CMS College is geographically situated in the center of Kerala. Its close proximity to the railway and bus stations contribute to the college’s diverse mix of students, many of whom travel from rural villages to participate in their education.

The college’s campus is one of the most naturally beautiful campuses in Kerala. Its 35 acres include not only administrative buildings and classrooms, but also an 8-acre forested area that is home to a large variety of plants and animals.

Alex Papp, a Young Adult Volunteer from the Evangelical Lutheran Church, spent a year in CMS College during 2005-06. This is what he has to say about his time at CMS College:

CMS College’s location in the heart of Kottayam provided me a wide range of opportunities during my year of service. The primary duty of a volunteer at the site is to engage the students in English conversation, this takes place in a formal classroom setting as well as informal interactions. Outside of the campus, a myriad of opportunities are available that can be tailored to suit each individual volunteer. I spent many hours each week at a nearby primary school and an orphanage.

An afternoon walk with the boys from Bala Bhavan

Any volunteer will quickly find that their “duties” make up only a small part of the year’s experience. The most valuable memories I have taken from the experience are of simply being with the many friends who helped make CMS College my home for the year.”

Students at Baker Memorial School

Bala means boy and bhavan means home, which makes sense because it’s a Boy’s Home. It’s something like a dormitory for young boys whose parents can’t afford to keep them at home. They are provided with a place to stay, food, and education. It’s not luxurious by any means, probably wouldn’t even be legal in the U.S. There are no beds and only two adults for the 60 plus boys. I went to Bala Bhavan every Saturday. It was by far my favorite part of the week. We played games, sang songs, taught each other magic tricks, laughed a lot. The home is located in a small village, surrounded by paddy fields and rubber trees. We would spend each Saturday afternoon wandering through the many footpaths that connect the small homes, pointing to things teaching each other the words for each object. And during those walks I never stopped eating.

There was always at least one boy up in the tree picking me a mango or a papaya or almonds or oranges as large as my head or some other fruit I’d never heard of. Of the many people I met, the Bala Bhavan boys were some of the most important to me. Somehow they are courageous amidst hopelessness, joyful in suffering, and even find a way to be generous despite their poverty. This video can give you a little insight into their personalities, their quirks and nervousness. You will see that despite their situation, they are just typical boys. You will probably see your own children in some of their responses. Keep in mind that these boys lead a life our children can’t imagine. They wash their own clothes in a bucket, eat the same meal three times a day, and sleep on the hard floor far away from their families just to have the opportunity to go to school.

If you don’t see the video, you probably need the latest flash plugin. It is also another good reason - why you should start using the Firefox browser.

Greetings to all!

In case you haven’t guessed already, I made it safely to India on Friday morning and have been getting adjusted since then. The other volunteer, Jill, and I arrived in Mumbai (Bombay) Thursday night at midnight (1:30 in the afternoon central time). We went through customs and flew the hour and a half to Kochi in Kerala. Thomas John our coordinator was waiting for us at the airport and drove us to Alwaye to his home. Jill will be spending the year here in Alwaye while I will be two hours away in a town called Kottayam.

We were exhausted when we first got here but have learned how to eat using our fingers (right hand only, of course) and some choice words in Malayalam: rain, hand, thank you, God and umbrella. Essentials, of course.

The highlight so far was yesterday. We went to the girl’s hostel/dormitory at United Christian College a block away. They were preparing to have their celebrations for Onam, a harvest festival celebrating the return of a king. They had drawn an ornate design on the tile floor on the porch and were placing chopped up flower petals and died coconut in a rainbow of bright colors in the design. We jumped right in and talked with the girls about Onam and college and, of course, Monica Lewinsky. There were guests coming for the lunch feast- sadya- so all the girls were getting dressed in the traditional Kerala saree, which is white with colored edging. Then they asked us if we wanted to put on saree as well. Are you kidding? Of course we jumped at the chance. They had so much fun dressing us up, running to get bangles for our wrists and jasmine for our hair. It was so fun. The meal was huge and was served on banana leaves. We went home for the afternoon and came back for their evening show. There were dances and songs and skits. Afterwards, they asked us to sing and dance! We decided on Amazing Grace, the only song we could remember at the time, and then they put on this fast music and asked us to dance. . Let’s just say everyone laughed a ton!

This morning we went to church, in Malayalam, of course. They introduced us to the congregation and asked us to say a few words. Thomas John was co-conducting the service and told us later that he could have asked us to sing but didn’t. Jill and I are working on our musical repertoire for future occasions, like the evening church service. The weather has not been too hot. It is raining now so it is very pleasant. We will travel around some until the 15th when I go to my assignment in Kottayam. Tomorrow we are going to a big city- Ernakulum- to buy Churidar, which is what most women our age wear on a daily basis. There are very few women who wear western dress here so we are trying to fit in as much as we can, blond hair and all. Thanks for reading this small dissertation. I would love to hear from any of you, though I have limited internet access. Best wishes to all of you and will write again soon!

Peace,
Francey

~~~~~

October 6, 2003

So, I have been in India for a little over a month and I wanted to write and update you on my time here since I have actually begun work at my site. Please feel free to read, skim or totally disregard as you see fit.

I am working at a destitute home – Mandiram – outside of the city of Kottayam, in the state of Kerala. There is an orphanage, hospital and nursing school associated with the home. A normal day looks something like this:

I wake up sometime around 6 or 6:30. The kitchen staff bangs a spoon on a pot at 6 to wake everyone up, so I can’t stay in bed much after that. I am staying in an apartment in a motel-style old age home within the Mandiram. People ask me if I am lonely being –gasp- all by myself for the 10 hours a day when I am not surrounded by tons of people talking to me in Malayalam and asking about every possible thing. Indeed. Back to breakfast, I usually eat a little while after the residents. The kitchen staff makes sure I am eating enough and getting what I need to stay healthy. Then I make rounds to the women’s ward and the men’s ward, which are set up kind of like cabins at a summer camp. We “chat” for a while in Malayalam using a lot of hand motions and me saying “manassilayilla” a lot, which means, “I don’t understand.” I also go up the hill to the hospital to visit patients or the Mandiram residents who have been admitted for one reason or another. I will go more often when my Malayalam gets better. I can handle basic conversation about food, sleep and church. But “do you need me to call the doctor?” is a stretch for me right now.

A side note on Malayalam: this language has 56 characters in its alphabet and a different pronunciation for each one. I muddle through with the limited number of vowels and consonants I am capable of making and hope the other person understands. And they are surprised when I say that French was easier to learn.

The lunch pot clangs at 12:15. I usually like to go and help serve the food. It gives me a chance to see the residents and gives them yet another reason to laugh at me. Sometimes the family who sponsors the meal will come and visit the Mandiram. I usually eat with them. Many of them either live in the US or have children there, so we have something to talk about.

After lunch I check my email 2 or 3 times a week, and then go back to my room for a nap. This is the hottest part of the day and only sleeping is possible. Tea time is anywhere from three to four o’clock, and then it is back to my duties. I teach a conversational English class to the nursing students in the afternoons 3 times a week and an evening Bible Study once a week. The students are 18, 19, and 20 years old, so we have fun together.

Chapel is at 6pm and I usually like to go, even though I hardly understand any of it. I have started taking my Bible along so at least I can follow the verse they are talking about. If nothing else, it gives me a chance to sit quietly and meditate on the passage. Last week was the 70th anniversary of the Mandiram, and in preparation I would go after chapel to practice a Malayalam song I was going to sing with the 8 girls from the orphanage and some home nurses. The electricity goes out every evening for 30 minutes to save power. During that time after practice, we would sit and tell stories or sing songs. When the lights came back on, I made my way to the dining hall to have my dinner. I usually have bread and milk. I like to think of it like cereal. They had been serving me heavy meat, rice and onions but I said I wanted something lighter. Bread and milk works for me.

By now it is about 8 or so and things have shut down at the Mandiram. I go back to my thamasassthalam (room) and read, write letters, or do some washing. I find I sleep a lot more here than I did back home. It takes such an effort to do anything that I think my body needs more time to recuperate.

My email access is very limited, but I would love to receive letters! I’d love to hear form any of you as to what you are doing. No promises to respond quickly. Thanks so much for reading this far. I know this is long, but I wanted to share a taste of what I am doing. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Namaskaram
Francey

~~~~~

November 3, 2003

Greetings!

Good news from Mandiram Hospital (where I work) there is a free surgical camp here from the US. They are working on children, mostly, born with cleft lip/pallet. They start surgery today and will be here all week. It has been a great opportunity for me because I have been able to welcome them as a pseudo-member of the community and I get to visit with some people from back home. They have invited me on tours with them and meals. Normally, I do not have much - any - contact with Westerners of any kind so it is actually a kind of relief to have people who understand what Halloween is, etc. They are mostly from the Houston area and a few from New York. I actually have been “translating” between Texas English and Kerala English because they can’t always understand each other. I’m getting a real kick out of it. And, some children are getting a bright future out of it as well.

I would like to devote at least a little ink to the topic of power- that is, electricity -and its availability here. There is a mandatory, nightly power cut lasting 30 minutes. They rotate the time every week. So, this week, the power is out from 8:45-9:15. Next week it will go back to 6:00-6:30, I think. Usually people have a rechargeable lantern that they use for light or some really well-to-do people have a generator. Besides these set times, the power is very finicky and may go off for periods during the day. The afternoon is the absolute worst time to be without power because the most blessed invention known to mankind (the fan) needs electricity to do its heavenly duty. If it goes out in the middle of the night and is still off in the morning, there will also be no water because the pump operates on electricity. If it is off for only an hour or two, there will still be water from the tap. I’m not exactly sure why but I’m just thankful its there. The hospital has a generator for important machines, like respirators (thank goodness) but not fans. The rhythm of things continues almost exactly the same without power. They have learned to make do with what is available and adjust accordingly.

In general, many things here are done by hand: washing clothes, making a fire for cooking, grinding spices, building buildings, etc. The resources to do things otherwise are simply not available. Infrastructure is such a basic thing that we take for granted. Many people assume that it is necessary for things to function properly. It has been interesting for me to watch as people here go about their lives and yes, actually, get things done without things that I would think would be necessary. I realize I am being a little abstract in my description. But I’m sure I will write more about this later when I observe more.

Thanks so much for all of your letters! I so enjoy so much having them with me and rereading them when I feel separated from people I know. I’ll sign off for now will write again soon.

Peace,
Francey

~~~~~

December 17, 2003

Happy (really) late Thanksgiving!

November just kind of flew by but better late than never. Please feel free to read or not as you wish.

For Thanksgiving, I decided to celebrate this American holiday the way Indians celebrate holidays. I wore saree, which girls my age usually save for special occasions, and passed out sweets. I went around the destitute home, orphanage, old age home and hospital giving out candy to everyone I saw. I had to learn the Malayalam to explain the entire history of Thanksgiving Day to people who know little or nothing about American history at all. “What are American settlers?” It was interesting. They have here a harvest festival that includes a big feast. So if I just couldn’t make myself understood, I said it was a similar holiday.

Celebrations are beginning for Christmas. Instead of trees (every tree is always green here) they put up big 3-D stars that are ornately decorated in different colors and materials. You put a light inside the star and put it in a prominent place in the house. Pretty neat! We have a few of them placed all over the Mandiram. The orphanage got two. We have also recently put up a pool kooda (nativity scene) in the dining hall. The Christmas spirit is everywhere, even if there is nothing resembling snow on the ground.

I just got back from a 3 day trip to the state capitol, Thiruvananthapuram. (Try saying that three times fast) It is a beautiful city with parks, zoos, beaches and nice government buildings reminiscent of the colonial era. But we went to visit the fisher communities outside of the city. Fishers (men and women) are among the poorest in India, though those in Kerala are doing comparatively well due to many state-wide reforms. One of the main problems is over fishing by huge multi-national companies and electric trawling, which destroys not only the eco-system of the ocean but the deposits of fish eggs as well. With recent organization into unions, the individual families have more of a bargaining power now. But the situation is still somewhat grim for future situations. There is also some discrimination against them by some other Indians who seem them as dirty, smelly, poor people. This is not widespread but it does affect the way they are treated as a community. Thanks to the Portuguese, they are almost all Christian. Most of the other poorer groups in India are Hindus. We met some students and a few Catholic nuns who were working with the union and a women’s group providing alternative employment through card-making. To make a long story short, I learned a bunch and met some really great students who are taking a stand. We are going to see if we can go back there again sometime.

Back at the Mandiram (destitute home) things are going well. I’ll be singing with the girls from the orphanage this afternoon for a Christmas celebration. They get a kick out of my mispronunciation of Malayalam when I sing. If all else fails, I can at least hum the tune. The girls are in exam period right now and have been busy with studying. The three younger ones just play around and try not to distract their busy “sisters.” Yesterday, they were pretending to be a train, holding on to each other’s shirts and walking all round making train noises. I joined on the back as a rather large, pale caboose, much to the amusement of the girls who were supposed to be studying.

We got a new arrival at the Balika Mandiram (girls’ home) this month: a baby girl just 4 days old when she came! The child’s young mother brought her to us. Earlier this year, she had gone looking for a job at a Coca-Cola factory nearby. She asked some men outside if there was work for her; he said there was. She went into the factory and one of the men followed her. The baby girl is a result of that day. At least here, she gets a chance at a good education and a future. Not to mention that everyone fawns over her to no end. She is adorable but a handful for the girls my age who are taking care of her. Her name is Leah, after the Mandiram founder’s sister. She will be baptized on Christmas morning and my supervisor has asked me to be one of the child’s god-mothers (traditionally, there are two for girl children). This Christmas will not be like any other Christmas in the past, but it will be very special to spend it with the people around me. May God bless you in this holiday season and in the year to come.

Peace on Earth,
Francey

~~~~~

January 4, 2004

It is hard to believe that more than three months have gone by already. So much has happened, but it seems like the time has flown by so far. India can be very overwhelming at times. I had heard before I came that life here could be “in your face” and I have found that to be pretty much the case. At Mandiram, the destitute home and hospital where I am living and working, everyone always wants to know where I’m going, who I saw, what I’m carrying or why I’m in a hurry. Indian women especially have a tendency to give instructions in an overly exasperated tone of voice, which I take seriously, unlike other Indians. I only get frazzled and frustrated then laugh at myself when it’s all over.

My experience at Mandiram has been somewhat different than my encounters with India at large. The people here are really poor. It has taken me a while to actually see their poverty. I have walked by their beds and seen all their worldly possessions in a small cupboard, but it is quite another thing to see the world through their eyes. There is one ammachi (title of respect meaning grandmother) whom I saw sewing a blouse the other day. I later found out she was not making it for herself but for one of the other residents who didn’t have one. She said, “Isn’t that what Jesus tells us to do? If we have two coats, we should give on to someone who doesn’t have any.” It was a very humbling moment for me; I have never made a shirt for anyone.More…

A similar experience happened a few days later when one appachen (grandfather) asked me to come sit by his bed one afternoon. He has limited mobility on one entire side of his body, but he opened his little cupboard and brought out a package of dates. He had a difficult time opening the plastic wrap and then the container itself. He had one spoon that he cleaned so thoroughly with some cotton, a towel and some water, even the ancient Israelites would have been satisfied with the cleanliness. We shared the package of dates and he told me about his brother who comes to visit him sometimes and about his nephew who has a high position in a company somewhere in the gulf. When I turned down yet another spoonful of dates, he said, “Don’t worry! I can get money from my brother anytime and buy some more. You eat up.” I immediately thought of how much I treasured any fruit I had in my room, especially pineapple, and how I had not once invited anyone to share it with me. Of course, I cannot claim a lack of funds as the reason for my stinginess. This appachen, Phillip appachen, had a blissful smile on his face every time he popped one of those dates in his mouth. I had often heard stories of people who had very little and yet were generous with what they did have. But something about seeing it face to face not only deeply touched me but challenged me to look at the abundance and the selfishness in my life.

I definitely get special treatment at Mandiram. I get different foods, housing, expectations and treatment. Sometimes it makes me think how I would feel if I were treated like everyone else. What if I didn’t have next August to look forward to, to be united with my family, to go “home”? What if Mandiram was all I had in the world? The place looks very different when you think of it that way, through the eyes of people who have been there for years and who know they will be there until they die.

For some reason, I had always thought that people who suffered in far away places were somehow better equipped to deal with it than someone like me. Indian mothers must be ready for their children to die at any moment, I thought, so when they do, it must not be such a tragedy after all. But, the more I know about their feelings and dreams, the more I find my former hypothesis to be false. Someone with a broken leg is in as much pain in India as in Europe. Someone paralyzed in India is just as bored, frustrated and lonely as someone in the U.S. This may seem really obvious to some, but I just hadn’t seen it before.

One of my greatest joys of my time at Mandiram is spending time with the girls at Balika Mandiram (Girls’ Home/Shelter). They were really shy at first but they have opened up now. They are always laughing, shouting and playing. It does my heart good to be with them, to hear them and to watch them. I have to say that as someone who was never spanked as a child, I cringe at the severity with which they are sometimes treated, especially when it comes to school work. I guess it is just one of those things I have to file away under cultural differences and move on. Things definitely used to be the same in the U.S. and are very similar in Europe today.

Each girl is such a joy in her own way. They are always happy to see me, calling to me from far away, waving to me and running to meet me. My favorite time to go visit them is between 5 and 6 pm. By then, they have come back from school, had their tea and are busy playing. It’s the only time they can play outside because it is less hot. Something about listening to them laughing as the sun goes down gives me some hope for this world. So much joy is there. If they can have it, why can’t we?

So far much of my day to day reflections have been about life after India: what will I be like when it’s over? How will I tell people what I learned, how I grew? Will I act in different ways? Make different choices? And a broader question, what is the root cause of poverty in India? What is the Indian government doing about it? What is the rest of the world doing about it? What can I do, if anything, to alleviate that poverty? What is my role as an American, a representative of the richest country in the world? I can’t say I’ve come to many conclusions so far. But, this is only the first quarter. I’ve got a lot more India to live before it’s all said and done. I thank you all for taking the time to read this rather lengthy reflection.

I wish you all the best in this New Year.

Peace on Earth!
Francey

~~~~~

February 16, 2004

Hello to all!

I am a little late in writing this month’s later because of our mandatory trip to Sri Lanka at the beginning of February. Our visas are good for one year but we cannot stay consecutively in the country for more than 180 days. So, we took advantage of our time off and enjoyed ourselves in Sri Lanka.

We visited Colombo, the capitol, and even got to see a full moon procession that only happens once a year. There were elephants, dancers and all sorts of performers. It was a spectacular event.

We also went to Kandy, the former seat of royalty before colonization and one of my favorite places in the world so far. The mountains make it much cooler, and there are pilgrims from all over the world who come to see the Temple of the Tooth in the center of town, which houses a relic of one of the Buddha’s teeth. The lake in the middle of the city makes it a beautiful sight to behold. As a student of religion, I enjoyed seeing the temples and learning about the history of the people in the area.

We also spent a few days at the beach, it was a vacation after all, and went snorkeling one night before sunset. As someone who grew up in Oklahoma, I had never been snorkeling before. We saw some beautiful coral off the coast and even caught a school of some rather large fish lazily making their way out to sea. How beautiful is God’s creation!

Even though India and Sri Lanka share a lot in their history and culture, there are a lot of differences in the two countries today. Coming back to India has made me look at things here in a new light after seeing one of its neighbors. Here are a few things In Sri Lanka that you don’t find normally in my part of India

-Escalators
-Women wearing western dress
-A mall
-Coffee shops
-Young and old Buddhist monks walking around in bright orange robes
-Men and women (gasp) holding hands in public
-Chocolates

In short, there are many differences between the two countries. Sri Lanka is more westernized than India in many ways, and it has made me start thinking about whether that is good or not. Yes the average person in Sri Lanka is probably better off financially but they have caught the consumerism diease that is so prevalent in our part of the world. When people found out I was from the US, they would usually say things like, “Oh how wonderful! the greatest country in the world!” or “Your country is so rich and powerful.” This kind of west-emulating, and sometimes almost worshipping, I think is happening more in Sri Lanka than in India. It has made me start thinking about where society is going, what is the ultimate goal? Is it good for the whole world to become like the West? What is development for anyway? Who is it for? I’m not sure if I’m making myself clear or not. Here’s another example. In the souvenir shops in Sri Lanka, they sell this “traditional Sri Lankan spoon” that is made out of a polished coconut shell. In my place of service in India, they use that exact kind of spoon when making food for the 150+ people at the home. To people in Sri Lanka, tradition is something that tourists want to get a taste of and that grandparents talk about. But in India, it is just who they are. They like having their own music and film industry that reflects their tastes and standards. There are still people in India who listen to Britney Spears and other imported musical wonders. But, most people still prefer things that speak to them by people from their community. They don’t think about it; it is just who they are They don’t package tradition and polish it to make it marketable to a foreign audience. I got the sense that people in Sri Lanka want so badly to be just like the West whereas that is not the case so much in India. I’m probably making huge generalizations that are not completely accurate. But, that is how I see things at this juncture.

Speaking of junctures, I am officially half-way through my year of service here. It is hard to believe so much time has passed but on the other hand it seems like I’ve been here forever. Thanks so much for all of you that sent letters and e-mails. Because of my recent trip, I have not been able to respond as quickly as usual, but I wanted to thank you for keeping up the communication. I often go back and read letters I received a while ago. It’s great to hear from people you care about.

Peace to you,
Francey

~~~~~

March 13, 2004

Hello again!

Well, March is upon us and frankly I can’t decide if it came in like a lion or a lamb. It’s hotter than blazes in the afternoons - what else is new? - but the evenings are really nice. I’ve started to have to take a mid-afternoon shower as well as my evening one. Actually most people here shower more than once a day during this time of the year. The upside to this weather is the vegetation and the fruits. There are these huge fruits here called jackfruits that can get about as big as my torso. They hang heavily on trees all over the place and do not need the slightest cultivation.

Pretty amazing! I was trying to explain to someone here that the fruits we have in the US usually have a thin skin and get eaten up by the bugs before we can get to them, if they grow wild at all. But jackfruit has a thick spiny skin so nothing can get to it. Inside there are little pods with seeds in the middle and sweet flesh around it. There are all sorts of dishes that people here make of these and other fruits. They are the advantage of this time of the year.

Earlier today, I went to a prayer meeting for sick people in the area. They had diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes and gather together once a year for a meeting. Otherwise, they pray every morning for each other and for the health of the group. Though most of it was in Malayalam, I enjoyed being present. The preacher was a pastor who had been paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident in Philadelphia. ( I was somewhat surprised that he survived the roads of India only to get in an accident in the U.S.) He spoke so passionately about the story in the gospels where Jesus was asleep in the boat while the disciples were afraid for their lives. They thought he was just sitting by and doing nothing about their suffering but really he was there WITH them in the suffering. It was a very inspiring message.

As is expected in such settings, he preached for an hour and a half. People in the US - especially my beloved Presbyterians - would have found this somewhat difficult. But Indian Christians absolutely love long sermons. It’s something I still struggle with from time to time, though I’m getting used to it. They also usually speak without notes, or at least using minimal notes. The preacher most often has a few days or hours to prepare for a talk and most preachers give messages multiple times a week at prayer meetings and other functions. Seeing the requirements of pastors here, it make me glad that I will have comparatively minimal responsibilities when I get ordained.

Thanks so much for your continued correspondence. May God be with you all in the coming weeks!

FranceyPeace,
Francey
~~~~~

April 3, 2004

Rain Dance anyone?

I am quickly discovering that the term April Showers does not at all apply in India. It is summer time here- children are out of school, watermelons are in season and the sun is as intense as ever. We are experiencing an acute water shortage right now, but have altered life accordingly and are getting along. You don’t think of all the things you need water for- washing plates and utensils, cooking, washing clothes, cleaning floors, not to mention flushing the toilet. Every drop has to be conserved very diligently. I have started re-wearing my clothes because there often is not enough water to wash them by hand as well as wash myself. So I have to choose. Drinking water is of course the highest priority, for me at least. At the home where I live and work, they have a well that provides the majority of drinking water. I still boil it before I drink it, but it is very clean water. People ask me a lot now if I have a well at my house, when the dry season is in the US, what we do when there is a water shortage and if we boil water before we drink it. Someone asked me where we get our water from without a well. I honestly had no idea. It just comes out of the tap.

Water shortages of this extent did not used to be so common in this part of India. The major reasons for the worsening drought conditions are population growth, extreme deforestation and changes in lifestyle that necessitate more water. Ground water is significantly less than it has ever been because there is less unpaved ground to soak up the water and places like paddy fields which hold water have been converted into cash crop fields. When it does rain, there is often flooding and soil erosion because about 60% of tree cover here has been cut down, again for agriculture and other forms of development. Topics that environmental groups always talk about are now becoming real for me. What if we as humans really are completely destroying all natural resources?

Well, I am starting to get thirsty talking about water so much. I preached last week about Jesus offering the woman at the well living water so that she will never have to draw water again and will no longer thirst (John 4). I think I could use some of that about now. I love hearing from all of you. I have been pretty slow to respond but I do appreciate you keeping me updated with the things in your lives. Keep it up!

Peace,
Francey

~~~~~

May 17, 2004

Hello!

I have been traveling around Northern India for the past few weeks and have been out of communication. I am glad to be back at my home away from home with my community and people I know. Seeing different parts of India has really made me appreciate the wide diversity in this one country. It actually reminds me more of Europe than anything else. There are distinct differences in language, food, traditional occupations, religions, the list goes on and on. Actually, India may be more diverse than Europe in some respects. I have also started to appreciate the uniqueness of Kerala, the state where I serve. People there are more educated and there is much less of a rural/urban divide. I also found that the people are nicer and more helpful, but that could just be because I know the language.

The other exciting news right now in India is elections! (I can just hear your hearts racing). Actually a real upset has happened. All of the pre-election polls were showing the governing party- a nationalist, Hindu radical group- would be re-elected to power. But, what has happened is that the Congress party (moderate) and Left parties have done much better than predicted and will have an easy majority in the parliament. I suggest reading up on it further, if you are interested. People are calling it one of the biggest upsets in 30 years and a good sign that democracy in India is alive and well. It’s very exciting to be here during this time.

Summer is winding down and rain has started to trickle in. The monsoon doesn’t start for real until June when it rains constantly. Should be interesting. The only bad thing is that the mosquitoes are coming out again- and so is my Deep Woods Off!

Peace,
Francey

~~~~~

June 7, 2004

Greetings to all!

Now that the monsoon is upon us full tilt, I’m learning a little bit about life, more specifically, about the green growing kind. It rains at least a little every day and some days there are heavy showers for hours at a time. Green plants are sprouting up in all imaginable corners of land, even stone walls along the roadside are growing moss. The world is fresh and new: life in abundance.

Though it can be a little too abundant at times as I discovered the other day when I pulled my leather sandals out from under the bed only to find them covered in a mossy-fungus like substance. Thankfully, it comes off when wiped with newspaper. I also pulled out my one long-sleeved shirt that I have barely used all year. While it wasn’t covered in moss, it did have a rather dingy, rotting smell to it. I plan to wash it along with a thicker sheet soon and hang them on my clothesline inside my kitchen out of the rain. There is so much moisture in the air that clothes take two days to dry and my self-adhesive envelopes have all adhered.

Since there is no real temperature separation between inside and outside, the nights can get a little chilly. Some of the older men here have started wearing their knit caps and sweater vests in the mornings, though I don’t think it has reached below 70 F once! I guess cold is relative. After 9 months of heat, I am enjoying the change in climate along with the new challenges.

My time in India is starting to come to a close; I’ll be leaving in less than two months time. I have already started thinking of things I want to do or get before I go back. I’d be lying if I said a part of me wasn’t looking forward to going back, seeing family and friends. But, it will be very difficult for me to leave the people here whom I have grown so close with. At the destitute home where I live, I have so many grandfathers and grandmothers who confide in me when they are down, tease me about my Malayalam and give me advice about life. I also have many younger sisters in the orphanage who call me over to show me things they have discovered and run over to me to wish me good morning. Then there are my English students who pretend to be shy but know more English then they let on.

When I meet people for the first time, they are sometimes surprised that I have adapted to life here so much. (They might not be saying that if they’d seen me last November) Part of my ministry here is showing people that a foreigner can live like them. In a time when all the young people here are going crazy over jeans and Brad Pitt, I am here wearing Indian clothes, eating Indian food and speaking an Indian language. Some things have been harder than others and I have by no means adjusted to all aspects of life. But I get a certain satisfaction out of living a given Indian experience without the emotional/cultural overload I had before. Standing in line is one example. I used to wait patiently in my place and watch, slightly annoyed, as people cut in front of me left and right. Then when they started pushing me I used to get really flustered and angry- don’t they have any manners? Now when I get in line, I push my way right up to the front, feeling rather smug, take my ticket and don’t get bothered or angry at all. This kind of experience only comes with time spent in a culture. You start to appreciate its quirks and love its richness. I have made a place for myself here. Once you reach that stage, it is really hard to leave your new found home.

Peace,
Francey

~~~~

Hello Friends!

I am now in the middle of my fourth week in India. It’s hard to believe how quickly those four weeks have passed by. They’ve been very busy…..

Francey (the other young adult volunteer in India) and I arrived in India on the morning of August 29. Our flights had absolutely no problems. In the weeks since then, we have learned to eat without utensils; been stuffed with food; attended a wedding reception, a housewarming/blessing, and a feast in celebration of a local festival called Onam; listened to child laborers sing about their stolen childhood; taken three 12h+ overnight train rides; bought Indian clothes; studied some Malayalam; tried to use the bathroom in a squat toilet with no toilet paper; visited the mining community of an abandoned mine; attended a variety show performed by very talented mentally handicapped children; and started to tolerate Indian food. Phew! As you can imagine, we’ve had a wonderful but tiring experience so far. Thus, there has also been much sleeping, at least for me.

A little over a week ago, we settled down for our work for the year. I am living in a town called Aluva; Francey is about two hours away from me. My work is divided between two sites. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I work at a local school. The school was originally for girls, but boys have recently started attending as well. On Tuesdays, I work with children in grades 5, 6, and 7; on Wednesdays, kindergarten through 4th grade. I would not describe my work there as “teaching.” Rather, I am there to provide some relief from the monotony of Indian education while helping the children to practice their English. So I play games with them, teach them songs, and tell them stories. It is quite fun, though the children can be quite rambunctious.

During the rest of the week, I work at a local college. I will be helping to keep their website updated. I will also be creating (but probably not programming) an alumni database. Surprisingly, alumni giving is quite rare in India, but the college desperately needs funding. I will thus be helping them with the early stages of their development program.

I reside in a retirement home. Many of the residents are still active, but several are quite frail and elderly. I often visit with them in the mornings and evenings. Most of them speak very good English. I have also started to befriend the various servants, but language is much more of a barrier with them.

Overall, I’m really enjoying my time here so far. Small things bring me much delight: eating a bowl of cereal, having a nice cool shower after a hot day, shopping for the first time by myself, figuring out how to talk on the phone with my family. Small things can also seem quite tragic, though, such as discovering ants in my food. (Fortunately, they later evacuated the cereal.)

Love and Peace,
Jill

~~~~~~

December 2, 2003

Dear Friends,

Greetings from India! I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. For most of you, I imagine, the weather is already quite cold, and I hear that some places have already had snow. Here in Aluva, Kerala, the climate has also cooled a bit. Sometimes in the early mornings, the temperature actually drops down to 79 degrees. The absence of fall or winter has been rather confusing.

I wish I could say that adjusting to a lack of seasons has been my biggest challenge, but I would be deceiving you if I did. I think almost every aspect of my life here has been challenging, even sleeping. Everything is so new and different. I have been on an emotional roller coaster the last few weeks as days filled with the joys of making new friends, sharing music, grasping new concepts about the culture, overcoming hurdles, and doing meaningful work have been followed by days filled with complete helplessness, loneliness, anger, and moments where I want to “wring India’s neck.”

Some aspects of my life are absolutely delightful. Twice, now, Francey, the other young adult volunteer, and I played tourist during two retreats with our supervisor, Rev. Thomas John, and his wife, Betty. I swam in the Indian Ocean, shook “hands” with an elephant’s trunk, and visited tribal communities in Kerala’s eastern mountains.

My everyday life also regularly brings new sights. Sometimes I watch swarms of dragonflies fly over the heads of children who are assembled to say their morning prayers. Sometimes I walk by herds of goats lounging in the middle of intersections. Sometimes I witness small lizards gobble down large dragonflies.

I am also thoroughly enjoying the simplicity of my daily life compared to the hectic routine, or lack thereof, that I had during college. Each morning, I rise much later than I’d like and race down to the mess hall to stuff breakfast down my throat or into a food container. (Some things don’t change, I suppose.) On Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, I walk down the street to Union Christian College, an ecumenical institution that has close ties with the Presbyterian Church (USA). On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I usually take the school bus to a local school where I help children practice their English. On Tuesday and Friday afternoons, I spend an hour with teenage girls who live in a nearby Dalit (untouchable) community. I am attempting to help them improve their spoken English. My Saturdays change every week. On Sundays, I attend church in the morning. Lately, I have been staying after the service for a couple of hours to practice with the choir for the Christmas Carol service.

Most of my late afternoons and early evenings are fairly flexible. I often visit friends or the residents of the retirement community, Chacko Homes, where I stay. I try to regularly read. My late evenings are more scheduled. I usually have my supper at about 8:15. Then I spend a few minutes practicing the local language, Malayalam, with my Malayalam teacher, a resident of Chacko Homes who teaches Malayalam at a local Jesuit seminary. After that, I visit with a group of three or four men and sing at least two songs for them.

I find most of these activities to be incredibly rewarding. At the college, I have found ways to utilize several of the skills that I learned while I was a student. I just recently finished redesigning their website. You can visit it at http://www.icbs.com/uccollege. I love the hours that I spend with the girls in the afternoon. We are growing quite attached to each other, and they are gradually improving their English. I love singing for the residents at Chacko Homes and listening to their stories. They are an amusing lot, each one slightly battier than the next. I love the friendships that I am developing with people of all ages. The incredible hospitality of people here amazes me.

I usually enjoy, as well, my work at the school. I get to interact with children in nine different grade levels. My youngest students are four, and my oldest are twelve. I have great fun developing engaging activities, and they have great fun participating in them. Sometimes, though, they have too much fun, way too much fun, and this has been a problem. I have yet to figure out how to control a room of 30 six-year olds who barely understand what I am saying and who are accustomed to rigid, repetitive lessons and scary teachers who sometimes hit them with a stick. A few weeks ago, some of the boys in one of my classes decided that they would like to spend their time with me playing “tag;” I was “it.”

American schoolchildren have no idea how lucky they are. They are actually asked to think for themselves! Here, there is only one correct way to color a picture; there is only one correct way to sing the National Anthem. Many of the lessons here consist of simply repeating what the teacher says. I once overheard the following in a classroom:
“What is this?”
“WHAT IS THIS?”
“This is an elephant.”
“THIS IS AN ELEPHANT.”
“What is this?”
“WHAT IS THIS?”
“This is a lion.”
“THIS IS A LION”

The classes at the school have not been the only source of frustration. My sense of independence has been drastically reduced. No longer can I go out whenever I want; I have to be home by sunset at 6:30. No longer do I have my own phone and Internet access, not even for my work on the college’s website. No longer can I buy, store, or prepare my own food. No longer can I spontaneously skip a meal or eat out with a friend, for Chacko Homes charges its residents for meals unless they give several hours advance warning. Sometimes, these situations drive me to tears. However, I am learning that with some ingenuity, some negotiation, and some reliance on others for help, I can deal with them.

Adapting to different cultural customs and norms has also been challenging, but slightly less aggravating. Here in Kerala, nobody feels bad about pushing someone out of the way to get by. This is also the case when driving. Nobody seems to mind when people pick their noses, belch, cough up mucous, or spit. There also seems to be no problem with my interrupting a lecturing professor to ask him to make a report on an event for the website. (I did not do the actual interrupting.) On the other hand, people stand when anyone more respectable or older enters the room. And one must always address someone more respectable with a title such as Sir, Miss, or Madam. I still haven’t figured out when I should stand or which titles to use when.

Indians use very different body language as well. When signaling “yes,” people tilt their head from side to side. I’m not yet sure how to signal “no.” Their signal for “come” looks very much like our signal for “go.” When people ask a question, they usually do not raise the pitch of their voices. I often have no idea if they are asking a question or making a statement.

Probably the most difficult aspects of my life here have centered upon the fact that I am a woman. Growing up, I certainly identified as a girl or woman, but my gender was not especially important. Here, one’s gender means a lot. Whenever I go out, I get honks, waves, and shouts from men walking on the street and driving by in vehicles. I cannot go out after 6:30 because people don’t consider it safe for women. I get questions like, “You’re walking home from church alone? Do you know your way back?” or comments like, “I can’t believe that Francey took the train by herself!”

Women are seen by men and often see themselves as weak and somehow “less” than men. They shouldn’t go anywhere alone. They should cover their hair in church. Their husbands’ needs are always more important than their own. College women must to be in their hostels (dormitories) by 4:30 in the afternoon. Although women constitute 80 percent of the student body at U.C. College, I believe that the only women who currently hold offices in the College Union serve as Lady Representatives. My classes at the school cannot picture a mother being anything other than a housewife or a teacher.

Unless they can afford servants, women usually spend several hours a day cooking meals for their families. Canned or frozen foods are not readily available; the meals are complicated, and the food must be prepared fresh for every meal. I sometimes grow so infuriated by women’s circumstances that I want to scream.

I am also frequently dismayed by the sheer poverty that I see everywhere. The differences between the rich and poor are vast. Some of my friends live in houses whose floors are covered in marble while others lack adequate access to clean drinking water and use brushwood to cook their food. There are many people here who earn around $3.00 a day or less doing work that would earn them at least $6.00 an hour, or $48.00 a day, in the U.S. One may argue that the cost of living is much lower, but I have found that it isn’t that much lower. For example, a notebook here, probably worth less than a dollar in the U.S., costs 10 rupees (or 22 cents). In other words, people’s incomes are less than one-sixteenth of those in the U.S., but the cost of a notebook is more than one-fifth of what it would cost in the U.S.

Americans, I think, tend to blame the poor for their poverty. They assume that poor people are simply lazy and immoral. That simply is not true! Poor people here work incredibly hard when given the opportunity to work. I have seen women as short as I am carrying crushing loads of dirt on their heads under the beating sun. The women who cook my meals at the retirement community work seven days a week from six o’clock in the morning until nine o’clock at night with a break of only a few hours in the middle of the day. Unfortunately, there is very little incentive to improve working conditions of the poor because unemployment is so high. 4.2 million people in Kerala would be happy to simply have a job.

Many of the wealthy Christians here seem rather apathetic to the conditions of their neighbors. I want to shriek, “Why don’t you do something!” but even those who do care usually feel helpless to change anything. Much of the Indian governmental system is quite corrupt. Moreover, several international institutions in the last few decades have steadily encroached upon India’s ability to set its own economic policy, and these institutions have not always been sensitive to the needs of India’s people.

In 1991, India found itself in the midst of an economic crisis. It was attempting to pay off its enormous international debt by printing more money, thus causing rapid inflation. The International Monetary Fund announced that it would help India stabilize its economy, but only if India agreed to certain conditions, which included privatizing government industries and cutting back on social welfare programs. Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization decided that India could not do anything to protect its private industries against vicious competition from foreign companies. The results of these various policies have been disastrous. For instance, India once had a thriving soda-pop industry, but Coca-Cola and Pepsi bought out most of these companies. These American companies opened more soda-producing factories, but those were mostly mechanized. They thus successfully depleted the water table but did not generate more jobs. In fact, they may have reduced the number of jobs, for I believe that they also mechanized the factories already in operation. As a final blow, high concentrations of pesticides were recently discovered in their products. Meanwhile, many of the programs intended to protect India’s environment and poor and unemployed have been dismantled; their funding is instead being used to pay off debt.

We as Americans can easily shake our heads at such situations and sigh, “Gee, that’s a shame,” but by doing so we commit the same transgressions as the wealthy Christians in India. We cannot remain apathetic, for our government and corporations are behind the reigns of most of the institutions like the IMF and WTO.

In the midst of all my frustration, sorrow, and anger at conditions here, I usually realize how much all of these experiences are enriching my understanding of the world. For instance, I used to take for granted my freedoms and opportunities as a woman in the U.S.; now I want to hug and kiss every woman who fought for gender equality in America. I used to take for granted my easy access to technology to solve most of my problems; now I must rely on other people much more to get through the day. And I have discovered that every time I turn to someone for help, I have an opportunity to build a relationship. Do we, perhaps, surround ourselves with technology at the cost of having fewer relationships? I used to take for granted all of my privileges as a fairly wealthy American. Now I have whole new perspective on what it means to live in luxury. It is a luxury to drink juice. It is a luxury to take a hot shower and to sleep on a soft bed. It is a luxury to own a washing machine, to own five telephones, to own a VCR. It is a luxury to be able to drive everywhere in a car and to be able to throw out food if it gets infested with ants.

I am realizing that Christians cannot truly live in communion when such immense inequalities in material wealth exist. Many of the Christians here have considerable wealth. And those who have live in fear of those who have not. They lock themselves behind gates and concrete fences. They dread walking outside at night. They do not trust anybody. When we cannot trust other people, we shrink away from them with dread rather reaching out to them with love. We stay focused on our own lives and become apathetic to the plight of those suffering around us. When we cannot trust other people we treat them as less than fully human. And it seems that when we treat others as less than fully human, they are more likely to act less than fully human.

And that, my friends, is my life–my activities, sorrows, joys, and thoughts– in a very large nutshell. I thank you for taking the time to read through this reflection.

Happy Holidays!

Peace and Love,
Jill

~~~~~

March 4, 2003

Dear Friends,

Hello again from India! I apologize that it has been so long since I last wrote. The last few months have consisted of one adventure after another.

In mid-December, I went to Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, where I visited with fishing communities. At the very end of the year, Francey and I got to enjoy some of the possible tourist activities in Kerala, such as taking a boat ride around the nearby Cochin harbor and swimming in the Arabian Sea as the sun set on the last day of the year. A couple of weeks later, fifteen American students arrived from Austin College, which is in Sherman Texas, for ten days. I had a lot of fun playing the “expert” on India. Their visit was immediately followed by Francey’s and my departure to Sri Lanka to renew our visas. While there, we had a wonderful time visiting Buddhist temples, snorkeling over a coral sanctuary, watching an endless parade of dancers and elephants in elaborate costumes, and simply sleeping. I have written more extensively about my trips to Thiruvananthapuram and Sri Lanka and my New Year’s adventures in my online journal at http:/homepage.mac.com/jrwason/journal.html.

Most recently, my parents came to visit for eight days after taking a tour of North India. We first took a tour together of Kerala. We visited some historic sites- an old palace full of intricate paintings of Hindu stories, an old Jewish Synagogue, and the first European Church in India- and a spice plantation. We also took boat rides both through some canals near the coast and through a wildlife sanctuary in the mountains, where we saw elephants, wild boar, and water buffalo. Afterwards, we returned to Aluva, where I attempted to introduce my parents to several hundred people over the course of two and a half days. I had great fun showing them my life here, and I also really enjoyed just being with my parents again.

In the times when I have not been traveling, I have gradually been developing some close relationships with people here. As my parents can attest, I am now fairly well integrated into the surrounding community. Surprisingly, many of my friendships have been forged with music. Music has always been an important part of my life, but I did not anticipate it being so significant to my life here.

It all started when a Mr. K.P. Thomas moved into Chacko Homes, the retirement community where I currently reside, in November. I had already been regularly singing in the evenings for some of the residents, and I sometimes sang at events held at Chacko Homes. Mr. Thomas, a fairly experienced musician, decided that I would be useful for our church choir for their Christmas Carol Service. He suggested that I sing alto as the choir had no altos. I said that I would try but explained that I have very little experience singing alto; I usually sing soprano. There thus ensued several weeks of intense choir practices after church and sometimes on Saturday evenings as well. We prepared eleven pieces of music, some English, some Malayalam. At first, I really struggled to hold the alto part on my own, especially because the Malayalam songs used harmonization that made little sense to me, but I eventually could sing the music fairly well. More importantly than learning how to sing alto, I acquired some close friends during all of our rehearsals and I began to feel like I was a part of the church community. I had worried before that I would never really connect with the church because the services are held in Malayalam.

Mr. K.P. Thomas meanwhile learned that I could play the keyboard. He asked me to play some hymns on Christmas Day for a gathering of Chacko Homes residents. I have always really struggled to play hymns, but the fact that I can even read western musical notation puts me miles ahead of most people here. So I agreed to also give that a try. After a great deal of practice, I could play the songs fairly decently. Mr. Thomas was sufficiently satisfied and asked me play the keyboard at the rehearsals for a community choir that he was organizing for Passion Week. I agreed to also do this. And thus I have become more and more involved with the community, especially the Christian community, in a meaningful way.

Mr. K.P. Thomas has obviously been a very important figure in my life here. Through his encouragement, I have become more connected to people here and I have become increasingly confident in my musical abilities. Mr. Thomas unfortunately recently learned that he is seriously ill, and his condition is, for the most part, untreatable. This is very saddening for me.

Despite my having developed some good friendships here, there are still times when I feel incredibly lonely. I have adapted to being an “Indian” in many ways, such as in dress and mannerisms, but there are still some huge cultural differences. For example, many of my conversations with my peers in the U.S. center on the topic of romantic relationships- past relationships, current relationships, potential relationships, the absence of relationships. In India, especially in Kerala, romantic relationships outside of marriage hardly exist. Marriages are almost always arranged by parents. Some young adults date, but not very seriously. “Love marriages” do take place sometimes. If the parents allow a love marriage, though, one usually marries the first person he or she loves after only a few months of being in the relationship. The pattern in the U.S. of having a few fairly serious romantic relationships before settling on someone to marry simply does not exist here. I do not see the approach to marriage in India as better or worse than how we approach marriage in the U.S. (I like that I have the freedom to choose my own mate, but it does take a lot of time, energy, and heartbreak to find one.) However, marriage in India is profoundly different from marriage in the U.S. So sometimes it’s really hard to relate.

I therefore have mixed feelings about the fact that I am now more than halfway through my time here. I will leave India at the end of July. I expect that my departure from my new friends and community will be quite painful, but I will also be excited about seeing my family and friends in the U.S. In the meantime, I will try to make the most of the time that I have left here.

Peace and Love,
Jill

~~~~~~~

June 12, 2004

Dear Friends,

First, let me begin by apologizing for being so delinquent in communicating with you. The last few months have been very busy and/or tough. In March, I was doing quite a bit of work that I wanted to complete before I set off for a three and a half week tour of India in April. Then I was traveling. I was not feeling well for most of May, which was frustrating because my time here is coming to an end. I am feeling much better now, thankfully. So I have been trying to catch up with myself. There have been many experiences upon which to reflect.

Francey’s and my tour around India was adventurous, to say the least. We visited nine cities. I saw the Taj Mahal, with its pure marble walls and inlaid stonework, and the Himalaya Mountains, with snow capped peaks in the distance. I took a boat ride at sunrise to watch Hindus bathe in the Ganges, one of their most sacred rivers. I wandered through intricately designed temples that were carved out of mountainsides. I walked down the broad tree-lined avenues of New Delhi, India”s capital. I saw numerous forts, palaces, tombs, mosques, and temples. I will cherish my memories of all these experiences. But I returned to Kerala with a slightly bitter aftertaste.

The trip was still stressful despite our precautions. Men bothered us wherever we went. Men at the train stations would swarm around us offering to carry our luggage or take us to our hotel. Shopkeepers would try to seduce us to come into their stores with lines such as, “Hey baby, want jeans?” If men were not bothering us, women and children were. In some places, it was impossible to stay stationary without beggars approaching us– grubby children, cripples, old women, young women with babies– it was heartbreaking.

Even if we were left alone, life around us was still often overwhelming: men shoving each other in line, urinating in the streets or off the sides of trains; families lounging around on the floors while waiting for their trains; trash lying everywhere; acres and acres of dilapidated shacks trying to pass as homes. I kept thinking, “These people are like animals!”

I was not pleased with myself that I kept concluding that people were behaving like dogs. “Be careful,” we had been warned, “to be culturally sensitive. Many behaviors that you may see as uncivilized are just different.” Perhaps, I reasoned, Indians just generally don’t view doglike behavior to be as uncivilized as Westerners do. After all, Westerners may view squatting to use the toilet or making a lot of noise when angry as mildly doglike, and those are simply benign differences. Maybe these other behaviors that are bothering me are also simply due to cultural differences. Do Indians just have a completely different set of standards for judging appropriate behavior?

I concluded that, yes, Indians do have a different rubric for assessing acceptable behavior. Some behavior that we view as uncivilized, such as belching, is often fine in India. Some behavior that Indians usually view as uncivilized, such as wearing shoes into a place of worship, is often fine in the U.S. Some behavior, however, such as urinating on the side of a busy street, is, or should be, universally considered uncivilized. There is, I think, a basic universal standard of civilized behavior that expects people to treat themselves, each other, and their surroundings with dignity and respect. Why, then, would so many people act so uncivilized?

I saw while traveling that it’s really hard to be a good citizen in India. There’s hardly any infrastructure to support civilized behavior. When you have no toilet in your home, your only options are to pay possibly nonexistent money to use the filthy public toilets or to go in public. When you’re a hungry child whose parents have no money, you have no choice but to pick through the trash or beg. When city officials decide to bulldoze the home that you built with your own hands to make way for upscale housing, what else can you do besides move to the shantytowns that they’ve offered as “compensation?” It takes time, money, and energy to treat yourself with any sort of respect. And, as Francey and I discovered, it sometimes takes so much effort to take care of yourself that you don’t have much left over to treat anyone or anything else with much respect.

Many people in India simply don’t have the means to act civilized. We cannot blame them for their behavior. Then again, many people in India do have the means, and then a lot. Their neighborhoods rival some of the nicest areas in the U.S. But if they have money, food, technology, etc. to spare, why do they not share it so that their fellow human beings can also live with some dignity?

For those of us who are Christians, the Gospels inform us that people who sin by allowing others to live like dogs are worse than people who sin because they no choice. Jesus taught, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble” (Luke 17:1-2). Jesus condemned the Pharisees for living in their little islands of wealth and self-righteousness while allowing others around them to suffer. He thought little of such people. The Pharisees were doomed.

The general population in India made it known a few weeks ago that they also did not think much of their own Pharisees. For six years, India was governed by a radical right-wing party whose policies favored the rich and middleclass at the great expense of the poor. “India is shining!” they exclaimed in their recent election campaign. “Look at all of the IT jobs we’ve brought into our country!” The rest of the country sniffed and elected one of the most left-wing governments in the nation’s history into power. Most people were more concerned about debt-ridden farmers committing suicide than a sprinkling of new jobs becoming available to people who were already wealthy enough to pay for the pricey educations necessary for them. I celebrated the election results because my friends that are living in poverty were so happy. They saw hope of claiming some of their dignity.

At the same time that I was reading about the stunning election results, I was also reading about the torture that Americans had been inflicting upon Iraqi prisoners. I was horrified. The U.S., which has the ability to treat practically the whole world with respect, was doing the exact opposite. Moreover, the administration seemed to be supporting such activity without much shame. This seems especially scandalous for a president who espouses Christian values. How dare we torture prisoners, especially after condemning Saddam Hussein’s regime for doing so! I was so angry.

Many of us in the U.S. are incredibly blessed. We can eat as much as we want. We drive cars. We own refrigerators and washing machines. We can attain high levels of education. I believe, though, that so much privilege brings much accountability. I believe that Jesus taught that God expects more from us. Because we can behave like good citizens, meaning treating those around us with respect, we should. We have a responsibility to others. This doesn’t necessarily mean just giving away our money or food or clothes to charities. In fact, sometimes doing that can create even more trouble. Rather, it means living in a way that’s responsible and setting policies that consider the wellbeing of everyone.

For instance, small taxi drivers in India are maybe unable to afford vehicles that cause less pollution; we, however, can afford such vehicles. Instead, Americans create the most pollution in the world. This is already creating more severe weather patterns. Poor people suffer the most from climate change. Their flimsy houses are the first to be swept away in floods. Their crops are the first to die in droughts because they have less ability to irrigate them.

My poor neighbors may be unable to buy goods made of durable materials; we can buy such goods. Instead, we use many items that are meant to be tossed away after one use, such as plastic bags. We can afford to live far from the enormous trash heaps that such waste creates; poor people cannot.

A poor country like India may not have the means to enforce adequate labor or environmental regulations; the U.S., for the most part, does. As the most powerful country in the world, the U.S. could influence policies so that poor countries could also provide such protections. Instead, it encourages countries to relax standards so that multinational companies can have a greater profit margin.

Poor countries may be unable establish reasonable prison facilities. They may be unable to properly train their prison guards. We are more than able to do so. Yet, obviously, we are not always doing so.

Most Americans really are decent people. American Christians do their best to be good followers of Christ. But our churches tend to focus simply on personal morality- if you’re a good Christian, they teach, you’ll drink in moderation or not at all, you’ll wear modest clothing, you’ll avoid R-Rated movies, you’ll donate your money to charity. These are all fine virtues to encourage, but I wonder if such an emphasis misses the point. I think that it is also important to consider how we act as a society as a whole. As a society, we often behave in a way that is very detrimental to those who are unable to share in our bounty. In a sense, our country is the rest of the world’s Pharisees.

And the rest of the world, I think, sees us as such. This is scary to me. After all, Jesus often preached, “Woe to the Pharisees!” Does that mean that if we toss away our plastic water bottles that we’re going straight to hell? There’s really no way of knowing, but most of us believe in a more forgiving God than that. Our woe may actually be more imminent. The rest of the world is rapidly losing patience with us. In January, 100,000 people attended the annual World Social Forum in Mumbai to protest against and to suggest alternatives to the behaviors of rich countries. This was a mostly peaceful way of expressing dissent. As September 11 showed, other people are not so polite. Yes, terrorists are fanatical, irrational people. But fanaticism is not created in a vacuum; it requires a large number of hopeless, desperate, and angry people to thrive. Our military’s recent dealings in Iraq demonstrate well that we can be very good at making people hopeless, desperate, and angry.

Nobody actually likes to live like a dog. People can only tolerate having to live like animals for so long before they snap. Maybe they’ll elect a different political party into power. Maybe they’ll organize a protest. Maybe they’ll believe lies about ethnic differences and blame the “other” for their problems. Maybe they’ll turn their despair inwards and take their own lives. Or maybe they’ll direct it outwards and try to take ours.

I suspect that when Jesus called on the world to repent or face doom, to change our ways or face the consequences, he was not just talking about the next life; he was talking about this one.

If you’ve reached this far, thank you for sticking with me. I know that most people reading this really do care a lot about the state of the world’s affairs. This is meant mostly to share what I have been thinking as I try to process this very different world.

Love and Peace,
Jill