- or: a rather
detailed insight into our last month in Abhaya –
Even though we are in India, ca. 8.000 km far away from home, in a
country where 80% of the population are Hindus - Christmas has not left us
unattached. Like during the weeks before Deepawali big shops propagated the upcoming
festival already long before. Soon we could not escape the flashing fairy
lights, Christmas stars, glittering tinsel, plastic Christmas trees and
decorations anymore – at last, 2.3% of the Indian population are Christians.
Silent minute – our pre Christmas period
However, all of this was not picked up in Abhaya. So we decided to use
the last month to introduce some German Christmas traditions. On 1st
December we installed an Advent calendar in the prayer room with a small paper
back for every day until Christmas. As the student shelter hosts 24 girls at
the moment it fitted perfectly, that each girl could open one bag. Furthermore,
we used a plastic fir branch, four candles and a plate to make an Advent
wreath.
After the usual Hindu prayer in the evening the lights were switched off
and the candles of the wreath inflamed. Everybody sat down, closed ones eyes
and Hannah spoke a few thought-provoking words (like how it is important to
feel with the victims of the flood disaster in Chennai). The “silent minute”
came to an end, when Paula played one or two Christmas songs on her violin.
Then the girl whose turn had come was allowed to open the Advents calendar.
Especially for the small girls it was difficult to keep still, even
tough it was only for a short period of time. In addition to that we are not
sure, how many of the younger ones really understood our words. However, to
daily come together for a moment of silence was a good change to the normal,
quite loud and not always sorted every-day-life of the children’s home. It made
us happy to get to now that this “silent minute” was even practised by the
girls when we could not be there in the evening.
We as Nikolaus
Another big event was “Nikolaus”. On 5th December before the
Saturday-evening-movie we told the children the German story of the holy Saint
Nicholas and tried to encourage them to clean their shoes. The response was not
really motivated and we were imputed to have made up the whole story, to avoid
a bad small around Abhaya’s shoe cabinet (apparently the last volunteers did
not show the connection between Nikolaus and shoes). But while the evening
passed on a big “chapel washing” action was conducted and before going to bed
nearly 30 clean sandals or flipflops stood in front of Abhaya’s entrance.
To actually fill the shoes with the traditional nuts and oranges turned
out to be more difficult than expected. When we tiptoed outside in the middle
of the night we were directly discovered by streetdogs who considered it as a
good idea to bark extremely loudly in order to call attention to us! Luckily,
our children seem to sleep quite deeply and so they were surprised and a little
bit disappointed the next morning when they found out that they had missed
Nikolaus and his friend, even though they had gotten up very early on a Sunday.
50 Christmas cards and even more cookies
Right at the beginning of December it was also time to make 50 Christmas
cards for Christian donors and friends of the student shelter and as soon as
this was finished the girls of course wanted to make some for their families
and school friends as well. Furthermore, we thought that in the time before
Christmas the traditional cookies-baking is a must, that should not miss in
Abhaya. That is why we followed the instruction of the former volunteers Franzi
and Jule (http://kks-prachodana-14.blogspot.in/2014/12/weihnachten-in-prachodana-wie-wir-das.html#more) and
started a baking-action… without an oven this is actually not so easy! As fire
making (the gas stove was too small) and using the improvisational oven took
too long for our hungry girls, they had the great idea to produce some cookies
in the waffle iron – these cookies were a little bit dry, but at least they
could be enjoyed straight away.
Abnormal Christmas holidays
Ironically, we were not able to spend the actual Christmas holidays with
the Abhaya girls, even though we had made so many preparations. Hannah was
infected by a seasonal fever and thus admitted in a hospital. Paula still made
some tea lights and a Christmas star with the children (putting a Christmas
star in front of one’s house seems to be a really common decoration in India),
as well as she decorated Abhaya with paper stars. On the morning of the 25th
December she went with the children to a nearable church, which we had already
planned and discussed with our director before.
Since we are always allowed to take part in the Indian traditions, it
was nice to also be able to pass something of the German culture. For the
recent holidays many Abhaya girls have gone home, but some of those who stayed
come from Christian families, other visited a church for the first time of
their lives. When everybody is back in the student shelter we will definitely
re-celebrate Christmas all together!
This year a little bit late, but better late than never: merry Christmas
from us!
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen