November Retreat Part 1- Backwaters!
(17-18 November)
Before I get started writing about everything that's gone down over the last few weeks (sorry about the lapse, loyal readers!), I'd like to begin by wishing everyone a very happy belated Thanksgiving. Wherever you may be in the world, I hope the holiday was an opportunity for all of us to reflect on the fact that, like the Pilgrims and Native Americans, we are not alone in this world and we need to both help and depend on one another to survive, and for us to give thanks for the people and love we've been blessed with. And as we gorged ourselves on turkey, stuffing, pie, and cranberry sauce shaped like a can, I hope that everyone could take at least a moment to think of those who lack the material necessities to survive, and vow to live in a responsible way that will not deprive others of their right to life and happiness.
November here has been kind of a funny month. I think we, as a group, had a programme or a visit every week this month. It was a bit disruptive to the usual routine, and Achen was experiencing a bit of guilt over the fact that our work at our placements was being so regularly disrupted. I, honestly, didn't mind.
The most pleasant and important visit we had was from Shannon Langley, of the Presbyterian Church (USA). After some sizeable cutbacks and organizational shuffling back in May, Shannon found herself head of the Direct Mission Involvement office and as such, more-or-less in charge of the YAV program. So for the last three months, she's been traveling around the world, visiting every YAV site, learning as much as she possibly can about the program and the different sites and placements. Shannon was in India from the 16th to the 19th of November (I think). She visited each of our sites individually; and for the weekend, we all came together to spend some time cruising the backwaters of Kumarakom (near Kottayam) in a houseboat and to share a bit of our collective experiences, insights, challenges, and frustrations with Shannon, Achen, and each other.
We boarded the boat around 2pm on Friday the 17th. It was a beautiful day, and the backwaters were the tropical paradise every travel book and website in the world makes them out to be. I'll try to get some pictures posted to my photosite soon. The shore was lined with resorts, and we oggled all the white (presumably European) tourists lounging about in scandalously revealing shorts and tank tops.
It's funny how "Indian" we've all become-- Shannon commented on how well we all have the affirmative-head-wobble down (I fear that this habit may be hard to break and will cause some serious confusion upon my return), and the novelty we find in seeing other white people is a perfect avatar of cultural irony.
The scenic, touristy beauty of seeing the Keralan backwaters from a houseboat is not a perspective that most Indians will ever have of their country. But I think it's important for us to occasionally see the India they talk about in Lonely Planet guides and tourism websites. Otherwise, I think we risk burnout from the constant, prolonged exposure to the (or at least, our) reality of the country.
So we relaxed and really enjoyed our time on the boat. We had lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner on the boat on Friday, slept on the boat, and had dinner there Saturday morning before returning to land around 9am on Saturday. All the food was AWESOME (i really need to do a post just detailing what we eat here). And between meals we did Bible studies, shared our perspectives on the YAV program in India with Shannon, and shared our reflections, experiences, struggles, and triumphs with eachother. And just hung around enjoying the scenery and company, and taking pictures.
The only problematic part of the trip was the night. While there were sleeping quarters on the boat, there were only accomodations for 6 people. There were 8 of us. So Kyle and I volunteered to sleep outside on the deck, figuring that it would be awesome to sleep out under the stars. I think we also figured that we'd have some way of keeping the mosquitoes off of us, and that the crew wouldn't stay up until 2am watching movies, listening to music, getting drunk, puking overboard and passing out 15 feet away from us.
Ha.
So between the insistent whine of mosquitoes in our ears and the sounds of drunken revelry, I don't think either of us slept that night. But it was ok. At least we were awake to enjoy the thunderstorm that swept over us around midnight.
So after breakfast on Saturday morning, we returned to land and went our separate ways. Or, the other volunteers all hung out in Kottayam, and I returned to Aluva with Achen, Betty, and Shannon. Once in a while it's nice to be able to travel in the luxury of an air-conditioned car in lieu of a crowded, dirty, hot, noisy, train. As an additional bonus, I got to attend a couple of functions that Achen needed to stop at on the way. The first was a conference of Dalit theologians at the Amos Centre (where we spent the second week of our in-country orientation waaay back in September). Sadly, we didn't really get to spend much time there or talk much with the participants. Achen was sort of the keynote speaker; so we rolled in there, he did his thing, and we left pretty quickly because he had another function to be at in Ernakulam, about 2 hours away. This was the engagement party of someone who I think is Achen's nephew. We got there late, just as the reception was wrapping up. So we ate (oh my God, I ate so much food this weekend!), gave our best to the bride- and groom-to-be and their parents, and left. We finally made it back to Aluva and I took one heck of a nap.
After church on Sunday, in order to give Achen and Betty a break, I took Shannon to Fort Cochin and Mattanchery to show her what there is to see. We basically duplicated my earlier trip, so I won't go into much detail here. But it was again nice to just be a tourist for an afternoon. Although this time I was wearing my Indian clothes.
I worry about what Shannon will think of the South India program after she witnessed me having my mundu rewrapped in public by three midle-aged women at the Dutch Palace in Mattanchery. Apparently they approved of the fact that I was wearing a mundu, but not of the way I had it wrapped, so they took it upon themselves to fix. Before I knew it I had six brown hands all over my waist. While I thought nothing of this, Shannon and several European tourists in the room stared at the scene with combined horror and amusement.
In all, this was a great weekend. By Sunday night I was exhausted and completely stuffed, but after meeting with the other volunteers and Shannon, I felt good about how and what I'm doing here. Always a nice feeling.
(17-18 November)
Before I get started writing about everything that's gone down over the last few weeks (sorry about the lapse, loyal readers!), I'd like to begin by wishing everyone a very happy belated Thanksgiving. Wherever you may be in the world, I hope the holiday was an opportunity for all of us to reflect on the fact that, like the Pilgrims and Native Americans, we are not alone in this world and we need to both help and depend on one another to survive, and for us to give thanks for the people and love we've been blessed with. And as we gorged ourselves on turkey, stuffing, pie, and cranberry sauce shaped like a can, I hope that everyone could take at least a moment to think of those who lack the material necessities to survive, and vow to live in a responsible way that will not deprive others of their right to life and happiness.
November here has been kind of a funny month. I think we, as a group, had a programme or a visit every week this month. It was a bit disruptive to the usual routine, and Achen was experiencing a bit of guilt over the fact that our work at our placements was being so regularly disrupted. I, honestly, didn't mind.
The most pleasant and important visit we had was from Shannon Langley, of the Presbyterian Church (USA). After some sizeable cutbacks and organizational shuffling back in May, Shannon found herself head of the Direct Mission Involvement office and as such, more-or-less in charge of the YAV program. So for the last three months, she's been traveling around the world, visiting every YAV site, learning as much as she possibly can about the program and the different sites and placements. Shannon was in India from the 16th to the 19th of November (I think). She visited each of our sites individually; and for the weekend, we all came together to spend some time cruising the backwaters of Kumarakom (near Kottayam) in a houseboat and to share a bit of our collective experiences, insights, challenges, and frustrations with Shannon, Achen, and each other.
We boarded the boat around 2pm on Friday the 17th. It was a beautiful day, and the backwaters were the tropical paradise every travel book and website in the world makes them out to be. I'll try to get some pictures posted to my photosite soon. The shore was lined with resorts, and we oggled all the white (presumably European) tourists lounging about in scandalously revealing shorts and tank tops.
It's funny how "Indian" we've all become-- Shannon commented on how well we all have the affirmative-head-wobble down (I fear that this habit may be hard to break and will cause some serious confusion upon my return), and the novelty we find in seeing other white people is a perfect avatar of cultural irony.
The scenic, touristy beauty of seeing the Keralan backwaters from a houseboat is not a perspective that most Indians will ever have of their country. But I think it's important for us to occasionally see the India they talk about in Lonely Planet guides and tourism websites. Otherwise, I think we risk burnout from the constant, prolonged exposure to the (or at least, our) reality of the country.
So we relaxed and really enjoyed our time on the boat. We had lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner on the boat on Friday, slept on the boat, and had dinner there Saturday morning before returning to land around 9am on Saturday. All the food was AWESOME (i really need to do a post just detailing what we eat here). And between meals we did Bible studies, shared our perspectives on the YAV program in India with Shannon, and shared our reflections, experiences, struggles, and triumphs with eachother. And just hung around enjoying the scenery and company, and taking pictures.
The only problematic part of the trip was the night. While there were sleeping quarters on the boat, there were only accomodations for 6 people. There were 8 of us. So Kyle and I volunteered to sleep outside on the deck, figuring that it would be awesome to sleep out under the stars. I think we also figured that we'd have some way of keeping the mosquitoes off of us, and that the crew wouldn't stay up until 2am watching movies, listening to music, getting drunk, puking overboard and passing out 15 feet away from us.
Ha.
So between the insistent whine of mosquitoes in our ears and the sounds of drunken revelry, I don't think either of us slept that night. But it was ok. At least we were awake to enjoy the thunderstorm that swept over us around midnight.
So after breakfast on Saturday morning, we returned to land and went our separate ways. Or, the other volunteers all hung out in Kottayam, and I returned to Aluva with Achen, Betty, and Shannon. Once in a while it's nice to be able to travel in the luxury of an air-conditioned car in lieu of a crowded, dirty, hot, noisy, train. As an additional bonus, I got to attend a couple of functions that Achen needed to stop at on the way. The first was a conference of Dalit theologians at the Amos Centre (where we spent the second week of our in-country orientation waaay back in September). Sadly, we didn't really get to spend much time there or talk much with the participants. Achen was sort of the keynote speaker; so we rolled in there, he did his thing, and we left pretty quickly because he had another function to be at in Ernakulam, about 2 hours away. This was the engagement party of someone who I think is Achen's nephew. We got there late, just as the reception was wrapping up. So we ate (oh my God, I ate so much food this weekend!), gave our best to the bride- and groom-to-be and their parents, and left. We finally made it back to Aluva and I took one heck of a nap.
After church on Sunday, in order to give Achen and Betty a break, I took Shannon to Fort Cochin and Mattanchery to show her what there is to see. We basically duplicated my earlier trip, so I won't go into much detail here. But it was again nice to just be a tourist for an afternoon. Although this time I was wearing my Indian clothes.
I worry about what Shannon will think of the South India program after she witnessed me having my mundu rewrapped in public by three midle-aged women at the Dutch Palace in Mattanchery. Apparently they approved of the fact that I was wearing a mundu, but not of the way I had it wrapped, so they took it upon themselves to fix. Before I knew it I had six brown hands all over my waist. While I thought nothing of this, Shannon and several European tourists in the room stared at the scene with combined horror and amusement.
In all, this was a great weekend. By Sunday night I was exhausted and completely stuffed, but after meeting with the other volunteers and Shannon, I felt good about how and what I'm doing here. Always a nice feeling.
posted by Andy at 8:57 AM
1 Comments:
The night on the boat sounds like Easter break in Ft. Lauderdale!!
Your line about taking "...a heck of a nap." I automatically read as "...a heck of a crap.", but that's just me.
I am very happy to hear that you had a great weekend. We all missed you at Thanksgiving, and you were in all our prayers, thoughts, hearts and other assorted body organs. Everybody was asking about you and your Mother was passing out your blog address, so keep it clean!
Dad
Post a Comment
<< Home