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

her
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.

Power in India

As the temperatures climb, so does the pressure on India's electrical grid. So we are already on mandatory cut-backs. Each morning, promptly at 8:00 a.m., the power goes off for an hour. The cutbacks will continue to increase in length and frequency. In the villages, power will be cut back severely during the hot weather. They may only have access for a few hours in the evening, which is one reason why the village well still uses a hand pump. An electric pump would be unusable much of the time.

These cutbacks are in addition to unscheduled power outages that occur regularly throughout the day. For those of us who are at the computer most of the day, it is quite a shock to see your screen go blank in the middle of a document. But there is no sense getting upset because it is just going to happen again. My computer switches to battery, of course, so I can keep going. But if I'm on the internet, the connection is severed and must be restarted. Since I am (finally) on their network, I am dependent on their router which is, of course, powered by electric. Sometimes, it's really hard to make progress during the day.

There are a few rooms with window air conditioners in the Bishop's house and they have plans for installing it in the new House which is under construction. But a/c is a real luxury here and it will be a long time before they raise enough money to actually install it. But people are used to doing without. Schools do not have a/c, nor do offices or government buildings. Texas was hot but we had a swimming pool and air-conditioned houses and cars and offices and grocery stores and churches, etc. Imagine if you couldn't escape the heat day after day.

Water in India

I was pleased to find that I had a bathroom in my room at the Bishop's House when I first arrived. But I was disappointed that it only had a sink and a commode, no tub or shower. I assumed that since the House was originally a seminary with dorm style housing that plumbing for individual showers had been too difficult. After having been to many convents and a few houses, I realized that nobody has tubs or showers in Andhra Pradesh, even in new construction housing. It's not a cleanliness issue, it's that water is too precious to waste here in this arid state.

Here at the Bishop's House, they have to buy water by the truckful since the pipes to their well were cut during the widening of the street. They haven't yet been able to reattach their connection and they're not sure they will ever be able to. In villages, the entire community shares a common well for drinking water. Each village also has a field that has been designed to hold water for agricultural irrigation. The country is trying to construct canals to bring more water to the area but it's still a long way off. So they are largely dependent on the success of the rainy season. In the West we always seem to think of the monsoon season as a negative: storms, damage, miserable weather. But the rains are something this is celebrated here.

Laundry is always done by hand, outside, in whatever water source is available. I have seen women doing laundry in large puddles on the side of the road by the fields. But mostly it's done in the rivers. The National Geographic pictures you have seen of women beating the clothes on rocks aren't staged photographs of the "local color". This is simply how it's down across India. If you have enough money, you can pay someone to wash clothes for you. But they will still cart them down to the river, wash them, lay them out to dry on the ground. They hang the long saris from the bridges and overpasses on the road going out of town so that it looks like the parade route for a UN meeting. Then everything is ironed with irons warmed with coal: socks, sheets, underwear, etc.:. A few homes have electric irons. Even my clothes are now go in the laundry once a week. They come back amazingly clean. I wonder if I should try this in Richfield down at the spillway?

Mass confusion in India

Last night mass lasted for 3.5 hours. Well over 1,000 people attended an outdoor mass under tents outside the cathedral in preparation for the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes. The amazing thing is that the lay people planned it all. All the priests did was come to say mass and there were 24 of them plus the bishop plus 4 altar boys. It started with a procession through town carrying a statute while the entire parade said the rosary and it ended with small gifts of food for those who attended. There were a few chairs but the majority sat on the ground.

I attend daily mass in the private chapel here at the Bishop’s house because they say it in English. I am the only lay person in attendance. It’s quiet, intimate, and a nice way to start or end the day. On Sundays I have attended the 8:30 mass at the Cathedral just to experience it with the people even though it is all in Telegu. It starts on time and regularly lasts 1.5 to 2. hours. When the pews are all filled up, they sit on the floor in the side aisles and spill out onto the front entrance. People come from far away so the church keeps filling up after mass has started.

I haven’t been to the Arogomatha Shrine (Our Lady of Good Health ) for Mass but I understand that they routinely get 800 to 1000 people on Saturday night. The statue reported shed tears of blood 10 years ago so it is a highly respected shrine. Even Muslims and Hindus come to the service to pray for intercession. The crowds are so large and the chapel so small that they have to hold the mass outside to accommodate them.

The Cuddapah diocese is considered a Mission diocese. One hundred and fifty priests support 56 parishes and 475 mission stations. Each priest may have up to 10 mission stations assigned to him. Transportation is not part of their compensation package so they have to get out to the people any way they can. The people don't have transportation either, but reportedly the churches often can not hold all the people for Sunday mass. Nobody keeps track of what time it starts or what time it ends.

education in India

The Indian government has not been able to open enough schools so that all of the rural villages have access. So children can not always go to school. In addition, it’s sometimes too expensive for villagers who are laborers to send their children to school. So their parents must make hard choices. A priest from a family of six girls and three boys told me that his parents could only afford to send the boys to school. Today, with a Masters Degree in English, he’s a teacher in the Junior College and a success story. His sisters didn’t fare so well.

A child is considered a success if he makes it through the fifth grade. Normal school ends after the tenth grade. Technical schools teach the trades as an alternate choice to Junior College. A few very lucky ones make it through their bachelors degree.
For the girls who are never given a chance to go to school, the Church has opened a few training centers that teach them basic skills for being a mother and wife. The curriculum is like our old home-ec programs and it lasts 10 months. At the end of the program the girls have learned enough how to sew to earn money when they go back to their villages and they are given a treadle sewing machine. This is all the education they will ever get. I have met many of them and they are gorgeous, delightful, happy girls who just need a chance.