It says it all really. The tatoo of a million vans, bikes and cars boasted this proud statement. And you know what - they've got it spot on. India
is great. India is great, is noisy, is lively, is smelly, is colourful, is joyful, is sorrowful, is rich, is poor, is proud and is most certainly completely different to anything I've ever seen before. But what is it to live in India for a mere two weeks? It isn't like watching it on the news, or Comic Relief or in the papers. To see it in the media is hard enough, to see it alive in front of you is a different level. It attacks all of your senses. Everything looks different to what I'm used to. There are no white people, so you are stared at. There are piles upon piles of slums every single place you go, but a few metres away live some very content rich people living in very comfortable appartments. If the sights don't shock you, the temperature will. As soon as we stepped off the plane in Mumbai, the heat almost bowled us over. It has been over 40^C. After your body has accepted it's going to be pretty uncomfortable for the next fortnight, your nose gets a beating. Walking down any street, a new smell hits you every few metres. It could be the fish market, one of the thousands of rubbish piles, someone having a poo in the road, a fish market or a load of goat skins still dripping with blood, the smells are overwhelming. Some of the nicest smells over the fortnight have been where there has been no smell whatsoever, which is rare. The sound is non stop. As most of the cars in Kolkata don't have wing mirrors, you are legally obliged to constantly toot your horn to let people know you're there. If you can't hear a horn, you can assume there is no car. And there are never no cars. Even if it did stop at night, the sound of Hindi music, Indi TV and Bollywood blast all the way through the night, along with the fireworks. We were woken every morning at 5am by the Muslim's prayer callings. And finally taste. If, like the majority of my team, you don't like curry or spicy food, you'd better learn to like it or go hungry. I'm a big curry fan, but I had really had reached my curry limit before the end of the first week. You'll never guess what Mum and Dad have planned for dinner tonight.
So that's a little taster of what it is like to live in India as a guest, but even I can't imagine what it would be like to be a slum kid. But make sure you understand, what you imagine when you're reading this, is a fraction of what it is really like. Culture shock, something that we were told about by dozens of friends. I've experienced culture shock before, twice. Once when I went to Kenya last year and once again when I came back to the UK. But although India has so many of the same problems, they are so completley different. I was the only one of my team to have experienced a developping country before, but I was in no way less culture shocked when we all arrived in Kolkata. It is truly overwhelming.
Blah, blah, blah - that's enough of trying to get you to imagine what it's like there, I'm worried that I've lost half of my readers by half-way through the 1st paragraph. In short ("Why couldn't you just put this to begin with?") - it's overwhelmingly different.
Let me fill you in on the team.
Mikey - the kid with the second mouth. The only guy on the team.
Amanda - Best friends with Ruth, a real passion for God.
No-Henna-Hand-Root (Actual name - Ruth) - Best friends with Amanda. Super friendly, but hates those anti-malarial tablets.
Rhiannon (aka Jonny Two-Hats) - Possibly the loudest person in our group, but usually says the right things. She is our first-aider. She is herself, half-Indian.
Heather - my godsister in as much that we share a godmother. The queen of facial expressions.
Zara - she laughs. A lot.
Emily - our team leader, quiz master and resident wise owl.
So that's our brilliant team. For those more observant amongst you, would know - there is one person short of the Eight that are doing the YES Scheme gap-year. Unfortunately Laura couldn't come with us, but did some very interesting work in the Worthing Hospital Chaplaincy Team. So there were seven us. During our time, Emily played quiz master in a ferocious 19 rounds of quiz. The teams were the Toilet Buddies (Rhiannon, Amanda and Ruth) and the Leftovers (Heather, Zara and myself.) Every evening after dinner, we would plan anything that needed planning for the next day. Then one of us would lead the group in a time of discussion, bible study, worship and prayer, then we would end with a game of cards and a round of quiz before bed. If we were lucky, we might get an extra round at somepoint during the day. It was a very close thing, but we had our 19th and final round in Dubai airport early this morning. End result - the Leftovers won! Quite often, we would find ourselves sitting in quiz teams by chance, or if we had to split the whole team, it would fall into the two quiz teams. But we were still all under one banner!
I was very excited when we were told we were going to India (as we were told we were going to India, we didn't decide to. I am most certainly not complaining) And I was excited because India is a place I have always wanted to go. We had a bit of training, a lot of paperwork and even more vaccinations before we went. Then on March 8th, we left.
We had our first polava when our plane journey (which was a simple London Gatwick to Dubai, Dubai to Kolkata) was delayed by one hour. This meant that we missed our connecting flight. Which meant that we had a long stay in Dubai airport in the middle of the night, before we were told that we would be first sent to Mumbai. We were not scheduled for a whistle-stop in Mumbai. So we went to Mumbai. Waited. Then we finally got to Kolkata. We arrived not at the expected time of 7am, but in the darkness of the following night. Our one hour delay cost us a whole day. So we were exhausted and culture shocked (as you now well-know.)
The first week was a lot of introductions. We got to know the charity we were working for. We were sent by the YES Scheme, through Tearfund to a charity called Emmanuel Ministries Calcutta (EMC). The team there are AMAZING! They have set up 37 different projects in Kolkata (formally known as Calcutta) which do such a wide range of things. A lot (but not all) is focused on children and young people. They have several schools, including a very unique one. They have a school that is unique to the whole of Asia. It is a very high standard formal school, which is completely free for children living in slums. All other schools set up by charities do the best with a very low budget, which means highly gifted, but not highly trained teachers, small hot classrooms and a very informal teaching style. This school however could be mistaken for a private school in the UK. They are all taught by teachers who have degrees in their chosen field, in good quality classrooms with desks and very smart uniforms. It is so amazing that this is available for free to the steet-children of the slums. So often, I would forget that these well groomed children would be sleeping rough that night. Another project has been set up for the platform kids - children who work and sleep on the railway platforms. Up to 80% of these kids were addicted to drugs, which are so very cheap and easy to get hold of. The police would stop the dealers if they weren't too busy being bribed or even buying. Most of these platform addicts were aged 5-11yrs old. We saw projects which save women from being sex-trafficked, projects that put skills to good use with a fair wage, detox centres, rehabilitation centres, youth groups, hostals and so many more different things. EMC seems to be Jack of all trades, master of all. It really was incredible and amazing to be a part of it.
I spent most of my time teaching in one of the schools, which was great work. I found it very tough at first, as they really didn't speak English and I had no translator and no other superviser. But by the end of the week, I knew how to teach them and they knew how to teach me. Nearly every person that we have encountered through various projects have a lot to be angry or depressed about. Those in slums, those with addictions, those running from their past, those who have terrifying stories. Yet every person we encountered was full of joy. They were so grateful for the work that EMC are doing, they are amazed that people would come from the other side of the planet to help them, that there are people that care for them. Through these projects they have seen the love of God through His work through us. They could easily be angry with God, and some maybe are. But someone once said -
"You can't be angry with God without believing in Him."
These people belive in God and know God and love God. They have come to depend on him and let him work in their lives. It has been amazing to be a part of this.
So, where is God? He's there with them. He is working through people like the EMC team, through teams that travel afar, through teams that are working on their very own doorstep. He is where your prayers are. He is wherever lives are being changed.
"Each of you has recieved a gift to use to serve others. Anyone who serves should serve with the strength that God gives, so that in everything God will be praised through Christ Jesus."
1 Peter 4:10-11
You don't have to get on a plane to serve God. You don't have to meet someone that has come off a plane to know God. He is in the slums, he is in the UK.
Tearfund were pretty frightening with their guidance booklets. Better safer than sorry I suppose, but after all the information about humble illnesses and diseases that we will catch, it goes on to tell us about bribes, robbery, mobs, vehicle accidents, hijacking, bombs, ambush, rape, assault, kidnapping, shooting, ransoms, air crash, air attack, earthqaukes and finally mines. Agreed it is something to be cautious of, but not something to put you off! We fortunately didn't encounter any of these illnesses or dangers, but it did miss out on one danger that we could have done with being warned about.
I'm talking about pillow fights.
On the last night, I had a pillow fight with one of my team in a pretty dark canteen. By 12am I was in an ambulance. By 12.30am I was at hospital. By 1am I has six stitches and a whopping great white plaster on my chin. I got some good photos of it, and somebody videoed the operation. Talking of photos, I did take some (believe me) but the cable to connect them to my computer is in Eastbourne. I will put them up shortly.
So I've been home in Littlehampton for a couple of hours now. I'm exhausted. I haven't slept in nearly 36 hours and I have endured about 18hrs of travelling. I'm in an empty house (apart from my good self) and can hear absolutely nothing for the first time in two weeks. The air is fresh, the temperature is FREEZING COLD, I can eat without worrying or washing with anti-bacterial gel, I can drink water out of the tap. My home smells like my home, so naturally I can't smell a thing. I have a sigh, try to scratch my chin (then remember that it is under wraps), consider being sad and decide against it.
If you ask me, two weeks isn't long enough to really get involved, but I was ready to go home. I loved it whilst I was there, and I will miss it. I will miss the company I kept! It would seem that right now I am here on my own, but that would be a mistake. I am with the same person that was with me before I left, whilst I was there and with me now and always.
And if you don't mind, I'm now off to praise him.
