Life at the Leingangs': IEM Campus

Pictures of the India Evangelical Mission campus in Mavelikara where we stayed while in India. I will also include some stories, explanations and things I was thankful for while there.

I was thankful for…

* Our own private room and bathroom at the back of the house.

Thankful to the Flude family for the mosquito net that not only protected us from those nasty little things but also provided some wind protection from our one-speed-only fan. Who would have known it would be so chilly without one??? It also cast pretty flower-shaped shadows on the wall from my flashlight while reading our bedtime devotion. :o)

Our bedroom windows from the outside

Our enclosed, gated courtyard between our bedroom and bathroom. We also had a water tank on the top of the house. I thought that would mean we would always have water. We discovered on the Saturday before we left that it wasn’t true. We didn’t have water in the house all day! The kids had used it all and drained the tanks. Then the power was out most of the day so there was no way to pump new water back up into our holding tank. We really missed not having water!

I loved the ceiling in our courtyard!

The view of the neighbor’s house from the courtyard.

* We learned not to flush the toilet paper before it got plugged up! Whew!

This was our bathroom. It is blue. Hardly anyone has a boring white toilet and sink in India. The shower is in there, too. Think of it like a RV bathroom but with no shower curtain. The shower head is right on the wall opposite the toilet. We put the seat up to keep it dry while we showered. We also had to keep the toilet paper there on top of the sink to keep it dry as well. The red bucket is our hot water bucket for the shower. There was also a second bucket with a dipper since they don’t use toilet paper. There was also a sink sprayer on the wall next to the toilet… We didn’t ask what that was for. ;o)

Every morning, Kunjumol (the cook and housekeeper) would deliver that red bucket to us nearly full with boiling water for our bath. The shower only had cold water and she wanted to heat us water. Unfortunately, she only knew how to heat it to one temperature: boiling! Seriously! And there was never enough space for cold water to cool it enough to use. This meant you had to very carefully pour out 90% of the water into the floor drain next to the toilet without burning your feet. We tried telling her we only needed about 2 inches of water in the bucket but it never worked… :o)

* The power never went out for long!

The house had battery back-up in case of an outage but now that they have this baby, it’s really not necessary! Apparently the power can go out for days at a time, leaving them without water as well as electricity. While we were there, the power went out every day but was never out for very long. I think they only powered up the generator once or twice. But when it went out at night and the fan stopped, we woke up right away. It only takes about 15 seconds for the room to heat up again!

* Tea every day. I guess I should say, “Chai every day.”

Every morning, Kunjumol would deliver two cups of hot sweet chai to our room with a smile on her face to start our day. And every afternoon, we would have tea on the back porch while staring at the playground from across the driveway.We would enjoy the snacks and conversations with anyone who might stop by to join us. One of my favorite parts of the day!

It was kind of a sad little playground full of broken toys and drying laundry. But it had a very cute gate with a bunny, a crane and a peacock on it!

* So many great buildings!

This is the auditorium. They hold church services here on Sunday mornings, have special programs here and rent it out for weddings/engagements and other special occasions. There is a balcony with a guest room in the front and Bebin’s room is on the far corner of the building. The acoustics in here are amazing!

This used to be the office building for IEM but it now used for storage and the office for the security guy

This is Reji’s office. Babu’s office (where we used the internet) is on the other end of the building.

This building housed dorms, offices and the library.

This building is where the Children’s Home is, the dining hall and more classrooms for the Bible College

The front of the house where we stayed

The dining room that we used as our office and they used for storing new sleeping pads for the kids.

The dining room where we ate all our meals at IEM. The sink is where everyone washes before and after they eat since they don’t use silverware.

* Our bathrooms were inside the house.

bathrooms behind the auditorium

students’ toilet and shower house

Rick got the fancy bathroom with hot water, a dressing room and a choice of toilet.

* So many cool IEM vehicles!

I really wish we could have gone for a ride in the Ambassador or the pedi cab!

* Indoor kitchen at my home.

Three people do all the cooking for nearly 200 children and Bible College students over an open fire every day! And the food is pretty tasty, too! They made us lunch on our last day in India.

* Clean laundry.

Clean laundry is wonderful! Especially with temps from 80-90 and 90% humidity. Kunjumol washed our laundry in the washing machine in the house. But they hire a young girl to wash all the laundry for the children and students. She has clothes hanging everywhere! Including in the large lecture hall…

* Water, sewer, and garbage service.

There is no garbage service in India. And, yes, that means there is garbage everywhere! But it’s not as bad as you would suspect. Most people burn their garbage but IEM makes too much to burn without complaints from the neighbors and are not sure what to do about it? They are also dealing with water issues. Their new well is not producing usable water, and they have to buy water which they store in the black water tanks around the campus. They also have this emergency storage pool. Waste water is also a problem. Currently, they are digging a waste water well.

* The bathroom wall didn’t fall on the neighbor’s house or hurt anyone when it fell.

They had a 10-foot wall and 8 toilets for the new Children’s Home bathroom that fell during a heavy rain just before we arrived. They are working on trying to build a new one after the rainy season this fall.