Email: Katherine Bryant

Dear Friends,

For the past three weeks, my foursome team consisting of volunteers Beth, Laura, Rob and myself embarked on a journey across the northern stretches of India. It is a bit of a challenge to capture exactly what this time was—more than a trip or vacation—it is deemed as the “All India Tour” and takes place in India’s hottest month during the time our students have a break from their studies. For me, it was a time of cultural exposure and personal understanding. It also became a moment to step back from our home base in Kerala, reflect on our months of building community and relationships, and focus our hearts and minds on the remaining time in our year here.

Most shocking to me was the stark contrasts between states in India. Not only the physical environment changed with each border crossing, but also the tastes, the dress, the language, the customs, the sights, the sounds. So often I had to remind myself that I was still in India!

In each place we visited, we found the continuing theme of gracious hospitality and a familiarity of home. I was again and again humbled by the grace in others. Indeed we were gifted with traveling mercies found in the kindness of many friends and hosts. These guides in our journey allowed us to gain far more than a tourist’s perspective and gave us a genuine look at life in each place.

We gained a deeper sense of the connections of the PC(USA) by sharing time with missionaries in Delhi—David, Sue and Mary Hudson, who took us in as their own family, and Mussoorie, where Scott and Melanie Smith shared their cozy home, their time, and many laughs with us. It was special to share comfort foods over conversation about a lifetime in missions.

We shared meaningful words, songs, and museum pursuits with Binu in Delhi. We spent time in the kitchen of a Tibetan refugee and listened to his escape stories and hopes as he taught us the art of cooking momos. On our way back to Kerala, we were welcomed into the village of our Goan friends, who are tireless preservers of their community livelihood and heritage. As we traveled from the sea to the deserts to the Himalayas, I stood in wonder most all at the beauty found in others.

After nearly a month of overnight buses and trains and often cramped quarters, our little team became even more of a family than before—the people who see the best of you and the worst of you. We waded through each other’s elations, anxieties, aches, disagreements and (the ever popular) needs for alone time and arrived all the stronger at the other side. For me, this time allowed me to learn about my reactions and emotions, my weaknesses and how I work in a close unit. Again, it was the patience and humility in the others that allowed us to share this incredible journey.

Of course our trip was not without challenges. I found it difficult to justify touring around the north while most of the people I work with could only dream of leaving the state and seeing their own country. This luxury added new value and appreciation to the freedom that I have. Daily, I faced the paradox of poverty. How do I support someone and show them kindness without placing a rupee into their outstretched hand? How do I say in a language that is not their own: A coin will not help you; it is the system that leaves you this way that must change. These are subjects I will continue to explore and battle for the rest of the year and probably my lifetime. Perhaps it is these challenges and issues that make a journey real to us and add depth to the experience.

With continued gratitude for your support,

Katherine Bryant

I post more of my day-to-day reflections at www.birdsflight.blogspot.com