all the pretty things.

“Look at all the pretty things

That steal my heart away

I can feel I’m fading

Lord I love so many things

That keep me from Your face

Come and save me”

-Tenth Avenue North, All the Pretty Things

This week something struck me.  It may be a silly and juvenile observation, but here it goes anyway.  I have been struggling so much with understanding Hinduism – how and why Hindus believe what they do.  It just hasn’t made sense to me.  How on earth does worshipping dolls make sense in any context?  I was listening to my music on shuffle, and an old song I haven’t listened to in quite some time randomly played – “All the Pretty Things” by Tenth Avenue North.  While I was listening to it, something inside my head just clicked.  Hindus have idols that look so incredibly wrong to me, someone who doesn’t understand the religion.  But, Christians have all sorts of idols (me included), the idols just are not as obvious.  Here, people may worship dolls, but back home, people worship (through idolization) things like money, food, relationships and hobbies.  I think that this hidden idolatry might be scarier than the worship of dolls, because it tends to be unnoticed. It just seems sad. 

---

In less than two months, I will be back home celebrating Christmas.  Reflecting on my time here thus far, I cannot begin to think that the end is even in sight, but it is.  It seems as though so much happens each week that my blogging doesn’t do much justice, but, here goes another week-long recap. 

As far as school is concerned, I suppose it is safe to say that it was “just another week.”  Although, we did have one notable strange and hilarious classroom experience happen.  It was evening and we had just begun religion class with a sweet (our professor likes to treat us to traditional Indian sweets – this time it had been masala banana chips with tender coconut to wash down the spice) and our professor told us that we would be watching a movie.  So, he popped a DVD into the computer and proceeded to fast-forward (in slow motion) through the whole two-hour movie.  Then, he ejected the DVD and made some comment along the lines of, “hope you enjoyed the film,” and began his lecture.  We were all a little bit confused as to what the point of watching him fast-forward through a documentary about Christianity coming to India was, but, as they would say in India, “What to do?”

Other than the normal class mix-ups and trips to the grocery store, it was a relatively uneventful week.  The weekend, however, was the eventful part, as seems to be an overarching motif of India.  Weekend travels usually tend to be packed full and exhausting but totally and completely worth it.   This past weekend was spent in Cochin, a city in Kerala (we finally left the state of Tamil Nadu!).  Kerala’s is known as “God’s Own Country” in the same way Montana is known as “The Last Best Place.”  Cochin is on the coast, so we were located right by the Arabian Sea.  We left Coimbatore on Saturday morning at 5 am, the earliest yet.  I had the terrible idea the night before that I would just stay up all night in order to get some work done and to be able to sleep on the long bus ride, so I was a little bit delirious by the time I boarded the bus, but as soon as we started driving, I fell right asleep.  It was certainly not the best sleep (India could really benefit from some road work, even chip-sealing would help) due to the rough and bumpy roads and traffic constantly slamming on the breaks and honking like crazy, but it was sleep nonetheless.  We stopped for a traditional Kerala breakfast about halfway through the drive, and had a very thin, bread-like pancake made of coconut.  It was pretty okay, although Indian breakfasts tend to be much more hearty than I prefer.  We finally made it to Cochin around noon.  We stayed at a hotel this time, and a classy one at that!  It was called Hotel SAAS.  Anyways, we checked into our rooms and then had lunch.  It was a traditional lunch comprised of rice, gravies, curries, and sambar.  But, we were a little spoiled at the hotel, and they also gave us fresh fruit and ice cream.  Its safe to say that it may have been a highlight of the weekend. 

After lunch, we heard a series of lectures on a wide range of topics including development, Christianity, and America.  The lectures were fascinating and really helped put things into a new perspective.  The lecture on Christianity was based on Mark 3-6 and the idea that if you want to follow Jesus, you must reject the logic of the world.  Basically, the world thought Jesus was crazy and if we are living like Jesus too, we should look crazy to the world too.  The talk on America was a little more disheartening.  The lecturer spoke of how America is a role model to the rest of the world, speaking of all American presidents (George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barak Obama, of course) as though they were worthy of worship.  It is a little bit heart breaking to hear America spoken of as a role model because of what a struggle our country is facing at this point in history.  It was good to hear, though, because it helps to further understand the way that Indians view America, which is so valuable when you are living in the middle of it. 

After the lectures, we were served tea, which is completely normal now (tea ALL the time) and then went to a Kathakali dance exhibition.  Kathakali is a dance that is native to Kerala – it is basically acting through dance and drumming.  Only men are allowed to be dancers and they are required to complete a minimum of seven years of training to become a dancer (so, just like Shakespearean times, women are played by men in drag).  They are in full costume and their faces are made up with brightly colored concoctions of face paint made from coconut oil and dust from different kinds of rocks.  With the makeup on, the performers look almost fake – their face paint looks like a mask.  There is no talking throughout the telling of the story, and much of the drama is told through hand gestures and eye movements.  It was really neat, although I felt like I had gone down the rabbit’s hole in Alice in Wonderland for a while; the dance was kind of surreal feeling because the dancers looked like huge dolls.  After the dance, we attempted to get Italian food (Kerala is a tourist destination so there are attractions and restaurants to cater to such), which turned into a fiasco because basically nothing on the menu was available and everything that was turned out to be extremely overpriced.  I ended up getting a piece of bread with melted cheese.  I regret to inform you that it was not the best Italian food I’ve ever had and it was even worse than much of the Indian food that I’ve had.  By the time we left the restaurant, it was around 9.  The bus got very lost on the way back to SAAS Hotel so it was after 11 by the time we got there – another late night. 

Sunday began at 8 with breakfast at another place traditional to Kerala.  I had Bombay Toast, my favorite Indian food ever.  Its basically French toast but made with ghee and sugar so it is super sweet and delicious.  Of course tea followed and then we went on a boat tour of the outskirts.  We saw many things from the water – cruise ships headed to Sri Lanka, cargo boats, chinese fishing nets, and a great view of town.  Our boat took us to a dock where we got off to look at the Dutch palace (a landmark from when the Dutch ruled India).  I felt so at home there. Kidding, of course.  We also saw a synagogue in Jewtown.  Yes, it really is called Jewtown, which would be completely and totally politically incorrect at home but stuff like that works here.  After the boat tour, we went to a spice market where many people bought spices.  Then, it was already time to head back to Coimbatore.  We stopped on the drive back for tea and hot banana chips, another thing Kerala is famous for.  Banana chips are the Indian version of potato chips.  We finally got “home” around 9 and our school had brought us dinner to our apartments. 

Again, I am sitting here thinking about how incredibly blessed I am.  Today, Monday, was another great day.  Although it was a school day, we had to be at school early to hear a guest speaker.  Thinking it would be boring, I was not all too excited about it.  Its crazy how God knows what you need to hear though.  Our guest speaker was Dr. Myron Augsburg, from America.  He planted churches as well as he was the president of the CCCU for many years.  He spoke about Jesus’s life and the importance of association with other people for Christians, as well as the uniqueness of grace Christianity (an element that all other religions lack).  He had such wisdom and I hope that I can have even a small fraction of that kind of world knowledge later in life. 

This week is bound to be an eventful one.  Wednesday is Diwali, a national holiday.  Apparently, it is close to the most celebrated holiday in India.  It’s a big deal and we plan to embrace every minute and celebrate a lot.  

Kathakali Dancer #1.

Kathakali Dancer #2.

Chinese Fishing Nets.

Beautiful Cochin.