Thursday, October 3rd
Today is our 5th day at Bellefonte Parish in
Shillong but it feels like we’ve been here for weeks. When we arrived by jeep
with Sister Helen on Saturday night after a 4 hour harrowing drive up the
mountains, the sisters made us feel right at home with a big meal and words of
welcome. Those who knew me from my visit 3 years previous immediately touched
my hair and remarked that it was lovely compared to the near-bald head I
sported last time. We were told to rest well and eat lots, wishes we receive
day-in and day-out, and tucked in to our new home, the guest cottage beside the
convent. Thanks to the grant from Rotary Club International, Rotary Club Spanaway, Rotary Club Shillong and Pam
Deacon, the guest cottage for visiting volunteers, guest professors, and friends
was completed in 2011. It’s a pretty sweet cottage with 3 guest rooms, a few
bathrooms and lots of space. I’d tell you more but I haven’t even walked around
the whole thing yet, we’ve been busy!
We slept well and got up with the sun and the roosters about
5am on Sunday. Circus immediately went to the kitchen and helped the house girls prepare
breakfast, a daily routine that he loves. I had a long morning yoga and
meditation practice and joined the sisters for breakfast at 8am. Sunday is a
day of rest and we made ourselves at home, had some computer time, and chatted
with Sister Helen, our gracious host, about the projects that we were being
asked to help with. My first task was to organize a follow-up paper for a state
and nationally sponsored grant that will fund the next stage of Bellefonte
Community College. A few things need to be researched and re-worked, like new
building plans and a land survey, before we can submit the final paperwork.
We’re praying that it will be approved as it would be enough to cover stage 2,
including at least 8 more classrooms, teachers’ offices, etc.
And how is BCC coming? I am so happy to report that the
first block of the building, which will be 8 classrooms when complete, is
under construction. The 3rd
floor is being finished in the next few weeks, - we hope - and the 4th floor
will be ready to be bricked and poured soon.
A few road blocks have come up, though, which I will explain. First the
good news: Circus has met most of the workers and the building contractor and
has been named “Project Manager” by Sister Helen. It’s both a comical title,
since he can’t speak to most of the workers and doesn’t really know the way
things work here, and a fitting title as I’ve seen and heard how his presence does
motivate the builders to move faster, work harder, and stay on task. Circus can
lift twice what the workers can and works faster and more precisely. We took some
photos and video of the building and a few are up with great descriptions on our facebook pages. Everything
here is made of brick and concrete with bamboo and iron re-bar. The only tools
are shovels, hammers and nails, and a mason trowel. Construction moves slowly
as it is all by hand and weather dependent. Plus, it is India, after all, and things move slowly. In an average day there's probably 3-4 hours of actual work on the building.
Shillong is situated way up in the hills of the state of Meghalaya and it’s very rainy
with downpours daily since our arrival. Apparently the seasons have been
reversed this year. Usually the rains are in the summer months, July and August,
and September and October are warm and dry. This year there was little rain in
the summer and it is coming now instead. All the building materials, sand,
concrete, brick, and long bamboo poles are sitting out in the courtyard, so
work is difficult when it rains heavily.
The block that is being constructed now should be finished
in 2014. Last time I was here there were 2 classrooms for 50-60 students in the
parish basement and a few vocational training and computer classrooms in the
old dispensary across the parking lot. Now the dispensary has been demolished,
as it is the site of the new BCC and the space that was once 2 classrooms in
the parish basement has been squeezed into 6! The computer training room has
been moved into the basement, as well, and many more computers were purchased
with the Rotary Club grant, although the room is still quite small. The partitions between the existing 6 “classrooms”
are simply standing ply-board partitions and do not block out sound or
distraction, but the sister have made it work. There are currently 8 teachers
from outside the convent teaching students from primary school to 12th
grade 6 days a week, and 2 sisters who reside at Bellefonte, Sr. Helen and Sr.
Celina. The students are preparing for their final subject exams which will take
place later this month. English and
Hospitality courses have been suspended until the new building is ready for
students next year. Of course, after the walls are poured, classes need to be
furnished which will take a bit more funding...
To view a youtube video about BCC that I made for our last fundraising event, click here.
And now the aforementioned road block: Some local
politicians and student unions have been fighting for a month to pass an “ILP”
or Inner Line Permit, which some of the other Northeast States have. There is a
growing fear among the local Khasi people that outsiders, both Indian nationals
and foreign nationals, are encroaching on the land and jobs here. Local tribes
in the neighboring state of Tripura have been all but wiped-out in recent years
and the Khasi want to prohibit outsiders from taking their land and jobs in the
same way. However, there is much criticism about the demand for those
permits and the methods of protest, which are hurting the local economy. What they
are asking for would be like someone from California having to register as an
out-of-state employee to get a job in Oregon, and to not be allowed to stay in
the local area but have to commute hundreds of miles a day to work. The
protests have included a month of evening road blocks into and out of the city
of Shillong, which has greatly deterred both tourists and construction workers
who are trying to finish the 4-lane road from the nearest airport and major
city in Guwahati, Assam.
Everyone we’ve spoken with here is against both the permits and the protests, saying that the Khasis are not in danger of being kicked off their land as no one sells land to non-Khasis anyway. Jobs are being taken by people from other areas of India because there is very little educated or skilled labor in Meghalaya – hence the need for BCC! – and the work ethic is very poor. The locals near Bellefonte went as far as threatening our laborers – who are from the neighboring state of Assam – that they will kill them if they stayed here. Sister Helen went to the village headman and asked him for local workers who would work as hard as the Assamese men and she received no reply. So the 17 builders who have been working on the construction of BCC for a year have dwindled to 6 who have local papers to work and safe places to stay. *Sigh* At least their spirits have been lifted by the Circus Clown who has come to stay for a few weeks!
And now to catch you up on our activities or “daily
programme” as the sisters call it. On Sunday, we went to the nearby boarding
school in Mawlai, another district of Shillong and met Sister Maristella who
was Mother Superior at Bellefonte last time I was here. She graciously welcomed
us to Shillong and said we could come back and play with the students sometime this
month. She had no idea that it would be so soon, though…
After our visit with Sister Maristella, Sister Helen needed
to stop at a nearby house to talk with some women. They invited us in, gave us
tea and local goodies and we ended up staying more than an hour as relatives
piled into the house to see the foreigners or “Parang”. There were about 10
kids from 5 years old to 20-something and we played and chatted with them at
length. We both are immediately at home with children, Circus playing and me
chatting in English and singing songs. We make a good team, and really feel at
home with the Khasi people. Of course, they stare and ask questions about us
(not to us, that would be too scary!) but once we break the ice it’s pretty
comfortable. It’s strange being catered to, though, and our white skin will
elicit that response in most countries.
Monday was our first day of work and I wrote the grant
follow-up for Sister Helen and researched some new funding possibilities while
Circus worked on the building, in the kitchen, fixing benches and anything else
asked of him or that he saw needed doing. He is the popular one, here,
entertaining everyone with jokes, dancing, singing, clowning, balloon
sculptures, and his jovial spirit. I do seem solemn in comparison! From our
first day, though, I’ve taken a lot of personal time for twice daily practice and
time alone in the chapel to pray, reflect, and find peace.
Tuesday we continued work and Circus met a neighbor who
speaks English fluently. She invited us for tea and we visited with her for an
hour, trying to explain about BCC and win her over to the work here. A
community college is a new concept in India and people don’t understand the
huge potential benefits to their community. We’ve found that a big part of our
job is networking and marketing the school. I guess you could say we've been deemed - or deemed ourselves - foreign ambassadors of BCC.
That evening, Sister Helen invited
me to come to a satellite evening campus of BCC where they teach both younger
and older students who are catching up with schooling. I spontaneously got to
chat and play with the younger students (age 12-18) who attend school in the
evening because they work during the day. The village is about a 20 minute
drive from BCC, too far for any of the students to be able to come to the
campus at Bellefonte. The school is called St. Anne’s and they have offered it
to Sister Helen to run as a full time school next year as a satellite under the name of BCC.
It is an exciting prospect, but needs much consideration by the Salesian
Sisters if it is feasible to take over so soon (the school calendar begins in
February) or not. I’m hoping so! It needs a bit of upkeep, but is functional as
a school for K-8 at least, plus NIOS, state-board exams, vocational training or
high school classes.
Wednesday was a national holiday, Mahatma Ghandi’s Birthday,
and it was Bellefonte’s Mother Superior’s birthday as well. There were no
classes and the novices prepared a celebration for Sister Carmelina, the Mother Superior, with guests
from other congregations and a special breakfast with cake and gifts. Circus
surprised everyone with his painted clown face and expert balloon blowing. The
sisters and locals who had come for morning mass were flabbergasted with his
comical performance and very entertained. They laughed and laughed. Good thing
they do love to laugh! One sister was visiting from the boarding school in
Mawlai and invited us to come visit and perform in the “Fun Day” assembly
Thursday morning. We of course obliged and had a great time playing with the
1300+ students. They didn’t really know what to make of Mr. Circus, but they
laughed and laughed, too!
Wednesday afternoon Sister Helen had made arrangements for
us to visit a nearby hotel called the Lakkhotaa Lodge which is owned by a Khasi
woman and her American husband. We went for “tea” – British influenced culture,
daily tea and cookies – and ended up staying 3 hours. The woman, Elmie, has
lived in Italy, China, America, and India and her husband, Jim, is from
Tennessee and spent most of his life in Florida. The hotel – an amazing oasis in Shillong – has been open 4 years and
is so posh and immaculate. You forget you’re in India! We chatted awhile about
BCC, how to train locals in hospitality and a better work ethic, the protests,
the American government shut-down (don’t get me started on that!), and cultural
barriers. They invited us to come and stay at the hotel as their guests and we
made plans to come back on Sunday and to go together to the Don Bosco Museum which has exhibits
about the Northeast states, local tribal culture, and the massive local influence
of Christianity. Jim and Sister Helen talked a while about the architecture of
the new block of BCC, the importance of earthquake proof structural engineering
and steps to making sure the contractor knows the best way to carry out the
plans. Jim has generously volunteered to consult on the project as it begins
next year.
So 5 days here and we’re doing our best to win the hearts
and minds of those we meet. The sisters have invited us to stay a long time,
and we’ll see how long we can continue to be of service in the work that needs
doing. Our plan was to stay at Bellefonte until Oct 20, then maybe to
travel in the northeast states. We might also come back and spend more time
here. Right now the “no-plan” is working.
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