Posted on March 8, 2017 under Storytelling with 2 comments

500 Indian women walking on International Women’s Day

“ We are family; I got all my sisters with me.”

We Are Family. Sister Sledge.

They are the healers and providers.

It all started with a chance meeting at a community dinner in Antigonish in the fall of 2016.

 Sister Archana Das, the Executive Director of the Stella Maris Institute of Development Studies in Southern India and a student at Coady, was present at the event. We struck up a conversation and when she heard that I would be traveling to India, she invited me to come to the convent. Her congregation, The Daughters of Mary, are social workers at heart. They run several programs including 11 orphanages, two facilities for mentally ill women and an old age home.

Twenty two years ago, under the guiding hand of Sister Archana, a leprosy community was established on a property next door to the convent. During all of this time, the Sisters have provided nourishment for the body and the soul as well as free water, electricity and medical supplies.

Sister Archana had heard about the Coady Institute through friends and decided to apply for admission. She was successful and with the financial support of the Federal Government, the C.W.L and the Sisters of St. Martha, she attended the Fall session.

The Sisters of St. Martha know a thing or two about caring. They have been health care providers for decades having established St. Martha’s Hospital, currently a regional facility. They are educators and social workers.  In addition to this, they have reached out to the community at home and abroad providing support to many organizations including the Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre.  Back in the early 80’s, they were instrumental in helping CACL get on a strong financial footing.

I decided to take up Sister Archana’s offer and “ entered the convent” on December 30, 2016. It didn’t take me long to realize the ethos of the Sisters. They work with the poorest of the poor. They are kind, humble and very hard working women.

One of the first places that they showed me was the leprosy colony. While there are no active cases of this dreadful disease in the community, the physical and psychological scars are still evident. These are ordinary people who were dealt a bad hand and have spent a lifetime of being shunned and marginalized.

Despite the heroic effort of the Sisters, they face many challenges. The Indian government no longer provides financial support to the facilities operated by the Sisters and foreign aid has all but dried up.

As mentioned, the leprosy community has a supply of fresh water but the 60 homes are served by only 10 outdoor water taps. As part of a fundraising initiative, it was decided that now was the time to rectify this situation. The “Fifty Taps” project was launched a few weeks ago encouraging individuals to contribute $100 to purchase a tap. The overall cost of the project was $6000 which included the installation of a second water holding tank. Several people immediately stepped forward with donations totalling $1,000.

The Wishing Well Society is well known in the Antigonish area. They have been in existence since 2000. Their mission is “ to provide financial assistance where needed for sustainable water systems to improve the quality of life in rural communities.” Some of the Society’s Board members became aware of the plight of the leprosy community through social media and decided to step up in a major way. At a recent Board meeting they decided to fund the remaining $5,000.

The Wishing Well Society receives donations from individuals , businesses and other groups. One of those groups is the Sisters of St. Martha. I was informed that the $5,000 being committed was a contribution from the Martha’s, the same group that helped bring Sister Archana to Antigonish in the first place.

In a remarkable coincidence, two religious orders, half a world apart , have joined hands to help those who cannot help themselves. Bringing water to the doorsteps of those affected with leprosy is a game changer.

When the people at the leprosy community turn on their new taps for the first time, they can thank the Daughters of Mary who are their neighbors , along with the Sisters of St. Martha’s and private donors from across Canada.

On this International Women’s Day, let us celebrate Sisterhood.

It’s a small world after all.

Posted on March 6, 2017 under Monday Morning Musings with one comment

The final week for my young English students

 

The season of Lent began last week. For Catholics, this is a time a fasting, penance and preparation.

I almost decided to give up India for Lent.

We all know how utterly slavish we’ve become to technology. Virtually everything we do requires an electronic device in good working condition with a great internet provider. For me, especially on this 6 month journey, being connected and staying connected is especially important. Yes, I could live without Facebook , Instagram and Netflix but not being able to talk to my family, arrange hotels and flights and publish stories is more than inconvenient. I have been patiently waiting (?) for over two months for the local service provider to figure out how to get high speed ( any speed would be good at this time! ) into my residence which also houses the meeting room where I am teaching ESL to the young noviciates.

Well, the “ gang who couldn’t shoot straight” came by again last week and after 10 or so hours, not only managed to not get us connected but in the process managed to disable my computer so that I couldn’t get internet anywhere on the property. Shortly after this debacle, my computer battery died and while installing the new one , which takes several hours to charge, my charger died.

So what does a guy do when his inner thermostat is nearing the boiling point? He does what most intelligent women do and goes shopping to blow off a little steam. I believe they call it “ retail therapy.” Now, long time followers of my writing know that the last place you would find me, unless dragged in wearing handcuffs , pulled by a herd of Clydesdales , is a shopping centre. However, desperate times call for desperate measures.

I haven’t written a shopping story in eons but later this week, you’ll hear about this incredible store in the neighboring city of Nagercoil. Many of you have already seen the pictures of the fabric and saris that I posted a few days ago. Not only do they have a spectacular array of merchandize but how the store operates is something to behold… and not necessarily in a good way!

The Mother Superior of the congregation dropped by the other day. She informed me (!) that I was doing such an admirable job teaching English to her young charges that I would continue my resurrected ( everything has a Lenten connotation these days ) teaching career by providing three weeks of training to three fully fledged Sisters who are studying to become medical doctors.

Thank you for all the comments about my story on the late Stuart McLean. It’s almost like three people died , now that Dave and Morley are gone as well.

A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture on demonetization. I was the special guest and when the session was over, several people stayed afterwards to chat. They were very interested in Canada and wanted to know more. A few days ago, I received a call from a young Indian school teacher requesting a meeting with me. He and four of his friends came to the convent and we spent a couple of hours chatting. The long and short of the discussion was that they want to move to Canada and were looking for information. Most teachers are very poorly paid over here, many of them earning only 10,000 rupees a month. That’s about $200. Canadian. They don’t see much of a future staying in India. With Canada facing a shortage of workers as Baby Boomers retire en masse, immigration is going to play an increasingly important role. These young men would be a great asset, anywhere they decide to go.

The young noviciates sang in English at mass for the first time on Ash Wednesday evening. They did a great job. Afterwards, in the waning light, they formed a semi-circle out front of the convent and sang “ Let it Be.” Despite never having heard of The Beatles, this has become their favorite song.

Have a great week.

P.S. Campaign Update

        I am very pleased to tell you that the fundraising campaign is humming along nicely. Thanks to a very generous donation of $5,000 to the water tap project ,our overall total for the campaign to fund several projects , stands at $18,000. Thank you very much. I will be doing a story about this donation in conjunction with International Women’s Day. Now that the water tap project is fully funded, we will continue to raise money for things like much needed maintenance work at the old age home.

 

Posted on March 2, 2017 under Storytelling with 2 comments

 

“ Operator. Well could you help me place this call. “

 Operator. Jim Croce

Alexander Graham Bell spent his summers just a few hours up the road from us in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. He was an amazing inventor. He is credited for inventing the phonograph, the iron lung, the first hydrofoil boat and he was one of the pioneers of aeronautics. But of course, he is best known as the inventor of the telephone, which revolutionized the way people communicated over long distances.

Telephone technology has grown by leaps and bounds over the decades. Many of us remember the days of “party lines” which was really an efficient conduit for transmitting gossip. Calling an operator to get a hold of a friend was the norm. Our number was 117.  Then came a major revolution with the development of the rotary dial phone and things progressed to a button system. Now, the vast majority of people don’t have a landline. Almost two billion people worldwide own cell phones. And many people own more than one mobile device.

When I arrived in India several months ago, I was given a SIM card with a local Indian number. It was good for phoning and texting but for some reason that escapes me, I couldn’t get data. Asking me the  reason for this is like asking me to define a “black hole.” I looked it up. A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. Sometimes I think my brain is akin to a black hole when it comes to technology.

On the advice of a friend, I acquired a second phone. This would give me the capacity to purchase data and use this device for tethering to my phone. Then, I could be connected just about anywhere, any time. Or so I thought. Electronic devices can sniff out imbeciles like me a mile away. I purchased enough gigabytes ( GB ) to last me well into the next century. I am told that one gigabyte  is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes. Everything went swimmingly well for a few weeks and then for some unknown reason, I couldn’t tether any more.

I decided to “ Bell the cat!”

It was a particularly hot and muggy day when I headed in to the town of Kanyakumari on foot. I had a good sweat on when I entered the office of the service provider who sold me the data. My first stab at an explanation drew blanks as neither salesperson spoke English. Their office wasn’t air conditioned. There wasn’t even a fan. A “ good sweat” turned into a river very quickly. After much hand waving and gesturing, it was decided that I should go next door and talk to their technicians. In a room not much bigger than a shoebox, five men toiled away. This room also served as a central depot of sorts at there were a gazillion wires and circuit boards in every space not occupied by a human. It was cozy and felt like the sauna I once frequented on our university’s campus.

The head tech was busy so one of the second in commands started fidgeting with phone #2. In short order, his buddies weighed in and many opinions abounded. No solution appeared to be forthcoming, I cooled my heals ( a misnomer if I ever heard one! ) for several more minutes waiting for the boss. It didn’t take him long to expose the moron sitting across from him ( me ). He politely said that my data roaming had been left on and the reason my phone wouldn’t tether, is because I had no data. I found this puzzling as earlier in the day, a report had come in on my phone that I still had 5 GB’s remaining on my plan.

I sheepishly walked the handful of steps back into Hades 1 and laid down 549 IRS ( about $11.) for 10 more GB’s. It only took a few seconds and I was back in business. When he handed me back my phone, I was slightly confused ( heat exhaustion possibly? ) when I saw my GB balance. It was 15. I’m pretty good at math. When I asked the young male clerk to explain this to me, he uttered, “ You must have gotten a bonus.” To me that was code for, “ I don’t have a damn clue why you have 15 gigabytes.”

I was almost at the door when it dawned on me to try and tether.  And sure enough, it didn’t work. After 45 minutes of blood sweat and tears ( mostly sweat and tears and some muffled profanities ), I was in exactly the same boat. For the first time in India, I seriously thought about letting out a blood curdling yell like Peter Finch did in the movie “Network.” “ I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.”

I took a couple of deep breaths.         

A young woman appeared behind the counter and her English was more than passable. Between sobs (!) I explained all that had transpired in recent days and more importantly, in the past hour. She grabbed my phone, went to the settings and in under 10 seconds, the problem was fixed. I didn’t need more data after all.  I wanted to leap over the counter and hug her but I also didn’t want to get arrested and go to jail for the terror this might cause her.

I know a much more efficient way of tethering. It involves two empty Campbell’s soup cans and a piece of string . A perfect way to stay connected.