Goodbye India

It is midnight and we are leaving for the airport in two hours. I can hardly believe our time here has come to an end. Each day has been so rich and it feels like I have been here much longer than eight days. Many details I have not been at liberty to write about, nor have I written about my most personal experiences But I hope I have been able to convey some of the beauty of India and of the Dalit people, and speak on their behalf in some way.

Today has been a long day with many emotions.

We spent the morning  back at the Women's Centre. As a team we took turns playing and singing songs with the women and children, and praying for them. I decided to opt out of the medical clinic today (it's not as if Matt couldn't manage without me!) as I previously felt I had missed out a bit by not having so much time with the women apart from the clinic. It was special today to spend time listening to some of their stories on a one to one, and praying for them as they expressed concerns about difficult issues, health and marriages. People here, even many from other religious backgrounds, are so willing to reach out to God and allow you to pray for them. I have loved having the freedom to do that, and being able to speak words of encouragement into their lives. So many do not know that God loves them and that they were made into his image, with a hope and a future. I know I keep repeating myself,  but those are the words I keep wanting to speak to and pray for them. 

It was an emotional goodbye at the centre. The staff there are incredible people.

Our debrief with our hosts this afternoon was helpful and just a lovely time with them. I have been so challenged by the people we have partnered with here. They all, without exception, live lives completely dedicated to serving the poor. They do it with joy, with humility, with intelligence and skill. I hope I will never forget their example and that I will be able to apply  just a fraction of their heart attitude in my own life.

It will take me some time to reflect on all my experiences here, in days and weeks to come. I am so grateful for this opportunity to fulfil a dream. The trip has by far exceeded my expectations. I go home richer, having received so much more than I gave - just as I knew it would be. And even though I do not know what shape it will take, I know for sure that this is not the end of this adventure- it's a beginning.

x

The school

So we are back in the city after our three day trip to the school 8 hours from here. I had heard about Indian driving and Indian roads, but nothing could have prepared me for the experience!! Along the way we saw two overturned buses, a motorbike caught underneath another bus, and had a few 'close calls'. Nonetheless the road trip was a lot of fun and it was so nice to get out of the city and see some of rural India.

I struggle how to begin to describe the visit to the school. In a way it was like the climax of this trip for me. It is one of many Dalit schools that are being/have been built in the last 10 years. After hearing so much about this project it was very special to actually visit one of the schools. I was hugely impressed by it in every way. The management and teachers are a very fine group of men and women from different backgrounds. The children are from varying backgrounds too - some from the families of Sri Lankan rubber plantation workers, some Muslem children and others from the surrounding area. There are 400+ children in the school in total. None of these children would ordinarily have access to education and their parents are illiterate.

I was struck by the contrast between the kids I have seen in the slums and the kids in this school. The kids in the slum are often malnourished and with a vacant look on their face. This is due to lack of stimulation, poor nutrition and many traumatic experiences, I am sure. They are very vulnerable. The kids in the school have such a spark in them and are extremely polite, keen to learn, and full of vision and ambition for their future. One wants to be a scientist, another a pastor, another a teacher. I LOVED seeing this in them! Receiving an education is a such a life transforming thing, which brings dignity, confidence and a future. Something which we in the West take completely for granted.

The teachers on our team had brought a lot of materials and taught the children in lots of creative ways. They were definitely the biggest hit with the kids! The Indian teachers were able to learn new teaching skills from them also. Some of the team painted beautiful murals in the classrooms and outside. Matt and I were extremely busy carrying out health screening on the children, teachers and some others who were brought along. It was fun.

The staff at the school looked after us incredibly well with constant drinks and fantastic food. Oh how I am going to miss having curries twice a day!!

The school is set more or less in a clearing in the forest, with palm trees and rubber trees all around. The climate is tropical. 30-35 degrees and extreme humidity. Like being in a steamroom all the time - I have never sweated so much!! It is a very lush and beautiful mountainous area with some exotic birds, monkeys and HUGE bugs.

We were talking to one of our Indian friends about the Hindu idea of reincarnation, and someone asked him what is the worst thing you can be reincarnated as. The answer was not a worm or an insect, it was:  
                       A Dalit.
Dalits are not considered human beings.

For us that is simply an incomprehensible way of thinking, but it is very much part of Indian society.

That's why I love the transformational work that is going on here, among the children and the women in particular.  It is about restoring dignity and justice for these beautiful people who were made in God's image.

It is possible to sponsor a Dalit child by registering here.

Another day in the slum

It was great to be back in the slum today! It was uncertain whether we were going to be able to go, as the rains had been torrential overnight and the waste from all the open sewers was running down the streets with the water, making it unsafe and unhygienic. Some of the slum dwellings are made out of advertising posters and get washed away in the rains.  Anyway, we waited a little and by mid morning the place had dried up a bit so that we were able to go. We approached the clinic through a different part of the slum today and were able to see a lot more of the area as we walked through. Most people are off on Saturdays, so there were a lot of men and mopeds around as well as the women and children we saw last time. I didn't notice the smell the other day, but today it was strong in places, more and more so as the sun dried everything up and the air became stagnant. Sanitation is non-existent.

We had an amazing day at the clinic. Many types of problems came through our door. It is great to work with Matt, he is the most compassionate and probably skilled doctor I have ever met. Today we asked some of our patients if we could pray with them, which they were happy for us to do and so we had some really special times. It felt like we were able to care for the whole person, not only their physical problem. You just feel like you want to encourage, bless and impact as much as you can in the little time you have with each person.

Tomorrow morning we are taking part in the Easter Sunday service in church - I will be playing the guitar which should be fun. Then begins the 8 hour bus journey out West to one of the Dalit schools. Can't wait!!  We will set up a clinic there for a couple of days, and the teachers are doing some stuff with the kids and teachers. So for the next 3 days I will most likely be offline.

I spotted this poster on a wall:

Free driving licence:

School certificate

Ration Card or ID proof

Cast certificate

8 photos                                                                      It doesn't mention a driving test?!?

Anyone fancy some  fresh   meat from the beef stall?

Good Friday

The temperature has dropped by 11 degrees, from 32 degrees yesterday, after the monsoon rains which seem to have come a month or two early. The city is flooded tonight!

As today is Good Friday we had the day 'off''. It was nice to get a bit of a breather - I think the tiredness from the travelling and the busy first days has hit us all today.

We went to the church on the OM campus this morning for their Good Friday Service. It lasted 3 1/2 hours, with a 10 minute tea break out under the trees in the middle, and then lunch for all afterwards. All the kids present sat perfectly still the whole time!! Among the children there were 24 orphans from North India who have all been adopted by one of the families here. Beautiful kids.

The service this morning was probably the most meaningful Easter service ever for me, for several reasons,  and I felt privileged to be there. The OM team all attend this church too and so it was nice for me to connect with my OM roots. All my years on OM I would hear OM India leaders speak about the work here, never imagining that I would come here myself one day.

We also visited the new Vineyard church plant in the city this evening and were invited to the American pastor and his wife afterwards, along with some of their Indian friends . That was a good time, with good food and many laughs and some tears as we and they shared our stories.

I am so enjoying the food!! Every meal, no matter how simple, is amazing. Not to mention the numerous cups of tea which are offered everywhere you go... a sweet, milky life-giving liquid which is served in small cups and revives you even on the hottest of days.

It's been good today to reflect on the significance of Good Friday. To realise that Christ took all suffering on himself in his death. It can be overwhelming to think of the suffering of even one individual as you hear stories of abuse and exploitation. But the reality is that Christ is present in the midst of that. In fact I do believe that these places of poverty and suffering is where he is more present than anywhere else.  And so there is hope.

Beauty from ashes

This morning our two little medical teams went to hold clinics in one of the city's slums. 40,000 people living side by side in one sq.km, all Dalit. I don't know what I had expected, probably something out of Slumdog Millionaire with no proper walkways or anything. This slum has semi paved roads and most of the homes appear to be made out of concrete, although they consist of only one room for often a large family. When we arrived it seemed as if the slum was just waking up, with people having their breakfast and women brushing their teeth and doing their hair. Everything seems to be happening outside, in the street, as if that is just another room in their home.  Today was water day (it is delivered a few days a week by lorry) so many women and young girls were busy carrying water to their homes as well as doing their laundry. The lady in the house across from the clinic spent the whole 4 1/2 hours we were there washing her clothes in front of her house, slapping them against the ground in typical Indian fashion.

We had the privilege of working out of the Good Shepherd Clinic, which is the only free clinic in the slum and is normally open 3 days a week. It is staffed by an Indian lady doctor who has worked there as a volunteer for something like 10 years, and two nurses. A very organised and impressive little set up, working faithfully and skilfully within its constraints. With our doctor/nurse teams there were 3 clinics on the go today. People also came to us from another nearby slum and we were kept extremely busy until we simply had to turn people away and leave, at 4pm. The health problems here are on a different scale to what we would see at home, for example the 40 year old man with tuberculosis who looked like 70. He weighed 35kg. His wife died 5 years ago and two of his five children had also died. He was clearly dying too.  I coped better than I thought emotionally with being in the slum, but hearing some of the individual stories broke my heart. Most of the problems these people suffer are directly related to their extreme poverty - living conditions, hard labour and  inability to afford the simplest medical care. In the West most of their health problems could be dealt with quickly and easily.  And again it struck me even more than yesterday how the women suffer physically from their hard manual work.  They age long before their time    - - In spite of the difficult aspects I loved working in the slum and can't wait to go back on Saturday!

I asked our interpreter how much the average family would live on per day. He said the average daily wage for a labourer is 50-60 rupees - that is just under £1. Sometimes both father and mother go out to work, which will bring the income up a little. People can buy staples cheaply as there are monthly ration deliveries from the government. In saying that, this is clearly not adequate and there is a lot of evidence of malnutrition in both children and adults. I think for me this is particularly hard to come to terms with here in India, because there IS so much wealth here and the nation has one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

If the morning was an experience of poverty and 'ashes', the evening was an unforgettabele display of God's power to transform, and of beauty:

We attended the first anniversary of the women's centre, which also included the graduation of 103 students. These women, from humble, poor and traumatic backgrounds, had completed courses in spoken English, tailoring and computing. The staff had gone to great lengths and made it into an incredibly elaborate occasion with hundreds of guests, dancing, multiple guest speakers and a meal afterwards.  The pride and pleasure on the women's faces was such a joy to see and moved me to tears, as did some of the speeches by prominent human rights campaigners who were there to support the work of the centre. These women have now been empowered to go and make a living to support themselves and their families, with a much lower risk of falling into the hands of traffickers. And so there is also hope for their children's future, and for the generation of dalits after them...

I will finish with the  first and last words of the pledge made by the graduates tonight, as they each held a burning candle:

"We make a pledge to keep the flame of hope alive, not only in our own lives but in the lives of others...
It is better to light a candle that to curse the darkness. We will light up the world around us one flame at a time."

India Day 1

What a day it's been.... I feel as if I have experienced so much, it's like I've been here a week already.

First impressions:

- A country of great contrasts. BMW's and slum dwellings side by side.
-  Utter chaos. But somehow it works!
- Beautiful beautiful people.
- Crazy traffic with few rules. Somehow it works too!
- An industrious and hard working nation. On our way from the airport at 5.30 this morning shops were already open and people were walking to work all over the place.

After a short nap this morning we had a time of orientation with the leaders here. They made us feel extremely welcome and have been very organised in planning our programme. I love the way it's possible to travel half way across the world and then instantly connect with people as if they are family.

Later in the morning we headed to the women's centre, which is where a lot of our activities will be focused. This centre has been open a year this week. It is a centre for women, mostly Dalits but also some from Muslem background, who have been abused or are vulnerable to trafficking. Some are staying there with their children as in a safehouse. At the centre they learn skills such as English, sewing and computers. They had organised a little welcome ceremony for us all. Part of our team spent the rest of the day teaching various things to the women and doing some interactive stuff with them and the children.  I spent the day with M, a GP from England, basically doing  a GP clinic which had a steady stream of women until we had to leave.

I am struck by the beauty of these women. They could be anybody's bride or on any catwalk in the world. Dignified and elegant and with such inner beauty. It was emotional for me actually sitting there among them at last. I can't wait to get to know them and hear some of their stories. It makes me angry beyond words that the system here made them grow up believing that they are worthless.

It seems to me that most of the physical ailments presented today simply stem from the very hard and difficult life that these women lead. Back pain, arthritis etc which should not be seen in 20- 30-year old girls.

We also made some time for shopping tonight in this crazy city... The shops stay open until 10pm and even at 8pm there was no let up in the traffic - it seemed like all 7 million of the city's population were figthing for space in the streets - mopeds, bikes, rickshaws, cows, bicycles, cars... Noise and more noise! It's been a great day and I am feeling quite at home.

Today's highlight: Meeting the dalit women at last and spending time in their midst.

First post

I am leaving for India tomorrow morning, and decided that writing a blog would be the easiest way to share my experience with friends and family.

As many of you know, this 9 day trip will be the culmination of much praying and dreaming. I have never been in India before and look forward to discovering a completely new country and culture. Chris, who has been in India several times, tells me I will either love it or hate it - we will see! However, it is not only the pursuit of adventure that brings me on this journey.

Over the past two years I have become aware of the situation of the dalits (the 'untouchables') in India. They make up almost 1/4 of India's population. A diverse group of people who have this in common: They have been oppressed for thousands of years (as long as the caste system has been in existence). Traditionally they are not allowed access to public buildings, schools, hospitals... they are the poorest of the poor, vulnerable and exploited.  There is some great work going on among these people which involves education, health care and women's programmes. Somehow this has caught my heart, and I look forward to this opportunity to spend time among dalit women and children, using my nursing skills in medical clinics, hearing their stories.

My expectation is that I will learn and receive much more on this journey than I will be able to teach or give.

All bags are packed for the 5:15am start tomorrow morning!

To find out more about the dalits, follow this link: http://www.dfn.org.uk/