My experiences in India

Some of my experiences that didn't make it into the blog:

• going to a Telegu movie with a family
  
• feeding the elderly poor at an ashram,
• having my own private mass with the Bishop
  
• addressing 450 boys at junior college graduation ceremonies
• participating in the opening ceremonies for a new auditorium at the junior college
• speaking to 10th graders for an hour class
• participating in Stations of the Cross on Fridays
• having Mass by candlelight due to power cuts
• listening to stories from people who have taken assignments all over the world
• Chatting with the Chief Minister at a political rally
• Drinking fresh coconut water and sampling fresh sugar cane juice
• having lunch at convents and parish houses
• Attending mass for the nuns profession of final vows, and two different Silver jubilee celebrations
• Handing out scholarships to top students from St. Vincent De Paul Society
  
• 
  

Transportation in India

Time for another quiz about driving in India.

At night, it is proper to:
a. drive with your brights on so you can blind the coming driver,
b. drive without any lights,
c. drive with lights on low beams.
Answer, A. Try to drive with your lights on high beams and if necessary, switch to high beams when approaching an oncoming car so they can be sure to see you. Don't worry about blinding them.

How many vehicles can fit across three lanes?
A. three, one per lane.
B. at least two buses, a couple of cars, and as many motorcycles as can fit in,
C. two buses, a truck, two autorickshaws, a half dozen motorcycles, one full-size car and an ox-cart if you use the sidewalk, too.

Answer: C

The Department of Highways insists on safe road conditions. What can be legally used as dividers for a highway?
a. concrete, crash-tested barriers
b. metal guard rails
c. rocks found along the road will be good enough
Answer: C

Define a break inspector(s):
a. a state authorized, testing facility
b. A State highway patrol officer
c. a herd of buffalo lazily crossing the highway
Answer: c

What is the proper speed limit on a state four lane divided highway?
a. 60 mph
b. 60 kph
c. what speed limit?
Answer: c, there are none

What is the proper speed limit in town?
a. 40 kph
b. 40 mph
c. You're kidding, right?
Answer: C, who knows? it's not posted, nobody can go faster than a crawl, most pedestrians walk faster than the cars, and who's going to give you a ticket?

Traffic is slow in town. You're getting impatient. So it's perfectly acceptable to:
a. wait patiently until you can move safely.
b. pull over to the middle lane and go up onto the low curb dividing the highway and just scoot around the problem while everyone else is stuck,
c. whatever it takes.
Answer: B. But C is also acceptable. Using the sidewalk is also a proper form of moving forward in grid lock conditions.

You need to cross lanes so you can get to the other side of the road. It is proper to:
a. go around the block and come out on the other side of the street
b. wait until there is a break in the traffic, then proceed with utmost caution
c. plow right straight through at any point, just hold your hand out to signal that all oncoming traffic should give way to you.
Answer: C

You are pulling into traffic. it is only proper to merge in:
a. at an intersection
b. at an exit or entrance ramp
c. anyplace, anytime, anywhere
Answer: guess

Vendors are allowed to approach vehicles on the street to offer something for sale. True or false?
True, not only allowed but who else would entertain you while your stuck in traffic?

The intersection is in total gridlock. It looks like a medieval battlefield in the middle as everyone tries to advance across. The oncoming cars should:
a. stop and wait until the intersection clears.
b. line up across all lines, face oncoming traffic which is doing the same, and prepare to charge as soon as there is a break in the action.
c. turn around, go home as it is hopeless.
Answer: B. As soon as the car next to you moves, advance at top speed to ram your way through, yelling "Charge" if you wish.

Traffic is slow in the city. You decide that since you're on a motorcycle, it would be best to:
a. go home
b. use the sidewalk and go against traffic
c. wait patiently in your own lane
Answer: B, why not?

FOR EXTRA CREDIT:
You are driving a car in rural India when you accidently hit and kill/injure a person traveling on a smaller form of transportation. You should immediately:
a. try to aid the person. Call 108 for Er, or take him to the nearest medical facility for treatment under the Good Samaritan Rule.
b. call 108 for ER, then call for the police to come. do not leave the scene of the accident under any circumstances.
c. Abandon the car, run as fast as you can and hide until the crowd disperses because the villagers will attempt to kill you as a form of vigilante justice since you were driving a larger vehicle regardless of who was in the wrong. Do not attempt to save the car as they will strip in and it will be a total loss. Try for insurance reimbursement but don't bet the ranch they will give it to you.
Answer: RUN for your life. Do not look back. They may be gaining on you.

Extra-Extra credit:
What time is it when all of the above traffic rules start to seem normal and you are no longer terrified to get into a car?

answer: time to go home

Sights and Sounds in India

I try to take my camera everywhere I go in India. But no matter what you do, you just can't catch every great shot you see as you whizz by in a car.
And there are times when it just isn't appropriate to point a camera at someone just so you can show the folks back home, like the Leper who stood at the car window holding up his hands with no fingers. Or the garbage pickers who walk the city streets doing "recycling". They are women mostly and you can spot them among all the people by the kind of bag they carry. They may be my age for all I know.
Sometimes I don't want to keep a memory of what I see, like the skinny dogs that wander the streets eating from the garage piles or the puppy with flies eating at his ears. Who plays with them? In a world where there isn't enough to eat, there is no word for "pet". There are animals for work and for food, not for companionship and fun.
Other times, I'd love to yell "stop the car" so I can catch the picture of the cow "parked" among the long row of motorcyles lined up on the street in front of the shops. There was this cow, headed in, standing there parked, just waiting for someone to come out and kick start it. Or the alabaster traditional statue of Ghandi in the town square wearing the pair of real wire rimmed glasses that someone had placed on his face. Were they going for realism or did they just have a sense of humor?
India is more than a series of pictures, of course. It's a world of sounds, too. Like the sound of parrots scolding each other in the early mornings, or the chant of the Mullah five times a day calling the faithful to prayer. Or the 5:30 a.m. song and morning prayer blasting from the Cathedral loudspeakers. There's the white noise of traffic with its incessant honking of horns and the universal sound of kids playing in the schoolyards outside. For some reason kids always have to yell at the person standing next to them. Playing must not count unless you yell because they all do it. When I first got here, I heard all the sounds everyday. Now I have to stop to listen or I can't hear them anymore. Maybe it's time to come home when everything seems normal.

Street food in India

Indians love snacks and there is an amazing variety of street food in India. It's everywhere frying, roasting, grilling, sizzling, boiling, simmering, baking. The safest choice is always to pass but sometimes it's really hard to resist.

Random musings in India

The Indian numbering system is different than ours so I had a hard time using excel in my financial analysis.

• All numbers up to 99,9999 are the same as in the US.
  
• But the next number is one Lakh or 1,00,000. We would write 100,000. But they see it as ten 10,000s or one Lakh.
  
• Ten Lakhs makes up a Chore or 1,00,00,000, which to us is a cool million, 1,000,000.
  
• The terminology is easy to remember so when someone says so-and-so paid 1 chore for a house, you know that it's a million rupee mansion. But this gets pretty confusing when you are looking at a spreadsheet and your brain really wants the numbers to look "normal".

Signs I have seen in India:

• "Decent Hotel"
• "Gold Deposit Schemes"
• "leaptops"
• "Homely meals"
• and my favorite...painted on the back of all petrol tanker trucks: "Highly Inflammable"
  

ICU in India

No pictures today. I didn't think to grab my camera on my way to the hospital yesterday. It was not exactly a fun day in India for me. But it was a successful one. I did live to tell about it.

I have been trying to drink a lot of water due to the heat. But, apparently, I am not drinking enough since I began to have heat stroke symptoms again on Wednesday morning. This is the third time I've experienced them. The first time, I fought back to health without outside assistance, the second time I went to see a doctor at a Catholic hospital for a shot and some pills. This time I was admitted to the Public hospital where poor people go for free care and taken to ICU.

I decided that I needed an IV drip when my temperature shot up to 102 in a few hours. A young priest was assigned to take me to the Public teaching hospital since he was related to the head of Pulmonology. Fr. Suneel was able to call ahead and ask for someone to attend to us. I'm not sure if they have an ER and in any case, they were all afraid we would just sit and wait for hours if we didn't know someone on the inside. I asked Fr. Joseph to come with us as he served in Chicago for five years and his English is better than most of the people who live there. I made him promise not to leave him at any point and this turned out to be a very good decision.

About half way to the hospital, my extremities started tingling begining with my hands and feet and traveling towards my body, probably due to low blood sugar. By the time I got to the hospital I couldn't stand without help. Since the hospital doesn't have orderlies to transport you in, this turned out to be a problem. I got into a wheel chair and eventually put myself onto a bed wit help but it was difficult. when they finally decided to move me to ICU, I had to get up and transfer myself to a gurney- the beds don't wheel and there are no boards to transfer a patient. So I had to move myself.
Patients also bring their own clothes apparently since I was never put into a hospital gown. Since I had been violently sick, I was a sticky, wet mess and I stayed that way for several hours until Fr. Suneel went back with the driver to get some of my clothes. I was still burning up so I was ready to cut my own clothes off and I tried to indicate to get me out of my clothes. They were more worried about my modesty the whole time. Eventually someone got me into one of my own nightgowns. Had it been the US, they would have had those clothes off, along with my watch, bracelet and ankle bracelets in a jiffy. But nobody goes out without their bangles, so an IV was eventually started with bangles still attached.

I never saw most of what happened after we got there as I had my eyes closed. But I did stay concious and I tried to keep listening to all questions and answers. there seemed to be a lot of debate going on and two doctors concurred it was food poisioning. Eventually, they gave me some shots and started an IV but my temperature wasn't coming down fast enough, plus the power went off and the room quickly got stiffing hot. It had only a fan, no a/c. So it was decided to move me to ICU which had A/C. This is when I discovered that they couldn't wheel from the bed I was on and that I had to get up and walk the few steps to the gurney and get up onto it myself. This was not easy in my condition.

I finally opened my eyes, I was behind a curtain. There were flies trapped in the windows and flying around. Fr. Joe was swatting mosquitos. I could hear the death rattle of the man in the bed on the other side of the curtain. there was a port for oxygen but that was all the equipment that was there. The only other difference from the standard room was that I was behind a curtain, there was A/C, only one "family member" could be there with me (instead of the entourage that came with me), the oxygen port and the bed could be raised and lowered. That was ICU. There were at least 30 people behind curtains. No rooms, no monitors, no equipment. Toilets were down a very long corridor, no commodes provided- just a room with a drain and a water spigot. After three 400 ml of fluid, I didn't care if I peed on the front lawn.

I had an aide assigned to me and Fr. Joe gave her cash to stay and take care of me after her shift ended. She knew her way around inside the hospital and since it was not a Catholic hospital, we needed some help. Nobody spoke English in ICU. Father had to rely on Telegu, Tamil, and some of the language of Kerala to speak to the people who came in and out. Most of the staff came around to see what I looked like and to ask what I was doing there. I could hear the word, "American" among the tumble of Telegu converstations and Fr. said everyone wanted to know where my husband was. He said I came alone which was a big shock to them and that he was my only relative in India. I eventually told him that he should say he was family on my mother's side. At least my mom and my brothers get a tan and he's pretty dark.

When I was China, an American nurse who was living there as an expat with her husband and children, gave us a lecture on what to do if immediate medical attention was required. It was perhaps the most scary lecture I have ever heard. She was forthright, honest, specific and detailed. I'll never forget Roxanne or her instructions. So I'm going to pass them on here in case you ever find yourself in a foreign country needing emergency medical attention.

1. Always have cash from the local currency on you for an emergency. Cash speaks the loudest and it translates into any language even if you don't speak a word of it. Trust me on this one.
2. Know how to call for an ambulance AHEAD OF TIME and if they will actually come and where they will take you. This last issue can be a life or death decision. Have a back up plan if you don't get the answers to these questions that make you feel 100% confident. Write down the name of the hospital in the LOCAL language as not all cab drivers will ble able to figure out what you are saying, especially if you are aggitated.
   
3. Know which hospital you should go to and how to get there. Not all hospitals will take a foreginer. they don't want to deal with the hassles if you die. (Feeling "weak" in India is an everyday occurance and not taken as a symptom of anything since malnutrition is rampant, the heat is brutual and life is hard. So they won't take you serious if you say your are really weak. They'll probably tell you to home and lie down instead of running an IV drip or taking your temp.)
4. Be an advocate for the person you are with and have an advocate if you need medical attention. Carry a list of the meds you are taking and the dosages. No one ever asked me if I was taking any prescriptions while I was in the "ER".
   

I did three things correctly yesterday:

1. I insisted I needed medical attention.
2. I said I needed it NOW when they said I would be taken that evening which was six hours later.
3. I got the best translator in the house and made sure he stayed with me 100% of the time. He was also my advocate.

They did two things right: they called ahead to someone they knew personally and got me to the head of the line and Fr. Joe paid cash to get support and info inside the hospital.

Emergencies can happen anytime, anywhere. Have a plan before you need one.

Hindu art in India

I'm really behind in my blogging so I thought I'd just show some Hindu art until I can write another entry.

An Apostle in India

India has always been considered a spiritual place- 1,000 religions are practiced here and it's the birthplace of Buddhism. But since Hinduism predominates, most people do not think of India as a Christian country. Amazingly, the Church's history in India actually stretches all the way back to the time of Christ.
The Apostles were instructed to go out and spread the word to the whole world, so they did. I don't know how they handed out assignments, but St. Thomas got Parthia and India. India was on everybody's radar at the time because of its spices, which were sold throughout the Middle East. Thomas finally arrived on the west coast in 52 A.D. and the people of Kerala (who are Syrian Christians) strongly maintain that their forefathers were converts of this apostle. Catholicism is so strong here that the state has produced 1,000s of priests and nuns. Wherever he landed, he traveled throughout North and South India and ended up in Chennai, or as it was called, Madras. He was killed in 72 A.D. by some Hindu fundamentalists who were upset about all the converts to Christianity. I visited the site where he was killed on top of a hill where a church is now located. Then I headed to his tomb which is under the Basilica of St. Thomas in the picture. His tomb has been officially opended four times. The church has been built and rebuilt over the centuries. This last one was finished in 1896 and restored in 2004. It holds the distinction of being one of only three churches built over the tomb of an Apostle, the most famous one being St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. This may be as close as I'll ever get to experiencing what it must be like to visit the Holy Lands since they keep shooting at each other. I bought a book and a DVD so anyone who is interested can see the story of Thomas for themselves when I get home.

Holy men in India

The gentlemen in the picture are "Holy men" in India. They have renounced earthly possessions in favor of a spiritual quest and they rely on charity for their daily needs. I saw them while I was waiting for Fr. Bala when we were in Hyderabad shopping for supplies. I was able to just stand in the doorway of the store and watch the world go by and I saw several different groups of "Holy men" during the time I was there observing. To me, each group looked like they were "working the street". When I mentioned this to one of the priests, they commented that anyone in India can dress up in orange/saffron and become a "holy man", no training is necessary. Just put on an outfit and hold out your hand for money- a good reminder not to confuse "mystic" with what is simply "exotic".

Tomorrow I'm off with Fr. Joseph to find another holy man, the Apostle Thomas. He came to India in 58A.D. and he's buried in Chennai (old name: Madras). So I'm taking a break from working to learn some history and see a little of India. Check back in a few days for the story of Thomas.

Housing in India

This picture was taken in a one-room, thatched-roof hut in the "suburbs". The lady of the house is Fr. Ravi's sister and that's one of her boys who is a student. The other is away at college. The man in the striped shirt is Fr. Suneel. We went visiting Sunday night and called on a number of Fr. Ravi's relatives. This lady served us cool drinks and a snack outside on the "front porch" which is also where they sleep during the hot weather. That's her kitchen in the other picture and it represents about one quarter of the house so it's about the size of my garden shed. Her husband is a carpenter and he built the house. The roof is made of sticks tied together with twine and then covered with thatching. In the rainy season, it leaks. But the house was clean and well managed, very orderly and they have a tv. Everyone seems to have a tv in India except the priests who can't afford one. The village gets the dish and then they cable out to each house. Everyone seems to think it's perfectly normal to have a tv but not a bathroom.

This picture was taken in a lovely four room house in the same village. The man borrowed money to get to Kuwait where he worked as a manual laborer. Over 9 years, he paid off the loan, and saved enough to build the house. His two oldest boys are now work in construction and they are helping to support the family. They're putting the two younger sons through school. He told me the only money he spent on himself was for food. I believed him.

Message from your sponsor....in India

That's not an Indian Girl Scout in the picture. That's me trying on my single purchase in India so far- a simple cotton outfit that I wear almost everyday. I can wash it and it's dry in no time in this heat.

I'm still getting the hang of this blog software and I've made some edits to blogs I drafted earlier. So you may just want to scroll down a few entries just to see if something new has popped up out of sequence. You can also check the sidebar for topics. Make sure you check out the picture of Fr. Ravi holding the baby. He's my supervisor here.

I think about home everyday and I love all the emails that I get with news from the USA. My international email is:
Dawnmcnerney@live.com If you want to know anything specifically about my adventures here, just send me an email and I'll be happy to answer you.

yours truly,
It's Dawn in India

Mass Weddings in India

This couple is one of 55 poor couples who agreed to be married in a mass marriage at the Cathedral. It was an interdenominational ceremony as their were many different faiths involved. The Cathedral just happens to be large enough to hold everyone.

Only the very poor are eligible for this government sponsored program. When couples are married, both families host multiple celebrations so each side gets to know the other family. The entire village is invited because it takes a whole village to care for a marriage. Everyone gets involved as the new couple becomes part of the community. It's every one's responsibility that they are successful.

But the poor people often borrow to accomplish this and they can not repay the debt. This causes more poverty and results in all kinds of problems. So the government offers this special program. If the couple agrees to a mass marriage, the government will give them the clothes in the picture, some money to get started, and a number of gifts. Each family can only invite xx number of members to attend in exchange.

They all gather in the morning. Whole families come riding in wagons pulled by tractors decorated for the occasion. Brides went to the girls' boarding school and got ready with their mothers and sisters. it was a madhouse. Mothers were holding their daughters and crying, there was much scurrying around, brides were everywhere. The grooms got ready at the Cathedral. Father's were yelling at their sons to shake a leg, ties were tied,shirts tucked in, grooms were everywhere. Then there was a long procession of couples and their families to the cathedral led by a typical Indian band of clarinets and drums. it's quite a parade. It looked like a performance of Admiral King's marching band back in the old days- everyone out of step, out of tune and out of line.

Then the couples all gathered in the front pews while the families looked on from the back and in the windows. There is a short ceremony and the groom puts a heart necklace on the bride. They exchange flower garlands and they are showered from above with marigold petals and everyone throws rice...inside the church! It was a mess!

The government and the Church insist that girls must be at least 18 and boys must be 22 but they want to raise the ages. In the villages girls sometimes are as young as 12. If the parents want her out of the house, they lie about her age. There are no birth certificates so there is no proof. Ask a person in the village when someone was born and they may answer, "When the rains came or the year of the flood, or the year the Twin Towers fell in America."

Sitting there in the church during the ceremony, the couples looked about as excited as if they were watching paint dry. No one was smiling. They each went through the motions like they were reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

I couldn't attend the celebration because of the heat. I was starting to get dehydrated again so I had to head back to the Bishop's house to protect myself. The party lasted until 3:00 and then everyone went back to the villages and the couples started their new lives.

and the Winner is....in India

for for Best Dance Number..............The local Folk Dancers from Andhra Pradesh
for Best Art Design.................The Hindu temple
for Best Costume......................The tribeswomen of Andhra Pradesh
for Best Set................................The ancient Fort of Golkonda, circa 1500 A.

Government Hospitals in India

Fr. Balaswamy and I made a quick two day trip to Hyderabad to purchase supplies for the new Bishop's house which is due to open in late March. Our driver's daughter is a nurse and he asked me several times over the two days if I wanted to see her hospital. I don't like to visit hospitals under the best of circumstances as I have been known to feint walking through empty ER departments. So I was pretty sure that I wasn't ready for an Indian government hospital but I finally relented and we went. Fr. declined to visit. Smart man.

The hospital is a former Queen's palace, now a 1500 bed general surgical hospital, no OB, no peds, no specialties like cancer. I'm guessing it was deeded over to the state sometime after the British pulled out in the 1940s but the building is much, much older than that. It apparently hasn't had a repair done to it since the Queen left town and it shows. Archtectually it's a stunning building. But the outside is covered in moss and broken stucco, tilework is coming off the inside walls, spit stains the corners of the corridors, stained glass windows are broken out of the entryway ceiling, and the grounds haven't seen a gardener in years and years.

Patients beds overflow into the halls. All wards are dormitory sytle. there is no such thing as privacy let along a private room. I visited the post-op department where two house doctors keep watch and two nurse take care of 60 patients, male and female in two long rows. No bed had a chart on the end. IV drips were running everywhere. They recouperate there for two or three days and then move down to less intensive care.

Ceiling fans provide the only air conditioning and the sun provides heat during the cold weather. The wards were mercifully cool but I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like when the summer months rolled around. The beds were all simple metal cots that looked like they were left over from WWI, or made the US Civil War.

Families are free to come and visit and to help provide care. Small groups were camped out in the halls having their meals on the floor while they took a break from overseeing their loved ones. But orange peels and other garbage gathered in the corners of the halls and fell down stair wells.

All care is provided for free I was told by my proud driver. I said it was amazing.

Genetics in India

Earlier I wrote about a home for disabled children that I visited. Some of the children were clearly victims of terrible accidents. But recently I've determined that the rest were probably victims of genetics.
Look closely at the little boy in the picture and you'll see that his skin tone is as white as mine. His hair is coal black but it's obvious that it's been dyed. His natural hair is platinum blond and he has some form of albinoism. I've seen a number of these children during my time here and I finally inquired as to the cause.

In a world where marriages are always arranged, families examine the consequences of a marriage very carefully. If land is involved in the transaction, a family may have first cousins marry in order to keep the land in the family. The price they pay is genetic malformations. It's not that they are unaware of the reproductive consequences. They understand them but to the land owners, it's deemed an acceptable price to pay. To the kids who suffer, I'm sure it is not such a fair deal.

This little boy was in an orphage and he was delighted to meet someone who looked like him. we had a good laugh about our "whiteness". But I do wonder how many of these children met with very early childhood fatalities.

Fundamentalists in India

Today is Ash Wednesday. For some, the term applies too literally.

India has had religious tolerance for 5,000 year. That is until about 1875 when some Hindu fundamentalists decided that India was only for Hindus. They reasoned that since both Islam and Christianity came from the Holy Lands, neither religion has any place in India.

The situation has since reached devastating proportions. In 1998, a mob of 5,000 attacked Christians setting fire to 92 houses and burning churches. Two Australian missionaries were burned to death. Their crime had been caring for lepers for the last 25 years. All of the lepers were Hindus. No one was ever converted.

Christians are forced to reconvert to Hinduism by drinking "holy cow urine mixed with dung" to counter the effects of communion on the body.

On Christmas Day in 2007, six people were killed and 100 homes burned. On August 25, 2008, 111 were beaten and two missionaries were set on fire. Their crime had been taking care of lepers for the last 10 years. None of the lepers were Christian.

Today, the Christian community lives in a tent city under the protection of the government until a "solution" is found. These are relief camps for the people who had to flee their homes and land in fear of killing. Sixty people were killed in further violence in November, 2008 and 20,000 were rendered homeless. Today around 10,000 people are still living in the camps. Priests from the Society of the Divine Word are secretly living among the refugees and attempting to minister to their needs. While the government has proposed compensation for the losses incurred, the Fundamentalists are already mobilizing a counter attack opposing the use of state tax money to support the victims. The interesting thing is that no one wants to talk about this issue. It's not in the press and even the Church doesn't seem to want to call attention to it in fear that more publicity will just fan the flames of reprisal. It makes me think of the classic poem during WWII about how no one protested when the Nazis rounded up different groups of people and no one protested. The last line is "And then they came for me". There was nobody left to protest.

This isn't a very good report on the situation and you can read more about it by googling "Orrisa Christian attacks". Historians, government officials and sociologists will tell you it's a complex situation rooted in the ancient past and woven into the culture. But as an accountant, my general rule is always "follow the money". Scratch the surface just a little and you'll find that the castes with money are mad because the Church is taking away its cheap labor. By trying to fight for human rights for the Christians, by educating them, and giving them skills, the Church is attempting to elminate poverty. Poverty means people will work for nothing but food. I'm pretty sure this is called "slavery" and you know what happened in the US when someone tried to "free the slaves". It's always about economics even when its about religion.

India is a dangerous place right now and we haven't heard the end of the Fundamentalists.
As you enter the season of Lent, remember to be thankful that you can express your beliefs without fear in the USA, even if you have no beliefs.

Girls in India

The village girls in the picture might be all smiles but they have had the bad luck to have been born female in India where boys are clearly preferred.

While the Church is working on empowering women, the government has created a campaign to "Save the girl child". Last week the paper carried a story of a baby girl who had been buried alive by her parents. She was the 14th child and they did not another girl. Someone found the baby and today she is back at home with her parents who are receiving government-supported counseling. For every one that is saved, who knows how many are not?

What exactly is so wrong with girls according to the locals?

• Girls are more expensive to maintain supposedly than boys. They must have pretty saris, earrings, bangles and ankle bracelets.
  
• The family must raise a dowry in order for another family to take a daughter off their hands. Dowries are expensive.
• Girls can't help to provide security for the family in the event of an attack.
• Girls can't work as hard as boys and they don't earn as much.
• There is no sense in educating them as they will join the husband's family after marriage and her family will get no benefit from the investment.

Overall, they're not considered daughters, they're liabilities. Sometimes, India is really hard to take.

Driving in India

Time for another quiz:

On a four lane, divided toll road, you should expect to see:
a. A farm tractor going 6 mph,
b. A three-wheeled auto-rickshaw going4 mph,
c. A bicycle rickshaw going 2 mpg,
d. All of the above

Answer: D Expect these and more.

On a four lane, divided toll road, you should never, ever encounter:
a. a farmer driving an ox cart which is heading towards you in the high speed lane,
b. a full sized dump truck going in the wrong direction and heading towards you,
c. a full sized truck driving in the middle of the road, hogging up both lanes,
d. none of the above

Answer: D You will experience all of these phenomena in India.

You are passing a truck and a bus is coming towards you on a 2 lane road when you realize that you will not be able to overtake the truck by the time the bus comes to you. You decide to:
a. drop back immediately and return to your proper lane.
b. beep the horn so that both vehicles know you are there
c. squeeze between them both
d. pray
answer: b, c and d are correct if you are Indian, only A is correct for Americans

If you are driving late at night and you become tired, you should:
a. find a rest stop to park the vehicle and take a rest
b. pull over a safe distance on the side of the road and rest there,
c. stop and take a rest even if it means that you are still on the road.
d. keep driving
Answer: C. Go ahead and stop anywhere, no need to actually be off the road

True or false:
a. Motorcycle Helmets are required in India but no one enforces it anyway....................True
b.Licenses are required to drive in India but no one enforces it.....................True
c. Driving instructions sound like a good idea but are not necessary since you have ridden in a car before and it doesn't look that hard to do...........................................................True
d. Tail lights and/or a reflector are optional equipment in India and not generally necessary....True

On the road at night, you should expect to encounter:
a. Monkeys. Throw them food if you are Hindu.
b. Bandits. Give them your wallet and hope they won't beat you up.
c. Police road blocks. Stop per their request unless you are one of the smugglers they are looking for. then you will have to decide your own course of action. A bribe, perhaps?
d. All of the above
Answer: D

True or False:
a. If you drive at night in India you must have a death wish...............true
b. There is such a thing as an oversized load.........................false. not in India
c. If you are a women passenger on a motorcycle, you are allowed to hang on to the driver............False. Touching (and kissing) in public is considered way too intimate. Expect to be thrown off at the first bump. Do NOT hang on to the driver even if he is your husband.

You can expect to encounter on the road:
a. Widows dressed in white and wearing masks. They practice Zorastrasism and are pilgrims.
b. Men without shoes or shirts but wearing orange loin cloths, running on the road, uphill in the heat of the day pushing a cart with a statue. They are Hindu priests and they are pilgrims.
c. The Indian Highway patrol
d. A, and B
Answer: D

Vocations in India

Wanted: Looking for a few good men. Develop lifelong friends, learn English, complete your education, and acquire specialized skills in our comprehensive program. Employment is guaranteed after completing program. Package includes: Total job security, Housing, Travel opportunities, Heavenly fringe benefits package, Stylish uniforms. Must be willing to work weekends. Apply: nearest seminary.

The Pope wants to know why the vocations are flourishing in India and not in the West where they are in decline. I've wondered about this too so I've asked. The answer I get from the older priests is: poverty. They refer to the great Irish Famine as a historical precedent. Men became priests during that time just so they had a chance to get something to eat. This undoubtedly must be a factor and it may even be the impetus for starting the process. But it can't be the only motivating force based on what I've seen.

At least two other factors are involved. One is that they talk about the vocations here. The children are exposed to real life examples and the vocations are respected, valued, honored lifestyle choices. Also, no one starts dating at age 12 like in the West. Marriages are arranged by the family and according to their timetable. No one expects to meet someone, fall in love, decide to get married and start a family. They wait until their family makes the decision. So there are no attachments formed between young men and women.

The wash out rate at the seminary is very high- anywhere from 50% to 95%. Some leave, some are asked to leave. It normally takes 14 years after grade ten to become ordained and the Bishop just ordered another year added on. They do everything in English from the minute the enter the minor seminary, regardless of whether they've had English as a subject in school. telegu is the native tongue here.

Nothing about this educational track is easy and when they "graduate" they can look forward to a life of service in impossible conditions, continuous hours, a complaining public, and a life of total obedience where no decision is ever again totally your own. Poverty is a given, even though the Diocesan priests don't take the vow, they sure live like they did. The priests in this Diocese will easily travel five+ hours to say a feast day mass together, then turn around at 10:00 at night and drive all night to get back. There's little accommodation here and their work it back at the parish.

There is always disagreement in any organization and the Diocese is no different than any other "family". But I've seen incredible displays of unity and for the most part, they sure look like they are happy with their lives. I've heard some say that they'd rather die than not be a priest anymore and I know they mean it.

• Father Bala runs a leprosy colony. He's 59. He's been there 3 years already and he knows that the likelihood of ever leaving for another post is slim. Nobody wants to be sent to an isolated post like that, he's older, and he's had a chance to do mission work in Africa, so he knows this is where he'll likely be for as long as he can still say mass. One hundred percent of the inmates are there to die. They are all Hindu.
• Several of the priests came from more affluent backgrounds. They could have joined their local diocese where life would have been considerably easier but they choose to come to Cuddapah. Cuddapha is considered a mission posting even in India. Life is no picnic here for the residents and it's certainly no picnic for the priests. Their housing is old, leaky and rustic in the extreme. Most don't have a cook. A few have their moms live with them. A few get meals from the local nuns. The rest are on their own. There is no airconditioning in the villages. They are lucky to have power. Most of the time, it's cut for ever increasing hours per day as the days get hotter.
  
• All of them stretch their meager allowances to support someone. A few send money home to family. But most of them are also supporting someone who has no one to help them- an orphan they're putting through school, someone who is ill, the stories go on. This assistance is done outside of the normal channels and it's completely on their own. Most struggle to figure out how they are going to gather up enough for the next tuition, medication, etc.
  

The need in India is limitless. You either look at the situation and say it's hopeless or you decide that the opportunities to make a difference are abound.

If they became priests because they were looking for a life with purpose, then they have found a great occupation.


if they are looking for a life with purpose, then they have found a great occupation

Rural housing in India

The diocese is composed of one big city, Cuddapah, some towns with commercial businesses, villages with tiny shops, and stations or small groups of houses. These are just a few of the styles of housing in the rural areas.

Cities and towns and villages are generally a mix of Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. The stations are often composed of tiny groups of Christians who have been forced out of their villages by the Hindus. The Hindus have the money, so they make the rules and the Christians belong to the lowest social caste. They call them the "Outcasts" for a reason. In spite of this discrimination, the Church takes anyone into their schools and other programs regardless of religion and I have yet to hear one negative comment uttered about anyone.

Right now the Diocese is battling to get some of its land back. One strategy the Hindus have employed is to plow up the Church's land and start farming it. It's often difficult to get the land since the Courts belong to the highest bidder. So the Church tries to fence in their area. But it's a pretty tough sell in a grant request to ask for money for a fence since most agencies want to see a more productive use of the money.

City life in India

Indoor plumbing is great, but what happens after you open the drain or flush? The answer in the diocese of Cuddapah, like for much of the world, is the open sewer takes it all away, eventually. Open sewers run along the street just in front of the houses/buildings. There are little bridges that cross them so that you don't have to jump over them. There are no sewage treatment plants, no storm sewers. The open sewers connect to canals which eventually connect to rivers and to the sea.

The government is in the process of putting in underground sewer pipe along the major roads like the one in front of the Bishop's house. This will be a huge improvement but there is a long way to go before there are no open sewers left. In the meantime, there is a huge canal in front full of standing water. Construction has also ruptured the water pipes from the well that serves the Bishop's house and they have had to buy water. The water from the girls' boarding school adjacent to the House drains down into the front yard and has created a small pond of standing water that is perfect for breeding the mosquitoes that cause malaria. It has grown so much in the time I have been here that it is now creating another pond on the playground at the boys school on the other side of the House. The kids splash through it as they play cricket everyday. I can see them from my window. I don't think it's sanitary water.

Until the government completes the construction and the Church finds enough money for the repairs, we'll just keep trying to avoid the mosquitoes as best we can.

Sanitation in India

When I was a child, we'd take road trips to visit family members who lived far away. When we'd stop for gas and a potty break, I'd take one look at a dirty bathroom and tell my mom that I "didn't have to go". If it wasn't scrupulously clean, there was no way I was going into that disgusting room, no matter what. It's amazing I didn't die of kidney failure. Since I like to travel, I've had to adjust my standards somewhat because bathrooms around the world are somewhat different.

In India, the first question is whether there is a bathroom. For a large portion of the population, no facilities are available. These people must eliminate bodily waste outside on whatever land is available, whether public or private. Cell phones are available for nominal cost, but only half of the rural homes have any toilet facilities. This isn't so much a case of misplaced priorities as it is a lack of understanding of the connection of health and hygiene. No one ever taught them this simple fact. And, of course, there is the problem of money. You can know all about health issues and if you don't have the money to build a bathroom, then there aren't any other good choices.

Why raise this issue when surely this problem applies only to the poorest of the poor, no? That's true. But who do you think the Church is trying to help? Providing the poor with safe drinking water and improvement basic conditions are two of the Diocese top priorities. I spent all day last Sunday with 60 boys, grades 5-10, who board with the Church in a rural parish. One priest oversees them all. Many are orphans, none have families that can afford to keep them and educate them. So the Church takes as many as they can. The building is just a few large rooms where they can sleep on the floor. There are no bathrooms. None.

Lack of bathroom facilities has greater implications than just health issues. It effects girls' enrollment in school. Only 40% of girls who enroll in school actually complete a full 8 years. This is directly due to the lack of separate toilets and water after they reach puberty. No bathrooms means that they risk their health, pride and dignity. Then there's the issue of harassment. In the last 12 months, the Church applied for 18 grants for improving/building facilities, most of them were for bathrooms.

The picture shows me feeding some chickens in the backyard of a home in Cuddapah. The parents and three teenage kids live there and they're the lucky ones. The father works here at the Bishop's house, the kids all go to school. In the background you'll see their bathroom facility.

Recycling in India

No blog about India would be complete without an observation or two about the daily living conditions here. It's not pretty.

The first thing people notice about India is the huge amount of garbage that is everywhere you look. There may be a few cities that have upgraded their waste removal programs but here in Cuddapah, garbage is business as usual.

A visitor's first question is always, "Why do they just throw garbage on the ground?" Part of it is that no one has ever taught them that this is not proper sanitation. But even if they knew this was wrong, what do you do with normal household trash? There is no recycling programs, no dumps, no garbage collection, no trash cans, no street sweepers, no landfills. The animals that roam the streets (chickens, dogs, cats, rats, cows, goats and pigs), scavenge anything that is edible and the people often burn what they can. In fact, each evening, after the sun goes down, the predominant smell in the air is that of burning trash. It fills the air in city and village as people try their best to get rid of what they can. It's a sour, distasteful smell that will be hard to forget.

Until someone figures out a better way to deal with all the trash, this is how it's done in India.

Riots in India

So far, I've been escorted everywhere I go by a priest and all of my visits have been to a Diocesan facility of some kind. This keeps everything manageable as I tend to cause full scale riots almost everywhere I go. As soon as the children know that I am accessible, they crowd around and start asking questions. Communication is very difficult but by piecing together a word or two of English from someone in the crowd, I get by. It usually goes like this:
"Sister, what is your good name?"
"Dawn, d.a.w.n. It means sunrise."
"Sister, where you are from?"
"America"
"Sister, what is your husband good name?" and so on. They crowd around me so tightly that it often stifling. Each child is trying to get the closest. If I am sitting down, they cut off all the air and it gets pretty hot. The girls want to dress me up, paint my nails, etc. Eventually it all ends in shouting. The boys are another story. As soon as I get out the camera, they go wild. They love to have their pictures taken and it helps me to build rapport with them. I can usually spend an hour or two with them before I have to beg for a rest.
I have really been wanting to have some of my own unsupervised free time and I thought that I'd get the chance at the local festival for Our Lady of Lourdes. The Cathedral is named in her honor so it is a big deal. After mass, rice is served to all who attend. Then a variety of groups perform local folk songs and dances for the crowd. Vendors set up just outside the tent selling cheap toys, combs, barrettes, sugar cane sticks, purses, snacks, the Indian version of snow cones, and plastic flowers, etc. There is really nothing to buy but I wanted to move about the crowd, take some pictures and watch the kids on the few carnival rides. They actually had a hand-cranked Ferris wheel for small kids. I thought it would be fun to do something outside of a church venue.
But as soon as I am spotted unattended, the junior college boys gather asking for a photograph, then a crowd gathers and pretty soon I am surrounded by beggars and people petitioning me to take them to America, etc. I can't move, it's hot and I can't take any "natural" pictures. Everyone wants a formal portrait and after a while, they all look alike. So venturing out on my own isn't a good idea, at least here in Cuddapah. I can sympathize with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. International celebraties just can't go anywhere in public these days without being hassled.

Faith in India

Imagine the following:

• 1 million people gathering over a three day period for an outdoor mass
• six celebrants at the altar with 60 priests on the stage and 12 altar boys
• a long line of pilgrims praying the Stations of the Cross which have been placed up a steep hillside
  
• candles flickering and incense burning in front of a grotto

Question: where are we?

• The Vatican at Easter
• Jerusalem at Christmas
• Lourdes on Feb. 11

The answer, of course, is Vijaywada, India and it's the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes. The site is the Arogamatha Shrine (Our Lady of Good Health) in Andhra Pradesh's second largest commercial center and people come from all over the state to participate in this annual event. Families climb the hillside together to pray and ask for a blessing from a priest at the top. Vendors line the rocky path selling water to the pilgrims as it is a long, hot, difficult climb. A few beggars, mostly women with babies and children, position themselves at strategic locations and ask for money. Small groups of police observe the proceedings throughout the entire area. You can see the entire city from the top. Down below, just outside the tented area where mass is said, it's a fairground with vendors selling food and religious articles, music. Priests hear confessions and give blessing at key stations almost continuously. In the permanent chapel, there is 24 hour perpetual adoration. People come, bring provisions, set out a mat and stay for three days and there was not a blue, plastic port-a-potty cabin in site. There were water stations provided but no other facilities that I could see. It's an annual event and how it all pulls together is anybody's guess. As one nun told me, these are simple people with good hearts and they have great affection in India for the Blessed Mother.

Hair in India

General rules for Girls:

• Age 0-3 4 years- have their hair cut into a pixie style.
• Elementary school age- pigtails with bows
• Junior high- braids looped and set with bows
• High school- double braids or a single braid
• Unmarried- single braid
• Married-in a bun
• Shaven- hair is cut as an offering to God.
• flowers in hair is not mandatory but often used.

• Boys- no special rules
• All men- mustache is always worn as a sign of strength and/or accomplishment (aka virility).
• Hindu priests- head shaved, with beard, (often no shirt is worn, just orange sarong garment)
• Muslim married men- long bushy beards, short hair.
• Catholic priests- clean shaven or full beard. (When asked why a beard is allowed, they said it was to save time shaving.)

All ages- head shaven as offering to God.

Americans in India

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When I first arrived in India, I kept apologizing for addressing the Bishop as "Father". I asked him how he should be properly addressed and he said not to worry about it. He understood that I originally knew him as Father Prasad in the US so it would take time for me to think of him as Bishop Prasad. So I didn't give it much more thought.

Last week, I traveled with the Bishop to another diocese for a Feast Day celebration. We arrived after midnight so I didn't have a chance to meet our host until the next day when his secretary said he was available. I waltzed right in, shook hands, and sat down across from him and we began chatting. Bishop Prakash is an older gentleman who had been in charge of the Diocese of Cuddapah at one point and he was widely traveled. I am still incredulous when people recognize the name of Cleveland and more surprised when they have visited. But apparently our priests back home are generous hosts and often receive visitors from other countries because so many priests have reported that they have been there. We chatted about the problems in Cuddapah and the opportunities in Vijaywada and promised to meet for lunch. I left him to his work. At mealtime, he invited me to sit next to him and we chatted some more.

Later, the two Bishops asked me to join them for traveling to the outside mass site via our host's shiny white Indian Ambassador, the first car made in India. The current model still looks like a Bentley and anyone who steps out of one is sure to attract a glance or two from someone on the street. It looks like a car that a Bishop would ride in. (Bishop Prasad uses a SUV).

As the two bishops began to inspect the site, they quickly drew a crowd. Women would cover their heads with their saris and ask for a blessing. Men grabbed the Bishop's hands, pressed them to their cheeks and kissed the ring. Others dropped to their knees before them. I started to pay attention. As the other priests showed up, they addressed the Bishops as "my Lord".
Security guards had to hold back the crowds and escort them around. I just tagged along like a groupie and went with the flow.

When we later got back to the ranch in Cuddapah, I started to pay more attention to how the priests here addressed the Bishop. Sure enough, it was "Yes, my Lord" and "No, my Lord". They didn't kiss his ring because they see him during the day. But he travels with an all around bodyguard/driver/servant kind of guy and even at home, he has a gatekeeper who authorizes admittance to an audience. Nobody, but nobody gets to see the Bishop unless they have previously cleared it with the gatekeeper. A little more reverence appears to be in order for the remainder of the stay.

This all just goes to show that you can take the girl out of America, but it's really hard to take the American out of the girl.

Health Care in India

Not everything is going exactly according to plan here in India. I have had several bouts with high fever over the last six days. But this has given me a fabulous opportunity to learn all about the health care system in India, "up close and personal" as they say in the US.

The boys here were drawing straws to decide who was going to administer last rites when they apparently decided to get a second opinion before proceeding. No sense going to all that trouble, only to have a "false start". So they voted that Fr. Ravi should take me to the hospital to have a blood test to check for a variety of exotic and fun sounding pathogens like dengue fever. My first clue that I wasn't thinking straight should have been that I was willing to go with him. But I thought maybe I would be pleasantly surprised to find that the Mayo had just opened a brand new shiny facility here just around the corner.

As there is no valet service, security guard, reception desk, information desk, waiting room, ER entrance, or admitting desk, we just walked in and a doctor who was walking by asked Fr. Ravi if we needed anything. It pays to have connections here in India and since it was a Catholic hospital, I had the best credentials of all: I was introduced as the Bishop's "benefactor". Fr. Ravi knows how to play hard ball. I was whisked into a room.

The doctor took my vitals and then asked me my symptons. I gave him the top 10 symptoms for malaria as cited by Wed.MD.com version 4.0 in order, verbatim.
"Headache?" the doctor countered.
"yes." I replied.
"No womiting?", he doubled checked.
"Womiting?"I asked.
"Yes, womiting." he assured me.
The light bulb went on. "OH! You mean, womiting, with a V. No, but that's a distinct possibility."
He felt this was conclusive.

He immediately took out his prescription pad, clicked open his pen, stretched and officially announced it was heat stress.

"What?!" I politely inquired.
He ordered a shot of unknown substance, some pills unknown to western science, and three days of complete bed rest either at the Bishop's house or in the hospital.
"Can I have a teensy look at what's behind Door No.3?", I asked.
"No".
"OK, I'll take Door No. 1", I said.
Then he said, "And no ice cream. No "cool drinks" (aka pop in India).
"What! That's unAmerican!"
"You're in India." he said, rolling his eyes.

He left and the nurse came in with a 12 inch long syringe, make of 18 gauge steel that had no tip and was left over from the Crusades. It hurt. Fr. Ravi got the pills wrapped in the sterilized, state of the art, substance controlled, tamper-resistent old newspaper "envelope" which is also good for wrapping food here, I might add and we left. It's amazing what they use old newspapers for here but that's another blog.

Two mintues down the road, Bingo!, We added the dreaded womits to our list of symptoms. Since it was the Bishop's car, we made an emergency stop. When I was finished I got up from the open sewer in front of the house, help my head up and said with as much dignity as I could muster, "No autographs today" to the gathering crowd and I got back in the car.

Like I said, this is not going exactly according to plan. More details if I recover. For pictures, just google "post mortem cadavers". You'll get the picture of what I look like.

East meets West in India

Meal time at the Bishop's house is generally pretty quiet. People come, eat, and get ready to go back to business. Of course, I tend to liven things up a bit with my questions and observations about India.
Last week a priest was here from America on vacation to see his family and friends. He brought with him an American fellow priest who has a nearby parish in Minnesota where they both live. Eventually we got around to discussing our first impressions of both countries.
As I already explained, water is in short supply here in India and I do not have a tub or shower. I was given two plastic buckets and two small pails but no further instructions. Since I know how to take a sponge bath, it didn't seem like that big of a deal, just a little inconvenience and I respectfully took care not to get water splashed all around. Then I realized that the drain in the bathroom floor was there so that I didn't have to worry about splashing. In fact, I could just use the little pails to pour water over my head and let it just drain out. This seemed to work really well and made bathing easier.
Then Fr. Marareddy told us about his first attempt at figuring out American bathrooms. He was horrified to discover that the very first bathroom he was assigned had carpet on the floor. He was completely mystified about how he was to bathe when there was no drain in the floor and no buckets. Fortunately someone was kind enough to explain the finer points of American plumbing so he didn't have to stay dirty with all that water just waiting for someone to use it.

Since they are from Minnesota, we eventually got around to explaining ice fishing. Now I have previously tried to explain ice fishing to honest-to-goodness-Cowboys in Texas and they thought I was nuts. Ralph once asked a ski instructor in Montreal if he ever goes ice fishing and he was told, "No way. It's too cold". This, from a guy who makes his living outside, every day, in all conditions! So you try to explain ice fishing and see how far you get. It does sound kind of crazy when you try to explain it. No wonder they think Americans are armed and dangerous.

Fast Facts in India

• Take the USA and cut it into thirds. Discard two-thirds and what's left is about the size of India.
• Take 100% of the population of the USA and triple it and you have the population of India.
• Put 3times the US population onto 1/3 the land of the US and you have a sense of why 40% still live below the poverty level (in Indian terms, not US terms) and 35% are illiterate.
• 82% is Hindu, 12% Muslim and 6% other. Catholics in Andhra Pradesh number about 80,000. Almost all NGO funding goes to the Hindus. The Muslims support only Muslims. The Church tries to take care of everybody else at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.
• India has 18 major languages, almost one per state. There are over 1000 dialects. Hindu is the national language but only a little is taught in the schools. (Knowing Hindi would be of no practical benefit to me here.)it's hard enough just to teach reading and writing in Telegu, the mother tongue of A.P. Schools are classified by "English" Medium and "Telegu" Medium, depending on whether English is offered. English Medium Schools are out of the price range for most villagers.
• India only got independence from the UK in 1947.
• Music is never written so all songs must be learned by imitation. It is comprised of an intricate system of scales and associated melodic patterns. Each one of the 200 main patterns must be memorized in order to be able to put together a song.
  

Shopping in India

It took about an hour, but I finally had to admit defeat. On my first shopping expedition I tried to buy a simple, cotton punjabi to wear now that the temperatures are so warm. These are the lovely long tunic/pants/scarf combos that are alternatives to the sari. Saris aren't uncomfortable to wear, I just can't figure out how to tie them no matter how often they try to show me. So punjabis are practical and easy for me. The problems is nobody makes them big enough for me.

Shopkeepers are always male and they staff at a ratio of about 6:1. You can not imagine the level of personal attention you get, nor their persistence in trying to find something that you will like to buy. Customers are seated on a mattress on the floor and samples are brought out, unwrapped and displayed for your consideration. Only the size of their inventory will limit the number of items they will show you. Expect to see it all if you go shopping in India.

Sister Mary was assigned to take me into town for shopping late on afternoon. I assumed it would take an hour, tops, to buy one punjabi. Four hours of power shopping later, I made it back just in time for 8:00 dinner with the Bishop.

After an hour of attempting to try on ready-made punjabis that were too small to pull over my shoulders, I finally convinced everyone that the only alternative was to have one made. Since India is the home of some of the most beautiful material in the world, how hard could this be?

The first place we went, we agreed on a beautiful blue material but this turned out to be beginner's luck. They did not carry enough lining to accommodate my overly large size so the purchase was abandoned and the hunt continued. Sister Mary looked at every bolt of material in a 5 mile radius: the quality was wrong, it could only be dry-cleaned, the color didn't look good on me, it had too much beading, it was too heavy or too light-weight, and so on. We finally agreed on a blue fabric and measurements were debated until the final fire-fight over the price. Never try to out negotiate a nun. They never give up and they always win. Satisfied with the final price we went to find a tailor.

More measurements were taken, a neck line chosen from about 45 choices, and a deadline for delivery was negotiated. Since it was a rush job (don't ask me why) it would cost more. But no, Sr. Mary was having none of that and the terms were finally fixed. I thought we were done. Ha!

Apparently no Indian woman ever goes out in public without earrings and bangles and an ankle bracelet, and a necklace to match. I mean NEVER, unless you're a nun, of course. This is why women and girls are always attacking me when I show up in cotton pants and a linen shirt. Girls pull the earrings right off their ears and stick them through my ears. Seriously. (How do you handle accepting earrings from orphans?) Women have pulled half of their bangles off and jammed them on my wrist so that I could be properly dressed. The problem is that my hands are too large for the bangles. This requires crunching my hands in half until the bangle can be forced over the wrist bone all the while I am protesting their generosity. Wrist bones are not that forgiving. The glass bangles pop in half at the pressure and the metal ones resist with all their tensile strength. Still, these women persevere. Necklaces are ripped off of necks and tied onto mine. Fortunately (or unfortunately), ankle bracelets are permanently affixed on the leg so they can not be removed.

So Sr. Mary wasn't done shopping by a long shot. The ensemble had to be completed. We were on the hunt for the finest costume jewelry India had to offer. Boxes and Boxes and Boxes of jewelry were presented. Nobody does bling like India. No amount of protesting on my part was going to let me off the hook. I tried everything. No dice. Finally, I gave in and we bought some bangles in the precise shade of blue to match my outfit, with contrasting sequins and a necklace. I SWORE I had blue earrings back at the Bishop's House. The final stop was the jewelers for not one, but two ankle bracelets that now can only be removed with a blow torch. I sound like I have on spurs when I walk.

It seems that unless you have all the accoutrement's, you are stating publicly to all the world, that you are dirt poor. So poor, that your family can not even dress you in an ankle bracelet. This would be the equivalent of sending your kids to school in the US without shoes because you were just too poor to even afford a pair at the thrift store. Few can bear this level of shame and my friends here in India are not about to let the world think that I am this poor. Once they figured out that I wasn't a professed sister in some kind of odd habit, there was no turning back. From now on, I go out with at least my ankle bracelets on. For one thing, I can't get them off.