Okay so we had an internet issue and I couldn't access the internet for 24 hours, so I have alot of catching up to do for you! So, as I was saying, Fr. Arun is a Dalit Hindu turned Catholic, and because of this decison his family rejected him. It's quite a sad story, but luckily he has a beautiful family with everyone at Loyola College and many other people in the city. He is so wonderful and very personable, and he wants to visit us at Canisius in May! (possibly.)
After Fr. Arun spoke with us, we had a lecture from a sociology professor named Gladstone Xavier. He was very interesting and engaging, and we learned many things from him. Basically, he told us about his work with refugees in India, including some from Sri Lanka, Burma, and other neighboring countries. He told us that 36,000 refugees come to India from all over and receive benefits and help to live a better life. At first I started thinking that this was ridiculous because he had just told us that 60% of Chennai is made up of slums, and there are millions and millions of poor people suffering in India: why would social programs try to benefit refugees when so many Indians are impoverished? Then I started thinking...people say the same thing in the US: why should allow immigrants to come to our country when we have so many issues to work out with our own citizens; however, I'm sympathetic to immigrants who have families and children, and I believe that no matter where they are coming from they deserve to have a better life in America free from whatever burdens and injustices they suffer from in their native countries. So why should that be any different in India? It seems to me that everyone, as human beings, no matter what country they are from, deserve to have the same rights and access to basic human needs as anyone else. The task then, is to figure out the best way to allow for this to happen :)
After lectures, we visited some religious sites in the city including a Hindu temple. While they are very interesting and unique, I personally hate going to these temples because there are always beggars sitting outside of them. And they don't only reach out their hands for money from us, they reach out to touch us because we're American and white and they believe we can bring them good fortune just by our presence. Of course we shake their hands and treat them with kindness, but it's extremely difficult to literally meet poverty and realize that people have nothing while we have everything. Guilt is heavy to carry around.
On a lighter note, we went to the hill of St. Thomas where he hid in a cave from persecution, and some adventurous group members (Hannah, Pat, Matt, Katherine, Stephen) drank the holy water at the top of the hill, which is holy because it's covered and no rain water washes into the hole, and it's at the top of the hill so no rain water washes into the hole, so where does it come from but within the hill? Something like that. It was very interesting and the church was very beautiful.
We returned to the hotel and some people rested. Hannah and Matt went for a walk outside the hotel and returned married. Not really. But they did visit a temple where they received some forehead paint in the shape of a dot (formally called bindis). Since Hannah looks Indian and Matt's moustache makes him blend right in here, they've offically surpassed the rest of us in blending in haha.
We ate dinner at a buffet last night, reflected, played some card games, and went to bed. Overall it was an exhausted but enlightening day.
No comments:
Post a Comment