Sunday, June 27, 2010

June 11… part A ... boys home cleanup

One of the primary focuses of this trip to to help the Aldape’s in the boys home they started. The started the home in 2007 for young Banjara Gypsy boys who cannot afford education.

Even though the Indian government will tell the world that the ‘caste system’ is dead, the environment and culture tells of a different story. The Banjara are considered one of the lowest caste, the only caste lower would be the people who ‘break the rocks’, they are supposedly looking for god in the rocks. Aside the obvious problems with the caste system, the one major problem is, people who are in these lower castes have ‘zero’ shot of advancement. So, many times people who live in these castes, live a life of complete defeat, because it doesn’t matter what they do in life, they will be the lowest of the low. Even if someone breaks out of their environment, and say they become a doctor, people will not go to them for treatment because they know that the doctor is from the lower caste. Sounds insane to my ‘American’ ears, but it is a harsh reality of India.

In the Mumbai area, there are around 600,000 Banjaras and an estimated 98% of these people are completely illiterate. So the fact that this boys home takes in children to give them a free ecucation is HUGE. These boys live at the small facility, they are given nutritious meals, education, and Jesus.

The boys are finishing up their summer vactation (summer lasts from April to June) and will be returning to the home this coming Sunday/Monday. So today, we spent time at the home cleaning and getting it ready for the boys return.

An incredible young pastor named, Manohar (31 yrs. old), runs the school. We have been able to get to know him a bit over the past couple of days. After spending a few minutes with him, he makes me want to be a better person, a better man. After we finished cleaning the home, we headed upstairs to Manohar’s flat to eat. They prepared us a true Indian lunch, A-MA-ZING. The coolest thing about eating here is the use of one’s hands, forks are not required, nor are they used. It’s actually quite nice.

No comments:

Post a Comment