October 10, 2006

Dear Friends,

I have been in India for a little over a month, and this is an account of what has happened so far.

The first two weeks

We arrived in Kerala at the Cochin Airport after two long flights, a long layover in London, and missing bags in Mumbai. We were received by our site coordinator, Thomas John, and his wife Betty. We call them “Achen” and “Kochemma,” respectful terms used for familiar elders. For about a week we stayed at Achen’s house while he and Betty introduced us to their culture. We had daily Bible studies reflecting on power and powerlessness and poverty, basic lessons on Indian government, introductions to globalization and the role of economics, and lessons on how to eat the food and use the restroom. We were taken shopping for churidar for the girls (long tunic and pants set with shawl) and mundus for the boys (long, white pieces of cloth men wear here).

We then went with Joy Joseph, Thomas John’s assistant, to a Catholic retreat center and met with a couple who teach English who gave us a crash course on teaching conversational English. Anne and Jacob were very helpful in giving us ideas on how to begin lessons, what to talk about, etc. We spent about five days with Anne and Jacob and Joy, and on the 11th, we arrived at our individual site placements.

Vanitha Manadarim, Sevika Sangam

My site placement is at Vanitha Mandarim, a girl’s Bible school just outside the city of Thiruvella. It is part of Suvisheha Sevika Sangam, the women’s organization of the Marthoma Church. The Bible school is actually part of the larger campus that consists of Sevika Sangam’s main office, an orphanage, a bakery, a tailor, and a printing press. The primary school run by them is across the street, and the women’s retirement center is right down the road.

My site supervisor is Lali Kochemma, who runs the Bible school. There are about ten girls in the school, and I eat meals and attend 6:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. chapel with them. The plan is for me to spend time with them each week, teaching English songs, prayers, etc. I spend three mornings a week at the primary school teaching spoken English to first- through seventh-graders, one morning visiting the women’s retirement home, and one day a week traveling about an hour away to a half-way home for mentally ill women and visiting with them. In the afternoons, and whenever else I have time, I will visit the bakery, the press, the tailor, the office workers, and the orphanage.

I live in a separate room with a bathroom. My nearest neighbor is Saly, the tailor. She speaks very little English, but we have a good time together. She is doing her best to teach me Malayalam, although I hope to get an actual teacher very soon. I have learned from her how to wash my clothes, get rid of the ants (no small task) and put on a sari. (Yes, I have a sari! Two of them!) My other close neighbors are Chithra, Asha, and Kunyama Kochemma, who garden all day, everyday. Chithra and Asha are right around my age, and Kunyama is an older woman. I have eaten dinner with them, and I try to stop and chat whenever I see them out and have extra time. Some of my other neighbors I hardly ever see because they work in the snack center and bakery and leave at 5:00 a.m. and do no return until 8:00 p.m. or later. However, I hope to little by little get to know them.

The food

By and large, the food here is delicious and spicy. Although it hasn’t been as spicy as I feared, I have had some pretty nasty experiences. The main culprit is usually a type of green pepper. I have learned how to pick them out, but occasionally, one sneaks into my mouth and it’s all downhill from there. I have started taking curd with my meals, which takes the edge off the spice and in general makes the meal tastier. Sometimes, the curd is a little sour, but you learn to live with that too.

Meals mostly consist of rice as the main dish, with a variety of side dishes. The rice is placed in the center of the plate with a curry on top and the side dishes set around it. Then, with your right hand, you take a little bit of rice and a little bit of a side dish and form them into a small ball and put it in your mouth. The side dishes are usually fish or chicken, a cabbage mixture, tapioca, vegetable mix, etc. Breakfast isn’t usually rice, although it is often made from rice flour, such as dosha, a pancake-like bread that you usually have with a sauce called sambar. You can also eat it with butter and sugar!

Tea time happens at 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.. At the 4:00 tea-time, called “evening tea,” there is usually some food involved, such as left over dosha from breakfast. Consequently, most people do not eat dinner until 8 30. Since I live somewhat apart from Vanitha Mandarim, I eat dinner at 6:00 right before chapel so that I can be in my room before it gets too dark.

The bugs

On my first day here, I was in the garden with Lali Kochemma and an old woman named Mrs. Philips. Lali Kochemma showed me a caterpillar right before she placed a rock on it and crushed it. Mrs. Philips said, “India teaches you to be cruel.” I found that to be a very interesting thing to say. Although I have not been here long enough to know if India will heighten my general cruelty, I have in a short time become merciless when it comes to bugs. I have had many ants in and around my little room, as well as cockroaches, mosquitoes, and spiders.

As a counselor, I always tried to convince my campers that the daddy long-legs really weren’t going to hurt them and all we had to do was sweep them outside. No more! (Well at least for now.) I now take my broom and decimate entire ant villages in a mighty sweep. After sweeping out as many as I can, I turn back to the unlucky survivors and finish the job with my poison spray can. I nearly javelin-throw the back end of my broom at spiders on the wall (big suckers too) and I toss naphthalene ball bombs in the holes to destroy the roaches.

This sounds rather traumatic, but it’s really not all that bad. After the initial cleaning out, I haven’t had too many problems. As long as I am very careful about food and keeping the place clean, I do not anticipate problems. Moreover, the office sent someone to come down and clean out the weeds and shrubbery around my room, so that should take care of the mosquito problems as well.

What’s my purpose?

The customs agent in England noticed that we had long-term visas and asked us what we would be doing in India. I immediately answered, “Just chillin.’” In many ways this statement is truer than most people realize. Although I have a very specific daily schedule, the main purpose of the Young Adult Volunteer program with PC (USA) is to build relationships with Christians and non-Christians around the world.

We are living in a broken world of war, poverty, and famine, and we’re accustomed to hearing grand terms like “globalization” thrown about with little knowledge of what they truly mean to individual lives. In this year, I hope to understand how globalization and economic policies of our two governments affect the lives of people here and in our own country. We have already learned how the Coca-Cola Company poisoned the waters of the town the plant is in. This is the short version of the story, and I hope to come to understand the longer one as the year progresses.

This is not a political endeavor, but a spiritual endeavor to really understand Christ’s call to serve the poor and abused in our society. I believe that I cannot truly live out that call until I understand how the abuse happens. This is a ministry of being and learning—in short, ‘just chillin.’ Along the way I will visit and come to know the elderly, the people in the bakery and tailoring. I will teach English and learn a little Malayalam and pray and worship with the people in my community. I will continue to build on the relationships that Becca and Chenoa, my predecessors, started, so that together we can work towards a more loving and understanding world.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

In Christ’s love,

Allison

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