Chennai City

This weekend we took our first weekend trip to Chennai. We still can’t believe we were only there for 2 days since we managed to pack so much in! We took our first train ride Thursday night which is always a memorable experience. On Friday morning we arrived in Chennai and went to a nearby Shiva temple to continue learning about how Hinduism is practiced. Later we traveled to Mahabalipuram to visit a UNESCO World Heritage site of temples dating back to the 5^th-8^th century. The students enjoyed exploring the ruins and taking fun snaps!

Students at the Shore Temple

We stayed at Scripture Union which has a beautiful property with direct access to the beach of the Bay of Bengal! In the afternoon we all enjoyed swimming in the waves (in our salwars), collecting sea shells on the beach, taking pictures, and just having a chance to rest and refresh. We enjoyed some evening worship together before going to bed.

The next morning we traveled back into Chennai to meet Shiamala Baby who is the head of FORWARD (Forum for Women’s Rights and Development). Shiamala shared her incredible story of how she was abused by her husband and gained the courage to stand up for herself. Now she works to help other women do the same.

Shiamala Baby sharing her story

 After hearing her story, we went out to a nearby village to meet some of the women involved in FORWARD. We were not prepared for what we found there. When most people think about Dalits, words like “broken”, “helpless”, “alone”, and “incapable” may come to mind. However, as soon as we got there, our perceptions were shattered. We were greeted as very honored guests: each student was blessed and honored with sandlewood paste and tikka markings on their faces and given bangles for each arm. We were fed many varieties of traditional (and tasty!) snacks and given the best (only) seats in the courtyard. One by one, these women stood up and told their story of how FORWARD was changing their lives. They were not broken or helpless-they had a plan for how to get loans, work in small business, and send their children to school. They were not alone-the whole group of women were bound together!

Students being welcomed in

In the afternoon we visited several famous religious sites- St. Thomas mount where Thomas was martyred and St. Thomas Bascillica where he is buried. For a special treat we revisited the Shiva temple to see a dance performance about the stories of the gods. These children were incredible dancers and very talented at story telling through their facial expressions and hand movements.

In the evening we re-boarded the trains for our night ride back to Coimbatore. 

Travel Component: In Pictures

Ready for some train travel!
Most Indians travel on trains and ISP loves taking students along for the ride.

The end of semester trip is always highly anticipated by all of our ISP students. After several months of making Coimbatore their home, they are excited to take their journey to the North and keep learning from inspirational people and new experiences!

 

Checking out a temple.

This time our trip took us to 6 unique cities around incredible India. We started in Chennai, the capital of our home state of Tamil Nadu, and wound our way north to Delhi, home of the famous Taj Mahal.

 

A woman selling flowers for puja outside a temple.

Our first stop was Chennai where we realized that it could in fact get hotter than the sweltering summer climate we were experiencing in Coimbatore. Despite the weather, we had a great time learning about the diverse offerings of the city. Chennai has a rich history of Christianity in India so we took the opportunity to visit where St. Thomas was martyred and buried. 

The site where St. Thomas was martyred.

We also visited Shiamala Baby, a woman who transformed her own abusive past into an organization working to empower women in their own communities. She is one of the many amazing people we meet that our students like to call "cool people doing cool things".

 

Shiamala and the women she works with in a self-help group.

Next on the list was Calcutta, a city that played a prominent role in India's colonial background. We were excited to try kati rolls and spiced chai in clay cups before heading to Sari Bari. This NGO continues to be a highlight for ISP students. It focuses on providing an alternative source of income for women who want to leave the sex industry by teaching them to sew beautiful products from recycled saris. As we toured their workshop and learned about the organization we were encouraged by the courageous stories of the women working there.

 

Enjoying some roadside chai in clay cups.

Filled with twisting alleys and wandering holy men, Varanasi is filled to the brim with nooks and crannies to explore. As the holiest city in India it was the perfect place to learn more about Hinduism and Buddhism. 

Varanasi is famous for its ghats along the river.

On our walking tour we spent hours making our way down the ghats and seeing daily life on the holy river Ganga. Those of us who were early risers saw bathers and dhobis doing laundry on the riverbanks. Then in the evening we all headed to the ghats to watch the Ganga aarti, a fire worship ceremony to the holy river.

 

The daily Ganga aarti.

Of course a trip to the north would be incomplete without making our way to Agra, home of the Taj, and Delhi, the capital of India. Pulling into the train station in the early morning we had  a breakfast of puris before checking out the Agra Fort and the famed Taj Mahal. 

Jumping for joy at the Taj!

The Mughal architecture was stunning and we took the opportunity to not only soak in the history but also to taking some group snaps! Once we made our way to Delhi we took some much needed time to relax and wandered the city - seeing everything from the Lotus Temple to a lively Sufi singing performance at the tomb of a saint.

 

Sufi music at the Nizamuddin Dargah.

Our last destination was Dehradun, a gorgeous hill station nestled in the Himalayan foothills. In addition to debriefing the semester, we visited some organizations in the area focusing on social entrepreneurship and one that mentors Tibetans in the area. 

Riding in rickshaws.

One of the best ways of getting to know someone is over a meal, so we were delighted to share a lunch of buffalo momos with the mentees in the program! Then we spent time with one business that sells beautiful furniture and crafts while partnering with locals to work towards sustainability. And of course our trip would not be complete without some whitewater rafting down the Ganges!

 

Whitewater rafting.

All in all, our end of semester trip was two weeks of insane traveling around and witnessing India's vastness and complexity. We are excited to see how we can continue learning from these experiences! 

Beyond BACAS: Familiar Faces:: Shiamala Baby

If you've read our Chennai post, you'd know that our students got to meet Shiamala Baby, a long time friend of the program staff. Our students got to hear from this amazing woman who has started her own organization to empower and train women. 

Shiamala Auntie 

Shiamala Auntie received the group with open arms and a willing heart. She welcomed us into her office, excited that we were there and eager to share about the organization and its efforts. As mentioned in the previous post, she shared with the group a lot about herself, including past pains and struggles.


For over 10 years, she was abused by her husband. She lived in fear about coming out because of the challenges women receive without a husband. But finally, she knew that she had had enough. She received help and got out of the cycle of abuse. It was then that she knew that other women needed to be educated about their rights and given skills to improve their lives. She started FORWARD, the Forum for Women’s Rights and Development. Shiamala Auntie believes that “education can transform lives” and that belief is seen within some of the major objectives of this organization. Several aims of FORWARD include teaching victimized women about the laws that exist for their protection, educating the public about women’s rights, and training the children and future generations.

(Unrelated Photo)

Out of her own struggles, healing comes about for other women. Through FORWARD, Shiamala Baby has been able to empower women and educate them about their government-endowed rights. She also educated our ISPers about some of the laws that are currently in effect to help protect women from domestic violence. FORWARD is also doing women’s empowerment work among several villages in and around Chennai. And our ISPers had the opportunity to visit some of those villages, which you can read about in our post, as mentioned at the beginning of the post (yes, that was another shameless plug).  

Just some of the women Shiamala Baby serves. 

We learned about the struggles that the villagers face in their efforts to better themselves and their economic situation. In one village, the most educated person was a young girl in the 10^th standard (10^th grade). We learned about the hopes that the people have for their children and future generations. It is difficult to send children to school but with Shiamala Auntie’s help, more children are able to attend school and obtain an education.

They were adorable! Village children who are able to go to school because of Shiamala Auntie's work. 

We were incredibly blessed to hear from Shiamala Auntie and lean about all that she's doing for others. She inspired our students and encouraged through her story.

In Sum: In Pictures:: Chennai City

Though our visit to Chennai was last week, our students are still singing (and dancing to) “Chennai City”, a song we were introduced to during our time in the state capital. The weekend was filled with plenty of other introductions (including an meeting with a long-time friend of the program staff) and new experiences (first train rides and first time in the Indian Ocean!). There’s plenty to cover, but hopefully this post will do our weekend in Chennai some justice:

After a quick rest Friday afternoon from our busy week of classes and parties (Valentines Day and birthday party [shout out to Oregonian Alyssa Brokaw]) the ISP-ers got ready for their weekend. We boarded the overnight “A/C” train late Friday night and woke up in the state capital of Tamil Nadu.

Some of our ISP-ers on their first train.
In the words of program assistants and experienced train-travelers Jon and Kandyce Pinckney "This is niiiiiiiice"

After the group dropped off their belongings, they boarded another train late morning to visit Shiamala Baby, a long-time friend of the program staff. Shiamala Baby, or “Shiamala Auntie” as we came to call her, told the group of her past struggles, the abuse she endured from her husband, and how she finally freed herself from that cycle. She educated the group on some of the laws currently in effect to protect women from domestic violence and shared about how her own efforts to help empower women.

Shiamala Auntie sharing her story to the "Second Batch"

She emerged from this struggle determined to help other women. With this determination, she started FORWARD, the Forum for Women’s Rights and Development, an organization established to empower and educate women. We heard about some of the FORWARD projects and visited several villages that Shiamala Auntie was working with.

The group getting ready to listen to the villagers.

We watched a performance at one village and learned more about their culture. They shared about their past struggles, their current efforts to better themselves, and the hopes that the village elders have for their children. At the next village, we heard from some of the elder women and watched some girls perform a dance to Chennai city. (Again, that song is still stuck in our heads.) 

Some of the village girls during the beginning of their "Chennai City" performance

Jake Maude and some of the women of the Dalit village. 

The night day ended with a visit to the Mount of St. Thomas, the mountain where St. Thomas was murdered. Typical of India was the juxtaposition found within the view from the Mount. From the high point of the city we were able to see beautiful Church buildings, ornate Hindu temples, slums, high rise buildings, a thick layer of smog, and plenty of lush greenery.
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Panorama of the view fro the Mt. of St. Thomas

Sunday morning brought a visit to St. Thomas’s Basilica, one of three churches in the world that is built upon the grave of an apostle. And after church, our students took advantage the opportunity and jumped in the Indian Ocean.

First attempt! (ok...second attempt but close enough.)

They also learned that women typically swim in their salwars or saris. A note to future ISPers: no need for your Western swimsuits. : )

Redefining the swimsuit. 

And to think, all of this happened before breakfast. The trip to Chennai wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to Vasantha Bhavan, a well-known Chennai restaurant chain. Our ISPers ordered their favorite South Indian dishes (cooking class, peer mentors, and our Wednesday rituals definitely helped them figure out favorites) including dosa masaala, paratha, and ghee roast. After breakfast, it was off to the mall for a little bit of souvenir shopping. And since our pants were still wet and sandy from the beach, we left a trail of sand with us all over the mall. Well that's a bit of an exaggeration, but our pants were still really wet. We hopped back on a train late Sunday night and made the journey back to Coimbatore. 

We were exhausted and tired but it was completely worth it. 

To see more Chennai pictures, click here.

More to come about Shiamala Auntie, the Freedom Firm ISP Lecture Series, and other celebrations.
Until then, our ISPers are off to the neighboring state of Kerala tonight! 

In Pictures: Marina Beach at Night

On our recent trip to Chennai, we were able to visit Marina Beach at night. There were all sorts of vendors, horseback rides for adults and mini carnival rides for small children. The entire beach had a carnival-like feel to it.

Lights from the vendors.

A woman selling mangos by the light of a lantern. (Mangos are delicious here!)

Puri, puffy bread, for sale.

Blurry, but fun- a woman selling corn roasted over a fire.

Vendors along the beach, all the way to the waterfront. This is some of the stretch of beach that was flooded in the 2005 tsunami.

Student Post: Renee Sanderford on our Visit with FORWORD in Chennai

{FORWORD sign outside the office, Tambaram, Chennai}

Hello! We just returned from being in Chennai all weekend! We took a train ride there...what an experience! Baby cockroaches, the smell of urine and strange men sleeping on beds in the train compartment below us. Perfect. Even though these factors made the trip to and from Chennai a little bit uncomfortable, the people that I met made it so worth it. There was one woman named Shiamala Baby who touched my heart. Shiamala started an organization called 'Forword' that focuses on women's rights and development in India. This whole dream came about after Shiamala had experienced such a terrible marriage. She was beaten daily by her husband, who was instigated by his mother, for ten years. Both her and her husband were Christians, and to see him beat her was very shocking to Shiamala; how could a Christian man do this to me?

{Shiamala Auntie tells her story, and explains why she now works as an advocate for battered women and children.}

During those ten years she was blessed with two beautiful baby girls who are now all grown up. Between the ten years of her marriage, she was beaten constantly and it was only with the help of her family that she was able to escape the marriage with her two daughters (during the time of Shiamala’s marriage, it was almost impossible to get a divorce).

While Shiamala was telling her story I could not help but to cry. The reason why is because even in the midst of her horrific marriage, she still looked to God. And now that she has come out of that marriage, she can stand firm on the fact that what she had experienced in the past has now led her to help so many women empower themselves within society, and to love Jesus fiercely on top of it all.

{Renee with her sandalwood paste (yellow) and kumkum powder (red), and her garland of jasmine flowers during our welcome at the urban slum village.}

In fact, Shiamala took us to a place where there were groups of women who have been empowered and encouraged by Shiamala, and they welcomed us with many festivities! To see the joy on the faces of these women and the hope that they have in who they are in society will impact my heart forever. Especially Shiamala's story because she recognizes that what happened in the past was not God's doing. Instead, she has taken the negative aspects of those ten years of her life and she has turned them into something beautiful.

{Shiamala Auntie explaining the villagers' traditional ways of welcoming visitors.}

This was definitely the highlight of my weekend. Thank you Shiamala Baby for not just touching the lives of women in India, but now a young woman from across the globe.

___

you can see more pictures of our trip to Chennai on our Facebook page here.

We're off to Chennai!

We're off to meet with an incredible woman who fights for justice and the rights of untouchables and battered women and children based in Chennai, the capital city of the state we live in.

Thanks for reading, and have a good weekend. We'll update on our visit, and our overnight train ride, when we get back.