I know I’ve said this in my last few posts, but I really can’t believe that my last week in Patna is coming to an end. This place and the people here have truly changed my life, and I would not be the person I am today without this experience. I am so grateful.

I will spend next week doing a whirlwind tour of India – I will be traveling to Agra, Jaipur, Rishikesh, Dehradun, and New Delhi and then I will fly out of New Delhi on August 12^th. I am hoping to write a post when I am back in the states about all of my adventures, but if I forget please don’t hesitate to ask me about them in person. I would love to catch up and grab coffee with you once I’m back, so just shoot me a text or email and we can work something out 🙂 I am really looking forward to seeing all of my friends and family.

A sincere thank you for following along with all of the joys, sorrows, challenges, and laughable moments from this trip. I would not be here without your support. Your continued prayers and good vibes are much appreciated as I begin my journey home – where I will rest for just 4 short days before jumping back into college life!

New Parish Priest

As I begin my transition back home, there is a lot of transitioning happening here in Patna also. Fr. Paul inducted the new parish priest, Fr. Joachim, into the church. So this property is now under the archdiocese, and is no longer Jesuit territory. There was much singing and dancing by the women, and all of the priests had orange paint on their forehead to signify the celebration. Fr. Joachim seems to be adjusting into his new role, and Fr. Paul is quite happy to move on to the next part of his life. In his words: “I think I will go into the mountains for 4 or 5 months, with no mobile or internet.”

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MC Brothers

We have gotten to know the brothers of Missionaries of Charity quite well, as they join us for Mass pretty much every day. They have invited us to go to their place several times and this week we were finally able to join them for lunch. We got a tour of their place and learned about the mission they have there – serving the mentally challenged and those who are ailed with leprosy. These people are left on the streets to die because they have no one who wants to care for them. I walked through a room full of lepers, and let me tell you, it truly is like the Bible describes it. The people had yellow pus filled bandages wrapped around their limbs, and many had missing or deformed toes and fingers. Leprosy is something that just doesn’t really exist anymore in America, and so seeing how it affects the people here was really eye opening.

One of the brothers actually got the chance to meet Mother Teresa, and I asked him what it was like and how he felt when she became a saint. He told me – “there was so much serenity in her heart”. I am in awe that these brothers have devoted their whole lives to serving those who are left to die, and I think that they must have serenity in their hearts also.

Dinner with Angel and Friends

I mentioned at the beginning of my time here that Angel was one of the most influential women I’ve been blessed with knowing, and we got together with her and her friends for dinner to have one last goodbye. We sang along and listened to music together, argued over who knew which language best (Hindi or Malayalam??), took so many pictures, and enjoyed noodles, rice, chicken, and frooti flavored ice cream. I am so sad to say goodbye to all of these wonderful people, and even though we only met for a short amount of time, I know I will remember them forever.

Bodhgaya, Rajgir, and Nalanda

We have been asking Fr. Paul to take us on this trip since week 1 it seems, and in the last week it finally happened! Bodhgaya is the home of where Lord Buddha obtained Nirvana. After waking up Fr. Paul at 4am to leave (can’t say I’ve ever had to wake up a priest before!) and catching a train for a few hours, we arrived and began exploring all of the different Buddhist temples. There is a temple from each of the main Buddhist countries, and it was interesting to see the uniqueness of each country’s temple. We also visited the 80-foot-tall Buddha statue!

The main attraction, however, was the Bodhi tree and temple. The temple was beautiful and the entire place was so lush and green. Everything smelled of sweet candy and incense, and many people sat with their eyes closed under the Bodhi tree, hoping to find some sort of Nirvana for themselves. Even the dogs laid in the shade with their eyes closed. It was so peaceful, and I too was able to take a moment to close my eyes and find my own Nirvana underneath the tree. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of anything (we actually had to leave our phones behind and there were many security checkpoints we had to go through to make sure we weren’t bringing them in), and so I cannot really show you the beauty of this place.

We met up with Fr. James who took us to Rajgir, where we discovered that we were their first foreign guests to stay on the campus! Fr. James was really excited to have us, and we definitely enjoyed our time with him. We spent lots of time learning about Jainism and visited several of the Jain temples, including the birthplace of the 24^th and final prophet Lord Mohatsvan. I had the privilege of meeting Acharya Chandana, (essentially the Mother Teresa of Jainism) who is known for introducing the concept of service to humanity into Jainism. She told us that we must always cultivate love, and that we must make peace and not war with those around us.

Speaking of peace, I made my way up the mountain range of Rajgir (by cable chair!) and stopped to pray in the Rajgir Vishwa Shanti, also known as the World Peace Pagoda. There were lots of monkeys and it was crowded with people dressed in saffron colors making their pilgrimage. So, while I wouldn’t say it was the most peaceful experience I have had so far, it was definitely one that I enjoyed.

Finally, we went to Nalanda which is a historical university excavated out of the mud. We explored the uncovered ruins of the different monasteries and classrooms, and also went to an archeological museum, which was interesting.

Saying Goodbye

This is probably the hardest part of the summer. I started and lived through my journey with much unknown, but the thing I have always known is that this experience has an ending. I don’t want to leave the people that I love so much behind, because it is very likely that I will not see them again, at least not for a while. But I am going to a place where I have other people I love and who love me back, and I am definitely looking forward to some American food 🙂 Before I left for India, someone told me “not every good thing gets to last forever”. And unfortunately, it’s true. This experience does not get to last forever, but the memories I have made will. The connections, the feelings, the meaning and the joy I have found will. And that is what matters most.

I have often heard that oh so cheesy quote – “it’s about the journey, not the destination”. But after this trip, I don’t think that’s true. The destination of where you start can be the motivation of why you journey. The destinations you move through can shape your journey and can even change the reason why you are journeying in the first place. And the end destination allows you to look back on your journey and see your growth and gives you an appreciation for why you journeyed. While my physical body will have started and ended in the same location, my heart and mind will have come back forever changed.

As one of my MC brother friends said – “the world is round, so we can meet anywhere.” Sending love until we meet again.

Bettiah was the “big adventure” of this week, but there were several other things that I accomplished/participated in that were so much fun and so I am excited to share them with you!

Project

I mentioned last week that our 4^th solar oven was underway but was unsure about it being completed before Sophia and I leave Patna. Well, I was quite pleasantly surprised, and am happy to say that our oven is 100% built and we have begun testing!! 🙂 It took a lot of work but I am really proud of this because it probably included the most chemical engineering I’ve done all summer. I was in my element completing energy balances and calculating how much energy would be required to cook the rice vs. how much each of the solar tubes could actually provide. Which, interestingly enough, was one of the reasons Sophia and I were so doubtful about this oven. We were under the impression that SAAP would have to order more tubes and that they would probably take about a week to get here, leaving us with no time left to test the oven. We were very wrong though and the workers had no problem taking apart an existing piece of solar equipment to use the tubes on our new design. Feel free to ask me more about how the solar tubes work when you see me next!

Railway Station Church

So perhaps you have picked up on this, but I am terrible at remembering names of places (although I think part of that is the places I have been are usually referred to as “the place we went that side” by Fr. Jesu and Fr. Paul). I visited a really old church with Fr. Jesu which was by a railway station and the property is actually the railway’s property also! So I am calling it the railway station church aka “the church we went that side” 🙂 There was a social action center close by to this church also, and we got to meet the 9^th and 10^th graders there. It was a similar interaction to those I had in Bettiah where I introduced myself, explained my project, and then answered questions. The cool thing about these classes is they were studying science and math so they were really excited that we were studying the same things they were. We also had the privilege of meeting Fr. Joseph, 81 years old, who introduced himself to us by saying “just so you know, my wife Mary died so I’m single.” He also got very excited when we told him we were from Ohio, and he immediately exclaimed “Oh! That’s by Kentucky – the home of fast horses and slim girls!” I think he’s my new favorite priest here.

Savan Mahotsan

We did go to one last training center with Fr. Jesu, but this one was in Patna so it wasn’t too far and we didn’t get any flat tires 🙂 they were having a Savan Mahotsan celebration, and while I still have yet to figure out what that means, it was SO much fun. All the teenage women were dressed in their sarees and there was a dance competition so Sophia and I sat in awe as we watched several beautiful performances take place. Rosemary came with us and it was the cutest thing because she got all dressed up and I could see her taking notes on the women’s dance moves! She was very excited. We also watched a reenactment (kind of like a nativity play) of whatever it was they were celebrating. There was some sort of “baba” (god) who I think was trying to cure a very sick (or possibly dead?) man. The most ironic thing was for the hospital scene they brought out a fake saline drip that looked very similar to the one in Sophia’s arm during week 3 and it was definitely an uncomfy but also hilarious moment. The play was very similar to the ones that you see kind of thrown together during vacation bible school and the strained chaos and slightly embarrassed laughter of the teens throughout the play made me smile.

After the reenactment, we were taken to another room where we were treated to sprite and sweets while one of the teens did mehndi decorations on our hands. Although, they were ruined rather quickly when we were pulled into the middle of their dance party! We had such a good time with the teens, letting them teach us their dance moves and of course taking so many selfies.

That brings me to the end of week 9, and also to the beginning of my last week in Patna. Ahh! I can’t believe I am saying that. I will spend week 10 in Patna wrapping up my research and then will take a week to be a tourist and do some fun travelling before I fly home. I can’t wait to tell you all about my adventures!

See you soon 🙂

This week, I got the opportunity to see many social action centers and training centers which have been set up by Fr. Jesu. I want to preface this blog post by saying that Fr. Jesu is really involved in these centers and has even started a few of them. Anytime he interacted with the teens at the centers I could see the inspiration on their faces and eagerness to listen to what he had to say. I can tell that Fr. Jesu’s whole heart is in this mission and I am really grateful that he took us to see the “non-engineering” side of the mission work being done in India. You can learn more about the non-profit he works for, Don Bosco Tech, by visiting https://www.dbtech.in/

Encouraging Empowerment and Education – Bettiah, Day 1

The first social action center we went to was just a short stop for breakfast – we had been traveling since 5am and between a flat tire (#3 on this trip, if you’re keeping track!) and a really funny moment that involved a very rainy bathroom break behind a cement store (ask in person if you want more details 🙂 ) we were INCREDIBLY hungry. A Catholic Relief Service meeting was being held at the social action center because, according to the sister who was leading us around, there are not enough funds being sent to India to keep the program in place. This makes me really sad because my family has sponsored children through CRS for as long as I can remember, and knowing that the children in India at this specific location might not have a chance to be sponsored breaks my heart.

After breakfast we drove for about another hour to the PMKVY training center (check them out! http://pmkvyofficial.org/Index.aspx), where about 40 students were being trained in electrical installations and nursing. This was definitely my favorite training center during the trip, as I participated in a panelist session with the students about becoming empowered, not giving up, and the importance of keeping a job. I introduced myself to the students, told them about my engineering work, and explained how proud I was of them, as these students are the poorest of the poor and live in the slum villages where most of their parents and grandparents are uneducated. The students got to ask me questions too, and I was surprised by some of the things they asked me. They wanted to know what challenges I faced by coming to India. They wanted to know what I left behind. What youth in my culture do if they don’t go to college. If there is unemployment in America, and how youth in America combat that. And I realized – despite our countries being miles and miles apart, the people here are not that different from me. The questions I have been asking all along are the same questions these students wanted to ask me. It gave me hope, because I saw such genuine eagerness in them. They wanted to know my struggles so they could connect with me just as much as I wanted to know their struggles so I could connect with them. Despite not knowing any of their names, I felt as if I left with 40 new best friends.

After taking lots and lots of selfies and enjoying lunch and chai with the administrators, we left for the second social action center called Seva Sadan. Seva Sadan is a small little paradise way out in the middle of nowhere India. We drove through several villages and open fields to get there, and so many people stared at me as I passed them. I am still surprised by their awe-struck faces because it reminds me that they really just do not encounter my side of the world. I am almost something out of their imagination, and that makes me laugh. But I think that they are something out of my imagination, too. We passed an empty field full of goats and cows and there were many kids happily running around and enjoying the serenity. I was in awe of their coexistence, and it made me think – this is what heaven must look like.

When we arrived, all of the 9^th and 10^th class children ran out to greet us and each one bent down to bless my feet as I touched each of their heads for a blessing in return. It was so sweet – these young girls must have been between 10 and 11 years old and were so excited to see us. There were about 30 students there, once again described to us as the poorest of the poor. They come from villages that are off the grid and receive pretty much no access to education. We sat for another panel and once again I described who I was and what I was doing, but most of our interaction with this group was passing out candy and blowing kisses. The most eye opening thing from this site is that Sangita, a really dear friend/nurse who was traveling with us (I’ve described her as my Indian mom in previous posts), took time alone with the girls to educate them on puberty and menstruation hygiene. We were told that they have absolutely no resources for menstrual health, and are often times using one pad for the length of their entire period. This made me really really REALLY sad. Sophia and I are thinking of starting a group on campus to make reusable pads to send to these sweet girls – please let me know if you’re interested in helping out!

We blew several parting kisses to the girls at Seva Sadan and left for our final destination – except once again, the monsoons got in our way. Traveling in India is so exciting because you just never know what will happen! Because of the flooding, we had to stay with the Sacred Heart sisters who graciously fed us and gave us rooms even though they were not expecting us. The flooding was really heavy and after making it to the sisters, Fr. Jesu told us he was actually really scared on the roads because he didn’t think we were going to make it through the water. They had emergency services blocking roads off, and we were the last car they let through – had we been any later, we might have been stranded on the flooded roads for a few hours.

Teaching Humanity and Other Lessons Learned – Bettiah, Day 2

The next day, we made our way to another social action center close by. While we didn’t stay long, we did get a chance to talk to one of the priests about the work that is happening there. One of the main issues in education in India is that within the Hindu religion, marriage is part of a woman’s life cycle. Most women get married between the ages of 12 and 14, and once that happens, dedication to their family is their main role in life. Basically, in order to get an education, they are required to break free of their “natural life cycle” and I can only imagine how hard that must be – especially if your family has a strong religious background. The priest also mentioned that the women don’t have it in their minds that they are human and deserve more than what they are getting in the villages. That blows my mind. These people are literally so poor that they don’t know what human dignity is to begin with. Or how to ask for it. And perhaps that is why they seem so content with their life as it is, and why I will never understand their side of the story. How do you instill self-esteem and confidence into someone who has lived without it for their whole life? For the first time, I am realizing that I really do have something they will never have, and I don’t know how to fix that. It is really humbling.

We finished our journey in Bettiah at St. Xavier’s High School where we toured several classrooms and the church that is on their campus. It was really pretty, and I loved all the tunnels they built so that students could walk to and from class in the middle of monsoon season. We left around the time that class was getting out, and several eager and very curious students stopped to wave at us and to welcome us to their school – honestly interacting with a student is the cutest thing because they get so so sooo excited when they realize we can understand their English. Their simplistic joy is so beautiful.

Of course, our journey home was adventurous as always – lots of pollution and dust on the dark roads, stopping for tea at Fr. Jesu’s friend’s house, and of course (can you guess?) flat tire #4! Thankfully it happened on the main road right outside the church compound, so Sophia and I just grabbed our things and walked home as one of the workers ran out to help fix the tire.

After spending two days with the poorest of the poor, I think there are three things that stick out in my mind that I will share with you. The first is that education is SO. IMPORTANT. There are many days where I have complained about my coursework or how this teacher or that teacher assigned too many tests or was annoying in the way they presented the material. I want to cringe at myself now just thinking about it. The people here are so uneducated that they don’t even know their own worth. Something I tried to tell the students every time I got the chance was how proud of them I was for taking a chance and for educating themselves. I told several of the children how beautiful they were, or how they meant something to me. And every time, I was met with eyes that told me “I have never heard that before”.

The second thing is that women’s rights are a HUGE issue, especially on this side of the world. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such women-focused poverty before. Most of the students that are uneducated or are underprivileged are women. I was actually told that the government funded schools will take men who are poor or can’t pay for their education, but they won’t take the poor women. To all the strong women I know and love back home – keep being warriors and keep fighting for and with each other. The young girls over here need your example.

Finally, I have learned that it doesn’t matter what your background is. Woman or man, rich or poor – compassion goes a long way. The people I met on this trip have so much suffering to speak of in their lives and yet they meet me with so much joy. And yes, perhaps that’s because I’m a white American female, but I like to think it is because there is a much deeper connection – we are really just trying to understand each other’s humanity. 

And that’s just part 1 🙂 while my trip to Bettiah was incredible, it only took up 2 days of week 9! Make sure to read part 2 to hear about the other smaller adventures/updates I have to share. 

Don’t wait for the next thing in your life that will make you happy. Live in this moment and find joy in it. Don’t postpone your happiness. – Fr. Jesu

This week has been kind of slow, which is okay. We have a lot planned in the last few weeks of our trip, so it is nice to have some space to relax and just enjoy the present.

Project

Our project is coming to a bit of an end. We were able to increase the heat retention, but after several days of testing showing very consistent temperatures, it is obvious we will not be able to get past 60 degrees C on our oven. This is definitely disappointing, and Sophia and I were ready to start compiling our final findings into our technical report. That is, until our brother Niraj came back with the workers from a water heater installation with a giant burn on his arm. In Fr. Paul’s words – “if the solar tubes can cook the skin, why not food?” So once again we were unexpectedly back to the drawing board!

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Coming up with a 4^th oven design has been quite the challenge. We are back to that iterative engineering design process I mentioned before, and this time we are under more of a time crunch. Some days Fr. Paul is really enthusiastic about what we present to him, and other days we sit in the kitchen for half an hour waiting until he says “my mental simulation does not think it will not work”. I have no idea if we will have a 4^th oven built by the time we leave, but either way it definitely keeps our brains awake! We have taken many coffee (and nutella and peanut butter cracker) breaks throughout the process.

Mokama, Patna

Of course, our week would not be complete without a little adventure! Fr. Paul took Sophia, Niraj, and I to Mokama, Patna, where we were able to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Grace. While the shrine was much smaller than I expected, the outdoor stations of the cross and statues of the disciples and archangels were larger than life and took my breath away. Overall this was a really peaceful experience because since we went on a weekday we had the whole shrine to ourselves. It was definitely a blessing to be able to take a few minutes of prayerful silence.

I did mention it was an adventure, didn’t I? On our way back home from the shrine, the main road was blocked and after about a half an hour of driving around in circles and trying (and very obviously failing) to follow the GPS, Fr. Paul finally said “I don’t think I know where I am. Ah well. A free safari!” And a free safari it was. We explored several empty dirt roads, stopped many stray cow farmers to ask for directions, and even drove through some sort of water sewage plant. Niraj, Sophia, and I definitely enjoyed it though and between jamming to oldies hits (yes of course we introduced Niraj to Africa by Toto – we were on a safari after all!) and laughing at the number of times we had to turn around, we didn’t have any reason to complain.

Eco Park

Along with going to Mokama, we also got to take a short trip to Eco Park with our friend Insha and her family. I am still waiting for her to send me some of the pictures – perhaps I will post them later 🙂 The park was beautiful and so green. Sophia and I definitely enjoyed walking around and encouraging the younger children in the family to play on the playground or run through the giant tunnels with us. Of course, being in such an open space meant lots of staring and lots of people asking for selfies/just sticking their phones in our faces to take pictures of us. Some people are politer than others, but it makes me laugh because anytime someone says “excuse me… miss?” Sophia always responds “NO!” before they can even ask the question. It usually shocks people that we already know what they are asking, but when it seems like you’re practically the only white people in the country, it becomes very easy to spot the “paparazzi”.

Words of Wisdom

You have (quite graciously) read all the words I have been writing… here are a few words from some of the other people who live here 🙂

Me, teasing Niraj (after his mom cut off his long shaggy hair while he was sleeping): “you still have long enough hair for a mohawk!”
Niraj: “No, I don’t like mohawk. I am a simple man.”

Sophia (after being invited to attend a funeral): “I’m not a fan of funerals!”
Fr. Paul: “Who is a fan of funeral?? I must find this man.”

Also Sophia: “Equality starts with a conversation.”

Sister Flora: “Is the temperature in America like air condition? I don’t like air condition.”

Fr. Paul: “The prince asked the princess to marry him. The princess said no. He lived happily ever after. The End. This is the shortest fairy tale.”

Fr. Jesu (on an overcast day with no rain): “The sky is like a pregnant lady. Waiting and waiting and waiting for the baby to be delivered. And what does she get? Poof! Just air.”

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Sending much love from Patna

With week 7 over, we are in the last month of our time here which is both really exciting and also really hard to believe! We have 3 weeks left to work on our project, and then we will be spending our last week road tripping and exploring a few new cities before we fly out. Until then, enjoy all of the adventures that week 7 brought!

Project

Sophia and I hoped to start testing this week, but we still needed to put the bricks and rocks inside our oven. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and the monsoon rains stuck around all week. It is really hard to get an oven to work if the stuff you are trying to heat up is saturated with rainwater! So we set fire to the rain (quite literally) and burned the bricks and rocks to allow any moisture to turn to steam. This was way harder than it looks as the air was so full of moisture and we didn’t have any twigs or dry logs to burn, so we had to come up with an alternative plan of using egg cartons and newspaper. I definitely channeled my inner caveman!  

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We have worked really really hard on this project and between slicing not just one but both of my big toes on the metal edges, Sophia’s heat stroke early on in the summer, and both of us crying out of frustration or homesickness at some point, we really have put some serious blood sweat and tears into this. Our fingers and our (now bandaged) toes are crossed that this oven improves at least a little bit from the previous one.

Saree Show Off!

Alright so I wrote a few weeks back that Sophia and I bought sarees but were still getting the blouses stitched. After sweet Sister Flora sewed my blouse 3 different times (think goldilocks – first it was too big, then it was too small, then it was just right!) all the fabric was finally ready. Sister Flora and Soni (an orphan who sometimes lives here and has become one of our best friends) came to help us put them on. They gathered everyone who was home so that we could show our sarees off and it was like being at prom all over again – Fr. Paul and Fr. Jesu were our proud dads and we posed for so many pictures. They were all very excited 🙂

Nepal Border

Sophia and I did a bit of travelling this week, and it was probably the most adventurous, chaotic, and wild trip we’ve taken so far. Fr. Jesu took us to meet a family last week that had just welcomed their 2-week old baby into the world. We had dinner with them and Fr. Jesu told us they were going to the Nepal border to get their baby baptized. Earlier on in the trip we had expressed interest in visiting Nepal, and so Fr. Jesu arranged for us to go with them.

I don’t know what I expected out of this, but I guess I thought it was going to be Sophia and I with this couple and their baby, we’d go to the border, do a bit of sight-seeing, attend Mass, and go home. I was WAY wrong.

Let me set the scene for you: picture a 5-person van filled with 9 people and their luggage plus a tiny baby and no air conditioning for 4-5 hours. Except those 4-5 hours very quickly turned into 9-10 hours when we hit traffic on the main road, tried to take a different route, and got lost in the bumpy dirt backroads of middle of nowhere India. Now take all of that and add a very carsick grandma who puked out the window at least 4 times on the way there, and you are just seeing the beginning of this story!

We did stop for a break at a social action center in Muzaffurpur where Fr. Jesu was stationed for a few years before coming to St. Mary’s. While we were there we got to meet a classroom full of students who were very excited to meet us. We couldn’t really communicate with them and our interaction was quite awkward, but the smiles on their faces and the rapid and excited chatter from them as we left the room told me that it didn’t matter.

We also stopped for lunch at the family village. We sat in a small room with a fan and were served mutton, rice, and daal. This was the poorest and most rural part of India I have been to by far, and yet it was the most peaceful. Everything was so green and scenic and with the children riding the cows out in the fields and some of the older women picking grass on the side of the road, it felt like I was living something out of a National Geographic picture. With John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” playing in the background (ironically the only English song the family had on their playlist), it was perfect.

After lunch, we got in the car and made our way to the Nepal border. Sophia and I only have visas for India so customs only let us walk across the Koshi Barrage and we couldn’t actually go to the other side of the river. Either way it was really fun and the whole family enjoyed taking pictures with us, showing us the water, and walking along the Barrage. There was LOTS of water and several times throughout this trip we passed villages that had been flooded because of the amount of water. Rescue vehicles would be parked on the side of the road and all the people and their cows were living in tents on higher ground. Fr. Paul later explained that this is a typical occurrence and it made me wonder – what do people do when it floods like this? Wait for your house to dry out? Build a new one? Continue living under the tents? I saw several people swimming out to their houses and I wanted to know what they were doing.

We headed back from the Nepal border (welcome to India – round 2! 🙂 ) and began our journey to Sacred Heart Church in Latona, where Sophia and I would be staying. This journey was not complete without an adventure of its own – as I mentioned before, there was LOTS of water. Well, the monsoon rains came and made the already muddy dirt roads even worse and there were several times I thought the car was going to flip. Thankfully it didn’t flip, but we did end up with a flat tire. The father of the family just so happened to be a mechanic, so he hopped out of the car and replaced the tire with no problem. Except something wasn’t quite right – the tire was making a weird noise every time we hit a bump and we stopped several times at different roadside stands to put air in the tire or have someone look at it. Well about a half an hour later we hit another really hard bump and popped the tire again. So – two flat tires in the dark, rainy, middle of nowhere India – I have definitely lived! This time the metal on the tire was also really warped and it was getting close to 9pm (and we were already late to our destination). Some random men came by, talked to the family, and all of a sudden Sophia and I were put in a cab with one of the teens that was travelling with us. One of the random men handed the driver some money, and we were driven to the church. I have no idea if these people were friends of the family or just good Samaritans who happened to see us stranded on the side of the road and helped us get to the church just out of the goodness of their hearts. Either way, we wouldn’t have made it without them, so I am very grateful.

Sophia and I spent the next day at the church enjoying chai, spaghetti, and the best egg curry I have ever tasted with Fr. Francis and Fr. Matthew. We also went to the convent and met the sisters there, and they made us popcorn! They kept asking us why we were only staying for one day, and they were very sad to see us leave.

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After stopping at the family village one last time to say goodbye and to hold the now christened baby Aaron for a bit (they don’t choose names for their children until baptism). The father was so proud showing Aaron off to us, and all the family came out to watch us hold the baby and see us off.

Our trip home was much smoother as we left the mother, baby, grandma, and several of the teens at the village where they will stay for 1 month. After all the craziness of this trip Sophia and I were so happy to be back at the compound. This was definitely a memorable adventure!

Impromptu Wedding

The last adventure we had this week was we were able to attend a wedding! It all started when Sophia and I were sitting in the kitchen on a break, enjoying some chai. Fr. Paul ran in and excitedly exclaimed “I need a pitcher for a baptism!” Turns out, there was a couple – one Baptist and one Hindu – who wanted a Catholic wedding. Sounds like a great joke, right? A Baptist and a Hindu walked into a Catholic Church… anyways, in order to have a Catholic wedding they had to become Catholic! Sophia and I asked Fr. Paul so many questions about the whole situation that eventually he just said “well, the wedding is on Monday. Why don’t you just come?” And so we went 🙂

The wedding was actually quite comical. It was very obvious that the couple had never been to a Mass before and any time we had to sit or stand someone would get up to tell them to do the same, as they had their backs to us and couldn’t follow along with what we were doing. The microphone kept squeaking, the family kept getting up to fix the bride’s veil or pull the groom’s coat down in the middle of Mass, and someone had to show the bride and groom how to go up and receive communion. Along with that, Sister Justa (one of the older nuns here) kept trying to run the show and anytime she wanted to sing an extra verse or say an extra prayer – even when everyone else had stopped – she would just go for it and we would end up joining along. Even the vows were haphazard and I couldn’t tell if the bride and groom actually said everything they were supposed to. Either way, by the end we were drinking celebratory “thums up” (coke) and sprite outside the church and everyone seemed very happy. The bride came up to us and invited us to her reception and of course Sophia and I said yes.

That evening, we went to the convent around 7pm and waited with the sisters, Pastor Ignacio and his wife Rita, and our friend Priyanka, for a car to come pick us up. Well the car didn’t arrive until 9 so we spent 2 hours chatting and laughing with our little church family. Interesting story about Pastor Ignacio and Rita – they used to be Hindu, converted to Christianity, and are now serving a Catholic parish. Pastor Ignacio usually grabs all the little kids to help with the offertory gifts and can be found leading the prayers at the beginning and end of Mass. Rita is always sitting with the sisters and usually helps lead the songs. I want to know how they ended up serving a Catholic church, and why they left Hinduism. Of course, I will never know the answers to most of the questions I am asking in these posts, but it does make me appreciate how open and welcoming the community is here. Life happens – no questions asked. Support and love are always given.

When we finally reached the reception we were invited to bring gifts to the couple and pose for pictures with them. We sat and watched them receive gifts from other family members for a while, and then went outside to get some food! We enjoyed a giant buffet full of paneer, naan, chicken, fish, ice cream… pretty much every party type Indian food you can think of. Priyanka (and the wedding photographer) had lots of fun taking pictures of me eating with my hands – Indian style 🙂

The reception was very low key and quite small, but I found out later that the couple had actually been married in the court 3 years ago and were only getting married in the Catholic church because of some sort of family problem that not even Fr. Paul could explain. So, the celebration did not need to be fancy. Either way it was very enjoyable and I felt so loved and accepted by my little church family – from Sister Flora trying to feed me noodles off of a spoon to Sister Justa clapping off beat to every song, a great time was had by all.  

The Unknown

I was thinking about everything that has happened this week – remember that list I made about the things I am learning about myself a few posts ago? Well I have a new one to add – I have realized that I really do not like the unknown. No one spoke any English on the Nepal trip, and when we got our flat tires I realized it was quite possible we would be stranded all night. I also didn’t know how to ask them how much longer the car ride would be, or if their food was safe. I just had to trust them.

When we were invited to the wedding reception, we were told “just be ready at 7. A car will be there.” At the time, Sophia and I didn’t know that anyone else from the church would be going, so I was prepared for it to just be the two of us in a random car going to a place we didn’t know to celebrate a family we had never met. I also was a bit concerned – if we wanted to leave the reception early, how would we tell someone? Would we have to call an auto by ourselves? Would we be bombarded with people wanting to take selfies with us? I just had to trust that I would be safe, and the situation would be fine.

There are many times in life, especially right now, where I don’t know where I’m going next or how I’m going to get there (quite literally). I don’t have the answers to the many questions I’m asking, and it’s possible I will never have the answers. I just have to trust.

Trusting is difficult, and there have been several times where this immersion experience has been incredibly difficult. But the difficult moments are the moments that make the picture perfect moments so worthwhile. A picture is worth a thousand words, but no camera could ever capture the dialogue India is writing on my heart.

I guess I will start out by saying thank you for reading this, as I am pretty much just dumping my thoughts onto the page. I appreciate your openness to hearing what I have to say – please feel free to comment on this post if you have any life advice to share or questions about my experience/spirituality/thoughts. 🙂

Wondering (about the differences and stereotypes of Kolkata)

There were many things I noticed about Kolkata, the first being that it was surprisingly cleaner and quieter than Bihar. I was expecting to see trash everywhere, cows in the streets, and poor people asking for money. While I definitely encountered some of that, it was not the typical slum-filled stereotype that I expected to see. I was surprised at how crisp and clean the air felt and how quiet the streets were. Sophia mentioned that it kind of felt like Orlando Florida, and I would agree with that. Kolkata was definitely an oasis compared to where I am currently staying, and I think that opened my eyes to how poor of an area I am actually living in. I knew it was poor, but because I didn’t have anything to compare it to I didn’t really think twice about it.

Something else that was interesting is that many children came off the streets to knock on our car windows anytime we were stopped in traffic and tried to sell us balloons or asked for money. At first I felt pity for them because I thought that they were living in poverty on the streets. However, Sister Goretti explained something that really surprised me – the children on the streets are actually considered “spoiled”. Their families have enough money to pay for them to go to school, but feel a sense of pride in giving them a “free life” and so they just let their kids roam around on the streets. Once again I was faced with the question – what do these people desire? And why? I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want your children to get a good education, and I don’t understand why roaming the streets asking for money seems like a better option.

I mentioned in my other blog posts that I had a personal taxi driver for 2 days, but I didn’t mention that it was in a governor’s car and we were given a special VIP sticker. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much secondhand white privilege guilt, because while both things were still really cool and exciting, they were definitely not necessary. Having this sort of “special status” actually got us in a bit of trouble on the start of the second day, as the military police working the streets noticed our sticker and pulled us over. We sat on the side of the road for about half an hour while both Tahir and Naveen pulled out papers and argued with the police. In the end, we ended up with red tape covering certain parts of our license plates and an extra “international assembly of human rights” sticker on the car next to our VIP sticker. I still have no clue what we were actually pulled over for, but Sister Goretti explained that sometimes the police pull people over just because they feel like it and will ask for money for random stuff and you just have to pay or they won’t let you go. This really reminded me that I am in a country that does not have as many developed laws and I do know that Tahir and Naveen paid the police some amount of money. Whether or not they were forced to buy the sticker, I don’t know. But it was definitely an intriguing experience.

Speaking of the car, something else I learned (after Tahir chastised me several times for not following this rule) is that you have to get in the car from the left passenger side. The roads are so busy and crowded here that if you get in from the right passenger side, you risk walking into a street where you have no clue what is coming at you next (a cow? some guy brushing his teeth in a cart attached to a bicycle? a basket of chickens? the possibilities are endless). In America, I don’t think twice about what side of the car I enter because even if it is a busy road I usually have just enough room to slightly open my car door and slide in.

I will say, I absolutely loved the weather and scenery in Kolkata. It is monsoon season, and so it rained a lot which was quite peaceful and calming. I saw lots of people bathing in the rivers and everywhere I went smelled of incense and sweet fried dough. It was definitely a spiritual experience, which brings me to my next portion of this post.

Wandering (thoughts regarding faith and mission)

Kolkata was definitely meant to be part of my “Indian conversion story”. I wasn’t really calling this experience a conversion before, but India has been so transformative and challenging and beautiful all at once that it couldn’t be anything but a conversion.

Transformation is incredibly difficult, especially when it happens all at once. My favorite quote is actually “just when the caterpillar thinks it’s life is over, it turns into a butterfly”, and with my mom’s new passion and excitement for raising monarch’s, I have learned a lot about the butterfly’s life cycle. I would say that right now, I am in that gross “goo” stage of the butterfly’s transformation process where I am literally dissolved to mush and I don’t resemble anything like what I once was. The grace of transformation, though, is that everything is shifting, and I will not be in uncertainty forever. I will come out of this experience with new wings. My cousin just recently released an album (super cool) and one of my favorite lyrics on the album is “so don’t be afraid of where you’re going, don’t be afraid of who you are”. So simple, yet so complicated. How do I trust God when I really don’t know where I’m going? Or when I am uncertain and my thoughts are uncontrollable?

In Kolkata, I was reflecting a lot on my mission to be love and to find love, and there were two experiences that really stuck out to me in my search to fulfill this mission. The first was coming out of Mother Teresa House after Mass on the morning of the second day. Right outside there was a cute little coffee shop, and after looking in and seeing plenty of other foreigners enjoying the coffee, we knew it was safe. We went inside, and as I looked around I noticed a sign that read

“Religion is meant to be a work of love. Therefore, it should not divide us and destroy the peace and unity. Let us use religion to help us become one heart full of love, in the heart of God. By loving one another, we will fulfill the reason for our creation – to love and to be loved.”

This quote made me think about how religion – like the walls and rules of the church type of religion –turns peoples away sometimes or divides groups of people because they have differing opinions or can’t find time to go to church or have a sort of “I prefer spirituality over actually attending a church service” type of mindset. I guess I think of religion as a box, and spirituality as the stuff that goes inside that box. You can have one without the other, and I won’t judge you or look differently upon you for having your own opinion about what your faith experience looks like. The real question for me is: how do you find the balance of having both? And how do you become unified in that, when everyone’s opinions and ideas of what God means to them are so different? I think the coffee shop quote reminds me that in the end, sharing a genuine and sincere connection with someone and creating a community in redemptive and understanding love can bring the essence of Christ to someone, even without calling it “religion”. And, that the reason for our creation really is as simple as just showing love to one another.

The second experience I had was in the car, driving around Kolkata. Tahir got his undergraduate degree in Theology and so when he discovered I was Catholic he got really excited and spent the rest of the two days asking me questions about faith and finding praise and worship songs for me to listen to on youtube. Truthfully, this got a bit exhausting, and there were times where he was looking for more of a “preaching moment” and so wouldn’t really listen to what my response was (unless it lined up directly with his ideas).

In one of the quieter hours of the car trip, I was lost in thought when suddenly Tahir spoke up and out of the blue said “Molly?? Who do you say that Jesus is?”

Of course all my thoughts came crashing down around me and I was honestly at a loss for words – my first reaction in my head was “well that’s a loaded question!!”

And yet in my hesitancy and uncertainty while trying to come up with an answer on the spot, I somehow managed to blurt out “To me, Jesus is unconditional love.”

Now, this was one of those “preaching moments” I mentioned before, and Tahir seemed to kind of shrug off my answer and continue talking about more Jesus-related stuff that I honestly don’t remember. I had stopped listening, because I was so in shock of the words that just came out of my mouth. Perhaps Mother Teresa had inspired me in that moment, or perhaps that is the truth that I have always believed but just hadn’t ever thought about.

Not sure how that story fits into anything or where that moment will be used in the rest of this trip. Perhaps I am being told that no matter what happens in the rest of this crazy year there will be love and purpose waiting for me. Perhaps I am being reminded of why I have such conviction for my own faith, because there is unconditional love for me despite my messy and imperfect life. And perhaps it was just a spur of the moment answer. Either way, as I search for my vocation and how this trip fits into the rest of my life, I won’t be able to get those words off of my mind: Jesus is unconditional love.

Day 2 of our journey began with Mass at the Mother Teresa House. Our hostel was about a 5 minute walk away, which made getting to Mass quite easy. All the sisters sat on the left hand side of the room, and everyone else sat on the right hand side. We saw and prayed with several of our friends from the hostel, and once again the sister’s chanting brought an extra sense of peace and holiness to the experience. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel and had breakfast and chai with Brody before parting ways. Sister Goretti, Naveen, and Tahir came to pick us up, and we started our adventures.

While I started the day with my own Catholic faith experience, I spent the rest of the day exploring the faith practices of Hinduism and Jainism. All of the temples we went to during our trip did not allow photography or shoes and often smelled quite strongly of incense. The first temple Sophia and I visited was Belur Math, which is a Hindu temple. We arrived just as they were beginning some sort of prayer service, although with how rushed everything seemed, I am still not quite sure what I actually experienced. Everyone sat on the floor and waited until the doors at the front were opened to reveal a giant statue of some sort of god behind a large panel of glass. As soon as the doors opened, all of the people bowed and prayed momentarily and then immediately stood up to rush to the front to venerate the statue. It was hard to exit the temple because everyone was pushing and shoving over each other to get to the front. It did not feel prayerful at all, and I was intrigued by the fact that everything seemed to happen so fast.

Afterwards we traveled to Dakshineswar Kali Temple, which is another Hindu temple. We didn’t actually go inside this temple because the lines were so long, and after what we had just experienced we weren’t exactly looking for more ways to be pushed around. Instead, we walked to the river and boarded a ferry! We took the ferry to the Vivekananda Setu, which is a bridge over the Hooghly River. We spent the afternoon walking around and exploring, and passed several crowded street stands with food for sale and little places set out with incense and flowers for anyone walking to the temples nearby.

After taking the ferry back, we got in the taxi and went to the Shree Sitalnath temple, which is a Jain temple. It was incredibly ornate, and there were several gardens that we walked around also. There were not that many people there and so were able to relax and take our time taking pictures and walking around in the temple.

We then made our way to Princep Ghat, but not without stopping for dosa! The restaurant we stopped at looked like a little stand off the street, and it definitely did not feel safe at all. Sophia and I kept giving each other uneasy looks despite being endlessly reassured that the food was safe. The people here really do not understand how easy it is for us to be sick from the food, and so we had to just be polite and only eat the part of the dosa that was not touching the plate. It was good, and we did not get sick from it, but it was probably the most uncomfortable food experience I’ve had here so far.

There are many Ghats in Kolkata, and in Hindi Ghat means “river landing stairs”. And that’s exactly what Princep Ghat was – steps that led to the bank of the Ganges river. With the evening coming to an end, it was a perfect way to wrap up our trip.

Okay, so now you’ve survived the whirlwind tour of week 6! Sophia and I did and saw a LOT, and I had many things to process and lots of questions to ask. I thought I would provide a small snapshot of this, so if you choose to read the next part of this giant week 6 blog, please pardon my sometimes unorganized and messy brain 🙂

With our project moving along and the halfway point of our trip flying by our eyes, Sophia and I decided it was time to take a bit of a break from working and explore a different part of India. So on Thursday night we boarded a train and headed for Kolkata, which is located in West Bengal, India. In America, you know this as Calcutta J The sleeper train experience was better than I expected, and despite the trains being rocky at times and almost missing our stop on the way home (we were informed the train would be an hour late to the station but it was really only 15 minutes late and the poor attendant who was very frantically telling us we needed to get off didn’t speak a lick of English), the train rides were actually quite peaceful.

Once we arrived in Kolkata, Sister Goretti – a dear friend of Fr. Paul – picked us up from the train station and took us to the Loreto Sisters Motherhouse for a breakfast of porridge, bread and butter, and chai. We were then picked up by the Naveen, the taxi driver and his friend Tahir, both of whom drove us around for the two days we were in Kolkata. Tahir, Sr. Goretti, and Naveen became our little family for the weekend and they had a blast getting out and seeing sights with us, taking our pictures, and buying us chocolate cookies and mango juice. This trip would not have been the same without them.

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Day 1 in the City of Joy started at the Howrah bridge. This bridge has a footpath and many different markets along it, including a flower market that Sophia and I wanted to walk to. But, with our arrival train also being late and the flower market only being open in the early morning, we slowly drove over the bridge instead. Still, the views of the bridge and of the river were pretty great.

We then headed to St. Paul’s Cathedral and explored a gift shop where the poor women of the community learned how to sew and then stitched all of the items available for purchase. We walked inside the Cathedral also, and it was beautiful.

After St. Paul’s Cathedral, we visited Victoria Memorial Hall. Fun fact – Queen Victoria has actually never been here! The outside gardens were probably my favorite part, and sitting on a bench by the pond with the breeze blowing through my hair was a nice break from the heat. Inside was exquisite, and we walked around both floors looking at the architecture and statues. We also went into an air conditioned part that was more of a museum, describing and depicting many things about Indian history. In my non-history-enthusiast opinion, the best part of this was the air conditioning 🙂

Going to Kolkata would not be complete without a trip to the great banyan tree! So we visited the botanical gardens just for this purpose. Truthfully, I don’t know if walking for almost 2 hours to find it was worth the sight when we got there. But we did enjoy fresh air, lots of natural beauty, and good conversation along the way.

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We left the botanical gardens and as we had been walking for such a long time, stopped at a restaurant to replenish our energy with some vegetable biryani. We’ve had chicken biryani several times at the compound, so both Sophia and I knew we would like the biryani style. We are always extra careful at restaurants as we have read online that most times people get sick not from the food itself but from preparing/serving the food with utensils that have not been cleaned properly. Something we have to watch out for is food that is served on wet or cold plates, and so Sophia and I felt comfortable when the servers cleaned our plates at the table in front of us so we could watch what they were doing.

After lunch, we went to the Mother Teresa House where Saint Mother Teresa’s tomb is. This was definitely the most powerful and humbling experience for me in Kolkata, and the Mother Teresa House will always have a special place in my heart. When we arrived, we walked in and venerated Saint Mother Teresa’s tomb while the Sisters of Charity chanted songs – they have the most beautiful voices and I felt like I was amidst a choir of angels. I cannot even describe the emotion of being in such a sacred place. We spent some time praying and then started to leave, but just as I was getting ready to step out of the room, Sister Goretti pulled me aside and said “do you want to be blessed by Saint Teresa’s relic?” – how in the world would I ever say no to that? I stood in a line with a few other people and waited for the priest to place her relic on my forehead for a blessing. I once read that in times of darkness, Mother Teresa would receive an image of Jesus bending down from the cross to kiss her forehead and in doing so gave her the strength and grace she needed to get through her darkness. And there I was, in the midst of all the uncertainty that is happening in this stage of my life, with Mother Teresa bending down to kiss my forehead. I smile every time I think about it.

At this point it was getting close to dark so we stopped at New Market for about an hour to shop around before going to our hostel. Although the market experience was fun and I did get to try my hand at a bit of bartering, it was quite exhausting. We had several store owners come out and follow us around, trying to get the super white foreigners to come into their shops. One even invited me to his house for tea, but of course I tried my best to politely refuse. The thing about refusing something here is that no usually still means yes no matter how many times or how forcefully you say it – so keeping the eager salesmen away from us was definitely a challenge.

After the market, sister put us in an auto, directed the driver to drop us off, and sent us on our way. This was the first time Sophia and I had been in an auto alone, but since we are pretty used to the way they work at this point we made it to our destination without any problems.

We stayed the night at the Baptist Missionary Society Guest House, where many foreigners stay while in Kolkata. It was really refreshing to have other people understanding our language and our experiences! We made several friends from all different parts of the world, but I think the best part was when we met our (now close friend) Brody. When we got to the hostel, Sophia discovered that she had a really bad sunburn, and was asking around for aloe gel. Brody just so happened to be leaving for the supermarket and invited us to come along. While at the supermarket, we ran into several other people who were obviously not from India, one of them being Jemma. Jemma is from Ireland and she looks like she could be mine and Sophia’s sister – we decided we are Irish triplets. With Brody having a reddish colored beard also, we just had to take a picture of all the Indian gingers 🙂

Since we were already at the supermarket, we of course had to buy some chocolate for all of our new friends to share! We sat around in the lounge chairs at the hostel until late at night eating it conversing about music ministry, Catholicism, and yodeling. (can you tell we were with a bunch of young seminarians?? Fantastic people.) But the story gets even better!

Turns out, Brody is from the Dayton area – and as the conversation continued, I found out that not only did he know the priests at my home parish, but he is also cousins with some of my best friends from high school! And yet I met him in India, of all places. Seriously – what a small world. Sophia and I are already planning on getting dinner with him once we’re all back in Dayton.

With the night ending, our trip was only halfway over. Can you see why I needed more than one blog post for all of this? So much joy and fun to share. Keep reading for the other half…

They say when it rains, it pours – and this week was the perfect storm! Enjoy this four-part installment of week 6, because just one blog post would not be enough to cover it all.

Last week, I wrote that our project was kind of at a stand-still and that we were waiting for approval on our design before moving forward. The most frustrating thing from last week was being told right off the bat that our oven would not work, before we had even built/tested it, without receiving any sort of constructive criticism to improve upon. After going back to the drawing board and doing lots more research we were finally able to agree upon a design that Sophia and I think has potential.

The rest of this week consisted of building the oven structure. We have sanded, painted, applied heat and water resistant putty, drilled too many holes to count, and applied (and reapplied!) wheels to the outside structure. I am probably more excited about the wheels than I should be, but the oven we started with was in the wrong position to receive the maximum sun angle and was too heavy to re-position. So the fact that we can just push this oven around will make a big difference.

We are still working on getting materials for the inside part of the box, but I am super excited with how this oven is turning out. The workers who have helped us accomplish this really know what they are doing and it seems every time I ask them to add or change something, it always turns out incredibly different than how I imagined it, and yet still way better than what I would have come up with.

While I don’t know that much about building ovens and am willing to let the workers show me what ways work best, there is one thing that happened this week that I am very familiar with – 4^th of July! Sophia and I were tasked with making an American lunch to celebrate. Of course, the first things that we thought of were hamburgers and hot dogs, but that was not about to happen as we live in a mostly Muslim community. So we made chickpea burgers and chicken sausages instead! We attempted to make corn on the cob, but we must not be true Americans because it failed miserably. Although, to be fair, no one here had any idea what corn on the cob was and we had to do a lot of explaining to get the point across. Either way, Fr. Paul ended up roasting the corn over a fire before willingly eating it. He did think our pasta salad was fantastic though and that was pretty awesome, especially since Fr. Paul can be quite the food critic! Sophia and I had lots of fun making the pasta salad and smelling pretty much every spice in the food pantry, trying to figure out what would taste most like Italian seasoning and garlic salt.

And how could I forget dessert – watermelon, ice cream, and cadbury chocolate-covered oreos! This was probably the most American part of our meal 🙂

We didn’t see any fireworks in the evening, but that’s okay, because Sophia and I were busy boarding a train instead! See the next post for the beginning of our adventure…     

It feels crazy to say this, but I am just about halfway done with my trip! On one hand, it feels like it’s going by incredibly fast and on the other hand I feel like I’ve been here for decades and am counting down the days until I am back with cooler climates and calmer roads. A lot has happened this week and Sophia and I have some exciting trips planned for the coming weeks, so we hope to stay in good health with steady motivation to push through to the end.

Project

I haven’t really talked about our project in a while, and truthfully it’s because there isn’t a whole lot to say. We’ve taken a break from testing and have been putting together a new design that will combine the promising aspects from both solar ovens we have tested, but it seems every time we bring the design to our director he has something else to say or something new he doesn’t like. So we are kind of stuck in brainstorming mode right now. Such is the design process… you iterate and iterate until you end up with the best solution. It is just frustrating for the people who are excited to have a final product!

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In the meantime, we have been able to visit St. Xavier’s, where SAAP will be moving in the fall. It is much cleaner and nicer than the workshop at the compound, and while I am sad that SAAP has to move (there will be lots of displacement and struggles for the people who currently work here), I can see the benefits for the company.

I also got to help out with a solar water heater installation that happened at St. Michael’s, which is the most prestigious high school in Patna. The problem was when we arrived at the school they didn’t have any water – it’s kind of hard to install a solar water heater when you don’t have any water to heat up! So we positioned the plumbing and left. It was a nice break from working on the solar oven though, and the campus was beautiful – the balcony looked out at the Ganges river and there was a slight breeze so it felt a little like being at the beach (wishful thinking…!)

People

Even though it is only the halfway point, we have already begun to say goodbye… Sister Eren received a call for a new mission and so she left the compound last week. We threw her a party and many people presented her with flowers and sang her songs at Mass. Sophia and I miss her very much!

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We also met Sheila and Sebastian – friends of Fr. Jesu who came and stayed with us for a few days. Sheila had a huge and outgoing personality, while her elderly father Sebastian was calm and caring. I learned from Sheila that if you rest your head on your hand at the table, it means you are tense and it is considered a bad habit here. I told her in America it means you are relaxed (I actually meant sleepy/bored but was trying to be polite) and when Fr. Paul spoke up to say “what if your head is on your hand when your husband dies??” Sheila retaliated “I’d keep it there – that’s a good reason to be relaxed!!”

Through Sheila, I discovered that traveler’s diarrhea and problems with drinking unclean water are not just a concern for foreigners. Sheila ate some street food while we were out one day (the same kind of street food she enjoys often in her home village) and was sick all night after that, but talked about it and went on eating like nothing had happened to her.

Fr. Paul has also been sick a few times, and just kind of goes through the motions like it’s a normal occurrence. This got me wondering – what do people wish for here? Do they wish for cleaner water and safer food because they get sick all the time, or does it even cross their minds because they are so used to having a “weak stomach”? Do they wish for cleaner air and better sanitation, or are they so used to the trash on the roads and spitting out the dust (their spit is incredibly red) that they just can’t even imagine something different? When does a “developing country” become developed? And who gets to decide what that means?

Obviously I don’t have all the answers to these questions, and I’ve seen conflicting results. I’ve had teens come up to me and ask if my water has been filtered before asking me if they can have some, but I’ve also seen some people just bend down and drink the water off the streets. Some people have told me that they hate how hot it is here, and yet I’ve seen other people stand in the heat for several hours without giving any notice to how sweaty they are. It makes me wonder what people want to ask me when they see me walking on the streets of India, and it also makes me wonder: if I was born somewhere else, what would I wish for?

Adventures

This week we saw our first Bollywood movie! The movie was called Bharat and was about a boy (named Bharat) who lost his father and sister while running away from the violence of the Indian partition. The movie followed his life story and consisted of many “music video” moments – there were several 20 minute scenes with lots of video enhanced dancing and singing. The best part of that was Lawrence got up to dance along in the aisle every time the music started! The movie was about 3 hours long with a 5ish minute intermission. And there were snacks! We enjoyed popcorn and masala chips (basically spicy chive and onion potato chips). The most intriguing part of the movie was during one of the war scenes, Bharat stood and sung his allegiance and encouraged several of his army men to do the same. To my surprise, about half the theater stood up to sing along with him. I looked around the room and the people who were not standing all looked very uncomfortable. I wish that I knew more about the history behind what was going on in that moment because it definitely felt like I was part of some sort of protest.

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I mentioned earlier that we visited St. Xavier’s – on the way home from this journey, we stopped at a place called Tarumitra which was a sustainability focused college/park/jungle paradise. I got to enjoy the “free air conditioning” (Fr. Paul’s words) of a rope swing and I indulged my inner child by playing in a tree house. I also saw a dog!! 🙂

The last exciting thing we did this week was we went saree shopping! I did buy one and I do have pictures, but we are still waiting to take the material and get it tailored so I will keep you in suspense until we have the real deal 🙂 One interesting thing that I learned is that women in India are not allowed to wear sarees if they aren’t married. Don’t worry – I am not trying to tell you any secrets by wearing mine! I loved the experience as much as I loved the material I bought. We went into a fancy showroom and sat in comfortable chairs as the men who worked there took material out, waved it around, and laid it on the floor for us to see. We then told them which material we wanted to stay and which material we wanted them to take out, and we also asked prices and our friend’s father bargained with them to get us a really nice deal. We took the different materials we liked and went in front of mirrors as the workers wrapped each one around us so we could see how it looked. Both Sophia and I left feeling very beautiful and pampered!

So you’re halfway there…

…what have you learned so far?

Well, there have been plenty of ups and downs for sure. The most annoying thing is people literally don’t make any plans here. You want to meet your friend at 6:00 tomorrow to go to the mall? Expect them to show up at 4:30. Or, perhaps not at all. You want to go to a different city? Make arrangements a week in advance but know that they’ll probably be cancelled the night before you leave. I am SUCH a planner and an organizer, and this has been my biggest pet peeve.

I am also beginning to realize that while “missionary work” can seem so picture perfect, it is really a challenge and a transformation and is MUCH easier said than done. Something I wrote in my journal the other day – “you can’t just walk in, engineer a solution, and fix the problem. There is always some sort of road block no one really wants to fix – and why would they? The things I think are ‘road blocks’ – no schedules, trash everywhere, the many things that make me uncomfortable – are the very things that give these people life and purpose. Who would want to change that?”

Things I have learned about myself:

1. I absolutely NEED my family (hi mom 🙂 ). Before this trip, I used to have wishful thoughts about opportunities to live in other countries or getting a job in a different state. But after being here for a month, I am realizing that my heart is with the people I care about most and no experience or time could ever change that.

2. I actually really like vegetables and miss them waaaayyy more than I expected. Tonight’s dinner consisted of rice, mashed potatoes, and pasta, and normally I’d be pretty pumped about that. Today I didn’t really want to eat any of it. Everyone keeps saying India is super diverse and the food is different everywhere you go but I’m still waiting to experience something excitingly delicious.

Hmm… okay well I thought there would be more to that list but this is all I am coming up with for the moment. It’s almost 10pm here so I think I will just end this post with a few fun pictures and you can stay tuned for what I learn in the second half of my trip!

Sending love