Namaste! Today it is 18th July, 2013, not a meaningful date for many people, but for us, Brothers of the Holy Family who form the Community of Kurdeg (Jharkhand), is the beginning of our first month in this remote but beautiful place of India.
Our Community started its adventure on 18th June, 2013, when all the Brothers gathered for the tea time of the afternoon. Some Brothers –Sandip and Abhay- were here days ago, others –Efraim, Raja and Selvan- came from the Community of Eluru, after a long and tedious journey in train, then from Rourkela to Simdega and finally to Kurdeg by car.
Kurdeg is a very small village from the Simdega district, Jharkhand state. Its population is living scattered in different places of the landscape of this area. Mostly the people are Christians, but it is also found some Hindus and Muslims. This land of Kurdeg has a long tradition of being Christianized by the Jesuit Fathers coming from Belgium and Netherlands at the end of XIX and beginning of XX century.
When the Brothers arrived to Kurdeg, they were very well heartily welcomed by the diocesan Fathers and the Religious Community of Daughters of St Anne of Ranchi. The Brothers were lodged in a classroom belonging to the boys’ Primary and Middle School. The classroom is to be in future a computer classroom. All the meals of the Community take place in the residence of the priests, sharing with them not only food but life and work also. The house for the Community is being built, not yet finished, and we hope in no more than one month it will be completed. This house is also inside the compound of the Mission of the Parish of Kurdeg, nearby the stable of the buffalos.
In this Mission of Kurdeg, there are the residence of the priests, the church and the boys’ primary and middle school; the residence of the Sisters of St Anne along with the dispensary and the girls’ primary and middle school (also some secondary classes) are in the same Mission place; the secondary school (Nirmala High Secondary School) for boys and girls is some metres separated from the compound wall of the Mission. The Brothers are teaching both in boys’ primary and middle school and in the Nirmala High Secondary School. The timetable for the school starts at 08:30 am and finishes at 15:30 pm; Tuesdays and Saturdays there is only half day school.
The teaching process is very hard. Firstly students are not much motivated for studies (the medium of instruction is Hindi, but the students’ common language is Sadri), secondly there are many students per classroom (I’m not exaggerating when I say that there are classrooms with more than 100 students); thirdly in the school there is not electricity, and in some classrooms is very difficult to teach when it is dark; besides some classrooms have not tables, chairs or desks, and the youngest students are all of them seated on the floor… Well, though not much pedagogic, sometimes the use of a stick, as a way of threatening, is also necessary… The students of primary and middle school receive free meals during the lunch time (rice, dhal curry and a kind of vegetable).
The timetable of the Community is very simple: At 04:30 the bells of the Church are ringing, but some Brothers are not getting up until 05:00 more or less. The Holy Eucharist is at 05:30 (every day), preceded by the morning prayer in Hindi conducted by girls and boys of the hostel; after the Mass, we have our Morning Prayer and meditation (outside because we have no chapel). Breakfast is generally at 07:15 and then working time until the moment for lunch at 12:30; the lessons are resumed at 13:00 until 15:30. After we have some personal work and sports or walking and at 17:00 is the tea time. At 18:15 we have our Evening Prayer and then Rosary. Supper is at 19:30 approximately and after supper recreation and watching the news. At 21:00 we have personal night prayer and then going to bed…
And this is our life, more or less, for the first month that we are living here in this place of Kurdeg, in this new mission of our Congregation in India, and our first educational mission experience for the Indian Brothers of the Holy Family. May Vble. Brother Gabriel and the Holy Family bless our mission work and our Community and inspire us the way to build up the Kingdom of God according to the tradition and charism of our Institute.
Bro. Efraim Gonzalez, FSF
