Munnar

The Western Ghats are well-worth a blog post... Last weekend, Joshua and I caught a Saturday morning bus from Kottayam direct to Munnar. Munnar is a tea plantation town high in the Western Ghat mountains that form the natural border between Kerala and the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. Recently, Munnar has become a big tourist destination in India, and for good reason! The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. As our lengthy bus trip took us up the gradual climb in elevation almost from sea level to over a mile high, the gradual changes in scenery made for a fascinating ride. Coconut palms, an ever present sight here in the lower parts of Kerala, began to be less and less frequent, replaced by towering mountain trees. There was no loss in Kerala’s characteristic monsoon lushness, though. Monsoon rains fed rushing waterfalls that fell hundreds of feet from mountain slopes, in turn making the Ghats one of the greenest places I have ever seen. It is for good reason that these mountains are the native habitat of many of India’s famous spices, most notably black pepper.

Our trip up the mountains was relatively slow (4.5 hours); blessedly, Indian bus drivers’ characteristic insanity was tempered by the difficulties of driving uphill. The first sign that you are arriving in Munnar is the sight of neighboring mountains lined with tea fields. The sight is frankly amazing. I have been a lot of places in my life and seen a lot of things, but the sight of the tea plantations had a unique exotic beauty that is difficult to explain. There’s something about the way that tea grows (it is best at 30-45 degree angles), clinging to the sides of mountains, that makes for a beautiful harmony of natural features and human agriculture. Most often, agriculture wrecks natural beauty, but with the tea in Munnar, it seemed to work. Added to this is the fact that - from the outset of the late 19^th century development of the tea plantations in the Ghats - the developers made a commitment to leave a considerable portion of the land unfarmed: “One third of the land is for tea, the rest is God’s country,” the Kannan Devan tea factory proclaims.

So, despite the fact that when we first arrived in Munnar, it rained the whole afternoon, and we were disoriented by a busy tourist town packed with touts and cab drivers eager for our business, we managed to find our way out of town, into the quiet of the hills. We hiked to a lookout point over the valley and had a cup of hot spiced tea (Munnar is also a prime location for growing spices).

After we made our way back to town, we enjoyed some downtime in the nice little homestay we found to spend the night, with the joys of Indian TV (oh, the soap operas and music videos…), and hot water! Let me just say… having never lived a considerable amount of time without hot water, I never thought it would be so nice! If I had a list of best showers in my life (which I don’t), that one would be pretty near the top!

The next day, we took a morning bus even higher into the mountains, to the border with Tamil Nadu, the plantation village called Top Station. Up there, over 6000 feet in elevation, the scenery was even more remarkable. My description can’t really do it justice. I took a lot of pictures, which are on my facebook, so you should check them out! The whole experience was made even more golden by the blaring Tamil pop music on our ride up, and the way that kids would wave and gather all their friends to point at us as our bus stopped in villages. It’s like being a celebrity!

Up at Top Station, we took a few hours and soaked up the quiet solitude of the mountains and the sunshine. We trekked down to a lookout point, where we could see the mountains all around us, and look for miles into the distant valleys and plains of Tamil Nadu. Afterwards, we had some more tea, and friendly villagers recommended that we walk through the tea fields. All, in all, an excellent change of pace from hectic Indian town/city life.

The Week in Review

Hello everyone,

A little update on what's been happening over here in India:

Last week was an eventful one! The weekdays were spent in pretty intensive study sessions. Joshua (my fellow American student) and myself set a pretty rigorous pace for ourselves, going through two different textbooks, a chapter from each a day. We are hoping to keep this pace and finish with the grammar books by the end of June. Then, the plan is to start working through larger chunks of text to translate.

But anyway, on to the more interesting stuff. Last Wednesday, we broke the monotony of the week up by going out to see a Bollywood filmi: "Ready" starring the ever-popular Salman Khan. Khan is apparently a big enough Indian star that he can create a comedy like this one which draws much of its humor by making fun of the stereotypes and conventions of Khan's other movies. This was actually quite funny when I had some of these explained to me: for example, invariably, Salman Khan will take off his shirt in every movie he is in....and lo and behold, near the end of this movie, off the shirt goes! It was really a funny movie though, funny enough that a lot of the humor needed no translation.

On Friday, we went on a walking tour of Kottayam's churches with Fr. Raju and Fr. Thomas, two of the teachers here. Of particular interest were the two oldest churches, both of which date from the 16th century: Cheriapally ("Little Church") and Valiyapally ("Big Church"). Cheriapally has art in the chancel which dates from the original construction of the church, making it roughly contemporary to many of the great Mughal dynasty monuments you might see up near Delhi, like the Red Fort or Taj Mahal. This was pretty amazing to see: it was recognizably depictions of the life of Christ, but in a distinctly Asian style. Pictures are on my facebook if anyone is interested in seeing that sort of thing. Valiyapally, not to be outdone, has its own interesting features: a big stone cross in front of the church and two smaller stone crosses engraved inside the church which date from the sixth century. These two stone crosses contain the earliest Syriac inscriptions in India, and the earliest physical record of Christianity in India... Really cool stuff! It was a special feast day at Valiyapally as well, so the festival flag was flying high, and the umbrellas were out on the steps to mark the occasion. I also met two of the orthodox bishops who were there for the celebration.

On Saturday, Joshua and I went to the backwaters of Kerala, a system of canals and waterways connected to a large central lake. It's sort of hard to describe, but it was a fascinating trip. We set out in the afternoon from the Kottayam boat jetty on the public transport ferry, a three hour trip which only cost us 10 rupees. The boat took us (after many stops) from Kottayam to Allepey. A trip through the backwaters gave a different perspective on life in Kerala. We rode past people's homes which fronted the water. We saw women washing clothes in the river, kids playing in the water, and little towns with their churches, mosques, and temples. Certainly it was a quieter side of India than I had yet seen. The backwaters eventually left populated areas and the journey took us by thin strips of trees above the water which separated vast fields of flooded rice paddies from the backwaters and lakes. Eventually, we made it into Lake Vembanad, and then into the town of Allepey, where canals run through the middle of the town like a sort of Indian Venice. After dinner, we took the bus back to Kottayam from Alleppey, and saw our lives flash before our eyes a few times when our bus tried some maneuvers I might have previously thought impossible for buses.

On Sunday, we went back to experience a Syrian Orthodox liturgy at Cheriapally. We also went to an Indian Coffee House, and then to see X-Men: First Class to experience a little bit of America and enjoy the movie theater's AC (it was really hot that day).

Now, the weekdays are back, and my studies are in full-swing again. The monsoon is back too, after taking a short leave of absence and leaving us all pretty miserable with the heat.

Why India?

Hello everyone!

Many of you may still be wondering: Why did Blake go to India, of all places? In this post, I'll address that issue for everyone who is still unclear, and maybe tell you some more stuff about what life is like here.

The Why

Let's rewind in my life story back to JBU ca. 2006.

Young sophomore history major Blake didn't know a lot about his future except that he liked history and politics and such quite a bit. That fall semester of 2006, my experience in Church History 1 with Dr. Galen Johnson really captivated my love for history as well as simultaneously reinvigorating my faith with a sense of the universal power of the Christian message through the ups and downs of our history. This was a history I could latch on to.

Fast-forward through the rest of my time in college, and Church history and theological studies became more and more central to my education priorities and interests. And so it was that I arrived at St. Louis University in 2009 with a desire to learn about the early Church Fathers (Patristics). When I got there, I heard of new fields of study that intrigued me.

I've always been interested in the boundaries of the academic "mainstream", the fields of study that are less frequented and less well known. I enjoy discovering these uncharted territories and helping to bring them to greater attention. One of these areas that has stood out to me was the field of Syriac (Aramaic) Christianity. Although Syriac Christians today number only a tiny fraction of their former population, in the ancient (and medieval) world, Middle Eastern and Central Asian Syriac-speaking Christians were a massive segment of "Christendom." And after Greek and Latin, the form of the Aramaic language (spoken by Jesus) that was known as Syriac was a great written language of early Christianity.

And so, seeing a challenge, I of course decided I'd like to learn it.

After researching the options for learning the language in a summer program (and there aren't many), I decided to investigate the more adventurous route: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute in Kottayam, Kerala, India. Apparently, I soon discovered, Syrian Christian missionaries took their faith across Asia, even to the southwestern coast of India. There - I was surprised to learn - Syriac Christianity lived on.

So, once I found that I would be continuing my studies at SLU (and that I had a decent assistantship salary in the pipeline) I figured I would spend a bunch of my money and come out to India for a few months this summer.

Now that I'm here..

It turns out that getting to India is the priciest thing!

-My tuition, room, and board while here: 2-300 dollars for two month

-If I want to go out to Kottayam town and have a meal...2 0r 3 dollars for lots of good Indian food!

-If I want to ride a rickshaw across town: 50cents-1 dollar

-Passenger boat down the river to the Backwaters of Kerala: 25 cents for a trip!

As nice as they are, though, those things are largely inconsequential.

The really neat things so far have been the people and the place. People here are some of the kindest you will meet. They are always eager to find out more about you and where you come from, and willing to help a couple of American students muddling our way through the language. Syriac Christians here are thrilled that we want to learn more about their language, worship, and traditions. The Institute is home to some wonderful characters, such as my neighbor across the hall, the monk and priest Mar Sleeva, the helpful librarian Babu, our language teacher Father Raju, and the Indian-American deacon studying here, Sean, who with his Malayalam language skills is such a help around town.

So, even though I don't have the best shower in my bathroom, and the electricity cuts out from time to time, I can't complain. This is a wonderful place, and I'm thrilled to be here!

The Journey

Hello readers,

I'm coming to you live from the computer room at St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute in Kottayam, Kerala, India. More information about the program will be coming soon, but right now I'm just to tired to think about all of that, so you'll have to bear with me. Instead, let's do something easier: recap the trip and first impressions.

The Trip

The first 14 hour leg - from Houston to Doha, Qatar - was, as you would expect, incredibly long. Thankfully, after a couple of melatonin pills and a tylenol pm, I could hardly stay awake. In fact, I probably slept a good six or seven hours total. The rest of the flight was made more interesting by some good conversations with the Bangladeshi man next to me and the abundance of crying children on the flight (I've never seen so many children on one plane before)...

The next phase of the trip was my five-hour layover in Qatar, during which time I drank a Pepsi, used up alot of the battery power on the netbook by getting on Facebook, etc., and read on the Kindle.

The 4.5 hour flight from Doha to Cochin was excellent. I was told at boarding that because the flight was full, I had been moved to Business class. Score! Business Class? This was like a beautiful unknown land to me, with its reclining seats complete with footrests, dedicated service from the flight attendants, a meal that was served on a legitimate plate, with about five articles of silverware... yes, I was living large. My seat neighbor, Thomas, who currently lives in Manchester, England by grew up in Kottayam, my destination, was also quite friendly and helpful.

Upon landing in India, I was soon reminded of the realities of the developing world: inefficient customs agents, irritating out-of-order ATMs, and the strange sensation of stepping outside of the airport to bustling crowds and honking vehicles. After hiring a taxi, I experienced the honking vehicle phenomenon firsthand. My driver probably hit the horn as much as the gas petal (which was also quite frequently), and for two hours, we wove our way through the two lane curvy roads of Kerala to arrive in Kottayam.

Note: Kerala really is a beautiful place. It's described this way in tourbooks, but it really is the case. Pictures will be forthcoming, I can assure you. However, one jarring feature of the area that can clash with this natural beauty is the abundance of billboards. You'll be cruising past a lovely valley with pineapple plants or banana trees, when all of a sudden, a 10x20 version of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan will be smiling at you trying to sell you something. Or, in another case, you may encounter a billboard featuring a grinning young Indian fellow with a blonde European on one arm and a brunette on the other advertising "Learn English Fast".

In all honesty, though, what's really jarring is the sheer number of people out and about, even in what seem to be small towns or rural areas. And this is replicated all over India, and around the world. It's mind-blowing to think about. My world really is quite small.

Coming soon

Hey everyone, I'm sitting here at the computer in my parents' house in Tyler, TX. They're currently hounding me to get up and get moving so we can head down to Houston to the airport, but I'm stubbornly insisting on getting this blog up and running. All that's to say: this post will be short.

Around 8 tonight I'll get on a plane from Houston to Doha, Qatar. Do me a favor and check out that link... Doha is one of those awesome Gulf emirate cities with incredible modern architecture, lots of money and oil, and ridiculously hot desert weather. Now it should be no surprise that a direct flight from Texas to Arabia is going to be insanely long (think 13-14 hours), but fortunately, I will be flying in style.
Because of the time difference, I'll arrive in Doha around 7 tomorrow evening, have a five hour layover in a swanky Arab airport, and then fly out for Kochi, India late that night.
Kochi is pretty close to where I'll be staying, so when I arrive at 8 am on June 3, I will only have a couple of hours by car to Kottayam, where I'll be studying.

In my next post, once I'm on the ground in India, I'll update everyone who is still unaware on a few more of the details of what I'll be doing there, what gave me the idea to go, and some of my first impressions.

Keep checking back for more updates!

Pinne kaanam (Goodbye)!
-Blake