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TRUSTING GOD -- EVEN MORE

A visit with our Kohima twin in Northeast India

November 23-December 4, 2006

It is always great to visit family around the holidays. There was a special family visit which began on Thanksgiving and finished up Dec. 4 as Wisconsin Province men visited with our twin—the Kohmia Region in Northeast India.

Wisconsin Provincial Fr. Tom Krettek, SJ was joined on the trek by Fr. George Winzenburg, SJ (Director of the Sioux Spiritual Center in Plainview, S.D.) Fr. Tom Merkel, SJ (President of Creighton Prep High School in Omaha, and Fr. Dan Krettek (Immaculate Conception parish, Des Moines, Iowa.)

It was Fr.Tom Krettek’s first visit to the region where his duties as Provincial called him to visit the many Jesuit men and works of the Wisconsin twin. He also helped dedicate Kohima’s new novitiate in Shillong. It was important for Fr. Tom Krettek to have his colleagues along because foreigners have trouble getting visas to visit the area if they are not traveling in a group. The government fears that lone travelers might be connected to insurgents.

Following are excerpts from Fr. Winzenburg’s reflections. A 15-hour flight took the travelers from Chicago O’Hare to New Delhi, India. A flight on Air Sahara (which has the slogan “Sahara Airline: Emotionally Yours) took the men to Guwahati where they took a train to Dimapur and then travel by jeep throughout the Kohima region.

My knowledge of India as I entered the country was limited. I knew that India is considered a sub-continent of Asia and its major cities had changed their names: Bombay to Mumbai, Calcutta to Kolkata, and Madras to Chennai. India has a population of more than a billion people; it has two official languages, Hindi and English, but also hundreds of other languages and local dialects. The major religion is Hinduism (83%) and its minor religions are Islam [Sunni Muslim] (11%), Sikhism (2%), and Christianity (2%). India, when it gained independence from Britain in 1947, had most Muslims partitioned to the west (now Pakistan) or to the east (now Bangladesh); it currently wages war with Pakistan for control of Kashmir, a mountainous region in the Northwest

Seven States

Assam was for many years the only State in the Northeast. As tribal peoples living there demanded self-rule, the federal government subdivided Assam into seven States. We started and ended our trip in Assam. We visited Nagaland and Meghalaya and passed briefly through Manipur. The other States are Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Tripura.

Other countries border the Seven States. To the north are Bhutan and China. To the west is Myanmar (Burma). To the east is Bangladesh, which is surrounded by India on all sides except on the south (Bay of Bengal).

Off to Kedima and Pfutsero

We climbed into the jeep, left Phesama, and headed to Kedima where we were told a parish community was waiting to have Mass with us. It took two hours of driving on winding roads to reach the church. Along the way we passed hundreds of trucks that were parked near the Nagaland-Manipur border. At night the army would escort them to Manipur. Insurgents are known to attack and burn trucks as a display of power and a form of economic boycott.

We were warmly greeted when we arrived at Kedima. The street leading to St. Francis Xavier church was lined with tribal people. Fr. Tom Krettek presided at Mass and later we were asked to offer “heartfelt” words to parishioners and neighbors. When it was my turn I told them that tribal people in South Dakota (Lakota) have a saying, "We are all relatives." I said we are related whether we live in India or the United States. When we are joined together in prayer, especially at the Eucharist, we are the Body of Christ. I added that when Mother Teresa was asked how one might become a saint, she said, "Love your children. Love your children. Love your children." I felt that my listeners were already living the message.

After a meal we left for Pfutsero. Along the way we stopped at some police checkpoints and later saw a few insurgents standing beside the road. We made two other stops. One was at Kezoma to see a school that was built with funds provided by the Wisconsin Jesuits.

It was late afternoon when we arrived at Pfutsero, which is one of the highest-elevated villages in the Northeast at almost 7,000 feet. No wonder it was cold! Darkness had fallen and still there was a crowd waiting for us. They took us into the school where the “mothers” among them dressed us in traditional garb. The women laughed more than we did as we posed for pictures.We proudly were led into an auditorium where a hundred students and adults were waiting and they sang a song of welcome.

Later we met with the mothers who described a "cooperative" they had established to help them become financially independent. The cooperative was a simple idea: Each mother deposited a small amount of money every week in a common account at a local bank. When anyone needed cash to pay school fees or cover other expenses, she took a loan from the account and later repaid it. The mothers told us that it took a while for their husbands and other women to adjust to the idea. They said that participating in the cooperative had greatly increased their self-confidence.

Christianity in the Northeast

The Northeast is seemingly not caught up in the tension that mainland Indians face between Hinduism and Islam. But I was told that Hindus are quietly promoting themselves in the Northeast, which is mainly Christian.

The British in the early 19^th century did not want tribal people to become Catholic so they invited Southern Baptists from the United States to build churches. (The majority of Christians in the Northeast today are Baptist.) Later Catholics missionaries were allowed to enter the Northeast. First there came the Salesian priests. Jesuits came to Nagaland in 1970 and they have witnessed a steady growth in the Catholic population, much of it attributed to the establishment of Catholic schools.

The Catholic Church in the Northeast is a young Church. All but a few of the Jesuit novices are tribal people. As their novice master told me, “They are learning about the faith. In time they will critique it, but not now.”

There are hundreds of tribes in the Northeast. By the end of our trip we visited the Angemi in Nagaland, the Dimasa and Karbi in Assam, and the Khasi in Meghalaya.

Life in the Northeast

Nagaland is mountainous and so the climate was generally mild but cold in the evening.

We were eating every few hours, largely because everywhere we went our hosts offered us food. The meals were generally the same: white rice, a seasoned (pungent) sauce, green beans or another vegetable, and lettuce without dressing. For breakfast we sometimes had eggs and toast, and for dinner small pieces of chicken or deer meat. Bananas, apples, or pineapple were served for dessert. Our beverage was bottled water or hot tea mixed with sugar and milk. Cooking is done over an open fire; plates are washed outdoors.

In the Northeast electricity is unreliable if not scarce, and lights are dim. Near the end of our trip, while in Guwahati, I heard a loud bang one afternoon and was told that a transformer down the street had just blown out.

I will remember thesound of the legs of straight-back chairs scrapping against concrete floors; the sound reverberated throughout the Jesuit houses we stayed in.

What about poverty? In New Delhi beggars stood along busy streets leading to the airport and peered into our vehicle as it waited at a stoplight. But in the Northeast I never saw anyone begging, though their needs are great. I wondered if that is because tribal culture and Christian religion give people hope in the face of insufficiency. In his remarks to groups that welcomed us, Tom Krettek frequently repeated the words of Pope John Paul II: "The greatest poverty is not to know Christ."

We arrived in Diphu about an hour later than expected. Darkness had fallen. We went directly to a convent where the Apostolic Franciscan Sisters operate a training school for girls from the Karbi tribe. The girls come from poor families and live with the Sisters for two years so they can learn how to sew and weave. They are also taught to speak some English and to become catechists. After finishing their program they are given a sewing machine and a loom, which will provide them with a means of support in their village.

The girls sang a song of welcome upon our arrival and then demonstrated how to operate a loom. Though they smiled warmly, there was a look of sadness in their faces because all would be leaving for home early in the morning. The older girls had finished their program and would not return.

Sights Along the Way

Driving on the roads you might think you are in Africa or Southeast Asia. You see pedestrians, some of them walking side by side. You see women carrying bundles filled with firewood or implements for harvesting rice; or balancing a container of water atop their head. Men will sometimes use a bicycle to transport bananas or a bag of grain. I found it painful seeing a man carrying a heavy bale of hay on his back.

Also along the side of the road you see an occasional water spigot. People gather there to fill containers with water for cooking or drinking, or they are bathing. Sometimes there will be fruit stands where women sell bananas or pineapple. In villages and in cities there are small stores where one can buy anything from candy tobacco to tires and electronics.

Driving through a jungle in Assam, we occasionally saw monkeys scurrying off the road as we approached. Once we came round a bend and saw three or four elephants coming toward us. They were “work elephants” with young men sitting atop them. Fortunately, the approaching elephants and drivers stayed in their lane!

Dedication of the New Novitiate

A novitiate is both a “stage of formation” and a “place” where Jesuits live. The new novitiate building is west of Shillong, which is the capital of Meghalaya and is spectacular and replaces a bamboo building which is just down the hill. The dedication Mass the next morning featured The Most Reverend Dominic Jala, S.D.B., Archbishop of Shillong presiding. He was assisted by a number of diocesan, Salesian, Franciscan, and Jesuit priests. The Jesuit concelebrants were Fr. Hector D'Souza, Provincial of India, Fr.Gregory Coelho, Regional Superior of Kohima, Fr.Charles D'Souza, Regional Superior-elect of Kohima, and Fr.Tom Krettek, Provincial of Wisconsin.

In his homily the Archbishop, who is from the Khasi tribe, spoke of his people's story of the mountain on which the novitiate rests. The story explains why nine of the original 16 ancestors went to heaven and seven remained on earth. The Mass was celebrated in Khasi and only two of the songs were in English. The crowd of more than a thousand participated with great devotion.

After we moved to the front door of the novitiate for a blessing of the building, a huge "feed" was offered. Special guests were fed in the new dining room while others were given a meal to be eaten outdoors. Their food was wrapped in leaves. Volunteers had prepared 2,000 such meals during the night. Those who ate outside were later invited to tour the building. It was fun watching them, especially the children, move swiftly through the halls checking out the various rooms. I wondered what they thought of the spacious bedrooms and the toilet facilities. Few of them have such comforts.

Twinning Relationship

Our final day in the Northeast was on Sunday, Dec. 3. We met with Kohima Jesuits in the morning to reflect on our visit and our twinning relationship. Many of them were wearing the green vests that Fr.Tom Krettek had given them. The vests were seen as a symbol of a relationship that has grown.

We began our sharing with a feeling of gratitude. Our initial agreement to share "men and money" has developed into a relationship that binds us emotionally and spiritually. We have become "friends in the Lord." Our relationship has been fostered in many ways. It is based on interest in the other's ministry and enthusiasm for it. Institutional ties have been established, thanks to Creighton University's Department of Education and Marquette University's College of Engineering.

How have we benefited from twinning? To offer but a few comments, the Kohima Jesuits have appreciated the Wisconsin Jesuit scholastics' ministry in the Northeast in the summer and the visits of lay people who are imbued with Ignatian spirituality. The Wisconsin Jesuits have enjoyed hosting Kohima Jesuits who are earning graduate degrees at Creighton and Marquette. Our participation in the other's ministry has inspired us. We will continue to visit one another's area. We will explore new ways to share resources, perhaps through technology and online learning, teacher exchanges, and spiritual formation of clergy.

The Impact of our Visit

I wondered what the villagers learned from our trip. One Jesuit host told me how joyful the people were to welcome their American guests and present them with gifts. A villager had asked, “Why did the Americans want to come to our jungle?” Another said that our visit changed his impression of Americans: “They are like any other people who visit us.”

Learning local languages, Fr.Paul Coelho told me later, is both easy and hard. Angemi, a dialect spoken in Nagaland is in one sense easy to learn; if you want to make a verb into a noun, simply put a “k” in front of it. On the other hand, Angemi is difficult because it is tonal; a word has different meanings according to the tone in which it is pronounced (think “musical scales”). Use the wrong tone and the word you think you’re saying takes on another meaning. That can be embarrassing if not dangerous.

The Kohima Jesuits seemed greatly encouraged by our visit. As Fr.Hector D’Souza said, “Periodic visits prompt Kohima Jesuits to reflect on their ministry. Wisconsin Jesuits ask questions and Kohima Jesuits are led to explain tribal culture and their ministry.”

Final Reflections

The trip to Northeast India was consoling. It introduced me to ordinary people whose dedication, faith, and joy of living in the face of adversity seemed extraordinary. It reconnected me with poverty in the Third World and stirred my desire to be poor with the poor wherever I am privileged to live and serve. It gave me a fresh insight into Native American culture.

It renewed my love of the worldwide Society of Jesus and forced me to reflect again how living the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience serves its mission. It reminded me how fortunate I am to be an American and to enjoy freedom of speech and religion. It gave me enthusiasm for our Province's twinning agreement with the Kohima Region. In sum, I was consoled by witnessing the dedication and ministry of Indian Jesuits and the intense faith of tribal people, notably through their prayer, singing, and gifts.

The trip also brought forced me to face the enormous scale of human suffering. What can I do, what will I do, by prayer and action, to be part of a solution that will bring justice and peace to the world?

The trip challenges me to evangelize, which begins with “being with the people” as Jesus was and inviting them to know and follow Him.

After planting his feet on U.S. soil, Tom Krettek said of the trip, “It was unsettling in a good sense. It made me trust God even more.”

-- George Winzenburg, S.J.

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