The possibilities born from technology

A lack of technology after constant access to the resource is the only way to learn this lesson. Imagine you come back to your apartment after an exhausting day on campus only to find your internet is down and you can’t complete any of your assignments. Then, compound this feeling by four days.

After four days at HOINA, I only had ten minutes on the internet. Only enough time to read and answer one e-mail. Ravati, a staff member at HOINA, has family in Chennai. I couldn’t imagine living far from my family without being able to communicate with them on a daily basis. Ravati also is trying to earn a college degree but frequent power outages common in India prevent her from regular access to the computer – a vital resource in modern education.

Having only one computer with internet on a campus housing 300 people – children, staff members and 12 visiting Penn Staters – prevents any one member of this community from regular computer access. When vital management communication needs to be made from this one computer, posting a blog entry justifiably holds lower priority.

Still, there are many times that I walk by the office after business hours and the computer is sitting alone. Evening storms bringing power outages and “offline” status prevent me and others from updating all those at home about daily moments with the HOINA children and the humid weather that gets us dripping with sweat by 9 a.m.

With that said, here are four posts from the past four days at HOINA. As of now, I am only allowed to post on Sundays – the day of rest and play at HOINA. But, I promise the thoughts will come in bulk. I encourage you to post your own thoughts in the comments and begin a dialogue about these topics. Please also comment on any additional subject, event, aspect you would like to see covered. (I also apologize for any awkward formatting! I have to post quickly so more people can use the computer!)

Ciao tutti!

Christianity in India

An Indian Christian rock band at a Baptist church in Visakhapatnam brightened up my morning. My second Sunday in India, I decided to attend church with HOINA’s founder, Darlene Large. The service was in English so I could follow along.

A family of Christian missionaries represented the only other white faces in attendance. Following the service, they gravitated towards Mrs. Large and I. I was full of questions, because we have not seen many white Americans or Europeans in India. An eighteen-year-old girl accompanied the family that included two young girls. After a few questions, I found out she is from China and is living with the family for three months and teaching the young girls.

The whole situation felt odd to me. Why is an eighteen-year-old girl teaching two girls around the age of five in India? The culture of ex-pats, especially missionaries, felt stale as represented by this family. Here, at a church lead by an Indian man and a large congregation of Indian followers, why are more white Christians needed here?

I understand many people feel called to India due to the desperate poverty that comes along with the alarmingly large population, but can’t the Christian churches in India open their arms to the problems around them? This question underlies what our group is doing here, also. As a disclaimer, I don’t know the intricacies of that family’s mission and purpose but these thoughts were my immediate reaction. What I wonder is when other Indians see us, do they have these same thoughts? Does simply our presence remind them of the desperation around them?

Since, this Penn State program at HOINA is in its tenth year, I feel as though we are not hurting the way things work here. I know I am to act as a big sister and role model to the over 200 children who call this campus home. Will I personally save them? No, they’ve already been saved by being given the gift of a loving and beautiful home.

-- A few of the boys holding toddler, Povan. I'm still working on all 103 names!! Ha.

-- The front door to the HOINA girls' home in lush south eastern India.

Saturday evening at HOINA

It is around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night at HOINA. To the children it is their Friday night, since they have class six days a week, with only Sunday off. The children are eating dinner. The girls just finished their weekly singing lessons. A local married couple comes each Saturday evening to lead the girls in Christian song and dance. Many of the girls have a very strong belief in Christianity.

At HOINA the children are raised praying each day and learning bible stories. Many of the girls come up to our group of Penn State students asking, “Sister, are you a Christian?”Growing up in a Protestant church, Salem United Church of Christ, I attribute my openness to all walks of life to my faith. Love your neighbor as yourself is the lesson that stuck most with me.

Some of the students in our group are not Christian. In fact, in our group of just ten students, we hold a variety of faiths – with a Muslim, a Jew and a few who are apathetic. When these students are asked about their belief in Christianity, they note the HOINA girls are disappointed at their response.

I personally believe we all chose different ways to reach the same God -- a philosophy I believe makes me a more adaptable, accepting person. Hopefully, the girls will learn from our multi-faith group that there are a variety of religions out there and regardless of faith there are many people who will open their heart to help another being.

Then there's southern India

When you think of India, what do you picture? Well, I found the India I imagined here in the south. Relief washed over me as soon as we touched down in Visakhapatnam. I saw the coastline, palm trees, and beautifully sculpted lush mountains that gate the city and thought, “This is India.”

Ramana, HOINA’s driver, took us along the coastline as we made our way to the home. We passed fish drying on stones. We passed thatched huts. And of course we passed roaming cows. Welcome to village India.

-- Fish drying along the coast in south eastern India, north of Visakhapatnum

After settling into the guest houses, we made our way to dinner. The crowd of boys who live in the HOINA boys’ home greeted us warmly at the gate. “Good evening, sister. What is your name?” It was precious and exactly the reception we needed after our journey in Delhi and Agra.

After dinner one of the boys, Rajif, tried to take our group’s dishes from me. “Sister, you are our guest. We will clean,” he said. But, I persisted and we raced to see who could finish more of the dishes pilled in front of me. I made my first friend.

The following day, we took a tour of the grounds. I noticed the splashes of creativity that sprinkle the campus. Mosaics of children, animals and religious sayings decorate the walls in the children’s play areas. Near the girls’ home, there is a pet monkey living in a large screened in gazebo. Along the roads within the campus are brightly painted tires. I can’t imagine a more beautiful or perfect place to raise children. I would be a very happy child here.

Note: “Aka”, meaning (older) sister or brother is a way many Indians in this area refer to each other. That is why the children greet us and each other this way.

Constant Contention

The trash, the dirt, the grime and the smell are not what is bothering me. It’s the constant, in your face poverty and desperation.

In contrast, I never felt so rich. Granted, I personally did not pay for the hotel we stayed in last night thanks to the hard work that got me into Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College. But, I still felt obnoxiously privileged and honestly for the first time in my life.

I felt lucky to have the opportunity to come to India and here I am feeling too lucky. Seeing the world comes with much responsibility and promised reflection. There are so many ways to live this life and I always felt that none was better than another. But when so many people are blatantly suffering, you have to think something is wrong. Wrong with their system, wrong with the rumored government corruption – just wrong. But why is it so wrong? Whose fault is it? Who needs to take responsibility? I now understand why Supriya shared the statistic that there is one NGO for every 400 people in India.

Clearly this issue is complicated.

Last night we stayed in the Clarks Shiraz hotel in close proximity to the Taj Mahal. I understand why the Taj Mahal is India’s crown jewel – what an amazing, beautiful, ostentatious place. But to get to it you pass countless desperate vendors, selling everything from Taj Mahal snow globes to key chains and T-shirts. Our tour guide, Joli, simply told us to ignore them because once you acknowledge them they think you are interested and will heckle you until you are out of reach.

It’s barbaric. It’s uncomfortable and it makes me feel so rude, rich and mean. All of these characteristics are so unfamiliar to me. I try to go through my life embracing everyone in a positive, supportive way. It sucks when you feel those characteristics just because you aren’t in their shoes. The vendors and beggars that stuck out the most include a man with deformed legs whose knees acted as feet that had to crawl to move; and an adorable little boy selling Taj Mahal snow globes.

What upsets me the most is that I am posting these thoughts. Before coming to India, I heard a variety of negative views. I thought, “I’ve done my share of traveling, I’m understanding and this won’t bother me. I will embrace this culture in the most positive way.” But, here I am reporting the negative and I don’t want you to judge them.

The cities I’ve visit are in constant contention. At first I thought they simply co-existed, but it seems too positive of a word and paints a picture that nothing is wrong here.

I leave you with this: Last night when we returned to the hotel we were bombarded by the hotel staff to go to “Monsoon Kasha”, a party celebrating Monsoon season. My roommate Robyn and I walked in to check it out, and there were 10 hotel staff members standing at buffet tables, along with a DJ. No guests were eating there. It was disgusting. Not the set-up but the obnoxious wastefulness of it all. I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing all of the left-over food was disposed of and did not go to those beggars on the street.

Creating possibilities

"Will you be job seekers or will you be job creators?" University of Delhi Sri Ram College of Commerce President P.C. Jain asked us today.

As leader of a college of economics in a bustling Indian city, he strives to push his hard-working students to become job creators. He even proposed in his introduction speech that when students enter the university they remain throughout their college career as those who will be job creators, not take direction from others but rather finding their own route. Possibly, he said, these students would not be allowed to graduate without creating their own business.

In a country of 1.2 billion, with 35% of Indians surviving on extreme poverty (less than $1 a day), more job creation can be a solution to alleviate hardship. Both Supriya, of Free the Slaves, and the group of students we met with today take a more empowering long-term approach to aiding those in need.

Today we met the College of Commerce's SIFE team. SIFE, Students In Free Enterprise, is an international non-profit that prompts students to get creative in helping their own communities. The team just placed second at India's national SIFE competition for their project in helping local rickshaw drivers get loans to buy their own vehicle. Rickshaws act like taxis but the drivers peddle passengers around all day for a low cost. (And, yes! I mean peddle like a bike in extreme Delhi heat!)

Before the rickshaw drivers had to rent the vehicle from contractors who were often exploitative. Now, their day to day costs are minimized and they have a constant promise of income. A long-term improvement.

The right of possibilities

I began this blog based on the premise that I was continuously contending with possibilities. Today, the debate that plagued my mind last summer appears slightly selfish. Let me explain...

Tonight, I write to you from New Delhi, India - a place of depth, where luxuries and poverty co-exist. An international service trip with Penn State's Schreyer Honors College is what brings me here and I am delighted at what I found.

Today, Supriya Awasthi the South Asia Director of Free the Slaves spoke to our group of 10 Penn State students with the world at their fingertips. Free the Slaves is an international NGO that works to combat slavery in every form. The group defines slavery as "any person physically confined, unpaid or paid below minimum wage, or who lives under the threat of violence."

Supriya spoke directly about her organization's work in freeing child slaves here in India. We watched a video of events that Supriya witnessed. After slaves are freed, boys and girls are taken to separate Ashrams where they are well taken care of and taught that they to have rights. A right to education, bread and love.

What struck me the most was the psyche of a freed slave. They are often asked upon gaining freedom, "What do you dream? What do you wish?" And, Supriya said they simply have no concept of dreaming and ask, "What is a wish?"

In contrast to my first post, where I admitted my fear of losing grip on my dreams - to imagine a life without a promise of freedom and choice seems a dimly lit existence. So sing it loud and sing it proud, a message spread in the work of Free the Slaves, we all have a right to possibilities!