February 21, 2016
Siliguri, India
I’ve been mostly radio silent on this trip because the purpose was to get away and write (for next fall’s series), not to be on a missions trip. In fact, when I told Sheri I needed to get away for a couple weeks, I was initially thinking I would go to Saint Mary’s (in Mundelein) or perhaps a cottage in Wisconsin, not that we would go to India. But, this has been a great trip. We stayed in campus housing at HBI; I sat in their cafeteria (all alone) for about ten hours a day writing, and Sheri has had a chance to do some things at/through HBI. I did preach at New Calvary Church last Sunday, and Sheri and I have met with Varghese and Suja, and Bobby and Linette twice for dinner and to share – one at the Gupta’s apartment and once at the Grand Chola Hotel. But I got as much writing done as I could hope to do. At some point I go brain dead.
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All that aside, today the trip entered a different phase. Varghese and I left HBI at 5:30 this AM for the Chennai airport in order to fly to Calcutta and then on to Siliguri – which is in the Northeast part of the country. The trip was uneventful, and provided a good chance for me to pick Varghese’s brain on what is going on in India. Their new Prime Minister – Modi – came into office not long ago on a landslide victory. He’s a charismatic person who has promised to root out corruption and help India thrive. That’s the good news. The down side is that the vision he and his party have is heavily grounded in a strident brand of Hindu nationalism that they are pushing pretty heavily. They have identified Hinduism not as a religious option (among others) but as a critical part of India’s culture. Some have compared the RSS group – which is the way this group is known, — with the Nazis. Indeed, it was one of their members who assassinated Gandhi years ago, and though this assassin has always been a pariah in India, the RSS is now positioning him as a hero. One of the things Modi (and his party) have done is require all the NGOs (which largely means, Christian groups like Compassion, World Vision, a lot of Roman Catholic work, etc.) to reapply for a permit to operate, and it appears as though they are denying groups doing evangelism and calling for conversion, or putting them on a pretty short tether. He has also outlawed eating beef in several states (which the Hindus see as gods).
We arrived in Siliguri shortly after noon and after checking in at a hotel, we went out to the HBI regional center. HBI has ten such centers around the country. These are locations out of which they run schools, train church planters, offer Doctorate of Ministry classes, etc. etc. The location in Siliguri is on 3 1/2 acres and includes a guest house. It is all very simple. And it does feel different than Southern India. (Chennai has 9 million people, meaning that it is approaching the Global Mega-City status of 10 million.) Siliguri is bigger than I thought, but the people look more Nepalese / Mongolian. Labor is cheaper (we went past people building a road by hand – no tractors or back hoes, just people carrying plates of rocks on their head and adding to the road) and out the windows of the guest house, I can see rice fields nearby.
We spent an hour or so meeting various team members who work at the center (running the school, operating a day camp for kids from the local slum, teaching the Bible students, etc.) and some people from Northbrook Church – an Elmbrook plant – in Wisconsin. (They have been working with HBI for over 15 years).
From the HBI center we went with Mochary to visit one of the drop in centers that they are running in Coolipara, a slum with about 35,000 “residents.” I think this is now the third continent where I have visited a large slum. In many ways a slum is a slum is a slum: a maze of shacks made out of mostly corrugated tin; thousands of children – mostly barefoot and often smiling and generally hanging all over each other; litter everywhere, including in the nearby stream (there is always a nearby stream) that is filled with garbage; packs of dogs (and an occasional goat). As things go, Coolipara is nicer than the others I have seen because: there is no open sewer (at least that I got close to); the women are mostly dressed in beautiful Saris; there is electricity (I even saw a TV in one shack).
We visited a few of the HBI drop in centers. The main one we spent time at was a series of three 10’x10’ dirt floor rooms with a blackboard up front and about 20 kids in each one. At the moment, there are so many kids (160) that they can only come every other day. The children were singing (room 1), learning math (room two) and doing some English grammar (room three). It was impressive.
We wandered around visiting a few other sites, including a site where they had hoped to “buy land” to build a larger center. (This would be the Christ Church sponsored project). At this point negations for this land has fallen through. (BTW, there will not be any title to this property. We’d basically be buying enough good will to do something in an area that is mostly Hindu and party Muslim and not particularly open to Christian work). While we were at the slum we wandered through tiny passage ways to get to various “homes” so Varghese (the holy man) could pray for the sick. We also made a pastoral visit on two boys (8 and 10) whose father had committed suicide two days earlier after his wife (the boy’s Mom) had run off with another man. Ugh.
Before going back to the hotel we drove over to the Red Light District. Siliguri is a hub of human trafficking because from here you can easily move into Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh or other northeast states of India. Once you know what to look for, the brothels are pretty easy to spot – collections of young girls, mostly in Western dress, sitting on display and looking pretty dead to the world. Apparently there are categories. The bottom tier is made up of girls who are kept in the red light district. They are essentially locked away. The second level is made up of women who have some independence. When they get a call they show up. And then the third category are “fly girls” who will fly to a country for a few days of “work” and then return home. Some of these are college students.
Of course those at the bottom didn’t sign up for the work. They were likely promised a chance to travel or a job as a maid in another country, or work as a model, etc. When they get separated from their family they are then beaten into submission. And of course AIDS is a problem and of course there is a premium for the youngest girls, especially virgins. It’s all quite dark and depressing and leaves you wondering about the human heart.
Tomorrow we are going to head back to the HBI center to see one of their Day camps in action and then I am going to walk across the border into Nepal. After that we head back to the airport. If all goes according to plans, we arrive in Siliguri tonight and then leave for Chicago tomorrow AM. I say, if all goes according to plans because there has been traffic disruption due to some national protests by college students (and others) in response to some of the pro-Hindu legislation. Apparently they stopped the trains yesterday by taking apart the tracks.