Fifty-Somethings: Living and Dying in India

DEATH BY JUMPING

I find it is difficult to go on a trip to the market, or take a walk through the neighborhood, without jumping over big potholes, looming mud puddles (it’s Monsoon season right now), and leaping over big cement curbs or other such barriers on the path. All this jumping is keeping us in shape, along with the five flights of stairs we must climb to get to our flat.

You often read stories in the Delhi newspaper about how people have thrown someone from a balcony in rage. Some have jumped to their death from several stories up, usually out of despair from not passing their exams or somehow dishonoring their family. Shame is likely the number one cause of depression and suicide here in India. Shaming one’s family, it is thought, is a fate worse than death.

There is another kind of jumping that Chuck and I have been learning to do here. It actually feels to us a bit like bungy jumping might (but we’ve never bungy jumped - so can’t really say). I think the common terminology is “taking risks” or making a “leap of faith.” This kind of jumping has never been our strong suit as we have usually tried to calculate the outcome, weigh the odds, and analyze the pros and cons before making a decision. Living here has forced us to make some risky jumps that have been uncomfortable – even really stressful – but the outcome has been so worth it.

One small example of this is opening our home to people as a safe place to stay in Delhi. Many of these people are virtual strangers at the beginning of their stay, but leave as good friends.

Unforced Rhythms of Grace...a continuation

June was full of travel, teaching responsibilities and reflection - all departures from our routine.

July started off with a lot of unexpected, and some expected, company - which seriously altered daily routines (if one could say there was any daily routine after being away for most of the previous month!).

It has settled down a bit in the latter part of July:

• Janis resumed her art lessons with the young dyslexic teen (by the way - Disney recently purchased the rights to Taare Zameen Per, the Bollywood movie that inspired the parents of this girl to approach Janis to begin art lessons. So it may be released soon in the US. See it if you can!).
• Chuck began a 10 hour, two-part series for interns of Touch India Foundation and Kingdom International on tools for reading the Bible.
• We've also been deliberating on the results of last month's reflections in preparation for next month's de-brief on our first year in India and planning for the next year.

As we reflected on the past year, we realized one of our greatest challenges, while living and working across cultures, has been "learning the unforced rhythms of grace." For us, it often seems easier and more natural to try to force an issue to "make things happen." We've been learning how counter-productive that has proved to be for us in this setting.

We yearn to recognize and live more and more in the unforced rhythms of...

• simply walking along a street navigating the holes, rocks, bricks and various other construction materials, garbage, animal dung, people, dogs, and occasionally monkeys, street vendors, bodies (hopefully sleeping, but there are times you really don't know), bicycles, scooters, motorbikes, buses, trucks, tractors, cars, and everything else that shares the road;
• crossing a street and timing one's crossing to fit the flow of all those varying users of it;
• time - learning when an appointment is meant to be exactly at an agreed upon time, and when it is meant to begin when it begins;
• commitments - learning when someone is being polite, but has absolutely no intention of keeping a commitment, and when someone has made a commitment that cannot be shaken regardless of circumstances, events or any other forces at work;
• weather and it's impact on so many areas of life, especially in an area of rapid and extreme variations - monsoons, blistering heat both dry and highly humid, bitter cold, wind, duststorms, etc. - all have impact on what takes place in life, and what doesn't take place, and all have a significant impact on health;
• electricity, water and other utility shortages or outages - we're learning: keep the laptop and mobile phones charged, if we wait until they're low, there might not be any electricity to re-charge them; we've become adept at a 2-cup (or less) shower; high-speed internet works somewhat reliably in the early morning, after that, good luck!

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Fifty–Somethings Living and Dying in India:
PART II...Death by Electrocution

One of the many dangers of living in India is the lack of grounding for electricity and the way appliances are wired. [And, by the way, if by chance you decide to ground an appliance - and are able to make a successful ground connection - you may end up being the grounding connection for an entire neighborhood!] I have been shocked by our electrical appliances more times now than I can count!

The first was the most powerful and came from sticking my right arm into our washing machine to adjust the clothes - which were off balance during the spin cycle. Now you need to know, the machine was turned off (I’m not that dumb at least) but I was barefoot so the shock went all the way up my arm and it remained numb for several hours. I seriously thought I might not ever be able to paint again (a sad thought indeed). Now I know to wear rubber-soled flip flops when I do laundry and stick a plastic pole into the machine before I put my arm in. This has at least reduced the severity of the shocks!

Another culprit of multiple shocks is our electric water cooler. There is something about mixing water and electricity that certainly makes for a hair-raising experience. It is especially exciting when you add the fact that this appliance is used continually all day long and sits next to the sink, which happens to be the only place with the right sized plug. You hear about and read in the paper, horrible stories of many women dying in the kitchen, and now I have a better understanding of how and why!

There are many other kinds of shocks one can suffer from here in India, especially outside of the kitchen and the home in general. These shocks often don’t relate to touch at all but can hit hard when you first arrive – shocking sights like the tattered and very young begging street children, the huge automatic machine guns carried by the policemen, the far too many people lumped under their blankets sleeping along the cold, hard sidewalks, the orange hair and evil-looking black eye make-up on your Hindu auto-rickshaw driver, or the auto-rickshaw ride itself in Delhi traffic!

Not all shocks have ill-effects. It could be the shocking tastes of your first sherbet drink (tastes like perfume), or your first bite of sweet paan (a flavor packed party for your tastebuds), or your first over-the-top sweet piece of burfy (a type of candy)!

It could be the shocking smells of rotting garbage left in huge piles along the road, or the open sewers and roadside urinals, or the cow dung caked on the bottom of your fancy new sandals!

It could be the shocking sounds of the low-flying jets every 7 seconds overhead, or the ear-piercing horn of the huge Blue-line bus headed straight at you, or the soft high-pitched whine of the young mother begging for milk for her unconscious-looking baby.

I am finding that after living here for a year, many of the things that first shocked me about this culture are now seeming commonplace. The danger in this is to become callous to the shocking things that are difficult to understand, overwhelming in immensity, or too painful to bear the thought of. It’s easy to feel that I am just one person and so how can I make a difference in these situations anyway?

Again I am learning to die – to die to my selfish need to protect myself from experiencing shock and pain. I need to feel the same shock and pain that Jesus feels when He sees children being malnourished, neglected, and suffering from abuse. The same shock and pain He feels when He sees injustice and corruption in the police force and in political leaders. The same shock and pain He feels for the oppression of the marginalized in society.

Sure, I am only one person, but I serve a creative, infinite, all-knowing and seeing God who will gladly show me ways to “make a difference” if I will just lay down my will and take up His.

Mussoorie - Scenery

Mussoorie was once a hill station for the British. They would get away from the hot summers in Delhi by traveling to the foot hills of the Himalayas. It's an amazing place as people have lived on the side of this hill for generations.

Mussoorie - People Met

We met so many in such a short time - there are many schools in Mussoorie, some drawing internationals for such things as language study (Landour), others drawing nationals and internationals for K-12 education (Woodstock), and many other local schools for basic education as well as specialized training.

Here are some of the children we met:

While walking between the Ivy Bank and the Bazaar, we kept running into these young boys, sometimes two, sometimes three, this time all four at the same time, who would always ask for, "Photo Please!"


This young boy and his teddy bear were on the upper hillside near the Sisters' Bazaar. He wasn't too sure about letting Janis take his photo, but since a national was with us and explained, he cooperated.

This is one of the many young children who don't get the opportunity to go to school, but must work to help the family. He is part of India's marvelous informal plan of unofficial recycling.












As you can tell, this young man had no qualms about having his picture taken. He is on the street of Landour Bazzar.

This is the daughter of a couple who lived next to the Guest House. It rained many of the days we were in Mussoorie. She was prepared this day.

Mussoorie - June 13-27

Following INVEST we traveled up the hillside to Mussoorie where we stayed at the Ivy Bank guest house. There were so many experiences packed into a short two weeks. Our intent was to rest and recuperate from the first year in India and reflect on what's ahead in the next year.

Both were accomplished - perhaps not in the ways we'd anticipated, but nevertheless we certainly do feel refreshed and have some great insights about the next year.

A highlight in our time was re-connecting with a family we met two summers ago. This was the same family Janis had taught the mother and two daughters about sumi-e painting. We spent several evenings together and had many other interactions during our two weeks. We even got to meet the wife's parents who visited unexpectedly from Saharanpur. All seven of them came to the guest house to have a final meal together on our last evening in Mussoorie - what a delight and privilege!

We're exploring the possibilities of a 2-week home stay exchange - we return to Mussoorie to gain experience speaking Hindi and learning daily Indian life, and they come to Delhi to gain experience speaking English and exploring many of the Mughlai sites.

INVEST

This will be the first posting chronicling our three weeks away from Delhi - first in Dehradun to teach in INVEST, second in Mussoorie to be refreshed and re-envisioned for the next year.

INVEST is a 4-week, intensive discipling program for college students and young professionals that has been operated for 4 years by Touch India Foundation and our local fellowship. This year Janis and I joined 12 other faculty members, some from Hong Kong, the Philippines, and within India. We taught during the second week, June 8-13. Chuck on the Kingdom of God, Janis on the creative process and the Kingdom of God. One of the activities Janis led them in was painting their prayers (see below).

It was a rich time of getting to know the participants and interacting with this next generation of leaders in India. The INVEST coordinator let us know that many experienced turning points in their lives during this time. We spent most of yesterday with one participant following up on her interest in using art/creativity for Kingdom purposes. Join us as we pray for much fruit to be born out in the lives of these young people as they go back to their "daily routines" with new paradigms to live out before family and others.

Below will be:
* a group photo,
* Chuck & one of the students who painted a picture of the Kingdom series (sorry, flash didn't work well in the room's lighting),
* the picture close up,
* a photo of three prayers painted by participants,
* another photo of four prayers painted by participants.

It is sometimes said, "A picture is worth of thousand words." So it is here...