Recalling YE days!
Puppets, skits, worship bands, welcoming hospitality and attention, leadership in ministry… sound familiar, anyone? The week was filled with memories of my Youth Encounter team days.
I observed a training session on Saturday led by the UTC “Street Theater” group for some South Indian lay leaders. The ST group creatively teaches communities about HIV/AIDS primarily, and other societal problems as well. It was so fun to see different personalities come out of my new friends and the whole thing was so YE – like! I am impressed by their awareness-building, and hope to see them out in the STREET soon.
I finally got to wear a sari! OK – that’s exciting enough, but the fact that my first experience was also DANCING in a sari was another matter! I happened across a ‘dandia’ (women dancing with colorful sticks) rehearsal and quickly was drawn into the activity. I was just supposed to fill in for someone missing so that they would have an even number of people, but the next thing I knew, they were finding me a partner and arranging for me to wear a sari for the occasion. “MANY MANY PINS!!” they assured me would keep me from exposing myself! Well, it worked! Two of the 4th year students (Dhava and Ruth) helped me put it on, and I didn’t do such a terrible job on the dance which was performed at the Women’s Fellowship gathering. (sorry – the actual dance pictures were too dark to use here).
I attended a “Naga” (another ethnic group from the NE – Asongla’s tribe) concert. However, the group from UTC and only one other group sang something traditional from their culture. The rest of the concert was a variety of very talented people sharing Western praise and worship music and/or choreography. We felt badly for them, however, because the sound system did not cooperate at all and in addition to starting 1 ½ hours late, there was also periodic trouble throughout. It was a beautiful evening in the outside concert area, though, and there were lots of people around to keep my eyes occupied!
I went on a special “park tour” with Asongla and Henrika last Friday. We (tried to) get some off-campus time to read, but it turned into 1) the beautiful, but closed park nearby 2) on to the ‘couples park’ where we didn’t quite fit in (and there was an entrance fee), and then 3) found our home at a park not too far from UTC, but with some young harassing boys and also work being done which kept us from resting in any one place for long. It’s what stories are made of, I guess. I also walked to a lake/park on my own after worship on Sunday. It is one of the more ‘quiet’ times of the week here. Since Bangalore is called the “Garden City”, I thought I should check out the greener parts of the city.
I joined a group of students as they visited a slum community to talk with wome
n about their struggles and to give them voice to their concerns, especially about domestic violence and other forms of exploitation/abuse. The organization “Women’s Voice” is a very impressive organization which advocates for women… and helps them advocate for themselves. I have much more to learn about the organization, but for now, I was able to take part in a community meeting where struggles were shared (but in Tamil, so I didn’t understand much). I was given a small bouquet of flowers and took my picture with the women gathered (again – a familiar team experience), so you can see them here. I hope to visit their community again this coming week.
I led 2 songs in chapel one day and learned a song in Tamil which was sung in chapel this morning as well. This went beyond the usual bhajan singing. After hearing so much familiar praise and worship music here (the same songs YE teams often do), I am extremely thankful for those here at UTC who continue the bhajan tradition and who compose music in their own language and cultural manner.
Michael (?) Fonner, who is an Asia Representative for the ELCA and resides in Kuala Lumpur visited UTC this week and I had a brief, but helpful visit with him. I now have a place to stay if/when I need to leave India to change my visa! He was quick to welcome me, so this is reassuring.
The students run the hostel and the mess hall themselves (including going to the market to buy the food for everyone each day), so we had a couple student meetings this week which was interesting to see/hear. Henrika and I don’t always know where we ‘fit’ since we take classes with both MTh students and the general students becoming pastors. We eat in the mess, but don’t stay in the student
hostels. We basically go to most everything just to see how it goes. Although we are not on the rotation schedule for serving food in the mess, I hope to go with the students to get food sometime.
Yoga classes have just begun three times a week (with the students in a YMCA program), so I have attempted to be flexible, strong, and centered… but it is not easy to do this at 6:00 in the morning! I’ve discovered that while my previously injured Achilles has healed very well, it is still weaker than the other side, so I hope to remedy that a bit. Other than that, I have not had any new insights through the practice of yoga!
Still going strong,
Sara
I observed a training session on Saturday led by the UTC “Street Theater” group for some South Indian lay leaders. The ST group creatively teaches communities about HIV/AIDS primarily, and other societal problems as well. It was so fun to see different personalities come out of my new friends and the whole thing was so YE – like! I am impressed by their awareness-building, and hope to see them out in the STREET soon.
I finally got to wear a sari! OK – that’s exciting enough, but the fact that my first experience was also DANCING in a sari was another matter! I happened across a ‘dandia’ (women dancing with colorful sticks) rehearsal and quickly was drawn into the activity. I was just supposed to fill in for someone missing so that they would have an even number of people, but the next thing I knew, they were finding me a partner and arranging for me to wear a sari for the occasion. “MANY MANY PINS!!” they assured me would keep me from exposing myself! Well, it worked! Two of the 4th year students (Dhava and Ruth) helped me put it on, and I didn’t do such a terrible job on the dance which was performed at the Women’s Fellowship gathering. (sorry – the actual dance pictures were too dark to use here).
I attended a “Naga” (another ethnic group from the NE – Asongla’s tribe) concert. However, the group from UTC and only one other group sang something traditional from their culture. The rest of the concert was a variety of very talented people sharing Western praise and worship music and/or choreography. We felt badly for them, however, because the sound system did not cooperate at all and in addition to starting 1 ½ hours late, there was also periodic trouble throughout. It was a beautiful evening in the outside concert area, though, and there were lots of people around to keep my eyes occupied!
I went on a special “park tour” with Asongla and Henrika last Friday. We (tried to) get some off-campus time to read, but it turned into 1) the beautiful, but closed park nearby 2) on to the ‘couples park’ where we didn’t quite fit in (and there was an entrance fee), and then 3) found our home at a park not too far from UTC, but with some young harassing boys and also work being done which kept us from resting in any one place for long. It’s what stories are made of, I guess. I also walked to a lake/park on my own after worship on Sunday. It is one of the more ‘quiet’ times of the week here. Since Bangalore is called the “Garden City”, I thought I should check out the greener parts of the city.
I joined a group of students as they visited a slum community to talk with wome
n about their struggles and to give them voice to their concerns, especially about domestic violence and other forms of exploitation/abuse. The organization “Women’s Voice” is a very impressive organization which advocates for women… and helps them advocate for themselves. I have much more to learn about the organization, but for now, I was able to take part in a community meeting where struggles were shared (but in Tamil, so I didn’t understand much). I was given a small bouquet of flowers and took my picture with the women gathered (again – a familiar team experience), so you can see them here. I hope to visit their community again this coming week.I led 2 songs in chapel one day and learned a song in Tamil which was sung in chapel this morning as well. This went beyond the usual bhajan singing. After hearing so much familiar praise and worship music here (the same songs YE teams often do), I am extremely thankful for those here at UTC who continue the bhajan tradition and who compose music in their own language and cultural manner.
Michael (?) Fonner, who is an Asia Representative for the ELCA and resides in Kuala Lumpur visited UTC this week and I had a brief, but helpful visit with him. I now have a place to stay if/when I need to leave India to change my visa! He was quick to welcome me, so this is reassuring.
The students run the hostel and the mess hall themselves (including going to the market to buy the food for everyone each day), so we had a couple student meetings this week which was interesting to see/hear. Henrika and I don’t always know where we ‘fit’ since we take classes with both MTh students and the general students becoming pastors. We eat in the mess, but don’t stay in the student
hostels. We basically go to most everything just to see how it goes. Although we are not on the rotation schedule for serving food in the mess, I hope to go with the students to get food sometime.Yoga classes have just begun three times a week (with the students in a YMCA program), so I have attempted to be flexible, strong, and centered… but it is not easy to do this at 6:00 in the morning! I’ve discovered that while my previously injured Achilles has healed very well, it is still weaker than the other side, so I hope to remedy that a bit. Other than that, I have not had any new insights through the practice of yoga!
Still going strong,
Sara
posted by Namasday | 2:04 AM
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