Sunday 2 December

After getting a solid 10 hours of sleep I felt like a completely different person. Breakfast was delicious – apom (the closest thing I can compare it to is a pancake... but it’s sticky instead of fluffy) with green pea curry and coconut milk, and of course a yummy coffee! The Parish Priest, Fr. Vincent wanted to meet me before mass so we met in the rectory and I had another delicious coffee (did I say how much I like the coffee?!). Fr. Basil the assistant priest arrived as we were heading to the chapel. He had just come back from the villages where he said mass. He told me the villagers were telling him all about my visit the evening before. I think ‘the white girl from Canada who had an emotional breakdown’ will be spoken of for a while!

The mass was lovely. The little church was full to overflowing and by the end of the service people were sitting outside. Fr. dedicated the mass to me – to my health, well-being and everything I will encounter in life. The parishioners thanked me on behalf of Chalice and presented me with a shawl. Everyone in the church came to say thank you after the service. Because the only word I understood was my name and Chalice Sponsorship Programme, I asked Sr. Deepa to tell me what Fr.’s message was. He told a story of a man who bought a fish farm. He began selling the fish and everyone complained that they were not tasty. This went on for a while and people stopped buying them. He asked the old man from whom he bought the farm why his fish were not tasty. The man told him to put a crocodile in the pond. He did so and after some time the fish became very tasty. People began buying them again. When questioned the old man explained that when there was no danger the fish were lethargic and did not swim; there was no reason to. They became fatty and were not tasty. With the crocodile in the pond the fish became very active to stay away from the threat and lost their fat. The crocodile represents negativity and evil in our lives; without it we would, like the fish, become lazy, forget God and take our lives for granted.

After mass we met with the sponsored children who stay at the boarding school and those who came to mass. Several of the children came forward and spoke. Sangeeta is an orphan. She got sponsored 12 years ago. Now she is in General Nursing and she said she owes it all to Chalice and her sponsor. She is a beautiful girl, very sure of herself. She spoke very well and the impact that being sponsored had on her was obvious. Anil (from yesterday) also spoke. He said he “could not imagine what condition his life would be like if he had not been sponsored.” He also spoke of how ill his mother is and that all of the earnings of his father and sister (she is a teacher at the Bellary Convent School) go to her treatments. If he was not sponsored there is no way he could attend school. Others from different grade levels spoke and the message was quite similar – “Sponsorship changed my life in a positive way.” The children sang me a song about child rights. And then they encouraged me to sing (I really can’t sing...). So I taught them Jesus Loves Me. I sang (squawked) a line and they repeated it. It was really very lovely. My message for them that day was that although sponsorship can help with material items and to give opportunities like education, loving each other and God is most important and that they must work on themselves.

 

 

Next we visited the Skills@Chalice centre. This is a new initiative we are implementing in some of our Indian Sites. Check out the last edition of the Chalice newsletter (Fall 2012, page 3) for a more detailed description of how it works. At the HMI sub-site we presently have 2 classes – Computer Training and Tailoring and Embroidery. I met the computer students first. These young men and women told me their stories. They finished high school but had no means to continue to higher education or they started but had to drop out. They were wasting away their time at home, earning very little doing daily wage work when they could find it. Enrolling in the Skills@Chalice Computer Training was a miraculous opportunity. To put it in perspective – a computer course at a college would cost them at least 1000 Rs ($20) for around 2 hours of instruction.

They come to the Skills@Chalice centre 5 days a week for the full day; and it’s free! When I asked them what they would like to do when they are finished their 3 month training the overwhelming answer I got was “Start a Computer Institute so we can share this gift we’ve been given with others!”

The young women in the Tailoring and Embroidery class were so welcoming. I tried my hand at stitching (didn’t go so well) and watched how to make pretty flowers. They were very eager to teach me what they are learning. I also got to try my hand (er, foot) at the tabletop sewing machines. Very different from the modern Singer model I have at home! A few of the girls told me their stories. I heard how amazing this opportunity is to them and that it has given them hope of actually standing on their own feet and making something for themselves. The teacher of the class has a special story. This job truly changed her life in a positive way. She is married with three children and her husband was drinking away all of the money he earned. She could not find steady employment and went for daily wage work when she could. It was impossible to live off her meagre earnings. She heard that the Skills@Chalice initiative was starting and the Sisters approached her to take the job of teaching tailoring.

Now that she is earning a good wage she is respected by her husband, who has since stopped drinking. She became very emotional when she told me her story and I could feel her pain and her joy. My message to this class was that things can be taken away from you (money, clothes, your home) but education is permanent – it can never be taken from you and it is a gift that you can share with others, endlessly.

After the class presented me with a few gifts we went to the yard to take some photos. I was asked to sign autographs and each young woman wanted their own photo with me. The young men also made sure they had their turn! On the way back to the Chalice office the little children walked beside me and kept reaching out to rub my arm. They told me I am very soft! They also kept comparing the different in the colour of our skin. This made all of us giggle! I met with the sub-site staff. They told me how difficult it is to manage everything they are doing with so few staff. They sponsor 185 children presently and just sent 120 new child applications to Canada. The need is so great in this region that we will be focusing our efforts here for the next while. Another concern of the Srs. is the lack of a reliable vehicle. The sponsored children are scattered all over and when they need to go meet with a family to find an answer to a question from a sponsor or to get the annual photo taken, it sometimes means 2 – 3 visits to catch them at home (there are no phones in most places so calling ahead is out of the question). I encouraged Sr. Jiji and the other staff (4 altogether) to continue doing what they are doing because it’s obvious how much of a positive impact the Chalice Programme is having in this region. I assured them of my availability to help any way I can and that we really encourage open dialogue about the obstacles they come up against when administering the Sponsorship Programme.

Before leaving Maski to return to Bellary we had a lovely meal. I ate way too much this time (it’s very hard to say no to a Sr. when she is serving you food against your will!) and paid the price for the rest of the day. The drive back to Bellary was as crazy as the day before but this time I tried to sleep and said about 150 Hail Marys. It seemed to work – we made it in one piece! At the Bellary Convent supper was waiting for us. I had to really take it easy and with some gravol and lots of water I was feeling better by the morning. We left to take the overnight train at 9 pm and made it to Bangalore for 6 am. My bunk was the bottom one this time and it was a lot easier to get some sleep.

Back at the Convent I spent the day working on the Regional Meeting presentations I will be making. I also had a luxurious hot water wash and got my bag ready for my 6 day visit to Kerala state. Some of the Srs. from Bellary that we just left the night before arrived by bus. They came to Bangalore for their semi-annual audit. It was very nice to welcome them for a change! We had a nice lunch together and then Sr. Deepa and I headed to the airport for our flight to Kochi. The plan for the next 6 days is: one night in Angamaly at the Holy Cross Provincialate House, 3 nights in Mannakanad to visit 2 sub-sites and a Skills@Chalice program for differently-abled children, a free day to do some sightseeing and then visiting our Skills@Chalice at the sub-site at Pilathara. Then we will take the overnight train back to Bangalore for the Regional Directors’ Meeting. I’m exhausted thinking about it!