Goodye, Kerala; Hello, Bangalore

We finished our time in Kerala with some sightseeing in and around Cochin. This included a gondola ride on the river and canal. The photo that identifies the profile of this blog was taken by Fr. Jose last year and sent to me with other pictures of Kerala. I have dreamed ever since of a gondola trip in Kerala and now my dream has come true. It was peaceful and scenic. There was much human activity along the canal banks including women washing clothes in the canal, children playing, old men sitting in the late afternoon shade watching the tourists float by. There were also domestic animals, mainly goats, to enjoy and water fowl and birds. Someone saw a snake but I missed it.

We flew to Bangalore day before yesterday and have done programs in three seminaries since arriving. This is somewhat of a marathon now until we leave, with tonight being my only break. I am accessing the Internet from the library of the United Theological College. This is the first Protestant venue we have been in. I have to confess, I certainly enjoyed singing a familiar old Methodist hymn in chapel this morning!

The picture of the "Lotus Jesus" adorned the auditorium of the first seminary where we led a day-long biblical storytelling workshop. That was the CMI (Carmelites of the Immaculate Conception) seminary. We stayed overnight there. The large group are seminarians and professors at the second seminary, called St Peter's Pontifical Seminary. Fran Plude was the primary speaker there, with Tom speaking briefly about sacralizing digital media and me running the Powerpoint. Fran is pictured with the Rector. She talked about the significance of cell phones. There was a murmur in the crowd and she perceived that they might not be allowed to use them. She asked, "Are you allowed cell phones?" I have never heard such a roar as in unison they replied, "No!" from 200 young men in a large echoing hall. It was a very fun and dramatic moment. Fortunately, as you can see from his smile in the photo, the Rector has a good sense of humor.

Ayurvedic Pharmeceuticals, Tea, and Spices

Today we toured the entrepeneurial ministries of the Peedmade Development Society. There is the Sahyadri Aturvedic Pharmeceutical division, an organic tea production business, and an organic spice factory.

All are businesses designed to assist local farmers and workers, "tribals" and poor people, and also to protect the environment. The men pictured are the priest who directs the spice division and the production manager. They are standing in the Director's office. The magnificant view from his window is also pictured.

Peermade Development Society

"...that they have life and have it abundantly" is the vision of the Peermade Development Society. We are staying at its "camp headquarters" (pictured here) in the mountains of Kerala. The goal of PDS is derived from this vision statement and that is "empowerment of village communities especially the tribals, women, children and the marginal farmers towards sustainable development by conserving and enhancing local resources in order to have fullness of life."

There are many strategies to attain this goal including organic tea production (see the picture of the terraced tea bushes), Ayurvedic pharmeceuticals (see the factory) and organic spices.

The statue of Mary greets visitors at the front gate. I like it because the facial features and clothing of Mary and Jesus look somewhat Indian, rather than European.

Along the path to the herb nursery and pharmeceutical factory is a statue of an ancient sage of 5000 BC, Agastya, who, legend says, came from the north to this region and invented many medicinal treatments.

The Road Into the Mountains

Another 5-hour road trip with another (thankfully) expert driver took us up into the mountains to the "Peermade Development Society" headquarters which is located in the midst of tea plantations. We are staying here for 3 days of R & R. More about PDS tomorrow.

The way here took us along 2-lane roads lined with shops, homes, villages, towns often crowded with pedestrians, school children, cycles, dogs, goats, and cows. I managed to catch two sleeping next to the median.

Then it was a one-lane, paved road, then a one-lane mud lane, then again paved as we wound our way up and down the mountains ever-winding our way with many a hair-pin turn through rubber, banana and tea plantations.

I sat up front so I could catch some photos out the window, but it was a challenge: both to get the photos and also to maintain cool. The photos are fuzzy because they were taken out the window at what seemed like break-neck speeds.

You can see the icon of Mary on the dashboard in my photos. I was glad she was there; I alternately enjoyed the thrill of speeding past all the obstacles, passing scooters, trucks, buses, and 3-wheeled taxis just in the nick of time before some huge bus or lumber-laden truck came barreling head-on toward us.

We passed many churches and also many Christian shrines, in the style of Hindu shrines. We passed some mosques as well, but I never was able to photograph one. In the towns there would often be arches announcing various things like a feast day.

St. George Church, Cochin

Friday evening and again Sunday morning we visited St. George Church (of St. George and the Dragon fame--note the statue).

It is in an area where the Christian community is very old. The cross by the street is very old. They have saved a sanctuary that is at least 500 years old and next to it built a large church only 5 years old (the old church is shown on the edge of the photo at the right of the new one).

The new church has incredible stained glass windows depicting salvation history. Pictured is the window of Jesus feeding 5000. It depicts his disciple passing out the food. I picked this one to show because my most popular contribution to the workshop was teaching the song, "Five little loaves and two little fish" based on that story. It was a big hit as most of the participants work with children, and they love to sing.

Seminary of St. Joseph, Cochin, Kerala

After seeing St. George Church we visited St. Joseph Pontifical Seminary in Cochin where we had tea with Dean Tomy who was a seminary classmate of Fr. Jose (though we learned not to say "classmate" which is the title of a movie here and judging from the reaction not to be connected with).

Pictured is the Gothic style church at the seminary, a statue of Joseph with the infant Jesus (central symbol of the sanctuary and seminary), a lion at the entrance (the lion is the national animal), and one of several long, cool, peaceful walkways.

Behind the seminary runs the largest river in Kerala. Students used to bathe and swim there, but too many have drowned so they no longer are allowed to do so.

Epic Telling of Mark

The picture looking out the window is the view from the new IMPACT center, including the Toyota minivan in which we travel around Kerala. I used this photo to create a powerpoint for our introductory session of the 2/1-2 day workshop we conducted here on "Biblical Storytelling in Oral and Digital Culture." We titled that session "Biblical Storytelling: A Window Into the Sacred." I told about (and showed in the powerpoint) the view from our home in Dayton, Ohio USA and then invited the group to tell a partner about the view from their home window. It was an ice-breaker that seemed to work well judging from all the talk that ensued. Most of the conversation was in the local language, Malayalum. One of the sisters spoke good English so she translated at times.

Our workshop was held at the Claretian Provincial House, a large new beautiful building, constructed to maximize air flow and light while minimizing heat, since like most places it is not air conditioned. I don't know when I have been so hot for so long, but we gradually are getting used to it. Hot, humid, Houston-like weather only moreso. We are in the tropics after all. The land of spices and bananas of many varieties. Little sweet bananas that only grow in Kerala. So tasty!

Back to the workshop: Participants in the program included several young men from the Jesus Youth Movement and many sisters from various religious communities. They had difficulty understanding our "American English" as they are accustomed to "Indian English" and most did not speak any kind of English well. Nevertheless in 2-1/2 long days we taught enough about biblical storytelling that we were able to conduct an epic telling of the Gospel of Mark in which everybody participated. It was truly remarkable.