Theology 7372, Fall 2009

chennai is located in the state of tamil nadu and the native tongue is tamil

I know I promised in the last post that I would be talking about temples, but that is actually going to wait for one more city. I’m splitting up time in Chennai with time in Mamallapuram. Sorry if this causes emotional distress to any of you.

What I remember about the travel process to Chennai is being completely exhuasted. We took off from Hong Kong around midnight, landing in Delhi for our layover at around 3am and then finally landing in Chennai shortly after 11am. I was so ready to be horizontal. This is also a pretty decent time to mention that my feet did not love India. I think the total blister count was around fifteen – including one that the team referred to as the ‘toe tumor’ because it was almost larger than the toe itself. (by the time we hit Hyderabad, they were much better.)

One of the statements made about India is that is an assault on your senses. This is completely true. India does not allow you to ignore it – the sounds, the smells, the odors, the masses. India crawls right up and demands to be dealt with. As we drove from the airport to the YWCA where we stayed that evening, our bus was silent save for the sounds of camera shutters. I’m sure some of it was jet lag, but I know some of it was that none of us were quite sure what to do and how to process everything we were seeing. I’m still figuring out how to describe India – but I will make this statement: life is lived outside. Constantly. Laundry, bathing, cooking, eating; life happens on the street. It’s an amazing juxtaposition.

We spent that day settling in (and I desperately tried to get the swelling in my feet to go down!) and attempting to rest. We only spent one night and a portion of a day in Chennai. The morning was spent in church at an Anglican Church of Scotland – complete with giant eagle podium – and then we did the tourist thing for a wee bit of the afternoon before loading a bus to drive to Mamallapuram. I have thoughts about the church… but those are for a later post. Here’s a quick photo summary of our hours in Chennai. After the quick photo tour – be sure to tune in tomorrow for the story of how I went to Mamallapuram and got promised marriage.

The little vehicle in the foreground is a auto-rickshaw – affectionately called a ‘tuk-tuk’ because of the noise they make as they drive. We took these frequently and they were my favorite mode of transport.

They had these signs all over the place and they always made me laugh. Always.

We thought this meant ‘no bugles.’ Instead, it meant ‘no horns.’ Considering, as Casey said, the horn business would be good to go into in India, that made more sense.

Just in case you were wondering, seeing cows everywhere never got old.

Housing happens wherever you can find it

The Apostle Thomas – of doubting fame – reportedly made his way to India shortly after the Day of Pentacost. There is a vibrant faith community still in India that traces itself back to Thomas – calling itself MaraThoma Christians. However, it is not just the MaraThoma who claims Thomas’ contact with India. Pictured above is his “tomb” – complete with creepy wax figure.

After a long flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, we landed in the city of four thousand neon signs. Our first stop was Starbucks (to demonstrate our devotion) and then we made our way to Sha Tin and the top of the hill to check in at our lodging, the Tao Fong Shan Buddhist-Christian Conversation Center. A charming retreat center with fantastic beds, shower pressure and free internet – we were thrilled. After quick showers, we made began what is affectionately known as “The Death March” by past teams. Stroope’s goal is to conquer jet lag and he does that by not allowing us to rest until after dinner. We walked down the hill (and looked like a living, breathing Kashi add) and walked to the ferry and took the ferry and went to the top of Victoria Hill and took pictures and and and… The last part of the death march was a walk to this noodle shop that Stroope claimed he read about in the New York Times. We got exceptionally lost and ended up eating possibly the worst meal of the trip. I *heart* paying for lame ramen. However, despite the lame ramen – I loved this day. I loved walking around Hong Kong! Walking around a city always makes me feel like I know it better – I would much rather meander through a city than ride in a big tourist bus. While I was only in HK for a few days, I want to go back. I loved the bustle and the chaos. It felt like London and yet completely different and that was fantastic.

The next day was a day full of conversations with American expats navigating life in Hong Kong. It was one of the first times of the trip where I really had to confront the fact that my faith paradigm is not typical for American Christianity. It may be to generic to say that I don’t fit in the faith paradigm of my home culture – so forgive me if that sounds crass – but I’m still figuring out to express my feeling of un-fitted-ness. I am not judging – honestly – there are just simply things taken for granted that I no longer believe to be complete truth. I know that’s a cryptic comment and one that needs to be unpacked with care. But this day was a bit of a preview of things to come, as I spent most of the trip wondering where the separation was between gospel and culture. Of course, to be fair, I’ve been questioning that boundary for a few years now.

One of the highlights of the trip (I think for all of us) was a meeting with Sam Say of Bolaven Coffee. Bolaven is the a sustainable cooperative of organic coffee growers in Laos. As Sam told us his story and the story of the farm, it became more and more clear that this was a special thing that I wanted to be a part of. Thus, I hereby encourage you to purchase this coffee and to support a farm based on excellence and equality.

After that conversation, we headed off to the airport to board our flight to India! Next up on the recaps: templetastic blessings for marriage: or, our time in chennai

Many of you have asked many wonderful questions about my time in India and I thank you for your comments and emails as I traveled. I’m glad the follow-along-blog was a good idea! In light of your questions and the fact that I have a 15 page reflection paper looming on my “to-do” list, I thought I’d start the process on here. I plan on doing a city-by-city general summary of what happened and some thoughts.

So, first off, PASADENA!

After the first few states of our month-of-excessive-time-spent-in-airports, we made it to LA and got a first-class introduction to Los Angeles Traffic. It’s okay, though, because along the way we got to meet Creepy Wall Jesus (who doesn’t know what to do with his hands) and got a classic reaction from Stroope to some LA fashions. After sitting on Broadway for the longest time, we made it out to Pasadena to stay at William Carey International University. Throwing our bags into our rooms and quickly freshening up, we made our way to the house of our hosts for an excellent evening of conversations and questions. This evening is also where the blog title comes from, as Stroope made us introduce ourselves in alliterated form. So, for example, I was “charismatic Kristen.”

The next day was a full one. After a morning at church (which I have thoughts on), we headed out to Malibu. We met some students and had some time at the Malibu Hindu Temple – which is the second largest in the United States – and had our true first introduction to Hinduism. I plan on blogging about the monster known as Hinduism at a later date – but know that it both makes complete sense and no sense at all. The temple was a great introduction to some of what happened over the next month.

Then we headed out to the beach (drove past Pepperdine and felt horrible for Ken Starr and his change of scenery) and hiked down to Point Dume beach for conversations and bonding with some of the students who attend Chaiwalla at USC.  Then the day was topped off with time at the Glenn’s house for a LOST finale party. For the record – I am pretty annoyed at the finale. I am open to being less annoyed once they release the whole thing on DVD and I get a chance to re-watch everything, but right now? NOT COOL.

Our last day in Pasadena was a fairly academic day – so, of course, I loved it. We chatted with Varun Soni, the Dean of Religious Life at USC, who is also the first Hindu person to serve in such a position in the United States. He was gracious with his time and gave some valuable perspective on the system we were about to swim in. The afternoon was spent with H.L. Richards, who is a preemminent scholar on the interaction between Hinduism and Christianity. Also a valuable perspective.

As we boarded the flight that evening to Hong Kong, I had many thoughts swimming around my head. There was a lot of conversation about community and what community could look like. What does ‘doing life’ with Indian students living in the United States look like? A completely communal culture intersecting with a completely individual one – what boundaries need to die for those two to do well together?

Also – we spent a lot of time before we left studying how Hinduism and Christianity intersect in India… but this was the first time it occurred to me that they would intersect differently in America. How does folk Hinduism interact with folk Christianity?

I was honored and humbled by the people who opened their lives to us for those few days – both our hosts and the Chaiwalla students who were willing to be grilled mercilessly – and how I hoped to be able to be that for others. We talked about what makes a job ‘enough’ and how we judge ourselves against our calling. We talked about balancing sabbath with productivity and how leaning into questions is really the only way to survive life.

I remember feeling really antsy as we spent time in LA – ready to “start the journey” and get the trip underway. Now, as I reflect back, I realize that many of the questions I asked throughout the entire trip were responding to conversations over this period of time.

next up: walks of death to noddle shops (or: our time in hong kong)

stumbled onto this the other day and realized it’s a fairly decent description of my questions from india. how do i move from apathy to revolt? how do i do it appropriately? how do i become part of the process of indigenous persons moving in that cycle? how do i simply sit and swallow if indigenous persons do not want change for themselves? how can we truly live in freedom in today’s society? am i crazy for questioning the existing paradigms and feeling everything in my soul demand that there must be something more?

i’m emerging from my jet lagged cocoon – which was also a cocoon caused by some serious upper respiratory junk – and plan to start posting more on india soon. get. excited.

June 1 – 23 was spent in various cities in India. Head here for the bullet point summary of the most ridiculous trip I have or probably will ever take.

24 : Because my parents surprised us at the airport, Mike and I got to show them India pictures and process it with them in person instead of via technology. So very awesome. There was also American food and time with the Waco favorites.

25 : Watched World Cup games with parents and siblings and continued to emotionally detox from India.

26 : Last full day with the parents until August. I’m learning as I get older that loving spending time with a functional family isn’t weakness and that we should cling to healthy community wherever we find it.

27 : Waco favorites and I drove to Dallas to see Wicked – otherwise known as “The Musical That Speaks to My Soul on Deep and Profound Levels”.

28 : Woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck, so it was a low key day. Doctor’s appointments – as per usual. Then lunch with a life friend and soul giving conversations with my sister.

29 : Most of the day was spent doing my traditional post-trip ritual of cleaning out my DVR and drinking as much coffee as I can.

30 : Onion reunion part one and So You Think You Can Dance. Excellent.

1. We all had a bit of a day… so Magic China was ordered for dinner and we found solace in Supernatural

2. Jo, Mike, Sarah and I journeyed to Round Rock and to REI so that Mike and I could purchase our backpacks for India! As we sat in our favorite Indian restaurant directly after, the trip became real in a way it hadn’t prior to that moment.

3. Made family dinner (cajun chicken and marshmallow fudge) and watched The Godfather – mostly because we’re going to Sicily next summer but also because I was being judged for never having watched it

4. Happy Resurrection Day! Celebrated by trucking down to San Antonio to see the Lady Bears play valiantly against UCONN and we are so very excited for next season.

5. Attempted to be productive in the midst of feeling as though I had been hit by a truck. Evidently, 26 is too old to drive to San Antonio and back in one day and not feel like I’d rather die than do it again. (totally worth it, though. amazing game.)

6. The Onion celebrated Easter in our own way – full of questions, tension, mourning and hope. I love my church.

7. I am not ashamed to say the highlight of my day was watching the Glee cast on Oprah and reveling in the hope of the new episodes.

8. TOMS Day Without Shoes! Shopping in Target shoeless is an interesting experience. I recommend it.

9. After months and months of anticipation, we finally all sat down as a team and got orientated for our trip to India! After an excellent dinner, we launched into a question and answer session and began the joke list. This is going to be a good trip.

10. Started the morning having the privilege of speaking about Rwanda to some Baylor students who are preparing to travel there. Ended the day with Date Night and continued to be thankful for comedy

11. Spent most of the day sequestered at Mike and Sarah’s kitchen table, scribbling out a paper on Northern Irish Christianity in the hopes of turning it in a few weeks from now.

12. How I Met Your Mother was really disappointing. That emotion is the most significant thing that happened that day.

13. Glee came back! We had a great conversation at the Onion and LOST was excellent as well – but I love Glee. It just brings me so much joy.

14. Up significantly too early for class, as I always feel I am when the classes start at 8am. Other exciting thing that happened was that we rescued a dog! Brian now owns a German Shepherd – Golden Retriever mix named Utley – after our favorite Phillie.

15. Productivity day! Finished a paper, read a ton, decided on a topic for another paper… and ate two meals at Panera I was there that long.

16. Made a Captain Planet joke in class and got to eat breakfast with some fellow India travelers.

17. Finished editing a paper to turn in for publication and finished writing a paper for class. Spent the rest of the day reading and sipping tea.

18. Sat at Barnes and Noble for a few hours in the hopes that the Focus Fox would be hiding there. He was not.

19. As a theme in April – I read and attempted to write papers.

20. Onion, Lost, Glee: The Madonna Episode.

21. Turned in my paper on the history of Christianity of Northern Ireland for Story and felt like I was handing over half my soul to be graded.

22. I know I talk about Supernatural a lot. But it was FANTASTIC. Gods of various cultures met to fight the apocalypse. Amazing.

23. Ran errands with Sarah and purchase Avatar. Also bought my final round of clothes for the trip to India. V. exciting.

24. My friends were fantastic. That’s the most important thing that happened.

25. Exhausting day of attempts at productivity – little success and many failures. Finished the day watching The Pacific.

26. Worked on papers and had a brilliantly surprising lunch with the SRT staff to celebrate Jason’s birthday.

27. Finished the Religion & Worldview paper and enjoyed a fantastic episode of Glee.

28. Turned in my Religion & Worldview paper, then got my Story paper back and was honored by the comments made and grade given. Finished up the Cross-Cultural paper and watched Mr. Darcy stride across the field as a reward.

29. Turned in my Cross-Cultural paper on linguistic relativity and then sat and stared at the wall for a solid twenty minutes, just to revel. Then we caught a stupid chick flick, grabbed dinner and settled in for Supernatural and Bones.

30. Last day of class for the semester! While I recognize I have a lengthy “to-do” list, the afternoon was spent resting in a version of done-ness.

I spent a lot of my late adolescence avoiding my specific cultural heritage. I didn’t want to claim Bucks County or Yardley – finding them to be confining and lame. However, as I move further away from those roots, I have begun to become more comfortable with how my homeland has shaped my identity. My concepts of time, relationships and some other key aspects were just as shaped by the cultural soup I swam in as the family I grew up in. In light of that, I often refer to the fact that living in Waco has been more cross-cultural for me than my trips to Sub-Saharan Africa. Mostly, this comment is made in jest. Sometimes, however, there is more truth. Living within the greater American culture and yet in a subculture that is often still foreign and frustrating to me is something that exhausts me. I increasingly find that solitude and rest can be found in my homeland. Life still makes more sense to me in the Northeast than it does some other places.

The picture above is Lake Afton in downtown Yardley Borough. Still one of my favorite places in the country, I got to do a lot of work sitting by its banks last spring and it always brought focus and peace. In my month of intentionally leaning into hope, I am attempting to reclaim belonging in places where I don’t. To find ways to claim ‘home’ in places foreign and frustrating.

However, it is important for me to remember that home is wherever my story began and continues to begin. The places where I find home have shaped me in ways I cannot begin to describe. Foreign and frustrating places have as well, but ‘home’ is just a different category. The people in which I find ‘home’ are irreplaceable in my story and in how they have helped me become more of who I can potentially be.

So, today, I choose to lean in to the truth that ‘home’ is wherever my story sits, in whatever chapter I currently live in.

1. A rainy day in Waco, Muzzo and I spent a little time exploring the Mayborn Museum

2. Had a “catch-up” night at the Onion and greatly needed it. There were also Simply Delicious cupcakes and this is NEVER a bad thing.

3. Sadly, had to say goodbye to Muzzo

4. Human Pincushion Day! Got all of my immunizations for India. Also, my friends Jim and Pam had their baby.

5. Spent the evening minding a fellow Onion’s members’ infant for a wee while so that he could get some work done. She is literally too cute for words.

6. Flights home for Spring Break! Read most of To The Golden Shore on the plane and was welcome home with hugs and Wawa hummus. Excellent.

7. A high holy day in my book – Oscar night! Sadly, Alec and Steve were not as funny as I had hoped and some of the bits of the ceremony just dragged on and on, but I was pleased with the awards and super excited that Sandra Bullock won a Razzie and a Best Actress in the same weekend. Her speech also made me cry. Oh! And I want Gabourey Sidibe to be my new BFF. She’s awesome.

8. Productivity day! Finished up To the Golden Shore and started in on a few others. Also put the Room of Requirement to some serious use as Sarah and I filled up the Roku player with old BBC miniseries

9. Read about N. Ireland and began to construct my paper as Sarah made a fantastic apple pie

10. Spent the day dandering around the East Village with Sarah and Mike. After indulging ourselves with some serious nerd publications, we grabbed a pint at a pub and some excellent curry for dinner. It is time for me to live in a city.

11. Family dinner at Lambertville Station (I got to have duck!) followed by an evening of watching old BBC dramas with the sister. Margaret Gaskell, by the way, may be my new favorite Victorian author

12. Shopping with Mom and Sarah. Spent most of the day emotionally ignoring that spring break was ending.

13. Spent the day traveling. Flights included vomiting children, horrible parents, screaming children, adolescents with nosebleeds and a few G&Ts.

14. Watched The Pacific and got excited about taking the journey of that story. Also got my life back in order in preparation for the rest of this leg of the marathon.

15. Long day. An excellent episode of Chuck made up for it.

16. Made my proper Irish stew for the Onion as we talked about theology and life and how to speak of both Onions.

17. St. Patrick’s Day : In my attempts to repurpose the shenanigans of the day, I wrote a blog about welcome and wore a pretty green dress. I also missed N. Ireland something fierce.

18. Day included D’s chicken and an episode of Little Dorrit with the girls.

19. Presented on the East India Company in Story and managed to reference British imperialism in Africa and the movie Pocahontas in the same sentence. In essence, I’m awesome.

20. Sarah made a feast which included discovering what a rhubarb looked like and ended in delightful family meal

21. Most of the day was spent curled up on a couch watching Little Dorrit

22. Had coffee with a dear friend and a fellow India traveler before heading to Dallas for the evening with another dear friend and an excellent meal.

23. The evening included Indian food (lovingly prepared by Suz and Sarah), an excellent discussion on Deep River and arguably the best episode of LOST to date.

24. It was one of those odd days where I was overwhelmed with the privilege of attending Truett. Capped it off with an epic game of Apples to Apples with the gang and experiencing Hunger

25. Had an incredibly restorative conversation with a professor about re-entering the world of student ministry. Also, sibling dinner at Chilli’s prior to celebrating the return of Supernatural

26. I  believe we can’t refer to the way the Bears played St. Mary’s as a victory, I believe you have to refer to it as a veritable competitive slaughter. 30 pts ahead the entire game : we had a good time watching it.

27. Cheered the Lady Bears onto victory as I nursed an burgeoning sinus infection. Also watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and blogged about it. We will not speak about the other game that evening; I’m still wearing my sackcloth.

28. Had India Team Playtime at my house and got a chance to spend more time with these people that will be makeshift family for five weeks. The game that evening? It is one of which we do not speak.

29. LADY BEARS TO THE FINAL FOUR. Other things may have happened that day : but really? LADY BEARS TO THE FINAL FOUR.

30. Registered for my penultimate semester of seminary. Surreal.

31. After looking at all of my syllabi for the last month, I ordered a Wii game for self-care. Here goes, kids. Here goes.

“I have been in the townships in South Africa and they are eating better food than American children. That should piss you off.” – Jamie Oliver

I have blogged before about my feelings towards food and community and I am sure I will write about those themes again. I am a firm believer that how a people handles food displays more about how they order their lives than we have often given it credit for. Grievously, we have abandoned any semblance of common sense when it comes to how we handle food in the United States. By handing our food production and handling off to agribusinesses and faceless corporations, we have removed ourselves from relationship with nature and with farmers and with the essence of our connections between humanity and the remainder of the created order. Also, our health is shot and we’re content to eat overly processed chemicals instead of cook our own fresh food.

In light of that last statement in particular, Jamie Oliver has crossed the pond to being the reformation of America’s relationship with food. Starting in Huntington, WV, he plans on introducing simple ways to feed families and schools instead of relying on fried and processed foods. I watched the first episode this afternoon and was not entirely surprised at the resistance he encountered. Shamed and embarrassed, but not surprised. People are annoyed that the “outsider” wants to change the “insider” ways. There were several remarks made about his nationality and a few about him as a person. I plan on watching the whole series and I’m wondering if that tension will continue.

In Cross-Culture class, we often talk about how contextualization (which is what Oliver is attempting to do – give people ownership of their own food habits in a new way) can only come at the hands of an insider. Cultural insiders are the change agents and while change usually takes several generations, it can usually only be accomplished by insiders. I’ll be intrigued to watch how the theories we bat around in the classroom regarding gospel and conversion can be applied to this other type of conversion.

I deeply hope Jamie accomplishes his goal. We, as a nation, as a people, cannot afford to ignore his maxims and those of other prophetic voices any longer. Simply said, our nation is slowly dying and we have the power to reverse that. We must.

…to be a Jew is to remember…

By the time we hit Isaiah, the “nation” of Israel is an awkward collection of peoples who have been in exile and who are about to be flung back into it again. The line of David has been destroyed (so they think) and there is no peace or security in their lives. The people are clinging to the idea of a Messiah as the only hope for anything to change. There are some parallels I can draw to many current people groups in the 21st century, but I will refrain.This loss of identity is why the constant refrain at the end of the book is to remember.

I remember once asking one of my Jewish friends to make a statement about what it meant to be a Jew. He looked at me quizzically and gave me a sarcastic answer about Manischevitz and turned up the volume on the radio. A few days later, however, he came back to me and responded that to be a Jew is to remember. To remember the Exodus and the blood on the doorposts and to remember the Temple and to remember the promises made the forefathers. If you loose memory, he explained, you would loose what it means to be Jewish.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot as I’ve been examining Islam in Religion & Worldviews with Dr. Stroope. The Islamic concept of sin is forgetfulness. If a Muslim were to forget the words of Al’lah or the importance of the ummah or the specific orthopraxies of Islam – they would be living in sin. I think my Jewish friend would find resonance in that.

In Christianity, we cling to a fairly Grecian understanding of sin : “to miss the mark”, to fail, to let God down, to be prideful. I wonder if, in fact, we should frame it instead as a loss of memory. We have forgotten who we are and have therefore forgotten how to behave and to whom we belong. We have lost our collective memory and are therefore content to settle for the lowest common denominator of behavior and morals. Perhaps we should heed the warnings of Isaiah to remember – remember from where we have come and who brought us through those waters.