These are the first words that C.B. Rai ever heard Father Edgar Burns, S.J. speak. Father Burns was a theology student in Kurseong and his habit, on Thursdays when the other students enjoyed their one day a week off, was to walk the lanes from village to village with his satchel dispensing medicines. In C.B.'s ancestral village, C. B. Rai was surprised to hear this foreign priest speak Nepali to him like that.
Later, at the end of the 50s and beginning of the 60s, Father Burns was a warden and counselor at St. Joseph's College. His door was open very late at night for any student who wanted to talk. He was in charge of games and dramatics as well. During his rule, says C. B. today, he produced terrific teams and put on wonderful plays, like Annie Get Your Gun. In that one, there was no one to play Annie, but Father Burns kept saying, "Annie is coming." Then one day, and American exchange student arrived, and the play had its Annie.
"He introduced us to social work," says C.B. When the Tibetan refugees started arriving, Father helped set up a school for the young people and got the St. Joseph's students involved. When C.B. finished college, Father encouraged him to come back after post-grad to teach. That is also how he got Noreen Dunne to return as well. She is another former student who has been involved with Hayden Hall ever since.
Father Burns was charismatic, and an excellent communicator, says C.B, He was so active in his work with the poor that he led others, including C.B., to emulate his way of working. Though his parents were Catholic, C.B. was not, until Father Burns brought him back to the fold.
When, in 1969, Father Burns started what was then a drop-in center for students in town, C.B. Rai moved in with Father Burns and another priest, Father McDonald. They turned it into a night college for people who worked during the day. For the first round, 127 people enrolled and nine people ended up with BA degrees in the end. Very soon, there were other activities going on-- surveys of the people's needs, literacy classes, health classes, mother and child care. The old building was demolished and a new one rose in its place.
There was a Food for Work program established, where people could earn dry rations with their labor. And even though he got married in 1971, C.B. continued to teach every day and then spend his evenings at Hayden Hall doing social work.
It was an exciting time, says C.B., and Father Burns, then in his mid-40s, encouraged the young people to do more. They adopted Harsing Bastie, a former tea garden where the people had lost their livelihood when the estate closed. They were eeking out a living. The students spend two weeks of their vacations living with the people. There was also a two-week camp to help the Bangladeshi refugees and a follow-up camp over winter vacation. The students taught multi-cropping and fair trade practices.
When the First Gorkhaland Agitation started in 1985, many of Hayden Hall's programs, especially those in outlying districts, had to be curtailed. C.B. Rai moved on to other social service pursuits, focused on development as opposed to charity, aiming for more participation from those being helped in decision-making, looking for sustainability.
Father Burns, said C.B. Rai, had a talent for drawing people together. So much was packed into those early years of Hayden Hall, thanks to that complex and highly focused man. He was very strong on principles, but then at times, seemed to think only of the product, not the process. He sometimes gave in to convenience and at other times stood for his central belief that we should all be men and women for others. Today, says Rai, we need to be men and women for AND WITH others, so there is more inclusion of those we help.
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