Well, before I took my venture to the United States I took a two week trip to India! This is a way over due post, and my mom, Monica, probably already stole this post. Trust me though mine will be ten-fomillion-gazillion-brazillion times better than my mom’s!
Anyways, this trip to India had a lot of build up, but most of that is boring so I won’t go into the details. Basically, we paid lots of money, went to lots of meetings, and sold lots of homeade chocolate chip cookies! =D In the end, though, we all made it to India… Well, after a few plane rides.
The Entire India Group
We arrived in Chennai and stayed the night at the YWCA. You got to come the YWCA! Yeah, sorry I got a bit carried away. Anways, we only stayed there for a night and a day before we took the night train to Ooty! Believe me though the night train might not sound so exciting, but its less exciting than it actually sounds. Also even though it was at night we didn’t get much sleep laying on a bed between two snoring beast with you’re luggage as the only source of some sort of pillow.
On the roof of the YWCA
So the night train wasn’t so glamorous, but at least I can say I did it. Ooty made up for all the suffering though, it was amazing. We met the most amazing people there and it was just beautiful. We stayed at a guest house that was surronded by woods and had such activites as volleyball, a rope swing, and internet. I hadn’t felt such good weather in a long time. While there we were served good food and entertainment… Oh yeah and of course we did a bit of sightseing around India. 
When it all adds up Ooty was a relaxation time, but when we got back to Chennai we started the work. The first day we were introduced to CMCA the church that we would be working through. After that we got a goods night sleep, we would need it.
Back to Chennai on the day train!
The activities that lay ahead of us were so much as manual labor as just singing, doing skits, and praying. It didn’t seem that important to us, but as may explained it probably helped more than any hard labour we could’ve done would. We didn’t helped to create so much as we helped to raise spirits, and just try and give these people a few get things to help get them through the pain and suffering they were going through. We based most of everything we did around christianity in the hopes that we might convert a few people, or at least inform them of the good christ is doing. For the most part though, many of them were christians.
By working through CMCA we saw the impact that they were having on India. It wasn’t just a small impact either, it was massive. They were truly doing a ton for India as a whole. They were working hard and to an effect. This fact filled all of our hearts with hope.
While there we helped distribute food, we visited schools, we put on skits at the church, we visited a Tsunamie effected village, helped pray at the homes of HIV/AIDS patients, and helped out at a leprosy colony. The thing that probably effected me the most out of all of this was visiting the slums. The living conditions there were bearable, but they weren’t at all the conditions someone should have to live through. The houses are basic stone blocks, with a single or limited amount of rooms. There wasn’t much space especially for larger families. Not only that, but the place was covered with filth. The trash was dumped just a little ways from the houses into the sea, for where else did they have to put it? Their were flies everywhere! Around the food especially. I’m sure that many people got horribly sick, or died from just eating.
The most powerful thing I saw on the day we visited the slums though, was not the tragic position of the people living there, not their small dirty houses, not the rotting food, but the smile that most of the residence bore. Despite this place that most of us would hate to live in, they were happy. As we entered into the slums many of the kids flocked around us, shouting, and wearing huge smiles. They put out our hands trying to shake hands with every single one of us. Young and old one alike smiled as we passed.
Perhaps they were just smiling because we were there, but I think its much more than that. I think that gernerally many of them were much happier than most of us with fancy houses, and cool cars. I think this is because they knew how to enjoy the simplier things in life. Without the distraction of material things such as videogames, or computers, or plasma screen TV’s they were able to focus on the things that brought true happieness, and even deeper than that true joy. Without that desire for more, more, more they were satisfied with what they had. They could enjoy things that most of us would take for granted. They might wake up in the morning and just smile at the wind against their skin, or the song of the birds in the air, or the warmth of sun in the sky.
What I mean by saying this is not that having a good house, or a car is a bad thing, but that sometimes we get to much material things, or we distract ourselves completely with them. When we do this we either just don’t realize the true beauty around us, or we create a heart within us that just pleads for more videogames, or more clothes, and a heart like that can never be filled. A heart like that can never be appeased, a heart like that can never be truly happy for very long before it gets hungry with greed again. Most importantly though, a heart like that can’t discover the value of pure joy. All n all, I understand the need to help the residents of the slums, to get them better houses, and better food, but by living in the slums most of them have learned a very valuable lesson. The true awesomeness of life is found not in what you own, but the very creation that God created for us in the first place to enjoy.
