connect to the internet! That is not all, my battery on the computer had reached the 'red line' and I was hoping the administrative building had electricity. So there I was, with about a dozen students in the computer lab (the computer lab a gift from West congregational Church in Haverhill through their Interim Minister, Dr. Tim Tennent, now the new President of Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky) – all of us waiting. Finally we hear the buzz and within a split second the place becomes a behive of work again. Didn't get your homework done? It is not “the dog ate it” excuse, it is “the power was off”.

So I'm back in the room writing. Outside feels like the hottest day yet. No a/c because this is winter, so I turned on the fan.

..... from yesterday's Dehradun english speaking newspaper:

1.The city of Dehradun, aprox. 80,000 people, is in the state of Uttarakhand. This state has 968 glaciers! The Himalaya's are now being called the earth's 'third pole'. And they are changing like the other poles. There is some new research going on, attempting to see if it is global warming or climate change causing the problems. I think both are related.

2. Looks like 8 movies are on in this city: 6 of them are advertised in English, 2 in Hindi (the other official language of India, along with English, – but more common in North India) and 6 in English. I do not recognize any titles, even the english ones, and I do not know if these movies are subtitled, dubbed or what.

3.There is a gathering of medical experts going on right now – in the mountain city of Mussoorie. This city is high in the mountains, and visible from down here at the college. I hope to visit Mussoorie this week. The pics should be amazing! The ride up though, another story! Anyway, the experts have discovered a particularly alarming rate of gastric cancer among Tibetans. 55% of the test sample! It seems Tibetans consume too much junk food: like momos (?) and chowmein on a daily basis. They also eat a lot of refined flour, which gets stuck in the digestive tract causing constipation. Who knew?

4.The lines for emergency medical care and lab tests at government hospitals are way too long – yes, that's from this newspaper, not the one you are reading. And there is a nurse's strike in this state right now.