Chapter 18 - My First Trip Abroad: Ecumenical Studies in Bangalore & Bombay, India

                                         Chapter 18

        My  First Trip Abroad:  Ecumenical  Studies  in Bangalore & Bombay, India

                          

In 1980-1984, Dr. Johnny Gumban was President of the Baptist Convention. Dr. Domingo Diel, Jr., was the General Secretary. These were the times, when the two contemporaries, where in the top leadership of the  Baptist   Convention.

Under their leadership, I was involved both   in the leadership of the Convention and in the  National Council of Churches in the Philippines. I was involved in the Faith, Worship and Service Committee of   NCCP.  It was during this time that  I was invited to attend a 1 month ecumenical training and  exposures trip in  India. The training was sponsored by the   Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), thru the NCCP.  It’s office was in Singapore.

CCA  involved   pastors  and church leaders  from Hongkong, Philippines, India, Taiwan, Bangla Dish, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Cambodia,  and  Myanmar.  There  were some  visitors & Resource Persons from the USA,  Europe and Australia. 

An   NCCP  officer told me that  CCA   will hold  training  that year.  He asked me, if interested  to   write a letter of intent.  I wrote  CCA,  thru the NCCP  office,   requesting for study  exposures  under the CCA training.  I was accepted.  Rev. Tosh Arai, who has some hands in  Urban Industrial Mission works in Japan answered my letter. He told me, the CCA training that year will be in India. He gave the date of the training and exposures dates.   I prepared for the trip to India.

Rev. Tosh Arai wrote me. It said like these.  “Pastor Rudy Bernal, your trip to India was prepared. You get your  two-way ticket from PAL in Iloilo Airport.  You will be one of the   three CCA participants from the Philippines.  CCA group will come from different countries in Asia. 

"There  will be about 50 participants who will attend. But several hundres from Asia, Europe and US, will be in Bangalore to attend the CCA General Assembly in Bangalore, for about a week.”

It was my first time to be  out of the Philippines.   It was  first,  of  some   25 trips and trainings, seminars, exposures and  invitations to  different cities  – in Southeast  Asia, Sweden, Germany  and Australia. It was a great opportunity for learnings,  for trips abroad were  great educational  adventures. The day,  I first went  to Singapore for the trip to India  showed me the wide avenues for the future. 

 I felt some  fears  going abroad, alone.  I was already at Manila International  Airport. Fears seems to be gripping on me.    I  prayed  for God’s help  and guidance.   While I was waiting in the passenger’s area,  a  young man,   quite tall and handsome came. He sat beside  me.  We started a conversation. I told him, I will be going to Singapore and then to India.

He said, he will go also to Singapore and India.   He introduced himself.  “I am a pastor of a   UNIDA church in Manila. I am a preacher and singer.  I play guitar. I am a member of the Board of the UNIDA. An I am a member of an  NCCP commission.”

He will also attend the CCA conference.   We will be going on the same trip and will be involved in the  same  exposures.  We will both  go to  Singapore and stay there for two days.  My new friend, whose name  I cannot recall now, also  said:   “ I  have two  member of our church in Manila, who were  now working here in Singapore. He and his wife  were Accountants.  

"They were inviting me for  a   dinner with them  tonight. I will asked you to join me. My friends  will be happy that you will be with us tonight.”  I told him, I will be happy, if I will be incited by his members. 

That afternoon, at 5:00 PM,  his members, a couple   met us at the airport.  He invited me to go with them and see some places in Singapore. And his friends, asked me to join them for dinner that night. 

I have seen, God’s way of anwering prayers.  It was always specific answer to specific needs. He answered my fears of  travelling  on a plane alone. My first trip to a foreign land. The loneliness of being alone travelling to a foreign land. I asked God to help me. And He answered my prayers. It was a simple but right answer to my prayers. 

That night we’re together for dinner in a  flash restaurant in Singapore.  It was a time for  sharing. They shared with us their lives in Singapore.  And  I learned a lot from them. I learned life in   Singapore from their sharing,  a  small but very progressive and prosperous city in Asia. 

They shared with us the church the worship in Singapore. The iron leadership of  President,  Lee Kuan Yu.  The cleanliness of the city. The discipline  of the people.  The honesty of the taxi drivers.

One  reasons for advanced life of Singaporeans?   The strong  discipline and  deep   honesty  of the Singaporean,  which was taught   and  practiced by there  political leaders. 

They told us, they would be staying long in Singapore.  For business and living, it was much, much better,   tiny island  city,   called Singapore, than in the Philippines.

We  stayed  two days in  the Singapore.    More delegates arrived from  all  over Asia. There were also visitors and Resource Persons from the USA and Europe. And the following  day, we left for India.

We were in  6    teams  in the exposure programs.  Each  team with 6 to 7 members.  Each team go to 2  two or three  provinces. Our team was assigned to  Bangalore City and some towns  in Kartanaka province.  After the CCA Assembly, we  will  proceed to other areas in Kartanaka Province. After that, we  flew to  Bombai (Bombay), the biggest  province/ states of India.

In Bangalore City, we  first attended the  Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) General Assembly in Bangalore. It was held on May 18-28 in one of the Christian Colleges in Bangalore.  The Assembly theme was,  “Living in Christ with People”.

I think, more than 600 delegates and visitors  attended the CCA General Assembly in Bangalore.

The Philippine delegations  to the Assembly was headed by Rev. La Verne Mercado, General Secretary of  NCCP.  There were  Philippine delegates who came from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, the Iglesia Philippine Independente,  United Methodist Church, Convention of Phil. Baptiist Churches, UNIDA  and other member churches.

Our group, those attending the CCA  Education and Exposures Project were  observers for the  General Assembly. But we were  encouraged to participate in the discussions. I tried to asked some questions during the  General Assembly. That was  my first time, to attend a Asian Assembly of the CCA. It was my first time to attend an International Conference.  There were heavy discussions.  But they were all cordial and educational.

One of the speakers of the Assembly was Fr. Edicio de la Torre, a Catholic Priest and known for his  fight against Marcos dictatorship. Fr. De la Torre spoke to the CCA General Assembly one evening.  The assembly was full.  Many, from the churches in Bangalore and from colleges and universities attended to hear Fr. Edicio de la Torre. He did not have prepared speech. 

He spoke from his heart.  It was one of the eloquent  presentations of the assembly.  When he finished,  many  delegates and visitors came to greet  Father de la Torre,  congratulating him for his message

We were send on exposures trip in the farming area of Bangalore. One of  our exposures area was to  visit   village, where  it was said  a ”Holy Man” was  living and ministering.  We went there to see how  a “holy man”  was living and working.  But he was not around when we visited his  home and  church.

We visited a farming village. It was a very big farming area.  More  than 200 families live    in the area. The farmers’ homes were  concentrated in one area. Here, in their homes, the farmers have their chickens.  They have  cows in  their homes. Almost all families have cows, about 2 to six cows, which   each  family tended and  cared. The  “cow houses”  were  adjacent to the rooms in the  homes.

We learned that the farmers, every day,   took  the fresh manures  and brought them to their  farms  on the other side of the village.   There,  we saw   different vegetables growing vigorously verdant. I learned,  before  1981, the  farmers there were  already planting what were called (GAP),  “good agricultural practices”. The planted  fruits, bananas and   vegetables, using composts as  fertilizers, combined with some  commercial fertilizers.

They have concocted pesticides from  Neem Tree leaves, garlic, unions and some other plants.They mixed it with brown sugar  for several days, and spray to their plants –rice, vegetables and fruits. Indian farmers have started to go natural farming technologies. 

By this time, Filipino farmers, have maximized use of commercial fertilizers, poisonous pesticides and fungicides on  farmings – using the deadly farm chemicals like  Indren, Malation, etc., destroying most living things in the rice farms –native fresh fish, almost all fresh water shells.

It was also the start of decline of rice farmng in the Philippines – making importation of rice, continuously from that time until today, 2017.

The cows,  considered holy among Indian residents,   provide the daily manures  the farmers need to make composts fertilizers for their fruit plants and different vegetables the whole year.

In another area of the province , we went to a quite high  mountain  area  with verdant   trees and vegetation.  At the top of the mountain ranges,  kilometers  away, we were told,  the bodies of some of the dead in the family were carried  and  left  in the   mountains.  And the birds eat the  bodies. Dead bodies were not buried.  That was part of the culture and religious beliefs in the  area during that time.

But I only heard of that story. I have not  seen, bodies of dead person,  left by their  families on the rocks on the mountain sides.

We also visited a slum residential area in Bangalore.  Our  guide, who was a pastor and teacher, brought us to the center of   the slums. There, the  young people gathered that afternoon. They have  Sunday School  lessons.  They students just sat on the  floors. There were no seats. After the  study and prayer, the young people left.

The following day, we were brought to one of the big restaurants of the city.  We will stay there in the hotel.

 We will have our studies.  Every day a resource person/ lecturer will  provide us different studies of life, works, challenges and  possibilities among Indian people. We will stay in the hotel.

And for five days,  all our food in the restaurants will  be   “vegetarian foods”. No fish. No meat.  No pork. No shrimps. No crabs. All will be vegetables, during the whole week, cooked different ways. It was great. Just eating vegetarian foods.

One  afternoon, in the slum area, a big residential area,  some young  people and adults  came carrying some bottles. We learned, they bought liquors.  There was a group in the slum area that produces and  sell  liquors illegally.  Some people buy these   liquors.  They were told not to buy these.  These were dangerous for their health.  But  people bought  the  liquors.  There were reports of  some  poisoning. And many got sick that day.

The the following week,  in July 1981,  after  we  left  Bangalore and  Kartanaka, we received news of more than 308 people died  consuming illegal liquors.

Spurious alcohol, known as “hooch”,  was rampant  around  Tannery Road area of Bangalore cantonment, with dwellers getting addicted.  Notorious bootlelleges who were also officials in the town, were running the racket. “Hootch” is brewed from industrial  alcohol, by separating Methyl alcohol and adding water – which was known, as  a dangerous process  that  leaves traces of  poisonous Methyl Alcohol.

The brew  was a  slow poison, damaging kidney and intestines, leading to slow death. We have seen this during our Educational and Exposures studies in Bangalore.

Then, we also saw during our exposures studies,  the ongoing  the 4-months  strike in prime  premier business sector that severely affected business in Bangalore.  The fall-out of the four-month strike in the five premier public sector  in Bangalore was  still  felt, several years  after the end of the 4 months strike.

After about 2 weeks, we went to Bombai (Bombay), the biggest city of India. We travel  by plane to Bombay. It was  one of the biggest and crowded cities of the world.  We tried to learn about Bombay during our studies and exposures  in India.  Bombay is a very big city. It has big slums where thousands live in the most difficult kind of life.

One thing I will always remember of Bombay.  There were so many crows and  hawks.  Thousands crows flying and setting on the tree branches all day. They were not shot and killed or eaten by the people.

But I learned, that India has started to develop a pharmaciatical industry that were indigenous and not dependent from the American  medical researches. Even then, India has started their own medicinal  research and medicine production. Medicine costs were much lower in India.   I was told,  cost of medicine was nearly  10 times lower in India than in the Philippines. American branded medicines were very, very expensive in those times.

It was from these experience of high medicine costs, that the Generic medicine were produced, at costs much lower than Ameiican branded medicines.

During that time,   beggars  in  Bombay were  just  too many. The beggars .lived in slums and small huts,   about a  meter wide and 2 meters long,  with sacks as roofs and  walls of the huts. These  huts runs for nearly 2  kilometers long, on one sides of the roads. I have not seen these  kind of poverty  in the Philippines, despite our country known as one of the  poorest countries of  Asia.

But India  in 40 years, since 1981  has transformed itself.  Many descendants of families living on those huts and slums, were now in the Philippines.  They were mostly entrepreneurs and salesmen,  providing  loans to Filipinos in most Sari-sari stores in the barangays and small businessmen in the town markets all over the country. They provide loans to Filipinos at high interests, sometimes,  200% interest  annually.  

They made collections daily, to insure getting paid for the loans the gave to Filipinos all over the country.