New business venture (my enterprising wife)

I'm dead impressed. Gill and her friend Bay have just set up their own Counselling business. Check it out at http://www.sheffieldcentralcounselling.co.uk/

If you know anyone who's looking for a counsellor, you know what to do...

India - Part 3

Just uploaded more photos to Facebook here.

We sheltered in this hut for an hour and a half in the middle of a rainstorm.

India - Part 2

We eventually managed to find our way out of this tea plantation and arrived home late last night. I didn't get the chance to update my blog again while away. But here are some of the notes I scribbled in my journal on the flight back.

Firstly, we had a superb time away. Kerala's a beautiful part of India and well worth a visit. Highlights of the trip included:

Katherine and Blessan's wedding

(Gill as a bridesmaid, looking beautiful in a sari)

Fort Cochin

Munnar - tea plantations and spectacular scenery

Alleppey - chilled out houseboat on the backwaters

Also thankful for good health, safe journeys and answered prayers. But now onto the important stuff - my observations and reflections from the time away:

1. Welcome and Hospitality. We felt a massive amount of goodwill towards us from Blessan's family and friends and a number of people really went out of their way to make our first week in India (leading up to the wedding) both comfortable and enjoyable. This included a spacious house to stay in, live-in guide, gifts, food, and an overall sense of warmth and welcome.

In addition to this, we met a lot of really friendly people on our travels who took an interest in us and helped us with the practicalities of getting around. Being different in skin colour meant we stood out and received a lot of attention. But that was generally a lot of fun - especially when bus-loads of cute kids drive past waving and shouting "Hi"

2. Faith and Spirituality. Apparently Kerala is about 50% Hindu, 30% Christian and 20% Muslim. And as far as I can make out, there's an incredible diversity within the Christian scene. During our short stay, I encountered the influence of Syrian Orthodox, European Catholic, American Pentecostal and Anglican-influenced forms of Christianity, all inter-weaved with more traditional Indian culture. I found this mix of traditions and cultures fascinating - and sometimes amusing (like the way in which worship in Malayalam, the local language, was sometimes interjected with English phrases like "Praise the Lord") as well as sometimes perplexing (e.g. countless shrines with images of a white Jesus).

On a more personal level, I was both challenged and inspired by the way in which the Christians I met seemed to depend on prayer, making it a more regular and routine part of their lives than I often manage to. And I also noticed that being in an unfamiliar environment and in some respects out of my comfort zone, I also found myself needing to pray more.

3. Language. There are 2 main languages in Kerala: English and Malayalam. And as noted above (re Praise the Lord), when listening to people speak in Malayalam, we'd often hear the occasional English phrase thrown in. One of the most memorable examples of this was the time at the wedding when only thing we understood from a 5-minute long prayer was the phrase "good wife"!

It probably sounds a bit patronising but overall I was very impressed with the quality of English spoken. In fact I often encountered a higher standard / more formal and polite form of English than I'm used to back home. Phrases like: "And your good name, Sir?" and "Who will grace the occasion with prayer?" come to mind. Sometimes however, the use of formal wording seemed to be a bit over the top, particularly when it came to official public notices and signs. There was one above a toilet block that went something along the lines of "FACILITATION OF RECREATION: PUBLIC COMFORT STATION - URINAL BLOCK."

4. Poverty, Affluence and Development. Based on the small part of the country that I saw (admittedly one of the more affluent regions), India doesn't seem to fit neatly into any of the categories usually used with relation to countries outside the west (e.g. developing, under-developed etc). Rapidly industrialising is the best phrase that comes to mind but I'm not really sure how well this fits the bill either.

Growing up, my mental image of India was always of a poor country. But many of the people we met seemed to enjoy a standard of living not dissimilar to that in Britain. Yet alongside this there also seemed to be people living at a level of poverty I'd not witnessed before. And I found this disconcerting, particularly when approached by people begging. My knee-jerk reaction was not to give money because that's not what I usually do back home (where there's a relatively ok welfare state and a commonly held assumption that most people begging spend the money on drink or drugs). But when confronted by higher levels of poverty in a country you know little about, its much harder knowing what to do.

Another weird thing was knowing how much to barter down the price of things. On the one hand, when you're a tourist the price originally quoted is almost always a lot higher than the standard going rate. But on the other hand, even the hiked-up price is eminently affordable and considerably cheaper than in the UK. So it really doesn't make much difference to me whether I pay 20 rupees (25 pence) or 40 (50p) for an auto-rickshaw. But it probably makes a big difference to the driver and you find yourself asking yourself "who really needs the money more?"

5. Climate. I was a bit apprehensive about going to Kerala this time of year because its supposed to be rainy season. But the weather wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be and the rain only rarely inconvenienced our plans. Talking to local people and reading the paper, I gather that this year there's been unusually little rain in Kerala. While this has been great for tourists like me who want a hassle free holiday, its been bad for a region that desperately needs rain for its tea plantations and hydro-electricity supply. In such a context, what does it mean to pray for 'good weather'?

6. Gender. I was struck by the clearer demarcation there is between the domains of men and women in India. Men and women sat in different sides of the auditorium at the wedding. And in places like train stations, there are often separate queues and waiting areas for 'ladies'. I also noticed that people in shops, restaurants, trains, buses or wherever else always approached me (rather than Gill) if they wanted to initiate a conversation. And I found myself having to take much more of a definite lead than I have on other holidays. As a 21st century western man, its difficult to know what to make of all this. But Gill tells me that she found this environment protective on the one hand and dis-empowering on the other. And it was interesting to hear that India has much more lower divorce rates than Britain. Though certainly not a guarantee of happy marriages, this certainly brings a degree of stability to society.

Finally, a couple more observations on the gender front:

- Passing through rural villages and watching women washing clothes by hand, I became more conscious of the way in which the introduction of labour saving devices like washing machines throughout the western world have impacted particularly on the lives of women.

- Maybe something of a double-standard in that it seems women are expected to dress conservatively in real life but 'allowed' to show more flesh when they appear on billboards and magazine covers.

Anyway, if you've not read the above and have skimmed down to the bottom instead, the overall summary is that a good time was had by all. Our time in India was somehow simultaneously restful / refreshing and stimulating / challenging. And do visit Kerala if you get the chance...

India - Part 1

Having a great time in Kerela. Here are some of my random recollections from the first few days:

1. Better than expected air-line food (thankyou Sri Lankan airlines)

2. Over-helpful washroom attendants in Colombo airport. (Delicately placing sheets of loo paper on top of the toilet seat really is a bit over the top)

3. Trivandrum at night hot and buzzing with energy as we're driven through the city from the airport.

4. Rickety rides in retro red buses and auto-rickshaws. Neither the Green Cross Code or Highway Code are much use here.

5. Sweaty candle-lit power-cuts.

6. Cornflakes with hot milk. Orange bananas and sugary coffee. The curry's not as spicy as I feared it might be.

7. Bartering down the price of a bucket.

8. Feeling like a bit of an oddity being white - instantly conspicuous as different. Stared at by some, smiled at by others...

9. Insect repellants of all shapes and smells.

10. Finding little peices of England in old fashioned tea-rooms and air-conditioned bookshops that allow you to browse.

11. Finding cold showers refreshing and being splashed in warm water by passing cars.

Oh and we've done some nice stuff as well. More on this later...

Rethinking Regeneration

Thanks to everyone who's complained to me about lack of recent updates to the world of wier. I just didn't know you cared.

One reason for the long silence is that I've been busy beavering away with plans for my doctoral research which (subjected to being formally accepted by the University) I'll be starting with Manchester in the autumn. To tie in with that and as a tool for shameless promotion, I'm setting up another website.

Rethinking Regeneration will be the site I use for promoting / disseminating my professional and academic work. But I plan to continue using the World of Wier for news and thoughts of a more personal nature. At this stage I'm not completely sure where the one will end and the other begin, but I'm sure that will become clear in due course.

Hopefully there will be some more updates on this site soon with news / photos from our trip to India. We're going there primarily for our friend Kathryn's wedding but also for a bit of travel around the Kerala region. Its monsoon season at the moment and judging by this video I think we might get a little wet.

150th

RobY-St Stephens 150 035, originally uploaded by davosmith.

After several months of planning and organising, St Stephen's Church celebrated its 150th birthday on Saturday with a party on the Ponderosa.

Despite disappointing weather, the event was a heck of a lot of fun, and well worth the effort.

The photo says it all really...

The E-Word

Some interesting stuff kicking around on both sides of the Atlantic re what it means to be an "evangelical" Christian:

From the UK - Evangelical leader unhappy with focus on 'eccentric fringe' Ekklesia: "The outgoing leader of the Evangelical Alliance has urged programme makers not to focus on the 'eccentric fringe' of Evangelicalism, who he said was the focus of a recent Channel 4 documentary examining the rise of fundamentalism in the UK. His comments came in an open letter to Channel 4 following the broadcast of 'In God's Name', which expressed 'disappointment' at the way the Dispatches programme which prominently featured the Lawyer's Christian Fellowship and Christian Voice, was made."

And from the US - An Evangelical Manifesto - prepared says Jim Wallis because "an overwhelming majority of young people view Christians as hypocritical, too judgmental, too focused on the afterlife, and too political in the worst sense of the word. And that image is often particularly true of evangelicals"

I'm still in two minds about the usefulness of the term...