Update from Patel Nagar

I realized that I haven’t given an account of my escapades in the slums recently. So in order to remedy that…

I love working where I am working. I love the people who I am working with too. It is like the best possible outcome for what I wanted in terms of working with a non-profit organization in the slums that is Christian based. While it is really sad to see the slums knowing that this is where they live (I am only there two days a week and I can leave whenever I want, much different reality), I love talking with the people of this community and working with these beautiful kids in the school. The kids in my school are just amazing. They have so much life in them in such a life-sucking community. And to help with their education after these people have been denied a decent education for so long, even in a small way, is a truly rewarding and sobering experience. Marang, the man who is in charge of the program with whom I work closely, is an amazing man. He is so humble and has such a wonderful story of his life and faith. I feel I continue to learn a lot form Him. I think a real and deep friendship will develop by the time I leave India.

It is also just so amazing to hear the stories from the inhabitants of this community. I am fortunate enough to have a professor at Delhi University who is going to allow me to do an ethnography of the community by conducting interviews with community members. I hope to get an idea of the Dalit experience through that. Just to give you a quick story:

The other day, a Christian man form Patel Nagar asked for us to come into his home and pray for him and his family. Of course we obliged but I really feel like I was the one who was blessed in this encounter. He told us his testimony. He lived in a village and was running for office in the town. He was doing fairly well but as a Christian and a Dalit (both of whom are given less then second class citizenship) many opposed him coming into office. Some upper caste people ended up beating him and electrocuting his arm very badly so it was very burned and various places over the rest of his body (he showed us the scares form the burns). His arm became infected and had to be amputated by the shoulder to stop the spread of the infection. Now he begs on the street. When there are so many people vying for jobs of manual labor, why would anyone ever hire a one armed man? But he is so faithful saying, “But God provides for all my needs. I never have been in want.” He has so little yet is so joyful of his circumstances and was tearful when we prayed because he was so shocked that I, a white American, would come from, as he said, “where you live to this place where I live.” It was a truly moving thing to see a man with such a story be so faithful and happy in a place of seemingly utter darkness.

But that is the amazing thing about this community, this slum. In the midst of some of the worst living conditions in the world, amidst people whom have never been treated with dignity (even in cosmopolitan Delhi) and have stories of human atrocity, you find light and joy. There is something all too redeeming about that quality in this place. And I think it is that quality that makes me anxious to go back every week and makes me constantly think about those I know there. It is a world of its own but a world that I am learning to absolutely love.