Life at the ECC

6:00 AM         The alarm goes off. I hit snooze and roll over.

6:09 AM         The alarm goes off again. I turn it off. Where am I? Oh, that’s right, we’re in Bangalore now, at the Ecumenical Christian Center (ECC). Yikes! Yoga starts at 6:30, I better get going. I pull on my clothes, nudge Greg to get up, then shuffle down the outdoor corridor past Maggie’s room to James’ room. I knock on the door. “James? Are you awake? It’s time for yoga.” Then I repeat the process at Grace’s door.

6:25 AM         We walk over to the next building and enter the conference hall, leaving our shoes outside. We grab blankets to use as yoga mats and spread out. Our instructor, Aswini, arrives right at 6:30 and says cheerfully, “OK, let’s get warmed up!” We start by standing, but soon we are running in a circle, flapping our arms and tweeting like birds. Next we line up and walk across the room – on our toes, on our heels, lunging – we look like Monty Python characters from the Ministry of Silly Walks. Eventually we do a little breathing, and maybe a couple of poses. One very fast sun salutation vinyasa and we are ending the hour in corpse pose. This is nothing like the yoga I'm used to.

7:30 AM         We wander back to our dormitory, called the Dialogue House, and take a bucket shower to clean up.  Greg and I are the only ones sharing a room.  All the students and each of our kids has his/her own room AND bathroom – making this the one and only place so far where we haven’t had squabbles over who gets to brush their teeth first.

Maggie in front of the Dialogue House

8:00 AM         We walk across campus to the Refectory for breakfast: rice patties (called idli), curried vegetables, eggs, cornflakes, bananas, yogurt, toast.  Coffee and tea.

The Refectory

9:00 AM         Class time.  Back at the Dialogue House, Greg and the students head into the classroom, while the kids and I go to the lounge. Unless we have an excursion today. Do we have an excursion? No? Ok, then let’s get some math done!

10:30 AM       Tea time! We head back to the refectory for tea and cookies.

11:00 AM       Back to class. Who is writing a blog post about yesterday’s excursion? What about the day before that? Does anyone remember what we did three days ago? We have to get our blog posts written and up while we have internet access.

12:00 PM       Lunch time in the refectory. Rice, spicy veggies and meat, soup, fruit, delicious homemade chapatti.

lunch  #nosilverware

12:30 PM       It’s free time.  The kids get a game going in the big field with the other children who live at ECC (several of the boys have been waiting outside the Dialogue House for James – he’s already popular since he’s willing to play anything with them: cricket, badminton, blob tag, soccer). I head back to the room to do a load of bucket laundry, then find a comfortable spot to read my book.  Oh wait, the tailor is coming today.  We all gather in the lounge to be measured for the colorful clothes we are having made. Then there’s time for a walk around the beautiful grounds – past the giant termite mound and down to the “petting zoo” complete with emus and bunnies.

Emus at the "petting zoo"

Random lamb on our campus walk

Grace wants to bring a bunny home.

James with his buddies.

The termite mound!

Getting measured by the tailors

2:30 PM         Class time again.  I drag James away from his field game (the local children are on school break right now, so they just want to play all day!).  Grace and Maggie are doing leaf art in the courtyard with some of the Oles, and since the Oles have to go to class, too, they are easier to corral. Maggie gets to read independently while Grace and James and I discuss our latest book (this week it is The Outsiders).  Then it is Maggie’s turn, and we read Johnny Tremain out loud to each other while Grace and James use the geography app on my phone.

4:30 PM         Tea time again!  That’s right, more tea and cookies – or maybe even an apple fritter or samosa.

5:00 PM         More free time. Greg is preparing for tomorrow’s class when a student knocks on the door needing to chat for a bit. That’s my job – so we go for a walk and talk through today’s concerns.

Greg at his desk in our room

7:00 PM         Dinner. Delicious Indian food – spicy enough to be interesting, mild enough that we know they’ve altered it for our American palettes.  Maggie is surviving on rice and fruit and the odd piece of chicken or fish.

8:00 PM         Do we have a group meeting tonight? If not, let’s play flashlight tag in the big field with all the kids.  Or now would be a good time to connect with folks back home since they are just starting their day.  Tomorrow we’ve got an excursion to the Buddhist Temple, so let’s get our water bottles filled and pack up the snack bag. The bus leaves right after breakfast.

9:00 PM         I make my rounds to the kids’ rooms, making sure they are settled in for the night. On my way down the corridor I hear music coming from the classroom – the Oles will probably be up for quite a while.  Not me. I’m ready to read myself to sleep…

Daily life at the ECC is a far cry from the challenges of life in New Cairo.  Our food is prepared for us, we’re close to the students, and there is energy and vibrancy all around.  I wouldn’t describe it as easy (I’m still exhausted by 9 PM each night), but there is a lightness in the air that permeates all of our interactions, making everything feel not quite so hard.  Most days in the Egyptian desert felt like a constant battle for survival, while India is simply bursting with life. The overstimulation can be a lot – especially on excursion days – but our little enclave here at the ECC is a welcome retreat, giving us both the time and space for reflection.

Doulatabad Fort

by Grace Muth

On our second day in Aurangabad after visiting the Ellora caves we were all super tired.  It was just our luck that had us going to the Daulatabad Fort after lunch that day. After a restful bus ride over to the fort, we started our tour.  The Daulatabad Fort was built to make conquering it impossible.  First we went through a gate with big brass spikes on it and we were told that the spikes were supposed to be elephant proof, but the enemies would put a camel up against the spikes so that the camel would die but the elephant would be saved.  

A gate

elephant-proof, spiky door

After walking for about 10-20 meters we came to a building that had been a temple, and then was turned into a mosque, then was turned back into a temple.  We went inside and everyone, who wanted to, got a chalked red dot between their eyes on their forehead.  The dot is a part of the Hindi culture; you get the dot after you ring a bell to let the gods know you have arrived, and show devotion to the god that is worshiped in the temple.  The dot is like a third eye that lets you see inside someone’s soul. 

the temple/mosque/temple

James' third eye

After leaving the temple we went through a second gate and arrived in a courtyard.  The courtyard had about 10 cannons and 2 gates.  One gate was big and real, and the other was small and fake.  

fake gate to the right, real gate to the left

We went through the real gate and up some slanted stairs and arrived at the next gate.  The slanted stairs made this gate harder for the elephants to ram into so the enemies had to break it down by hand.  

another elephant proof gate

The gate led to 2 more gates.  There was a small gate, which was real but no one would make noise behind it so the enemies would think it was fake.  There was a big fake gate where people would hide and make noise.  The enemies, in hopes of a fight, would break down the fake gate.  Unfortunately for the enemy all of the people hiding behind the fake gate would escape through a hole in the wall.  Like I said before, this fort was built to make conquering it impossible.  After going through what must have been our 8^th or 9^th gate and climbing up a flight of stairs, we left the building we had been in through another gate and were left on a ledge that was over hanging the moat.  From here we saw the castle that all of the gates were protecting.

the moat

Now the story doesn’t end there.  While we could see the castle there was still a moat, more gates, and a “dark passage” to go through.  The moat was 45 feet wide, about 50 feet deep, and was full of snakes and alligators.  There was a sketchy bridge that we had to cross just to arrive at yet another gate.  Through the gate is a hallway with a set of stairs that led to, wait for it, a gate.  That gate led to a small rock cut courtyard, which had a small opening to the “dark passage”.  

courtyard outside the "dark passage"

The “dark passage” was a twisting turning maze of steps, drop offs, darkness, and bats, lots of bats.  When we got to the end of the passage there was one final gate.  When enemies would come and try to break down this final gate the people in the fort would pump sulfur gasses into the passage and the enemies would have to escape.  There was a small hole in the wall that the enemies went through, as a way out, but after 2 steps there was an oily slide that sent them straight into the moat.  There we each had the choice whether to go up to the castle or to end the tour.  I chose to go to the castle.  About 400 stairs later James, Sydney, Will, and I arrived at the castle.  It was amazing!  There was a man up in the castle that pointed out a doorway that led up to a tower.  At the top of the tower it felt like you were on top of the world.  We had a party where we played “I’m on top of the world” by Imagine Dragons, took tons of pictures and rested for the hike down.

View from the top

I'm on top of the world!!

It is best to end on a high note and when you feel like you are on top of the world, I think that’s pretty close to a high note.  The total amount of stairs was 457, and the experience was 100% amazing.  I hope I described the fort well enough to put a somewhat accurate picture in y

The Caves of Ellora

by James Muth

     Natural caves are some of the most beautiful and dark things in the world, but caves made for religious purposes, carved out of a mountain by hand, are even more beautiful, and dark. In Aurangabad, India at the Ellora caves site, there are 34 man-made caves that are 30 km away from the center of the city. There are 12 Buddhist, 17 Hindu and 5 Jain caves. The group visited 2 caves from each religion.

            The first Jain cave that we visited was unfinished. It was a bit of a climb to get up to the mouth of the cave. There were lots of intricate carvings on the pillars on the outside, but on the inside it looked more like a natural cave. It was a different experience to see not completely finished pillars. It gave the group an insight on how difficult it must have been to turn a mountain into a temple. In the cave there were also bats, as expected, and even a large toad. Outside the cave there was a small puddle that housed three crabs. No one knew for sure how the crabs got up there, but it was interesting to see them there. The second Jain cave was very large and it had two layers. Both smelled of guano but the amazing carvings, like a life sized elephant, made us forget that in an instant. There was a lot to see and learn so we were kept busy for a while.

the unfinished cave from the outside

the unfinished cave from the inside

The second Jain cave

A giant, carved elephant at the second Jain cave

Grace peeking through a hole

Mom meditating

Jain sculpture

            The Hindu caves we went to were gigantic. The first one had several depictions of Lord Shiva. One at the entrance was Shiva fighting some unseen terror; another was of him with his wife. The main and noticeable difference between Jain and Hindu caves are the construction. The Hindu caves let in much more light because three of the four sides in the cave are cut completely out, all the way to the surface. There was enough light to see from one end of the cave to another. The other cave we saw wasn’t really a cave. It certainly didn’t feel like one. It was technically still cut out of the mountain but our guide – Bharat- used the term “monolithic architecture. The structure was a giant temple-like building in the center of the cleared out section of the mountain. Around the edge of the cut out area there was a passageway that had all the incarnations of Vishnu along the edges. Three of the four sides of the cave were the above-mentioned passageways. The temple in the center had two layers and lots of statues of animals. That cave is the largest one at the Ellora cave site.

Lord Shiva

Holy cow!

The temple in the center of the largest "cave"

            The Buddhist caves that we visited were very similar to the ones that we saw in Ajanta. One cave had several layers and looks like an ancient apartment building. It kind of is because Monks used to study and live there. The other Buddhist cave we visited was a chanting hall. If anyone said anything, it would echo and no one would know who said it. So of course everyone sang and harmonized a little because the echo made for great acoustics. It was very interesting to learn about the construction of these caves so that the religion could be perfected or performed.

the ancient apartment building

the chanting hall

            The caves at the Ellora site were stunning, wowing, fantastic and dark. The religions were clearly represented in each one of the caves. Whether there were depictions of Lord Shiva or Master Buddha, there was always something to be amazed at, including the darkness.