So How Was Your Trip?

After getting through customs in Detroit, most of us gathered at the McDonalds in the airport. McDonalds -- a place where cows are not sacred, they are ground and cooked and served between buns with a side order of Fries.

It's good to be home!

Even though my body is still trying to operate on India time, I was in the office today and I was asked several times, "So, how was your trip?"

I don't quite know how to answer that question.

Give me two or three hours, I might be able to give a bit of an answer -- but to answer in a casual conversation and to give a 2 or 3 sentence response is too difficult.

I have so many impressions about India.

I am inspired by the people I met, each of whom are committed to their tasks. They are facing overwhelming odds, but they press on toward their goal.

I am impressed by how all of India is so deeply spiritual. They worship 250 million gods, and yet, one Hindu tried to explain that there is, in the end, only one diety. I found Hinduism difficult to understand, and I would like to learn more.

I am saddened by the racism in India, which is protected by the institutionalized caste system. I met a faithful woman who helped create the literacy program of the organization. She holds a PhD in education and she is responsible for teaching over 3 million Indians to read. Yet, she is an untouchable in the caste system.

I am concerned for the religious persecution that takes place in India. India has a deep spirituality, but there seems to be deep difficulty between Christians, Hindus and Muslems.

I am moved by the generosity of the people I met in India.

I am enthusiastic about the work of this organization. They do three things -- and only three things. And they do them so well! The Literacy Programs are teaching people to read, the Children's Clubs are nurturing families as well as the children with whom they work. The Leadership Planting is creating great communities.

So -- how was the trip? Incredible!

The room was packed to capacity with some 40 or so people crowded in a space of 10 feet by 30 feet. Sitting on the floor, the congregation became like carpet, completely covering the floor. The building was nothing more than a concrete box with a metal sheeting hung in the doorway by a couple of fragile hinges.

Again, we were greeted as honored guests with gifts of flowers children hung around our necks.

We sang, listened to readings, and I delivered the message, with an interpreter.

Steve followed me with well chosen words of greeting and a sharing of a favorite verse.

There was an collection. Every single adult and most, if not all of the children, contributed coin or two.

I asked after the service what the offering was used for -- paying the community's leader, buying books, helping the poor with medicines, and feeding the hungry.

Helping with the poor?

I looked around and thought - isn't this the poor?

This building was a concrete box in the middle of the deepest poverty I have ever seen -- those who were in the group I went to Haiti with in September may appreciate the severity of that statement. Haiti is middle class by comparison. These people lived in homes that were made of rags -- not sheets -- pieces of oily and dirty and rotting rags. The clothing they wore was all they had. A couple of the children wore only ill-fitting T-shirts. Their meal tonight will be curry. Not rice and curry. Just curry.

These people have almost nothing, and yet they give to others who have less.

These people who need so much, are giving joyfully and eagerly -- some actually reaching out and straining to put something in the offering.

If we all had the spiritual discipline of generosity as this woman does, would there be any poverty, homelessness, or hunger in the world?

"Tell us about the men who were barely wearing any clothing and about the stiff ropes they had around their bodies," Steve asked one of the guides after we were back on the bus.

"They dress that way because they climb trees, and they use the stiff ropes to help them climb. The trees have fruit at the top. It is not a coconut, but the fruit has a white liquid and people drink it as a liquor."

"How long does it take to ferment?"

"Oh it's alcoholic and intoxicating right off the tree."

I never heard of this one -- but I'm glad no one has imported any of these trees to college campuses back home!

Steve from Snellville shares some good news with the kids of a Children's Club.

I motioned with my camera trying to ask this man for permission to take his photograph. He seemed to understand as he struck a pose for me. Then he asked me for my autograph and, according to my translator, began to tell me about why I should be a Hindu.

One of the older students in a literacy program in the village we visited today.

Friday's Encounters

STORIES

One of the others in our group told me of a woman he met in a Literacy Program. She has no idea how old she is, and without a reference of time she has no idea how long she had worked in a factory. It was a long time, however, and day after day she would put something metal inside another piece of metal. She had no idea what she was making, she simply did her job.

When she joined the Literacy Program, she was able to find out what she was doing to make a living.

She was making bullets.

In her world, bullets are not for police or armies, but gangs and criminals. And now she is struggling about the ethics of what she does for a living.


VISITING AN ISOLATED VILLAGE

Today we went to a remote and tiny village where a Club for Children met. There were over 50 kids -- but where they came from to gather at this building in the middle of nowhere is beyond me.

I asked one of the parents why he sent his child to this club.

"The children learn to be more obedient. They become cleaner. They dress better and take care of themselves. They do their homework for school."


VISITING AN ADULT LITERACY CLASS

Our last stop of the day was at the village of Yabbadabbadoo -- or something I simply could not pronounce. Someone in our group pronounced it, "beautiful downtown Burbank."

The odd thing about this class was the age of the women students. They ranged from young teenagers to elderly grandmothers.

They had several questions for us. First of all, their well water is often contaminated. Can we put in a better water system. Second, the women can work only part of the year in the farming of the area land. Could we get them a sewing center so they could start a business producing children's clothing. Finally, one woman wanted us to buy her a tribal dress.

Our interpreter explained that this was outside the three areas of work of this particular organization, but the leader of the village program promised he would try to get someone from the regional government to come visit and look at the well.

This, however, illustrates yet another reason why Americans should not give money to beggars -- as we were talking about in a previous entry. It creates the impression that Americans are here to give and not to help a person to develop.

The Community Building in the Village

Maynard In A Village

Lives Are Being Changed

On my first trip to India, it is exciting to see how wonderfully lives are being changed in dynamic ways here.

The organization we are working with focuses on three main ministries, and each is so dynamic and full of wonderful human stories. One focus is on literacy programs.


THE ORGANIZATION'S LITERACY PROGRAMS

We heard the testimony of a 12 year old girl, who talked about her marriage to her husband and having to work collecting garbage -- meaning she sorts through the trash in search of things that could be resold. She had never been to school until she began attending classes at a Literacy School operated by the organization. She can now read and write.

Illiteracy is common in India, and right now this organization is teaching 65,000 adults how to read, write and do simple math.

A person who knows these simple tasks can...
...read a newspaper,
...understand a loan agreement without being victimized,
...read instructions on a medicine bottle,
...computer hourly wages on a paycheck so as to avoid being underpaid,
...make purchases at stores without being taken advantage of,
...sign one's name to an election ballot to prevent voting fraud,
...and open doors to improving life.

We went into a village, a colony of a certain tribe on the outskirts of the city of Hyderabad. It is hard to call it a village -- a slum might be more accurage. Thatch huts and one-room cinder block houses made up the collection of homes. There among these simple houses a group of 30 women were meeting in a literacy school.

One of the women stood up and read to us.

Another proudly wrote her name on a small chalk tablet.

A group of women danced for us as a way of expressing their joy.


THE ORGANIZATION'S CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

Another program is the Children's Clubs, which they are now calling Child Development Program.

In the village we visited, we were able to see such a club. Packed into a tiny thatch hut, which I later learned was the church building, were 31 children. They sang for us and we sang to them, and I was asked to speak to them.

What an amazing group they were.

One of the parents of the children later told me, through an interpretor, "I'm so happy my child goes to this club."

PLANTING LEADERSHIP TRAINING

Before going into the village, we had spent the morning and early afternoon at the tiny office building that makes up the headquarters here for the work of the organization.

What we heard about this program was amazing -- and I'm looking forward to actually seeing some of this work.

HUMBLING GIFTS

While we were at the headquarters this morning and early afternoon, we were stunned at the gracious and eagerly given presents the Indian people gave to us. Everyone in our group received fresh cut flowers, a journal book inscribed with "Travel Journal," and a lunch which we enjoyed up on the roof top of the office building. We who have done so little were given these gifts by those who have done the real work!
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