It was pretty surreal to go back, with Sabrina and Helen, just like last time. India is a different world, a dream, another life, and yet it is startling how quickly we can adapt from one way of life to another. And even more so how much we forget.
We decided to fly to Mumbai and take the train down the coast to be tourists for a bit before we arrived back in Chennai. This involved three train journeys coming to a total of 44 hours, but it was fun. We stopped at Kudal (just north of Goa) to spend a day on a beautiful, deserted beach. I remember standing on the beach in the dark that evening and contemplating that we were somewhere on the Konkan coast in the middle of nowhere, a dot on the map, nothing more. The world is big! Our second stop was Alleppey in Kerala, specially to see the 'Nehru Trophy Snake Boat Race'. The boat race was... an experience! We ended up surrounded by local men, sat with our legs dangling down towards the water and a rowdy crowd pushing in behind us. We were stuck there for about 5 hours and, as Helen put it, feared for our lives!
Okay, so the main point of the visit was to go back to Chennai to see friends and work for Oasis for three weeks. Which was by far what we were the most excited about! Arriving in Chennai felt strangely like returning to an old childhood haunt, familiar in a completely foreign way. We stayed with Anju, a friend from church, while we were there. That was such a blessing: coming back to a beautiful house each evening, hanging out with Anju, being provided with delicious Indian food every day!
Swine flu was just beginning to hit India when we arrived, so obviously we were regarded as highly suspicious, coming from a country where it had already made it big. A funny thing happened in the wonderful Fruit Shop. We arrived and managed to get a table in the very crowded juice bar, ordered our drinks and started discussing swine flu. I got a bit excited and pointed out *quite* loudly that it was possible I had already had the dreaded swine flu. The place went silent. People turned around to look at us. By the time we had our drinks, the place was empty save for one other person. And it gets better! The next visit we paid to the said Fruit Shop, all of the staff were wearing face masks. Oh dear.
It was wonderful to see the Oasis staff again! And to see how the projects have progressed, particularly the work in the Vyasarpadi community that they had just started working in when we left last time. While we were there, we were running an after school club in an underprivileged government secondary school in Vyasarpadi for an hour every day. If I can describe the school for you, it is basic and bare, nothing on the walls or the floors, just desks and benches. The playground is completely flooded with green looking sewage water and people use it as a place to dump their rubbish. About 80 kids attend there, and we noticed that quite a large proportion of them had special needs and requirements but were probably not getting the attention and support they needed for them. The school had asked Oasis to come in to help improve the situation, and the after school club we did was one of the initial stages of that. Because it is a government school, we couldn't talk about Jesus, but the kids still knew we were Christians. We mostly did games and some craft activities with an educational theme, like the value of teamwork and being fit and healthy. It was quite crazy for the first few sessions (40 excitable kids in a small classroom!) but the kids were fantastic and we had a faithful translator there which really helped us out.
Similar to last time, we were also running several fun clubs in conjunction with the tuition classes for children after school. One of these was in the same community that we had lived near and worked in last time, and quite a few of the kids attending were also the same. They were very excited to see us, although a bit miffed about where we had been all this time!
The other fun club was in Vyasarpadi, in a little tin hut on the roof of one of the Oasis staff members' house. The 25 or so kids who attended here were some of the most well behaved children I have encountered in India! They are all from Hindu families and yet have started asking to be given Bibles to read and are eager to hear about Jesus. We spent some time talking with John (it is his roof the fun club is held on) and were challenged and inspired by what he and his wife are doing. Their whole attitude to life is one of radical submission to God and a desire to make Jesus known. They love the people they live and work with in a way that is visible to anyone. It really reminded me that this is the point of it all: Jesus. Life is not about comforts, achievements, family. It can only be about Him. It is so worthwhile. What higher honour is there than to tell people the gospel?
India forces you to look poverty in the face and it is difficult not to be challenged on your attitude to the poor and the way you use your wealth. In Mumbai, a waiter in a restaurant we ate in made us feel very awkward by telling us that he could never come to England because it is a rich country and he is poor. Which is true. I am rich and the reality is that a lot of the world is poor. As a Christian, I am also very aware of the clarity of the teaching in the Bible about money and wealth and our attitude to the poor. I think it is something that everyone needs to think through for themselves, but I am convinced that I do have a responsibility as a privileged westerner to provide for my brothers and sisters on the other side of the world. Can I live in luxury whilst so many have so little? Our culture is one of so much excess and unnecessary striving after stuff. I actually need very little. I don't want to just get rid of my stuff and live simply to make myself feel better, but to use the wealth I have been given to provide for those who do not have what I do. My wealth is not mine, so why treat it with such possessiveness? If I was spending another man's money, I would do so with both wisdom, so I could give a good account to him, but also generosity, because it has been given to me and is not mine. I want to stop viewing giving as a good thing I can do if I want and rather as justice being worked out. What is unfair is that I have more in the first place. I could write so much about this, but if you are interested please check out Ronald Sider's book, "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger." Very thought provoking.
It really was such a privilege to be there and to do the work we did and meet the people we met. There is something very attractive about the poor, especially the children. They are enthusiastic about anything you do. They are grateful- we brought in fruit one day for them as part of the healthy eating theme, and they were so thankful afterwards. I don't want to be naive about poverty and make is sound romantic, because it is not, yet I can't get away from the feeling that these people who have so little seem to have something the rich do not have. Maybe the poor are the rich ones among us after all. I do think that the poor are so much more open to the gospel- they have no illusions of being self-sufficient and adequate on their own. They don't need to be brought to that place of helplessness before they can acknowledge their need because they are already there. They are ready for grace. I am generalizing a lot here, but it was just an observation that struck me while I was there. I loved being with these people. I want to say that I love the poor, but do my actions say that, too? I hope they will. Faith without deeds is dead.
India was celebrating her independence on the 15th August while we were there. Our options were: 1) Stay inside and hide. 2) Change our nationality for the day. Swiss, perhaps? 3) Risk it. Celebrate with the Indians that we finally got rid of them! We went for option 3 and had a great day at the government school for their celebrations and then out and about in Chennai. It did feel a bit strange, though!
The other big festival while we were there was the Hindu celebration of their god Ganesh. They set up these big clay idols of Ganesh all over the neighbourhood, play it music, offer food to it, that kind of thing. This goes on for 10 days and them they cart off the gods and dump them in the sea. Bizarre.
A highlight was seeing one of the girls in the tailoring group we taught last time, Indira. We met up with her and went to see the hostel she lives in now. It is difficult because although we feel like we know her so well and have so much to ask her, language is a big problem! Helen and I had a laugh thinking about what it will be like when there is the new heaven and new earth. Presumably language will no longer be a barrier and we will be able to communicate freely. And we will see these friends and be able to talk to them properly for the first time. "Remember that time when we could barely talk to each other...?!" That will be immense! I can't wait.
The last thing we were doing regularly was teaching English to the teenage boys on the Oasis football team. We didn't quite know how this would go, having always taught girls in the past, but they were a fantastic group. We had such a lot of fun with them, and actually some of the best English practice for them was just talking with us. We tried to teach them some useful phrases for future employment and got in some computer skills while we were writing CVs with them. I think all of us forgot the very different backgrounds we were from and just enjoyed hanging out together while we were there. It seemed like we had known them for much longer than 3 weeks when we left.
Saying goodbye was less painful that last time, probably because now that I have been back once I feel doomed to come back again! Everyone seemed to assume that we would be returning, and although I don't know when, I am sure they are right. I'm too far gone not to go back. It is such a privilege to go. The kids, as you say goodbye, shake your hand and say, "Next time, India?", and "Don't forget me!", and other equally heart-wrenching things. How can I just go home and forget? Once again, in the words of Brooke Fraser / The Bible, "Now that I have seen, I am responsible. Faith without deeds is dead."
Coming back home is like stepping back in to a different world. It really is such a contrast, you cannot imagine unless you have seen it. Coming back after 6 months last time meant that all of the other thoughts and emotions were masked by the ecstasy at being home again, whereas this time I feel like there is a lot more to think through and consider. I am so aware of how quickly my time passes. We all have a tendency to immerse ourselves in our individual lives and become blind to the bigger picture. I want to be living for a future that is greater and more glorious than anything I can imagine. I want my wealth and my treasure to last. And I am so thankful that there are people living like that who remind me that is what I am aiming for.
"What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away." 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
