Worlds Touch

Elder Program Lady

Elder Program Lady, originally uploaded by travelertrish.

This is one of the women my volunteers interviewed for our book on Father Burns, the director of Hayden Hall for 40 years.

Between projects, I'm here in Delhi to share the last few days of my daughter's summer in India. I'll be publishing a report and evaluation of my work in Darjeeling's Hayden Hall, probably by the end of the week. I am somewhat disappointed not to have made more headway with the Rotarians, but we did have a few successful moments and I have some evidence that they DO want to work together to do a project that could take place during my tenure as club president, starting in July 2011. I'll have a separate post on that project.

In the meantime, I've also been able to keep the home fires burning, with Skype calls to my former boss to resolve one or two small problems that have come up, and my future boss to further define what our work will be and how we'll proceed to become THE go-to org for tech support in the Triad!

Complete

The project for Hayden Hall is about to wind down. I finished the rough draft of Father Burns' life today, and Shikha wrote up the story of Father Hayden's life, the priest for whom Hayden Hall is named. We got photos of those who were interviewed, and one more interview to complete before everything I promised the new director, Father Kennedy, is done.

This has been a fascinating project, partly because I was present in 2006 when the first replacement for the founder and longtime director showed up. He lasted a very short time, and when I arrived two years later, he'd been successfully banished.

This new director seems better equipped to handle the challenge ahead of him perhaps. There is a great temptation-- and this is the journalist in me aching to come to the fore-- to analyze the situation out loud, partly to get a better grasp of it myself, and partly just because intercine political battles are inherently interesting.

But I'm a professional and so suffice it to say that the booklet Father Kennedy wants to put together will have, by the end of tomorrow, all the "deliverables" (as we say in the contracting biz) delivered.

I was telling my old boss that, once again it is a situation of the housewife's dilemma-- do one little project and there are five others that show up as needing to be done. One of the administrators is working on a grant for a computer lab for the after-school program. could I help her with it? Another one is interested in the web site. What could we do to get in there and add thing?

I came across a new one today. Radha had the grant proposal up but behind the email she was working on. She had just started to print the email when the power went out. When it came back on, the email was pasted to the grant proposal file name and had been saved that way. How could that happen? I looked for a Word temp file that might have the original, to no avail. Just one of those adventures in computing in the third world.

C. B. Rai

"The scenery is beautiful here."

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.

Father Van

Father Van’s testimonial about Father Burns:

In 1968, in a move that foreshadowed his founding of Hayden Hall, Fr. Edgar Burns released one of the fathers to go to Siliguri and start the Jesu Ashram to work with those with leprosy and tuberculosis. Then in 1969, while still teaching English at St. Joseph’s College, University Division, he started Hayden Hall. He bought the house called the Sheehan House and moved in here with others who wanted to do social work. 

His first project was the Clean Darjeeling Project. He got the entire town involved, the municipality, even the shopkeepers. Siddartha Shankar Ray [check spelling] was chief minister of West Bengal and came for the inauguration. He picked up a broom himself to encourage others. It went on for two weeks. They made Darjeeling shine again.

Farther Burns was not dominating, Father Van says. He continued, “He took you along. Anybody who came under his touch went along. He seemed to give life to everybody. He had the ideas. He was very creative. Nothing was “impossible” for him. He was so supportive that if he hadn’t been here, I would have gone back to Canada. Always, I’d say, ‘I can’t do this,’ and he would counter, ‘You CAN. The Lord will be with you.’”

“The poor were always on our minds,” Father Van said, “and Hayden Hall was obviously a dream he had, but until 1969 couldn’t fulfill.”

Father Van almost didn’t take the same boat with Father Burns. Four Jesuits were on the list to depart, but one of them was a brilliant student in philosophy. The professors put in a strong objection to that fellow leaving for India. “At last,” they said, “somebody who can teach philosophy! We can’t let him go.” So they came to Father Van and asked if he wanted to go. “I will go where you send me,” he replied. So off on the 6-month boat trip to India he went, with Father Burns, his “guardian angel.”  Father Burns got that name because, in the novitiate, a second year man would explain religious life to the younger, first year man. They called these mentors “Guardian Angels.” Father Burns served in that capacity for Father Van for the rest of his life.

After Hayden Hall was built, the programs spread out over the whole district. The effects grew and grew. At one time, the organization was feeding over 200 women a day. Many of the students from St. Joseph’s who were involved in Hayden Hall’s projects have told Father Van, “We learned a lot about social work in those days, and it has stood us in good stead.”

“He was full of life,” Father Van said of his lifelong friend. “He enjoyed a good dinner. He kept right on teaching until the end of the 90s. He even called me his best friend. He’d say from his hospital bed, ‘Where’s my best friend.’”

Red Panda at the Zoo

Red Panda at the Zoo, originally uploaded by travelertrish.

My Estonian friends went to the Zoo the other day and caught the Red Panda-- one of the most rare and famous animals in the Darjeeling zoo. They also have a snow leopard, but if the Estonians got a photo of it, it was not possible to distinguish it.

Rotary Clubs on Both Sides of the Atlantic

I've been trying to use Skype to connect my Rotary Club back in the States with the Darjeeling Rotary Club. Last week, the call was dropped and then nobody in the US answered when I tried to call back.

Well, this time we screwed up from our side with the Rotary exchange I was hoping to pull off, but maybe we've got it figured out at last. We were supposed to meet all together yesterday at the installation of officers of the Interact club at Loreto Convent School. The meeting had been postponed from the week before. It was pouring buckets of rain, just  pelting down, and I was up to my shins in puddles. Besides, my umbrella has stitching holes all down the ribs, so that in that kind of rain, I was getting drip, drip, down my neck and on my head. Nobody told me the meeting was postponed. Feeling a bit uninformed lately.

Is it any wonder I woke up this morning with a sore throat? My dear friend and scientist Marisa tells me that the weather has nothing to do with whether you get sick or not, but it's difficult to argue with Got soaked/Woke up with Sore Throat equation.

Anyhow, the club prez arrived tonight and was willing to do the intro thing right away, but our Stateside club wasn't finished with its program, so he just basically got on with his meeting and gave me the nod when they'd finished the various reports and letters and all sorts of business. By that time, people has already left for work in America.

One of the things I love about this club is that they are involved in so much. They are planning trivia quizzes in about three different locations to promote education. The members create powerpoints for the students with all sorts of information questions. This club has two Interact clubs it sponsors. They are getting ready for a visit from their District Governor, which involves putting together a booklet with all their activities. At the end of the month, they will do another health camp and the various doctors are actively recruiting other docs to participate. They have an active debate about whether to admit female members--they are an all-boys-network at the moment. They put on various events for the poor, including a party with presents on the occasion the equivalent of our Christmas.

When I was here before, they had also sponsored a Room to Read library and after-school program at a village nearby. They had ties to a Sisters of Mercy project for men with mental disabilities.

So they don't have "programs" for their meetings. Their hour is taken up with all the stuff they're doing with progress reports from the various members and various committees. And I don't get the impression that they hold fundraisers, either. They work with various foundations and foreigner who want to contribute and work with them.

Proceeding Apace

My second day on this job, though I think we have to count Monday, even though I wasn't officially on the job.

I've completed two of the five interviews I have planned for the reminiscences of Father Burns from his closest friends and volunteers. I'll do another one tomorrow, or maybe two of them. I have written one of them up.

I'm also simultaneously working on a memo of understanding with Hayden Hall that I'll present to Father Kennedy (the director now that Father Burns has, as they say here, "expired."

My wonderful student assistants have been working well on this project. We have a good timeline pretty much done, both for the good Father's life and also for the programs of Hayden Hall. Shika (the first two syllables of Chicago) is also working on the section where we outline the programs and explain a little bit about what each one does.

I will cut and paste a biography of Father Burns and write up the five interviews along with photos of Father Burns and his friends. The newest student, Peter, has spent the last couple of days going through the photo files...incredibly yellowed, dusty, old-fashioned Indian filing systems, enormous notebooks with pockets of little black and white photos...He has put together a pile of photos (keeping each envelope's photos in a separate envelope with the name on it) and has spent the rest of the afternoon scanning them. Father Kennedy has a scanner that allows you to put four or six photos on the plate and run the scan...and it will make a separate file for each photo! None of this cropping photos or dealing with the laborious one-by-one method. Wonderful, huh? I want one. For the digital storytelling project!

We now have lots and lots of photos, though we'll need more. I have taken some of my students, but haven't yet downloaded them to the computer. Before the East Coast wakes up Thursday morning, i should have uploaded the photos that are now gathering humidity in my camera.

This is a satisfying project, I must say. I love writing and writing with deadlines and a bit of pressure for a client is actually lots of fun. Digging into the life and personality of Father Burns is fascinating. I'm obviously not doing a biography... But this is good work, anyway.

First Day at WORK

And the lights just went out, so this is going to be brief-brief... I had my first day on the Father Burns Memorial Booklet project and it was long and satisfying. I have photos of two of the three students working with me, got all the materials together and put together a task list with who is doing what up on the bulletin board. I also interviewed one of the principal friends of the late father.

The real question is... will I get supper now that the lights are out? Or am I going to bed with half a box of cookies and water? I will let you know. I plan to get to the internet place an hour earlier tomorrow, so i won't be rushed. Next big interview is at 10 am.

I'll leave you with the stitched photo of Kanchanjunga. The other one was only one third. This is the whole horizon.

Hayden Hall Project

I met today with the director of Hayden Hall, to hammer out the basic structure of the booklet I'm doing for them. We have a basic structure as well as a small collection of materials that have already been gathered. I have two Nepali students assigned to me and we are already at work.

Tomorrow, we'll get a workplan put together. We have about three or four people to interview for the biography and several more to interview for the "success stories" section. 

The booklet will be about Father Burns, the Jesuit priest who started the social service organization in 1969. I think part of the reason for the booklet is to get a kind of closure since Father Burns' death last spring. The good father was a towering figure to many of the poor, especially the rural poor around here. He spent years simply walking the paths with his handwoven shoulderbag, listening to the problems and SOLVING many of the problems that came to his ears in the course of his walks. It was apparent to me the last time I worked for Hayden Hall, in the course of my Ambassadorial Scholarship for the Rotary Club, that the good works that got done were HIS, not the organization's, in the eyes of many of those who were helped.

It was a very common case of the organization and the founder somehow being ONE in the eyes of the public. I think one of the motives of the present director is to reassure people that the social work will continue, that the programs that Father Burns started, at least some of them, will continue. That the mission of Hayden Hall is still uppermost in the hearts and minds of the mainly Catholics who run the place.

I'm fine with that. I knew Father Burns and found him a sweet old guy who was finding it difficult to let go of the reins he had held for so long. 

Well, I better take myself off to supper if I'm going to get some. It's not quite 7:30 and it's already pitch dark.