Saturday, August 2, 2008
Headed Home!!
Update - Jack just called me (Sami) and asked if I would post and let you know that he and Raj and Prema just took the teams to the Chennai airport where they said their goodbyes! The teams are now headed for home!! Jack is staying for an additional few days to teach a Core Class to the church planters. He will post more later!
Perspectives: Dan Blacketor - Twenty Bucks a Month?
This week we had the chance to visit both privately funded schools as well as those funded by the Indian government. The cost to send a child to a private school varies but ranges between $20 and $25 per month. When you are making less than $5 per day this becomes a huge sacrifice for many parents and for those families earning less than $2 per day completely out of the question. Even at this huge sacrifice over 30% of students attend a private school – and the educational metrics are overwhelming.
In the private schools the children were well mannered, attentive, wearing a school uniform and learning at levels that were at if not exceeding American schools (a young girl in the 4th standard [4 to 5th grade] was showing me her homework where they were studying geometry, algebra and beginning to learn about mathematical signs and co-signs. Every student had a seat and they shared a 6 foot long table with 4 to 5 other class mates. Now understand this is a village that is at least 8 hours by train, then an additional 90 minutes by bus up and around windy dirt roads just to get to the village. Each class we taught was attended by 30 to 35 students and even the youngest students (2nd and 3rd graders) were able to have conversations after 45 minutes of instruction. Conversational English was practiced among 2 or 3 students.
The government operated schools were a completely different story. First, we did not have the opportunity to meet with the teachers in a separate sessions because the Head Mistress (oversees the school) shared that “the kids would run wild” if we took teachers out of the classroom. Not exactly sure how bad that might have gotten (see Jack’s post) but we took her word for it. The children also received a free lunch each day where the two women cooks were responsible for serving and supervising nearly 600 children (the teachers completely disappeared for nearly 1 ½ hours for their lunch break leaving us and the two cooks to watch over the children – pity the cooks on the days we were not there!)
So, our teaching environment was this – 150 to 175 students squeezed into a room that was 20 feet wide by 50 feet deep. Everyone sat on the floor and they carried their book bag with them. At best the children wore tattered and dirty clothes that had the colors of the school uniform. Kids in the back could not see or hear and children in the front were being squeezed by more and more students wanting to get a closer look at these Americans. Practicing their newly learned English was moved to the school court yard where each of us would take 45 to 50 students and attempt to have quality instructional time. I witnessed very, very little classroom instruction or learning
What was extremely interesting to learn was that the teachers in the private school were most times earning much less than the teachers in the government school. Even though the children from the private schools went home to the same environment as the kids attending the government school I would match the competency and competitiveness of the privately funded students with any student (private or public) in the world.
The question that I keep rolling around in my head is “what would happen if the church –both India and GCC) could figure out how to help Christian Indian families send their children to these private schools?” What would the India church look like in 10 years? What would India look like? All for less than $20 per month!
In the private schools the children were well mannered, attentive, wearing a school uniform and learning at levels that were at if not exceeding American schools (a young girl in the 4th standard [4 to 5th grade] was showing me her homework where they were studying geometry, algebra and beginning to learn about mathematical signs and co-signs. Every student had a seat and they shared a 6 foot long table with 4 to 5 other class mates. Now understand this is a village that is at least 8 hours by train, then an additional 90 minutes by bus up and around windy dirt roads just to get to the village. Each class we taught was attended by 30 to 35 students and even the youngest students (2nd and 3rd graders) were able to have conversations after 45 minutes of instruction. Conversational English was practiced among 2 or 3 students.
The government operated schools were a completely different story. First, we did not have the opportunity to meet with the teachers in a separate sessions because the Head Mistress (oversees the school) shared that “the kids would run wild” if we took teachers out of the classroom. Not exactly sure how bad that might have gotten (see Jack’s post) but we took her word for it. The children also received a free lunch each day where the two women cooks were responsible for serving and supervising nearly 600 children (the teachers completely disappeared for nearly 1 ½ hours for their lunch break leaving us and the two cooks to watch over the children – pity the cooks on the days we were not there!)
So, our teaching environment was this – 150 to 175 students squeezed into a room that was 20 feet wide by 50 feet deep. Everyone sat on the floor and they carried their book bag with them. At best the children wore tattered and dirty clothes that had the colors of the school uniform. Kids in the back could not see or hear and children in the front were being squeezed by more and more students wanting to get a closer look at these Americans. Practicing their newly learned English was moved to the school court yard where each of us would take 45 to 50 students and attempt to have quality instructional time. I witnessed very, very little classroom instruction or learning
What was extremely interesting to learn was that the teachers in the private school were most times earning much less than the teachers in the government school. Even though the children from the private schools went home to the same environment as the kids attending the government school I would match the competency and competitiveness of the privately funded students with any student (private or public) in the world.
The question that I keep rolling around in my head is “what would happen if the church –both India and GCC) could figure out how to help Christian Indian families send their children to these private schools?” What would the India church look like in 10 years? What would India look like? All for less than $20 per month!
Perspectives: Dan Blacketor - You’ve Got to Be Able to Think Indian!
Meet Professor. He is one amazing communicator. By day he truly is a college professor but he is also a full time pastor and church planter. 24/7 he is about bringing Kingdom from Up There to Down Here. He started a church about 6 years ago and now has over 700 people attending. This week he was given the task to accompany the Conversational English team as we worked with grade school students, their teachers and the administration of the schools.
Jack has always talked a lot about how Indians always add so much spice when they were translating for our teams and teachers – well this is the Professor to the nines. He could capture a class of students quicker than anyone I have ever seen. Within minutes he would have them laughing, repeating English words and phrases and communicating with each other (in English) in short sentences.
We Americans did our best – but I think the students were more interested in seeing these different looking people, hearing them speak and eagerly repeating a few short words back to us. But, with the professor, the kids wanted to LEARN English as if their lives depended upon it. With the world getting much smaller and the common thread of communication seemingly being English this might be very true. The professor understood that Tamil should never be replaced as these kid’s native language but learning English was more like learning the internet or any other skill set that enables you to enhance your standard of living.
Jack has always talked a lot about how Indians always add so much spice when they were translating for our teams and teachers – well this is the Professor to the nines. He could capture a class of students quicker than anyone I have ever seen. Within minutes he would have them laughing, repeating English words and phrases and communicating with each other (in English) in short sentences.
We Americans did our best – but I think the students were more interested in seeing these different looking people, hearing them speak and eagerly repeating a few short words back to us. But, with the professor, the kids wanted to LEARN English as if their lives depended upon it. With the world getting much smaller and the common thread of communication seemingly being English this might be very true. The professor understood that Tamil should never be replaced as these kid’s native language but learning English was more like learning the internet or any other skill set that enables you to enhance your standard of living.
Friday, August 1, 2008
“Just Point and Shoot”? Hardly!
Truthfully, I don’t even really know what this thing is. I DO, however, know what it’s NOT. It’s NOT an advanced GPS triangulation device used to give us hyper-accurate coordinates for drilling a well in a remote Indian village. It’s NOT the hardware for setting up a turbo-speed wireless “hot-spot” so that my blogging can be faster and better, even from a village in the middle of nowhere. And, despite it’s looks, it’s NOT a 30 mm light infantry mortar complete with laser range finder and ambient light magnification. It’s also NOT something that fits my typical gift mix. THIS thing is all about sensitivity and artistry. It’s about angles and perspective. Light and glass. It’s about sound-levels and mic checks. It is fragile, and requires battery changes. It runs out of tape, and requires a “Sherpa” to carry the backpack full of “ammunition” (i.e. extra batteries, tapes, wireless mics, etc). I can’t find the trigger. I’m afraid that I’ll drop it or crush it or scratch it or breathe on it wrong. But in its defense, Gene Ort tells me that it takes KILLER pictures. I’m sure he’s right… provided that I actually managed to record anything of value. Guess we’ll see if I’ve been a good “shooter” or not when I get back and he has a chance to take a look at the footage.
Conversational English: Feeding Frenzy…
For reasons that will hopefully become obvious as you read this, I did not and could not actually take a picture of the Conversational English team this morning. They left the hotel to head toward their Village #2 experience at about 9:30 am, knowing that unlike the first 2 days, they were going to be working in a Government School for the remaining two days. Government Schools are the “lower echelon” of India’s educational system. They are where rural, poor or low-caste children go to school. Tuition is free, discipline is lax, and the teachers can do little more than barely “manage” impossible student to teacher ratios in their classrooms. Raj and I drove separately from the team (I was making copies of the team’s hand-outs, and it took me a little longer than I anticipated), and when we arrived, I was amazed to see several hundred little swarming bodies in powder blue uniforms piling around a small concrete room, peering in with hungry little faces at whatever was inside. As I approached, the swarm temporarily diverted to me, and I was immediately surrounded on all sides by hundreds (literally… I’m not joking...) of little munchkins smiling, laughing, shouting and tugging at me. It was like piranha attacking a cow trying to cross the Amazon, except that I had the sense to quickly duck for cover into the little room where the mob had previously been staring. Inside, I found the Conversational English team, laughing and looking elated, but rather nervously at me. “Um… they said that they have 600 kids, will divide them into 2 batches of 300, and that we can ‘take it from there’”, Dan said with a gritty chuckle. I looked around at the teeming mass of “HELLO!!!”-shouting smiles, reaching through the windows to grab hold of clothes or anything else that came within reach and said, “Yeah…uh… this place sort of seems to lack the discipline of the private school from the last couple of days, doesn’t it?” 
Dan cocked an eyebrow and the rest of the team nodded solemnly. “So you guys are going to take these kids in batches of 300?” Again, grim nods mixed with a sort of daringly joyful anticipation. Mental impressions of The Alamo, Custer’s Last Stand, and The Battle of Armageddon flashed through my mind. “How exactly are you going to do that?” I mused incredulously. Then Dan shrugged his shoulders like the battle-hardened veteran that he is, “It’ll be just like After School at MC3… plus or minus a couple of hundred.” I laughed, then remembered the legendary Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi’s words in his classic treatise on swordsmanship (The Book of 5 Rings). It goes something like this, “When you have achieved true mastery, then whether you are engaging one opponent, or ten, or a hundred or a thousand matters little.” Then one of the wild-eyed teachers frantically muttered something that was translated as “they’re ready for you”, and the 4 team members stood up and strided Zen-like into the gaping maw of the waiting mob. I smiled with pride as I quite literally watched them sink beneath the surging swell of tiny humanity and took the opportunity to make a quick exit under cover of their temporary distraction. A couple of the swarmers saw me and peeled off a hundred or so others in a mad dash to try to beat me to the vehicle. I’m not kidding, it was like trying to evade predators. I would have stopped to take a pictur
e except that a camera to small Indian kids is the equivalent of a bleeding elephant seal to a Great White, and so decided to focus on speed and evasion rather than shutterbugging. I made it to the vehicle with a laughing Raj getting into the other side. As we pulled away, there were literally kids hanging off the siderails, shouting “HELLO! HELLO! HELLO!!!!” as we went and finally picked up enough speed for them not to be able to hold on. I cast one final look over my shoulder and the team was nowhere to be found. I shook my head and laughed. “Like bees on a honeycomb!” Raj chuckled. “More like sharks at a frenzy!” I retorted.
Dan cocked an eyebrow and the rest of the team nodded solemnly. “So you guys are going to take these kids in batches of 300?” Again, grim nods mixed with a sort of daringly joyful anticipation. Mental impressions of The Alamo, Custer’s Last Stand, and The Battle of Armageddon flashed through my mind. “How exactly are you going to do that?” I mused incredulously. Then Dan shrugged his shoulders like the battle-hardened veteran that he is, “It’ll be just like After School at MC3… plus or minus a couple of hundred.” I laughed, then remembered the legendary Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi’s words in his classic treatise on swordsmanship (The Book of 5 Rings). It goes something like this, “When you have achieved true mastery, then whether you are engaging one opponent, or ten, or a hundred or a thousand matters little.” Then one of the wild-eyed teachers frantically muttered something that was translated as “they’re ready for you”, and the 4 team members stood up and strided Zen-like into the gaping maw of the waiting mob. I smiled with pride as I quite literally watched them sink beneath the surging swell of tiny humanity and took the opportunity to make a quick exit under cover of their temporary distraction. A couple of the swarmers saw me and peeled off a hundred or so others in a mad dash to try to beat me to the vehicle. I’m not kidding, it was like trying to evade predators. I would have stopped to take a pictur
e except that a camera to small Indian kids is the equivalent of a bleeding elephant seal to a Great White, and so decided to focus on speed and evasion rather than shutterbugging. I made it to the vehicle with a laughing Raj getting into the other side. As we pulled away, there were literally kids hanging off the siderails, shouting “HELLO! HELLO! HELLO!!!!” as we went and finally picked up enough speed for them not to be able to hold on. I cast one final look over my shoulder and the team was nowhere to be found. I shook my head and laughed. “Like bees on a honeycomb!” Raj chuckled. “More like sharks at a frenzy!” I retorted.
Off and Running… Again.
Starting at 9 am this morning, the teams assembled downstairs and were greeted by two “vans” (think M.A.S.H. era personnel carrier), one for each team. Basically, the idea is this: each team will “flip-flop” and head to the village where the other team just finished operating. That way, each village gets to have both a Conversational English and a Medical Team, which is good since our community surveys yielded that both areas requested that sort of help. Their time in their second villages will be slightly shorter than the time they spent in the first, and will look something like this:
Thursday:
Travel
Meet Village Pastor and Relevant Leaders
Lunch
Afternoon program
Dinner
Friday:
Morning program
Lunch
Afternoon program
Leave on overnight train for Chennai
Thursday:
Travel
Meet Village Pastor and Relevant Leaders
Lunch
Afternoon program
Dinner
Friday:
Morning program
Lunch
Afternoon program
Leave on overnight train for Chennai
Did You Know?
Did you know that while the 7 US team members (plus me) are here in India, GCC likewise has a team of 35 students and leaders bringing the Kingdom of God from “Up There to Down Here” in Monterrey, Mexico? You can track them and their team blog by going here: http://mexic08.blogspot.com/
A MUCH Deserved Rest-day…
Raj picked up both teams before 9 am and brought them back to the hotel where we have been staying. It has air-conditioning, comfortable beds, and… that luxury of all luxuries… hot showers. The purpose of the day is just to rest and relax, catching up a bit before heading ou
t to the next set of villages. There really isn’t much on the agenda. Basically, I just told them that we’d see them all at 1 pm for lunch. Eat. Talk a little bit. Dismiss for naps, rest, shopping or whatever they wanted to do. Then see them again at 7 for anyone who wanted to eat dinner together. In the past, we’ve not done a “mid-point” break like this, but I think that it’s really a good thing, and will be a “keeper” for future teams. Even if you’re tough-as-nails like Melinda (I’m not kidding… the girl’s made out of steel! She could hack SEAL training… I guarantee it!), three days and three nights of sweaty floor sleeping, different food, high energy-high demand activities, little sleep beforehand from the straight 40+ hours of travel, etc. will take the varnish off your normally pleasant demeanor. Taking a day in the middle to recoup really seems to help people catch their breath before diving into another village environment, and was a good call to insert into the trip.
t to the next set of villages. There really isn’t much on the agenda. Basically, I just told them that we’d see them all at 1 pm for lunch. Eat. Talk a little bit. Dismiss for naps, rest, shopping or whatever they wanted to do. Then see them again at 7 for anyone who wanted to eat dinner together. In the past, we’ve not done a “mid-point” break like this, but I think that it’s really a good thing, and will be a “keeper” for future teams. Even if you’re tough-as-nails like Melinda (I’m not kidding… the girl’s made out of steel! She could hack SEAL training… I guarantee it!), three days and three nights of sweaty floor sleeping, different food, high energy-high demand activities, little sleep beforehand from the straight 40+ hours of travel, etc. will take the varnish off your normally pleasant demeanor. Taking a day in the middle to recoup really seems to help people catch their breath before diving into another village environment, and was a good call to insert into the trip.
Conversational English: Graduation!
After seeing the Medical Camp (and leaving my secondary camera with The Camera Ninja mentioned in my last post), Raj and I headed back to the private school where the Conversational English team was preparing to hand out certificates of completion to the students who spent the day with them. In typical form for this school, the kids paraded in neat and orderly lines onto a sort of large patio in the back 
of one of the main buildings. The boys sat on one side, the girls on the other, and we sat at the front. Then, the principal spoke several words of gratitude for the team and also for Raj, who helped (in conjunction with Devisetham) to bring about the connection. Raj and Dan both followed, and I was especially impressed that pretty much everyone conducted the entire ceremony in English. Even a few of the teachers came up to speak, which was fun to see, and even a couple of the students. Even for the latter, whose speeches were brief, you could tell that they made very deliberate efforts to speak clearly and use words beyond the “standard vocabulary”. We were all impressed, and enjoyed the time immensely. As each student came up to get a signed certificate from us for completing the day and shake our hands, each of the other students cheered warmly. What a blast!
of one of the main buildings. The boys sat on one side, the girls on the other, and we sat at the front. Then, the principal spoke several words of gratitude for the team and also for Raj, who helped (in conjunction with Devisetham) to bring about the connection. Raj and Dan both followed, and I was especially impressed that pretty much everyone conducted the entire ceremony in English. Even a few of the teachers came up to speak, which was fun to see, and even a couple of the students. Even for the latter, whose speeches were brief, you could tell that they made very deliberate efforts to speak clearly and use words beyond the “standard vocabulary”. We were all impressed, and enjoyed the time immensely. As each student came up to get a signed certificate from us for completing the day and shake our hands, each of the other students cheered warmly. What a blast!
Camera Ninja: Prema Rajendran
We got some GREAT footage of the whole Medical Camp and Women’s Meeting, and I can’t take any credit for it, alas! Want to know who can? Raj’s wife, Prema! Yup, among many other things for which Prema absolutely ROCKS, she’s also a phenomenal photographer. In addition, because she’s Indian, she can move more seamlessly through crowds, be less conspicuous in groups, and get closer to people in the Women’s Meeting than I would be able to. She’s like “The Camera Ninja”. Invisible. Inconspicuous. Lethal. Well…okay… maybe not lethal, but certainly knows the tools of her trade well!
Medical Team: Women’s Meeting
While Jim and the doc’s met with patients, Barb and Andrea met with the women of the village and surrounding area, talking at great length about all sorts of things ranging from empowerment, HIV/AIDS transmission, caring for chronic health issues (personal or family), and even marriage and family related topics. They were aided greatly by Sindu (the young woman to the left of Andrea in the picture here), who is a post-graduate student and a phenomenal translator, and you could tell that the atmosphere around the women was quite honestly electric. The village women leaned in closely to hear what Andrea and Barb had to say, interacted aggressively and positively with one another, and also with them. I think the “biggest” thing that happened as a result of the meeting time was Prema and Sindu’s comment that they thought that this was probably the first time the women had all been together for something like this where they could talk openly about the issues that they are facing, and that because they felt empowered, validated and helped, even from just a “peer to peer” point of view over and apart from the expertise Barb and Andrea provided, would most likely continue to do this kind of thing on their own even after the GCC team leaves. Cool! Mission accomplished! We always say that we are trying to foster and facilitate things that can be replicated infinitely after we leave, so I think that we can say with great confidence that the Women’s Meeting was a great success!
Medical Team: Medical Camp
When I got to the Medical Team, there were already a 100 or so people lined up to be seen by Jim and 3 Indian physicians, plus a host of nurses and other personnel waiting to take orders from the doctors and distribute doses of on-hand medicine. The closer we got to 10 am (the anticipated start time for the camp), the more people came flooding to the camp. When it was time to start, Pastor Devisetham (one of our SuperPastors) introduced the doctors, then the rest of the GCC team. He explained that the doctors would be doing basic screenings, medical analysis and medication distribution, and that Barb and Andrea would like to speak with any women who were present about women’s iss
ues whenever they had received treatment from the doctors. When the pastor finished speaking, he introduced the Village Elder (kind of the like the Mayor), who thanked the team for coming, and also for the other doctors in the mix coming as well. Then, when he finished, he marched right over to Jim and sat down. Jim checked his vitals, and then asked him some very targeted questions about his lifestyle. The Elder seemed thoroughly happy to be listening to Jim, and also to be listened to by him. He thanked him thoroughly, and then went on his way, after which time, Jim saw a steady stream of patients for the rest of the day. All in all, I think that Jim and the other doctors saw 176 patients during the camp, but Jim continued to see patients well into the evening as stragglers made it to the village from the outlying other communities. 
ues whenever they had received treatment from the doctors. When the pastor finished speaking, he introduced the Village Elder (kind of the like the Mayor), who thanked the team for coming, and also for the other doctors in the mix coming as well. Then, when he finished, he marched right over to Jim and sat down. Jim checked his vitals, and then asked him some very targeted questions about his lifestyle. The Elder seemed thoroughly happy to be listening to Jim, and also to be listened to by him. He thanked him thoroughly, and then went on his way, after which time, Jim saw a steady stream of patients for the rest of the day. All in all, I think that Jim and the other doctors saw 176 patients during the camp, but Jim continued to see patients well into the evening as stragglers made it to the village from the outlying other communities.
Bo-Peep Lives Here!
Okay, now, Salem isn’t like Metropolis or Gotham or anything (no, I mean in regard to size of the city, not in regard to comic-book characters), but it’s a pretty good sized town. And we’re staying in a decent hotel (well…okay… IIIIIIIII am staying in a decent hotel… the teams are sleeping on the ground in their villages… and yes… I feel guilty… but having spent plenty of time on the ground on previous trips, not TOO guilty) that functions as an effective “base” and midpoint between the two villages. As a result, just try to remember the last time you walked out of a Marriott and saw a lady with a herd of sheep or goats come walking through the carport. “Pardon me, sir, can I get your car? Yes sir… just a moment, sir… we have to wait for the goats to pass.”
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