i feel like i have a lot of catching up to do! the past 6 days have been busy and if you can't tell from the title of this post i am definitely running on empty at this point.
on the 15th we headed to allepey where we boarded and lived on houseboats for the next 24 hours. this was amazing. there were 5 other people on my houseboat and we have lunch served to us on the boat as we cruised around the canals of india. it was so relaxing just sitting around and talking and laughing. later in the afternoon our boat driver pulled over and we got to pick out the fish he cooked us for our dinner. we decided on prawn and flounder...and it was SO good. it was a real awesome moment when we were sitting on our boat eating the fish we had picked out on a beautiful canal in india. seriously awesome.
while i wish i could say i wish we stayed longer on the boat, i actually am glad we didn't. there was no ac and at 3 am our electricity went out. meaning no fan. no air circulation. this wasn't the best night i've had in india :)
the next day we headed to trivandrum, the capital of kerala. that day was a day of exploring the city, but the next day was great because we started it off with a city tour. trivandrum definitely has it's beautiful areas! but that afternoon was by far one of the best afternoons of the whole entire time i have been in india.
on our tour that morning we passed the salvation army anti-human trafficking counseling center. 4 of us decided to hop on a tuk tuk that afternoon and head over there to check it out, totally unsure if they would even talk to us. we walked in and talked with a security gaurd who asked us what we were doing there and looked thoroughly consfused when we tried to explain our answer. we followed him around to multiple offices (i guess no one wanted to talk to us??) until we were finally invited in and asked to take a seat. the man we were seated in front of started off by telling us what they do at the counseling center. basically, it is a counseling center where people come after escaping human trafficking. these people are seeking help and need help being integrated back into the community. through conversation and questions we found out SO much about human and sex trafficking.
one of the most surprising things to me is that the government is doing nothing to stop this issue. in fact, many government officials are somehow connected with the trafficking industry and benefit from it. how in the world can we stop what is essentially slavery if the government is doing nothing to protect it's people from it? it was overwhelming. he continued to tell us that another issue is that there are tons of fraudulent advertisements posted all of the city, the state, and the country. there is absolutely no regulation on what is posted and many uneducated people fall for these terrible advertisements for jobs abroad. i asked him what kind of education they are doing to help inform people about this, and he said not much. another scary fact-no one is being educated, therefore nothing can change.
we then started talking about sex trafficking, a very real issue whether in india or the united states. many girls unknowingly take jobs, which lead to sex slavery, or are sold by their parents because they are so poor and uneducated. girls have an extremely hard time escaping from this disgusting industry, and when they do many times they become outcasts from the community. the man said that one of the biggest issues the women they counsel face is shame and depression because they feel dirty. their approach to counseling these women, as well as everyone else, is cool-it's pastoral counseling. basically, they lead them to jesus for healing.
my heart breaks for the girls in this industry, for their families, and for the men who sell them like cattle and use them for disgusting reasons. and the thing is, it is happening everywhere.
i almost don't even want to write about the following days because i was not impacted by anything more than this hour long conversation. and i am still trying to digest a lot of it.
brief overview of the next few days:
-we found a dominos (i think i shed a tear of joy)
-we went to trivandrum international school and did our exhibits there
-we went to a shantiniketah school where we put on exhibits and then looked at what felt like 500 exhibits the kids did. i think i saw at least 10 dealing with an open flame. thank you wake county public school systems for not giving 8 year olds fire to play with.
which brings me to today. we went to the biggest school in asia today. 13000 kids. it was absolute chaos.
and we are exhausted.
and i'll admit, a little annoyed.
i don't like this feeling. feeling like i have nothing left to give to so many children that we will meet tomorrow. when i was sitting there in the middle of the chaos of the hundreds of children we were seeing i kept thinking about how jesus told the children to come to him. if he was dealing with these children would he still want them all to come? of course he would. my prayer for the next day is to love them like jesus. because, like mother teresa said, each one of them is jesus in disguise.
"live radiantly by expanding your focus to include ME in ALL your moments. let NOTHING dampen your search for me." (jesus calling)
on the 15th we headed to allepey where we boarded and lived on houseboats for the next 24 hours. this was amazing. there were 5 other people on my houseboat and we have lunch served to us on the boat as we cruised around the canals of india. it was so relaxing just sitting around and talking and laughing. later in the afternoon our boat driver pulled over and we got to pick out the fish he cooked us for our dinner. we decided on prawn and flounder...and it was SO good. it was a real awesome moment when we were sitting on our boat eating the fish we had picked out on a beautiful canal in india. seriously awesome.
while i wish i could say i wish we stayed longer on the boat, i actually am glad we didn't. there was no ac and at 3 am our electricity went out. meaning no fan. no air circulation. this wasn't the best night i've had in india :)
the next day we headed to trivandrum, the capital of kerala. that day was a day of exploring the city, but the next day was great because we started it off with a city tour. trivandrum definitely has it's beautiful areas! but that afternoon was by far one of the best afternoons of the whole entire time i have been in india.
on our tour that morning we passed the salvation army anti-human trafficking counseling center. 4 of us decided to hop on a tuk tuk that afternoon and head over there to check it out, totally unsure if they would even talk to us. we walked in and talked with a security gaurd who asked us what we were doing there and looked thoroughly consfused when we tried to explain our answer. we followed him around to multiple offices (i guess no one wanted to talk to us??) until we were finally invited in and asked to take a seat. the man we were seated in front of started off by telling us what they do at the counseling center. basically, it is a counseling center where people come after escaping human trafficking. these people are seeking help and need help being integrated back into the community. through conversation and questions we found out SO much about human and sex trafficking.
one of the most surprising things to me is that the government is doing nothing to stop this issue. in fact, many government officials are somehow connected with the trafficking industry and benefit from it. how in the world can we stop what is essentially slavery if the government is doing nothing to protect it's people from it? it was overwhelming. he continued to tell us that another issue is that there are tons of fraudulent advertisements posted all of the city, the state, and the country. there is absolutely no regulation on what is posted and many uneducated people fall for these terrible advertisements for jobs abroad. i asked him what kind of education they are doing to help inform people about this, and he said not much. another scary fact-no one is being educated, therefore nothing can change.
we then started talking about sex trafficking, a very real issue whether in india or the united states. many girls unknowingly take jobs, which lead to sex slavery, or are sold by their parents because they are so poor and uneducated. girls have an extremely hard time escaping from this disgusting industry, and when they do many times they become outcasts from the community. the man said that one of the biggest issues the women they counsel face is shame and depression because they feel dirty. their approach to counseling these women, as well as everyone else, is cool-it's pastoral counseling. basically, they lead them to jesus for healing.
my heart breaks for the girls in this industry, for their families, and for the men who sell them like cattle and use them for disgusting reasons. and the thing is, it is happening everywhere.
i almost don't even want to write about the following days because i was not impacted by anything more than this hour long conversation. and i am still trying to digest a lot of it.
brief overview of the next few days:
-we found a dominos (i think i shed a tear of joy)
-we went to trivandrum international school and did our exhibits there
-we went to a shantiniketah school where we put on exhibits and then looked at what felt like 500 exhibits the kids did. i think i saw at least 10 dealing with an open flame. thank you wake county public school systems for not giving 8 year olds fire to play with.
which brings me to today. we went to the biggest school in asia today. 13000 kids. it was absolute chaos.
and we are exhausted.
and i'll admit, a little annoyed.
i don't like this feeling. feeling like i have nothing left to give to so many children that we will meet tomorrow. when i was sitting there in the middle of the chaos of the hundreds of children we were seeing i kept thinking about how jesus told the children to come to him. if he was dealing with these children would he still want them all to come? of course he would. my prayer for the next day is to love them like jesus. because, like mother teresa said, each one of them is jesus in disguise.
"live radiantly by expanding your focus to include ME in ALL your moments. let NOTHING dampen your search for me." (jesus calling)
No comments:
Post a Comment