Pilgrimage to South India by Father Peter Bowe - March 2020 A group from Woolhampton parish, near Reading, the parish of Douai Abbey, visited RTU in March 2020. Parish priest, Father Peter Bowe, has a great interest in Tamil culture, which he shares with us here Expand PILGRIMAGE TO SOUTH INDIA 2020 Madurai was our destination, and, on Friday 28 February in this memorable pandemic year 2020, just two weeks before lockdown at home, we landed there, 150 miles north of the tip of India where the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean come together. They say it is the oldest city in the Indian peninsula and one of the most ancient continuously inhabited cities of the world, with a rich Tamil cultural heritage. In India it is known as “the city that never sleeps.” Since Greeks and Romans started visiting the Pandya Kingdom of south India around 300 BC, trade connections with Europe flourished right up until 1000 AD. Madurai was the magnificent capital of the Pandya kings, the “Athens of the East”, sought out by travellers such as Pliny (77 AD), Ptolemy (140 AD), Marco Polo (1203 AD) and Ibu Batuta (1333 AD). It grew up around a huge temple begun about 500 BC and is famous for its scholars during the renowned Sangam period (c. 100 BC-300 AD) of Tamil culture. A dozen of us from the Woolhampton parish around Douai had come on a kind of pilgrimage to visit Reaching the Unreached of Village India (RTU), the organization we had been supporting through our parish outreach for the last three years. We had been invited to open a new “Douai Hostel” for their teenage boys which our parish had managed to fund. We began with a visit to the enormous Meenakshi temple complex at the centre of Madurai, guided by a wise, devout Hindu friend of RTU, and then went on to the Gandhi Museum, before travelling to the RTU centre itself some 40 miles to the west of the city. RTU was founded in the 1970s by Br James Kimpton (De La Salle Brothers) to serve the poorest of the poor in Tamil Nadu. I had visited Br James and RTU in the 1980s on my first visit to India, and I was delighted as its priest that our parish had chosen to support RTU, having done so also in previous years. Some forty years ago Br James, who died recently, began by providing a home for the many street orphans and for boys of the most destitute families. Today RTU continues to respond to the many-faceted needs of the very poorest people, providing not just stop-gap aid, but rather an integrated development programme for the rural poor, each of whom has a right to a decent life. It supports especially women and children, the old, the sick, the homeless, the unemployable, those in need of a roof over their heads or drinking water to hand. A people-centred rather than a project-centred organization, RTU is at the service, in substantial and ongoing ways, of the poorest people living from hand to mouth. It sees the support it receives, whether finance, equipment or even fixed assets, as in fact belonging to the poor themselves, and the staff receiving salaries thanks to them. Thus RTU understands all enabling funding as coming from the very hand of Divine Providence, so requiring it to be administered carefully. We visitors from Berkshire spent a marvellous week living at RTU, getting to know Fr Antony Paulsamy OFM, the present director who was himself once a boy in the care of RTU, visiting its schools, kindergartens & training projects, joining the daily Masses and interfaith prayers (most children are Hindu). Warmly welcomed in RTU “Children’s Villages” and homes (each of ten children plus foster mother), we toured the main campus, visited the dispensary and clinic, the central kitchen, workshops and administration, and wandered through the local village of Genguvar Kallupatti, viewing there the teenage hostels. Later there was a chance to see the external work of RTU, visiting water projects, women’s village awareness groups and a girls’ tailoring class, a mobile science lab and an Aids hospice, and being shown simple brick dwellings under construction for villagers, some sponsored by our parishioners. RTU has currently around 2000 young people in education, 2000 women in self-help groups, offers 30,000 medical consultations each year, and has to date constructed about 9000 village homes and over 2500 wells. Last September (2020) Fr Anthony described the disastrous situation in South India under COVID-19 lockdown, with schools and RTU campus closed and all children sent home, so that RTU was unable to care for even the poorest of them. The continuous lockdown restricted the movement of the poorest people for any sort of work. The livelihoods of a large number of families surviving on daily wages were shaken up in the rural villages where RTU is present. For a family, obtaining sufficient food for even one daily meal was extremely tough. So, with the generous help of donors, they continued to supply emergency dry rations to many vulnerable families. For example, in August they had distributed supplies to over 800 families in 16 rural villages in the local Dindigul and Theni Districts, mostly to abandoned elderly people, but also to Self-Help Group members, widows, those with HIV+ or chronically ill, those with disabilities and daily wage labourers. It should not be forgotten that, at the time of writing in November 2020, India had in excess of 8m COVID cases and had suffered 128,000 deaths. But, how to describe Tamil Nadu itself? It is a mix of dry desert land, lush palm forests, teeming towns and cities, villages and hamlets, and everywhere people, people, people, even in the remotest countryside. There are miles of cultivated and irrigated fields of rice, maize and pulses; there are cash crops of cotton, sugarcane, oilseeds, coffee, tea, rubber, coconut and chillies. Markets are overflowing with vegetables recognizable and not, with bananas and mangoes and many other fruits. So agriculture predominates, and 70% of the population depends for a livelihood on that and allied activities. Following our visit to RTU some of us were fortunate to be able to spend some time experiencing the extraordinarily vibrant life & culture of the Tamil state, the deep spirituality of its people, and to discover too the place of Christians in this predominantly Hindu society. Tamil culture existed far back in the Bronze Age and became rich in literature and customs during the Sangam period (100 BC–300 AD). This culture is very much alive today. From the time of the emperor Ashoka in the mid-third century BC right through to the arrival of the British, Tamil Nadu was independent from the rulers of the rest of India such as the Moghuls. Today Tamil culture informs not only villagers, struggling with basic living, but also the lives of educated and more prosperous classes, city folk engaged in modern business and travelling the world. Tamil is a classical Dravidian language, it's literature being of considerable antiquity and ranging from lyric poetry to works of ethical philosophy. Remarkably different from the literature of other Indian languages such as Hindi, Telegu or Kanneda (there are 14 major Indian languages), Tamil represents the oldest body of secular literature in south-east Asia. Since my first visit to India forty years ago I have been fascinated by this Tamil culture, and I wish I had followed my original instinct to learn this beautiful, musical language. Tamil Nadu also has its own style of music, from which current Carnatic music evolved, and its own dance style, Baharatanatyam which was first described around 2000 years ago. But the most visible aspect of this ancient culture of course is Tamil sacred architecture, and throughout Tamil Nadu there are today perhaps 33,000 ancient temples. Some are modest, simple village temples, others stunning architectural temple complexes on ancient sites and thronged with pilgrims day after day. Many of these are 800 to 2000 years old, and the most magnificent of these are a match for the great Christian cathedrals of Europe. Some are even contemporaneous with our cathedrals, similarly constructed over centuries and inspired by a comparable faith and devotion, a comparable sense of reverence and worship of the Divine. So, Tamil Nadu is one of the few places in the world, or even the only place, where the ancient native culture has existed for 2000 years or more and still remains authentic for its contemporary citizens. Let us explore some prominent examples of this magnificent temple tradition. Where better to start than the Meenakshi Temple of Madurai, a towering landmark marking the centre of the ancient city. This temple is mentioned in Tamil Sangam literature around the time of Christ, and also in sixth century texts. The large temple complex, covering 14 acres,, is dedicated to the goddess Meenakshi, consort of Shiva. It was reconstructed around 1200 AD by Pandya kings, an extraordinary royal dynasty spanning centuries. The contemporary temple is the result of renovation begun by late medieval rulers who rebuilt the core and reopened the temple in the 16th century; it was again rebuilt in the 19th century. This temple is a major pilgrimage destination within the Shaivite tradition and attracts, they say, 15,000 to 40,000 visitors a day. During the annual 10-day Meenakshi festival the temple can draw over a million pilgrim visitors. Travel some 85 miles north of Madurai, and you arrive at the Sriranganam Temple near Tiruchirappalli on the holy Kaveri river. It is dedicated to Vishnu, for Hindus another form of the supreme God. As one of the most illustrious Vaishnavite temples in south India, rich in legend and history, it grew to importance around 1100 AD when the holy ascetic Ramanuja came to Sriranganam, controversially advocating devotion to a personal God. Up to then the advaita teaching of Shankara in the eighth century on the non-duality of all things, the unity of Creator and creation, held sway. This temple is mentioned in Tamil literature of the Sangam era, and archaeological evidence for it is found on stone inscriptions dating it to between the ninth and the sixteenth centuries. The temple covers an area of 155 acres with 81 shrines, 21 towers, 39 pavilions; many water tanks also are integrated into the complex, making it the world's largest functioning Hindu temple. Now take the road east and after 40 miles you come to Thanjavur. Here the stunning Brihadishvara Temple, built in just a few years from 1003 to 1010 AD, is dedicated to Shiva and is one of the largest south Indian temples constructed in the Dravidian architectural style. The original monuments of this eleventh century temple were built around a moat, with sculptured gateways, main temple, massive tower, inscriptions, frescoes & sculptures in Shaivite & other traditional Hindu styles. In following centuries other monuments were added. Built of granite, the tower above the sanctum is one of the tallest in south India; at the time of its construction it was probably one of the tallest structures in the world. Today the temple falls within the site of UNESCO World Heritage Living Chola Temples. From Thanjavur we travel north 160 miles to Tiruvannamalai, half way on the road to Chennai. Here is the site of the magnificent Arunachaleswarar Temple, at the foot of the holy mountain Arunachala, where Hindu hermits dwell in caves to this day. Among them once was the saintly Sri Ramana Maharishi who lived here all his life till his death in 1950, and whose followers came and still come regularly in hundreds from all parts of the world. The Tiruvannamalai Temple is dedicated to the god Shiva, widely revered today and particularly revered in the Tevaram, a seventh century Tamil Saiva canonical work of Tamil poet saints. The ninth century Saiva saint & renowned poet Manikkavasagar composed his Tiruvempaaval here. The temple complex covers ten hectares, and is one of the largest in India, with four gateway towers (gopura). The eleven stories of the eastern tower (217ft) make it one of the tallest temple towers in India. Within there are many shrines and halls, notably the thousand-pillared hall. The present structure was built during the ninth century Chola dynasty, and later expansions are attributed to the Vijayanagara rulers (c.1350-1550 AD). Now we return to Madurai, 200 miles south again, and the focus of our pilgrimage journey. It must be said, our journey has been inspired by the moving account of a much more extensive pilgrimage tour of Tamil temples by Michael Wood in his A South Indian Journey (Penguin,1995) which is well worth a read. As guests of Fr Stephen, monk of Asirvanam Benedictine monastery at Bengaluru (Bangalore) who has a small monastic Tamil outpost at Sivagangai to the east of Madurai, we paid a visit one evening at the vesper hour – also the puja prayer time - to an exquisite village temple at nearby Nattarasankottai. This Shakti temple, well known for its architecture, is said to have been built in the mid-18th century, and the deity there is renowned for healing eyesight ailments and other illnesses. We were made warmly welcome at the puja by the Brahmin priests, who blessed us (not without a cash offering!), and by a colourful busload of pilgrims who happened to turn up for the puja too. But we were on a Christian pilgrimage which had started at RTU, so what of Christianity in India? The Christian heartland of India remains the deep south, particularly in Kerala on the west coast, though Christians are not negligible in Tamil Nadu either. Christianity did come early to India, attested by the strong tradition that St Thomas the Apostle himself arrived in about 52 AD, for he is reputed to have preached and even died a martyr at Chennai on the east coast, precisely at St Thomas Mount near the present-day airport. Today Christians account for just six percent of the 77 million total population of Tamil Nadu. About 88 percent are of course Hindu, while Muslims are reckoned to number five and a half percent of the state population. Between 200 and 400 AD various Christian groups arrived in Kerala from other parts of Asia, and gradually the East Syrian Christian tradition from Edessa started to flourish more persistently there. Tradition has it, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, that even Alfred the Great of Wessex sent gifts in 883 AD to these Mar Thomas Christians in south India by the hand of Sigheric, bishop of Sherbourne. It was only with the arrival of the Portuguese Vasco da Gama around 1500 AD that Latin Catholic Christianity was introduced in India, and became established through the missionary movement which accompanied colonial expansion. Such figures as St Francis Xavier (d.1552), and in the following century John Britto (d.1693) were in the vanguard. Attempts were made also, for instance by Francis’ Italian contemporary Roberto di Nobili (d.1559), to give the Christian Gospel an Indian cultural expression, largely in vain. Today Christians in Tamil Nadu number some 5 million souls spread over many denominations. Most are Latin rite (Roman) Catholic or Syrian Malabar Catholics (autonomous, but also in communion with Rome); many others belong to Orthodox churches & Protestant denominations. From the 19th & 20th centuries people began to realize that Christianity could indeed recognize, and relate, where possible, to the great spiritual tradition of India. Furthermore, in order to make headway in India, Christianity would do well to try to see the essence of the Gospel of Christ clothed somewhat in the ancient Indian culture. Among many initiatives in the latter part of the 20th century was the Christian ashram movement, and Shantivanam Ashram was founded near Tiruchirappalli, associated with Bede Griffiths, an English monk, and before him with two Frenchmen, Fr Jules Monchanin and the Benedictine Henri Le Saux, the latter known also, in Indian style, as Abhishiktananda, meaning “the bliss of the Anointed One.” A few of our group were fortunately able to pay a short two-day visit to this remarkable Christian ashram. I had originally spent a year with Fr Bede there in the 1980s. Now we found the ashram off the main road, just by the village of Tannirpalli, set in a small forest glade of coconut trees on the banks of the enormous river Kaveri, at this point about a mile wide. But at this season it was no more than a dry sandy waste laced with trickling rivulets. Warmly welcomed by one of the monks, we surveyed the low and simple buildings scattered in this lush garden paradise, and were taken to our simple rooms. As dusk suddenly fell we found our way to the chapel, strikingly designed in the form of a south Indian temple, colourful representations of Christ and the saints adorning the roof, just as the great Tamil temple gorpuras are adorned with the saints of Hindu myths. The evening vespers was familiar, the usual English psalms and prayers, but embellished with Sanskrit chants and Tamil bhajans, and concluding with the arati, the fire blessing passed between us all, then raised in worship of the sacramental Presence on the altar dimly within. The evening meal was simple rice and modest curry, served in metal dishes and taken in silence by hand in the Indian way, we being seated on the floor or on low stools. We all retired early, the forest alive with sounds around us. Next morning it was prayers and Mass in very simple form, again, to mark the Indian spiritual context, with Sanskrit chants and a rite of placing flowers around the offerings. Fr Dorathick, superior of this small community of Camaldolese monks generously gave us time and shared with us his vision of Christian monastic life, finding illuminating parallels in the Indian scriptures and its monastic spiritual traditions. It was inspiring to see how Indian Christian monks do gain strength and confirmation from the venerable spiritual traditions of their own land. So for us this pilgrimage had brought three strands together. First, we saw the concrete work of Christian outreach to the poorest of the poor at RTU; second, we had found a Christian presence in the Tamil state concerned to be truly Indian by seriously embodying the Indian spiritual tradition; lastly, there was the authentic Tamil culture, both contemporary and centuries old, bringing these two together. The three converged for us in greater harmony than ever on this journey, as it became a pilgrimage in which we saw their inner cohesion. Here was a unique, ancient culture, unbelievably still experienced as viable in the modern times, flourishing still today in this lovely country. What a privilege to explore these riches and be inspired ourselves by them! Our pilgrimages to RTU and our discovery of the Christian presence in today’s Tamil culture were coming to an end. Fr Stephen joined us briefly at Shantivanam, and at his small Benedictine monastery gave us his own warm welcome. He then celebrated a last festal meal with us, and brought us to the airport for our return home. A last memorable moment en route to the airport was to stop in the midday heat at a wayside stall for a final refreshing coconut drink. The vendor perilously yet deftly opens up the coconut shell for you with a machete, presenting you with the cool, refreshing coconut milk, and then slashes open the empty shell to reveal the delicious white flesh within. Taste of Tamil Nadu par excellence, a taste by which, once home, to recall the mystery of India! Fr Peter Bowe is a Benedictine monk of Douai Abbey, Berkshire. He first visited India for a year in 1982-3, and, based at Shantivanam Ashram in Tamil Nadu, travelled throughout the whole country including RTU. He has returned several times since, most recently in 2020 just before the Covid lockdown. Currently he is the priest in the Abbey parish.) Download a pdf of this article.
Tricia Tyler visits RTU with a group from Rushmere Church - November 2019 In November 2017, I visited RTU with my church as part of our amazing trip to India! Here is an account of our visit Expand My name is Tricia Tyler and in November 2019 I returned home after a 2-week visit to South India. I am still trying to process all we saw and did during what was probably the most amazing trip I have ever been on! A group of ten of us from Rushmere Church, Ipswich, went to visit 'Reaching the Unreached' (RTU), a charity in Tamil Nadu which our church has supported for many years. The charity was founded by Brother James Kimpton (a member of a Roman Catholic lay teaching order) in 1974 to care for the very poorest and marginalised people around Kallipatti in Tamil Nadu State. We flew in to Kochi in Kerala state and had a day to acclimatise before setting out on the long journey in a minibus up and over the Western Ghats to Tamil Nadu. The Chinese fishing nets in Kochi. We had an overnight stop en route as it would have been too arduous in one day. Some of the roads were awful so progress was often slow - deep potholes, diversions where there had been landslides, lots of terrifying hairpin bends and then overheated brakes in the van! We began to think we would never make it but we did, arriving after dark to the guest accommodation which was very basic but clean and adequate. The food was better than we had expected, curried something at every meal but lots of fruit, eggs and even toast at breakfast! The expected weight loss did not occur! We ate vegetarian for the whole trip. It is hard to find words to describe what we saw and the emotional impact it had on us. We had four full days seeing all the projects and work that RTU does. Tamil Nadu is a very poor state and does not have tourists like Kerala so we were a constant source of interest wherever we went and we received wonderful welcomes everywhere. The main focus of RTU's work is in the care of children - mainly orphaned or abandoned but also those whose families cannot afford to care for them. From the age of 6 to 13 (12 for boys) they live in family groups, up to 8 children with a foster mother, in four children's villages. At 12 or 13 they move into single sex hostels with a warden and learn to be more independent. They have to do their own laundry and care for what possessions they have themselves. They all attend RTU primary schools then move on to RTU's secondary school. All of them then progress to further education of some sort, still funded and supported by RTU. They return 'home' for holidays. Hostel boys taking part in an exercise class. Brother James' philosophy was that if a need is seen it must be addressed and the funding will follow. The work has spread out into the local villages in many ways. Every Friday about 140 'pensioners' either come to RTU HQ or are visited in their villages to receive their 'pensions'. These are people with no other means of support - they get either 100 or 150 Rupees (approx £1 - £1.50) each week and can also have a hot meal each day. We went to see the pension distribution which was a very humbling experience and the elderly people welcomed us and enjoyed having their photos taken with us. At the main campus as well as the administrative offices there are a lot of activities. The kitchens produce 2000 meals a day, providing hot meals for all the schoolchildren (many come from local villages) as well as the elderly. Everything is cooked by steam produced by burning wood and coconut husks. There is a clinic with three nurses and a doctor who visits weekly. This provides medical care for all the children at RTU and people from the surrounding area. There is also very busy physiotherapy department, a building yard which makes blocks, doors and windows for the house building programme, a sewing room where six-month 'tailoring' groups learn to sew so that they can support themselves and a textile area with huge looms where they make fabrics of all types. A visit to one of the mobile trailoring training classes. As well as the primary and secondary schools, they have a day care centre for the under 3's and then nursery school for the 3 and 4 year olds. There are three mobile science vans filled with equipment and these, with teachers from RTU, go to 90 government schools in the area and do science lessons with the children. This is a hugely appreciated service and we saw the results of their work at the science exhibition at the school when over twenty schools brought their science projects to show and we were asked to present the prizes and medals! Another large part of their work is building houses in surrounding villages for the very poorest people. Widows and people with any type of handicap are prioritised. At Rushmere we have raised money for ten houses so far and we were able to visit them all and meet the people who lived there, another very humbling experience. A visit to the 3rd house we helped to build. RTU has also initiated over 100 Women's self-help groups. We were able to visit a couple and were given an amazing welcome. They are so proud of what they are achieving and how they are able to support their children and improve their health. One of the highlights of the trip was spending an evening with one of the foster families in the children's village. The family I went to were delightful. We had a meal - all sitting on the floor, no table or chairs. I was lucky in that the foster mother spoke a little English and the three older girls could speak and understand quite well. We all took gifts for the families, notebooks and pens and small items that they were over the moon about! I had some balloons too which were very popular. We had been told that about half to three quarters of an hour would probably be enough but the family and I were having such a good time that I forgot the time and only left when it was the children's bedtime! An evening with one of the foster families in the Children's Villages. When we left to return to Kochi and home we made a very special visit en route to a hospice that cares for patients with HIV and AIDS. It is run by an order of nuns, The Presentation Sisters. It was begun in 2003 and has four nuns living there. The one in charge, Sister Anastasia, is an amazing person. We discovered that we had both qualified as nurses in the same year (1964!). They have 42 beds which seemed fully occupied and also run an Outpatients department and visit people in local villages, supporting patients with their antiretroviral drug regimes (the drugs are supplied by the government ) and supplying nutritional supplements. All this work is done on a budget of £3000 per month! They do have a separate charity raising money for them but RTU also provide support. Quite a proportion of the RTU children are HIV+, whose parents have died of AIDS. We met three of the RTU young people who are studying near to the hospice and who live there and have their treatment monitored, because they are not allowed to live in the college accommodation halls. Thankfully the incidence of AIDS is decreasing, so the hospice is beginning to care for patients with TB and cancer as well. When we returned to Kerala we spent one night on a river boat on the Kerala backwaters which is a very lovely area. Staying overnight on a houseboat on the Kerala Backwaters We cruised until dark, moored up overnight then headed back to where we had started from in the morning. It was good to have a little time to relax after the very busy programme we had. This Christmas all the adult family members are foregoing presents between ourselves and we hope to be able to fund a 'Tyler StAR' house to help a family who has so little when we are blessed with so many material things in life. I don't think any of us who went on the trip will ever be quite the same again! PS. StAR stands for St Andrews Rushmere!
Wales Water Part 2 in Silukvarpatti - September 2019 My name is Roswitha Davies. In 2018 and 2019 I travelled to South India to see RTU's wonderful work in action. These are the highlights of my second trip Expand My name is Roswitha Davies. In the late summer of 2018, I visited Reaching the Unreached and travelled more widely into some lesser-known parts of South India. While I was there, I was fortunate enough to see a bore well being drilled at a primary school in the village of Sangareddykottai, which is situated in an area of Tamil Nadu that has suffered severe water shortages for some years. I am part of a group of supporters in Wales that raised money to pay for the well in Sangareddykottai, and in 2019 we fundraised again to pay for another well, this time in the village of Silukvarpatti. The diary extracts that follow start from my arrival at RTU, after spending some time in Pondicherry. 2 September 2019 I arrived in RTU yesterday afternoon after a 4-hour taxi journey along one of Tamil Nadu‘s highways, at great speed! I was glad when we arrived safely! Now I am back in RTU in my ‘old’ guest bungalow and it truly feels like coming home. I was here exactly 12 months ago, and the same events will be happening this week as last year. Today was Ganesha’s Birthday, a public holiday for all India. The children made small clay sculptures of the elephant God which, as everywhere in India will be immersed in water, either a river or the sea, after 3 days. Next Sunday, 8 September, is Mary’s birthday, which like last year will be celebrated in RTU and elsewhere in Christian areas by everybody, Christian, Hindu and Muslim. Most importantly, tomorrow is the big day when the drilling of the bore well in Silukvarpatti, a village 45 minutes from RTU, is taking place. The school it will supply has been on the waiting list for a well for over a year. The drilling will have to be very deep, up to 900 feet (274 metres). The one in Sangareddykottai was only 600 feet deep (183 metres). They experts say it might take up to 9 hours! They will start the drilling when I and some staff arrive at 8.30 am. I will take a book and a picnic and pray that it will all go to plan! And hope that there will be some shade to sit in like last year. 3 September 2019 The wonderful news is that yesterday, after 8 hours of continuous drilling, a good supply of water was reached, at a depth of 900 feet as predicted! It was a long day of waiting and praying and anxiously watching the drill going deeper, trying to close my ears from the noise. For most of the time I was sitting at a safe distance, but within view of the machine, trying to cover up from the white cloud of dust which was emerging from the bore hole. There was no opportunity to open my book or eat my biscuits! Two RTU staff were with me all day and explained the progress and checked up on the work. Finally, at 6pm the first grey water splashed up from the ground. There was great jubilation and some tears! And much relief, because it is never certain that the diviner‘s calculations are 100% correct. In the next few days, pipes, a pump and electricity will be installed. I hope to visit again next week for the official opening! The school is a Catholic middle school for girls, with 233 pupils from class 1 to 8. The head teacher is a nice, very energetic religious sister. Some of the children in the school are Catholics, most others are Hindu, some Muslim. The main problem for the school is the lack of water. It has not rained in this low lying area for 4 years! The Council only delivers water once every 15 days, which is never enough - the school needs 1,000 litres a day. If they run out they have to buy water. The school struggles to pay for essential and repairs and maintenance so extra water is often paid for with donations made by the staff. The head teacher applied to RTU for a well a year ago, so she was overjoyed that their time had finally come! Thank you all for your support in making this well a reality. Without you it wouldn’t have been possible to give this school a secure future as far as their water supply is concerned. It is perhaps a small way to help people here to live with the consequences of climate change, which has been caused by us. 9 September 2019 I have had a few busy days in RTU - there is always something going on somewhere to which I am invited - but weekends tend to be quiet. Last week Teachers' Day was celebrated across India. I was invited to this celebration last year, so I knew what to expect. About 1500 pupils from all four RTU schools packed into a hall to celebrate their teachers with singing, dancing and sweet cakes. There are always special guests who give a speech! This time there were three speeches in Tamil, one lasting one hour! I am always amazed how the very young RTU children, from 5 years upwards, can sit quietly on the floor without fidgeting through these long meetings. In the evening, with the same children, I attended the monthly mass in memory of Brother James. At the end I was asked to say something about my memories of him. It is very moving at the end to see big teenage boys kneeling for a short prayer at the grave of their ‘Thata’, their grandfather. More holy events to come! Yesterday was ‘Mary’s Birthday’, which is celebrated with great gusto all over South India by Christian churches. Many Hindus and Muslims also join in. The whole day was spent making fantastic jasmin and rose decorations for the procession cart with the Mary statue on it, and with preparing the sweet ‘Pongal rice’ which is served at the end of the procession. This is my favourite Indian rice dish! Today was a very special day for me. I went back to the school in Sangareddykottai where the 'Wales Water' well was drilled last year. There was a great welcome for me with flowers, a shawl for me as the special guest, the juice of tender coconuts and lovely dance performances by the pupils. Since last year, with the knowledge that they no longer have to worry about having enough water, the school has been completely transformed! It was lovely to see how all the buildings had been painted inside and out, new paving tiles laid in front of the entrance and tree saplings planted to give more shade from the heat. They have also built a water harvesting ‘ground’ near the well where any rain, should it arrive, will be gathered and piped into the well. This is a truly amazing school which shows what people can achieve in a poor, drought stricken area when they are given a helping hand at the start. I felt very moved to meet these special teachers and the children again. Now I am looking forward to the grand opening of the new well in Silukvarpatti tomorrow. 11 September 2019 Yesterday was the big day of the opening of the new well in St Joseph‘s Middle School for girls at Silukvarpatti. Like the well in Sangareddykottai, it has been paid for by money donated by family and friends in Wales. Bringing the funds we have raised to RTU (a new well costs £ 2100) is the main reason for my visit and I am so happy and relieved that water was found (never a guarantee!), the well has been drilled and the school's 233 pupils will now have a regular supply of clean water. Silukvarpatti village is very dry, situated in the plain and further away from the mountains that are the source of the water used by RTU. The rains were disappointing in this year's south-west monsoon season, which lasts from June to August, so all hopes now rest on the second north-east monsoon in October! Father Antony and I arrived in the school yesterday afternoon to officially open the well. The electrics, pumps and pipes have been installed, so now the water flows directly into a large tank in front of the school. Like last year, it was very moving to open the tap for the first time! The well is called Freyja's Spring, (not ‘well’, because in Tamil that word suggests a big village well) in memory of a little child. After the ceremony and celebrations, I spoke to the children and staff about the people who had contributed to paying for the well and read out the names of the many donors. I wanted the children to know that this was the effort of many people abroad, rather than my gift alone. I also told them that I come from a country called ‘Wales’ - not to be confused with England! - where it rains a lot and where we have plenty of water! I gave the school a Welsh flag to remind them of us. Two coconut saplings were planted to commemorate the drilling of the well. In four years' time I will have to come back and taste one of the first coconuts! (I have just remembered that my sister Lioba and I have to return to Gujarat in the north of India to taste a mango from a sapling which we ‘planted’ 5 years ago. Maybe next year?) These last few days have been quite emotional for me, seeing the hope for a second well for a school in the area become a reality, thanks to the planning and hard work of the RTU water department, and returning to the lovely school where the 'Wales Water' well was built a year ago. Now I am looking forward to a rest before my long journey back to Wales. I will bring home with me many treasured memories of my trip to India and especially all my friends at RTU. 13 September 2019 PS. Guess what? Last night the first big rain this season arrived with thunder and lightning. Everybody in the area is very happy! I have also heard that the RTU water manager is very happy with the good yield of the new well. It can pump 1,000 litres of water into the tank in 15 minutes, the amount of water the school needs for one day! I am so relieved that it has all worked out well. Footnote - RTU's foster mothers Some years ago I conducted a survey of all the 60 foster mothers about their lives before they came to RTU. Most of them had endured very difficult lives, just like the children they are now caring for. Many lived in poverty from childhood and left school early in order to work in the fields. Most were married off at a very young age, then came children, often abusive, alcoholic husbands, or husbands who died young due to the hard labour they were doing in order to feed the family. These women were left with young children, vulnerable and without any means of earning a living. Through different routes they found their way to RTU, where they found a job and safety for their children. Currently there is one foster mother for every seven children. Each 'family' is based in its own small house. I have always felt that the stories of these women should be heard, so I asked them to tell me about their lives by taking part in my questionnaire. Their responses, many of which are truly heartbreaking, have now been translated from Tamil into English. This summer I sat down and compiled the responses in the form of a small book which I called ‘Journeys to a Village’, a reference to an RTU Children‘s Village. All the stories are anonymous or use assumed names, to protect the women's privacy. My son Christian designed the layout of the book, and then had it printed. I am really proud of him! Yesterday copies of the book were given to the managers of all four Children‘s Villages. Most women won‘t be able to read the English text, but they can browse through the book and look at the photos. I feel that I have kept my promise to make a small contribution to giving these brave, strong and beautiful women a chance to tell their stories.
Wales Water Part 1 in Sangareddykottai - August 2018 My name is Roswitha Davies. In 2018 and 2019 I travelled to South India to see RTU's wonderful work in action. These are the highlights of my first trip Expand My name is Roswitha Davies. In the late summer of 2018, I visited Reaching the Unreached and travelled more widely into some lesser-known parts of South India. While I was there, I was fortunate enough to see a bore well being drilled in the village of Sangareddykottai, which is situated in an area of Tamil Nadu that has suffered severe water shortages for some years. While I was in India, I wrote a series of e-mails to the friends and family who helped me raise funds to help pay for the well to be drilled and pumps to be installed. I hope they evoke something of the unique atmosphere of the region and also help to illustrate the importance of RTU's work to the communities who live there, especially the children who live in the Children's Villages. 17 August 2018 I arrived safely in Tanjavur in South India on Tuesday evening, having left my home 28 hours earlier! Two flights, a bus and two taxi journeys prepared me just a little for the incredibly frenetic traffic in India! Cars, buses, tuk-tuks, lorries, motorbikes - laden with dad, mum and two small children - bikes and pedestrians come at you from all sides, not seemingly following any traffic rules. It can take 10 minutes to cross the road! After my long journey, I rest for a few days in Tanjavur, a famous temple city in Tamil Nadu, before travelling to Reaching the Unreached, about 4 hours West. Tanjavur has a beautiful 1,000 year-old temple where daily sensuous rituals are being performed, involving oil lamps, flowers, singing, drums, blessings - for Hindus and anybody else. I love listening to all this and walking barefoot on the warm flagstones where pilgrims have walked for a millennium. Today I went to other temples in the area in the Kavery Delta which is at the moment emerald green with rice paddies, some rice being harvested now. Coconuts and cashew nuts are also growing in abundance. This year, after three years of drought, there has been enough rain for a good harvest. 19 August 2018 I feel I am slowly beginning to settle into the Indian way of life, feeling less anxious when out in the traffic and learning to switch off from the constant noise. I am leaving Thanjavur tomorrow to travel to RTU. The floods in Kerala are daily in the news, here and abroad. RTU is in the west of Tamil Nadu state, not too far from Kerala, but on the other side of the Western Ghats mountains. This side there is no monsoon and it is not expected until October. Nevertheless, I know that all is well in RTU, and a welcoming committee of foster mothers and children are apparently waiting for my arrival. I have bought my first supply of 'chocolates' - candy sweets for them (which my grandsons would never be allowed to eat!). 22 August 2018 I have been in RTU for only three days and am already feeling part of this lovely big family again. Here life is peaceful and well organised, everybody busy doing their job (RTU has more than 300 staff), but above all they go out of their way to make me feel welcome and in need of nothing! It is an incredible place! I know many people here from my previous visits and they are all happy to see me, simply because I have come a long way just to see them. The children crowd around me when I appear in their playground and ask me if I remember their names - all 120 of them! They want to see my family photos, which I can show them on my iPad. So far they have not asked for 'chocolates', which is a relief, as I don't just want to be remembered as the 'chocolates aunty'! Although I am staying in a small guestroom outside one of the Children's Villages, I only meet the children when I go to visit them in their little family houses with their foster mothers. Although there are so many children living here, they are well behaved and seem very happy and settled, in spite of the trauma of separation, illness or death, which most of them have experienced in their childhood. They are the sweetest children I have ever met - after my own grandchildren of course! Walking around the RTU campus I am constantly reminded of Brother James - his photo is everywhere. Everyone here is mourning his loss and his presence is very much felt. It is very moving to see his simple grave, decorated with fresh flowers and candles every day, near the children's playground where he used to sit and watch them play. He was a very special and holy man, who will never be forgotten by many people. On Friday I am going to visit another Children's Village 40 km away, where I stayed for four weeks on my first visit. It has not rained properly there for four years and people are struggling with diminishing water supplies. Although the monsoon rains are destroying livelihoods in Kerala, on the other side of the Western Ghats mountains, here in Tamil Nadu, it is entirely appropriate to provide people with new wells because without water life is becoming increasingly precarious. Father Antony, Director of RTU, has had some applications from villages for new wells, but has not decided yet which communities will receive them. In the week starting 3rd September, when I will be here with my sister, we will hopefully see a well being drilled! 28 August 2018 On Sunday I returned to the main RTU campus after a trip to the other Children's Village. The 80 children at there receive fewer visitors so I was made especially welcome and watched them playing ball games and doing amazing hula-hoop performances, which reminded me of what we did in my own, long ago childhood! I noticed that the children were playing with just one ball. Later I mentioned this to the Manager and it was decided that apart from the money needed for the bore well, the rest of the money we raised will be spent on sports and play equipment for the children. RTU will buy balls, bats and skipping ropes for the playgrounds of all four Children's Villages. I know that they have previously had these things, but with the wear and tear of children playing with them they have to be replaced regularly, so our money is very welcome! Over the evening meal, which I usually share with the Father Antony and his two newly-arrived fellow Capuchin priests, we talked about the caste system. It is still a reality for everybody. Castes don't mix with other castes, they live in separate areas, and even amongst Christians people sit in separate areas of the church and many refuse to take communion from a priest of a different caste. One of them said: you can change your religion as often as you like, but you cannot change your cast - it is your reality for life. Quite shocking! When I talk about the happy children in RTU, there is also a very painful side to the work of the staff there. On the day when I returned, there had been two admissions of new children. One 9 year-old boy was brought in a tuk-tuk by his father who was dying of AIDS, begging RTU to take care of his son. The boy's mother had already died. The man was very ill and weak, unable to walk. The staff now have to help this boy to start a new life in a children's home, after all that he has lived through. I am now about to say goodbye for now to RTU and travel back to Tanjavur, where I started off two weeks ago. Tomorrow my sister Lioba is arriving from Germany, and we will travel around the area for a few days and then back to RTU together. I am looking forward very much to sharing my India experience with her! 2 September 2018 I left RTU last Tuesday and travelled back by bus to Tanjavur to meet my sister Lioba, who arrived from Germany on Wednesday. We had not met for 18 months so you can imagine how lovely it was to see each other again! We are travelling around Chettinadu, a small, fairly unknown region of Tamil Nadu near the Eastern Coromandel coast, not far from the southernmost tip of India. I discovered this area on my last visit to India but then only spent a day here, promising myself to come back. The area was populated for centuries by the Chettiars, a merchant caste, who traded with Burma, Indochina and other South Asian countries. They established banks and became rich, and in the 19th century built themselves huge palatial family mansions and temples in over 90 villages, furnishing their houses with the most exquisite items from all over the world: marble from Italy, glass from Venice, teak wood from Burma, even steel from Manchester! These mansions are very beautiful, evoking the splendour of a bygone age. We are staying in one of the mansions, which was renovated by two French architects and turned into a hotel. They have also set up an NGO which is raising awareness of the importance of these houses and the need to preserve the Chettiar heritage. They are working with a team to apply for Unesco World Heritage status for the area to help protect these houses, some of which have been abandoned and are in a poor state of repair. This is one of the restored, exquisitely decorated rooms in Chettinadu Mansion, a beautiful peaceful space. Lioba and I go out every day by tuk-tuk to visit nearby villages. We have been able to visit some of the other Chettiar mansions that are open to visitors. We have also been to many local temples and shrines of minor Hindu gods. These are often located in Sacred Groves. They are very spiritual places, away from the hustle and bustle of Indian life. These horse figures, standing outside a temple, are offerings to the local village gods. On Tuesday Lioba and I are returning to RTU - and 120 children! I hope that the bore well might be drilled next week! 6 September 2018 Brilliant news! Today our well was drilled in Sangareddykottai. A huge drilling machine arrived and work began at the middle school (which has 112 pupils) at 9 am. We saw the first water at 11.30 am! It was a very emotional moment because it is never certain that the water will be in the spot the diviner has calculated. About 10 men drilled in the boiling heat until 3.30 pm, reaching down to 600 feet until good, strong water - though very grey looking - came up. The teachers and students clapped and we each had a celebratory drink from a tender coconut. Lioba and I sat in the shade of some trees in the school yard and watched each stage of the drilling, getting thoroughly wet and full of grey dust. The children put on a dance performance for us and I gave them a little chat about Wales and all my friends who had helped to raise the funds for the well. The well will have a sign: Wales Water! It was a very emotional day for me! Brother James certainly guided the drilling from above. He had been a diviner himself! The school needs 500 litres of water every day. The government only supplies water to a tank in the school grounds once a week, so before the new well, when this water ran out the headmaster and some of the boys had to walk to the well in the village centre and carry water back to the school in heavy 25 litre flasks. The new well will mean they no longer have to take time out of the school day to carry out this task and there will be plentiful, clean water for all the pupils and their teachers. Now Lioba and I are sitting on the veranda of our small ' bungalow' i.e. room (very basic and quite a culture shock after our luxury Chettinar mansion hotel!) enjoying the peace and quiet of a balmy Indian night and, just occasionally, chasing away the mosquitoes. 13 September 2018 A lot has happened since my last email! Watching the bore well being drilled and seeing the hoped-for water gushing out of the dry earth last Thursday was certainly the emotional highlight of my RTU visit! A lot has happened since my last email! Watching the bore well being drilled and seeing the hoped-for water gushing out of the dry earth last Thursday was certainly the emotional highlight of my RTU visit! The RTU water engineers worked hard at the village school to put a pump down in the well, build the necessary pipes from the well to the water tank up on the roof of the school and connect a switch board to the electricity. They worked extra-fast so that the well would be ready while I was still here! A week after the first drilling took place, I cut the ribbon at the tap in the wall and crystal clear water came out and was collected in a pot by three pupils. It was a very emotional moment when I was asked to taste the water, one I will never forget! A sign was attached to a wall and now the school every day has plenty of ' Wales Water'!! The pupils were taught to shout out in chorus, 'Wales Water'! It did bring tears to my eyes! The opening ceremony was followed by a tender coconut drink, dances by some students and a poetry recitation in English. What an adventure! Soon I will be home, but I want to thank you, my lovely family and all my friends, for providing the children of Sangareddykottai with fresh water every day! Help us drill more wells
Building houses with RTU - a volunteer's story My name is Shelby Poole. In 2013, I helped RTU build 10 new village houses, replacing existing shacks and huts to give families safe, secure homes. Expand In 2013, I travelled to Tamil Nadu with Lassalian Projects to help RTU build new safe, secure houses for villagers who had previously lived in precarious huts and shacks. My time in India changed my life. This is my story. The summer holidays are days for recreation, time away from exams and study. As the years progress, we end up doing the same things, year in, year out. Watching repeats of 'Friends', shopping for hours and constantly tweeting our celebrity crush hoping they might reply. I wanted to make a change. So I swapped my phone for a shovel and went to work on a volunteer project in India. My journey began when I met the eleven other people I would be spending five weeks with, a diverse group from England and Scotland. Before, I would never have been able to speak to strangers, but thanks to each and every individual, bubbly personality, I have come out of my own little oatcake-loving Stoke bubble. Although I do get a lot of funny looks now when I ask for a 'wee' oatcake! Shelby Rebecca Poole Travelling. Ask any of my friends, I hate aeroplanes. But you know what? I made it. I got to my destination. One taxi, two planes, one stay in a room with a giant insect, a extremely long and late train and a bus later, I arrived in India. Living in confinement, away from our accustomed culture was definitely a bigger shock than expected. It all seemed so far away. The distance from our favourite foods, our family, our friends, our iPhone, our cosy bed and that thing I never even thought I'd miss... the westernised toilet. Drop holes, especially on trains, are a hazard for losing a sandal. The work began. Alongside local builders, we helped to put up ten solidly-built cement and cinder block houses in the villages of Genguvarpatti and G.Kallupatti, although to the families who are now living in them - and who themselves also took part in the construction process - they are so much more. They are homes. A home, a shelter, a sense of security for their family. A gift. I was sometimes ill, always tired, I gained a scar across my knee and there was, to say the least, a lot of sweat. However, giving a family that gift was much more rewarding than a lie-in. The day we finished the first house was a wonderful day. To see one of the men, whose new family home we had helped to construct, smile the way he did really was a highlight, not just of the project, but of my life. Something I'm proud to say that I helped to do. I learned a lot during my time in India, and not just about building houses. Spending five weeks living, eating, working and learning the Indian culture, I realised the importance of family and of love. One of the many things I miss now that I am back in the UK is the lack of connection a town can have. In India I could go out and instantly have someone smiling and waving at me, something you would never get at home. I miss the neighbouring love. On weekends we went travelling to different parts of the South. Swimming, visiting temples, learning about Gandhi and tasting some of India's finest beer in the midst of a blackout. Throw in a 90's themed party and being bathed by an elephant after a being escorted up a hill on the beautiful animal - it really was an experience. A brilliant, once in a lifetime experience. Before going, I panicked. Why am I doing this? What made me think I was strong enough to do this? I barely knew the people I went with. I knew I would be ill. I knew I would be homesick. However, now I would encourage anyone to seize an opportunity like this. To help others whilst also growing as a person. I thought I would cry because I was away from home, my bed and my family, but I never thought I'd cry because I had to leave the children of RTU. I never thought that two months down the line, I will still be talking about the great experiences I had in India. Not just the obvious like the elephant ride or the amazing temples, but the little things, like daily tea scrans with my Lasallianers, playing with the children in the Children's Village near our guest rooms every day and even sleeping under a mosquito net (which fell down many times). I miss and cherish every second of India. Despite the pain and hard work, despite the tears and the blood from cuts, I want to leave you with a quote that embodied our experience. Something that now means a lot to me: 'Be the change that you wish to see in the world' - Mahatma Gandhi.