Our Trip To The "Hills"

Hey everyone,
Here is the report from our trip the the "Hills". It is quite long, but I could find no fewer words to describe our experiences there.


Monday, December 15, 2008

Well, it’s Monday morning… three days since we left for our trip to the “hills”, and this is the first time I’ve had a chance to sit down and write about it.

We left Aizawl on Saturday morning around 7:30 after a breakfast at Paul and Joyful’s house. The first few hours were relatively smooth. Besides getting stuck in a traffic jam leaving Aizawl and having a flat tire a few hours into the trip, nothing that much out of the ordinary.

We drove for about five or six hours until the road split off into three directions. Now, that first six hours or so was not too bad. Sure the road was bumpy and windy, but not extreme compared to some other Northeast India roads I’ve been on. The worst part was all the dust. You were literally eating it, especially when a vehicle passed you going the other way.

Then the road split into three very narrow, very windy, and at times, very muddy roads. We took the one toward Khawlien, our destination. After only a few minutes on this road, I could soon tell why we were some of the only white people ever to visit some of these villages. It was pretty extreme. I will be posting some video footage when we get back in January that you’ll have to be sure to check out. The roads ran along the sides of the mountains and snaked their way down into the valleys and then back up the mountains on the other side. Our driver very rarely shifted out of first gear and when he did shift into second, it was usually only a minute or less before he had to shift back down. Our average speed could not have been more than about five miles per hour. Fortunately, we did not meet other vehicles, because the road was only wide enough for one, and there were often deep ruts in the road, making only one place to drive. Besides that, most of the time there were sheer drop-offs of thousands of feet within just a few feet and sometimes just a few inches of the side of our vehicle!

And on these roads we drove on and on, sleep being basically impossible because it was so bumpy. Finally, we came around a corner, and there in front of us was a village. Relief… for a few minutes. But then they told us that this was not Khawlien, that Khawlien was the next village, but it was only ten kilometers away. Great, we thought. In American measurements, that is only six or seven miles. It won’t be long now. Yeah, right! These are roads in the remotest part of India we’re talking about. Finally, an hour and a half later, we arrived in Khawlien. Yes, you read that right… the last six miles took us one and a half hours!

It was 7:00 when we arrived… almost twelve hours after we left Aizawl, and we were quite road weary to say the least, but I soon forgot about that, because standing there was Alish! Alish was a member of both the 2005 and 2006 India Children’s Choirs. The last time I came to India, I got to see all the kids except for her, so I was thrilled to be able to see her again.

We settled into our guest house, which was quite nice for a village that remote, cleaned up, and then went to the headmistress of the school’s house for dinner. Shortly after that, we returned to the guesthouse and slept very well until the next morning.

Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful there in Khawlien. The area is actually very nice… the village in built on the peak of one of the many mountains in the region and the views are quite spectacular. But quite frankly, I am not sure why anyone would settle in an area so remote. Just a point of interest… this is also the village in which Mawii was born. Mawii is the wife of Dr. Rochunga Pudaite, the founder of Bibles For The World, which is the parent organization of the India Children’s Choir.

A new school building was just recently constructed in Khawlien, a much needed improvement over the very crowded building they used up until now. That building was constructed of bamboo with classrooms of not much more that ten feet by ten feet in size. Each one of these classrooms would hold twenty to thirty students. Some of them were so crowded, there was no room for the teachers… they had to stand outside the door.

This new school building had not yet been dedicated, and it was decided to do the dedication while we were there. So, at 7:00 on Sunday morning, we headed over to the school building for the ceremony. About 150 of the 320 students were on hand, as well as some of the local people. I had the opportunity to do the ribbon cutting for the new building and then the local pastor had a dedication prayer. Because of my involvement with the Bibles For The World child sponsorship program, and because of that my indirect involvement with the schools, it was a really neat opportunity and a great honor for me to be able to have a part in the dedication of a new school.

From there, we went to Alish’s house for breakfast. She, along with her mother and sister, prepared a great meal for us. After the meal, we went back to our guest house to clean up and pack up and then it was off to church around 9:30. All of us (Marv, Mahlon, Elvin, and I) spoke for a few minutes during the service. We were also presented with some gifts made by the local people. The amazing thing about this culture is that it doesn’t seem to matter how poor the people are, they always give you a gift. In fact, we paid a visit to one house, and they presented us each with an egg.

Soon after the church service, we headed out again. We could see the village we were going to over on the next mountain. It couldn’t have been more than five miles straight across. But again, these are the “hills”, some of the remotest parts of India.

We thought the roads could not get any worse than the ones we had been on, but guess what, they did! We only got stuck one time, though, and that was not too bad. A little push by all of us, and we were on our way again. We came to a small village where we stopped by at a house to get some medicine for Joyful… all the bumpy roads had her stomach a little upset. They were just getting ready to eat, and cooking there over the fire were to skewers of rats! Paul claims they are actually quite tasty, but none of us had the guts to try one.

We drove for a few more hours, and finally, around 7:00 PM we arrived in Suongpuilawn, the town that we could see from where we started. It took us seven hours to get there. We stopped there in the town to eat dinner at the pastor’s house. Now, white people very, very rarely come to these remote towns, so it was a big deal that we were there, even if it was only for a meal. Fifty or more people lined up to shake our hands as we walked from the vehicle to the house, and then they all crowded inside to watch our every move. One person had a camera, and so a bunch of the people took turns having their pictures taken with us.

Once the dinner was ready, the crowd was shooed outside, and we ate. Soon after dinner, we once again loaded up and headed out. From here on out, even thought still narrow and windy, the road was paved, and our driver took advantage. But even on the good roads, we had four hours to drive to Sawkerdai, and we arrived there around midnight.

Just last year, the government finished a guest house there, and so we had very nice accommodations for the night.


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Wow, what an amazing two days it has been. The last entry went up until Sunday night. On Monday morning we finally took the opportunity to rest up a little bit and didn’t have any activities planned until around 9:00. The local pastor from Sawkardai came and met us and took us to the place where their new church is being constructed. After that, we went to his house for lunch.

Around 12:00, we headed out on the road to Senvon, which is across the river in Manipur. Now, Paul had done this same trip with a group from Samaritan’s Purse last year, and he said the trip would take three hours or so. We could actually see the village where we were going to on the top of the next mountain. Those paved roads that I mentioned soon ended and we were back on the narrow, bumpy, muddy roads. We thought the roads that we encountered on the way to Khawlien were about as bad as roads could get. But, once again, they got worse. We would our way back around the mountain and all the way down to the river.

Now… the next dilemma… how to get across the river. You see, a few years ago, the bridge washed out from the high water during rainy season. The only way across seemed to be to drive the sumo through the river. Our driver checked it out, we watched a few other vehicles cross, and then we crossed ourselves. The river was several hundred yards wide, and deep enough to almost reach the hood of the sumo. But we made it across. Footage of the river crossing will be included in the little video we are putting together about our time in the “hills”. We’ll let you know when it is posted.

On the other side of the river, the road got even worse. No sooner had we got up out of the water and we got stuck. And a few minutes later, we got stuck again. About twenty minutes later, again. That time it took almost thirty minutes and the help of a rope and some passerbys to get us out. Four or five times we got stuck.

To make matters worse, or at least to make us feel worse, we had heard that the whole village of Senvon, school students and all, had a big celebration planned for our arrival, and they were anxiously awaiting us, and had been for hours.

Finally, around 7:00 PM, we arrived in Senvon. A big banner saying “Welcome ICC Leaders” hung over the road to welcome our arrival.

The trip that was supposed to take three hours ended up taking seven because of the road conditions, which were a lot worse than when Paul was there the year before. Every rainy season, the roads wash out, and apparently last year’s rainy season did even more damage than usual.

By the time we arrived, the crowd awaiting our arrival had dispersed, and plans were made to do the welcome celebration the next morning. We ate dinner and soon retired for the night.

This morning at 7:00, the celebration got under way. And what a celebration it was. Held right at the spot where Watkin Roberts first preached back in 1910, the festivities included singing, traditional Hmar dances, and presentations of gifts. It was really incredible. They told us that we were the third white people ever to visit that village. The first one was Watkin Roberts, the second was the Samaritan’s Purse group, and then us. What a feeling!

Senvon is also the village where Dr. Ro, the founder of Bibles For The World and the man who translated the Bible into Hmar, was born. Also, Mesie, a member of the 2008 ICC was there to greet us. She and her family walked all day from their village to meet us there.

Around 11:00, we left Senvon and drove the one hour (only about 7 miles) to Lungthulien. Lungthulien is the village where Esther F., Abisak, and Sylvia, all members of the 2008 ICC are from. None of them were there, however… they were all gone to other parts of India for Christmas. That did not stop the school and the village from giving us a hero’s welcome. Again, a huge banner reading “Welcome Brother Michael and Friends” was hung over the road to greet us. Hundreds of people lined the streets to welcome us. They stopped the jeep a little distance before the center of the crowd and had us get out. From there, they carried us on chairs with bamboo poles through the crowd to the center. It was amazing.

Again, more singing, and presentations followed. These people sure know how to put on a welcome celebration. We were only the second group of white people to ever visit this village.

After the festivities ended, we drove about three miles (45 minutes) to Parbung, a village where another BFTW school is located. This is also the village where Mesie is from. Once again, a crowd of people awaited our arrival. We had a short welcome ceremony with them and then they showed us around the village.

We went back to Lungthulien, cleaned up at the house of the school headmistress, where we are staying, and then went to a special church service held because we were in town. Mahlon, Marv, and Elvin, all spoke for a little bit, and then I preached the sermon. That was a little interesting, because I didn’t know ahead of time that I was to preach, but all went well.

After the service we came back to the headmistress’s house and had dinner. Tomorrow morning, we will be leaving bright and early to take a ten hour boat ride down the river to our next destination, Hmarkawlien. It will be a welcome change from the bumpy roads, but then again, I’ve never done the boat ride before, so I may not know what I am getting myself into.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

I am sitting at the Silchar airport writing this update… the final one about our trip to the hills. Hopefully, we will be leaving here sometime soon for our flight to Imphal. The flight time was 7:35 AM, but that time came and went and there are no staff people or even airplanes here at the airport! Oh well, it is Northeast India.

We left from Lungthulien yesterday around 6:30 AM. The plan was to drive two hours to the river, get on the boat, and make the ten hour trip and be in Hmarkhawlien by early evening. But, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, not everything goes according to plan while traveling in these remote parts.

Within a few minutes after we left the headmistress’s house, we heard a loud pop from under the vehicle. Our driver got out to check it out and discovered that the leaf spring had snapped. For a few minutes, we weren’t sure if we were going anywhere anytime soon, but fortunately, there was a spare spring in the village. Even though it was not made for our vehicle, they made it fit, and two or three hours later, we were on our way.

Around 11:00, we boarded the boat bound for Hmarkhawlien. That trip was relatively uneventful. It was a welcome change from driving on the bumpy roads of the “hills”. Around 4:30 PM, we made a stop in the village of Ankhasuo to see the Bibles For The World school there. We had tea with the headmistress, and then were on our way again. An interesting not about the school at Ankhasuo was the fact that out of 204 students, 171 of them are sponsored through the Bibles For The World child sponsorship program. That is most likely the highest percentage of any of our schools.

We finally arrived in Hmarkhawlien around 9:30 PM, and ate dinner and stayed for the night at the house of Goa and his wife. Goa is the headmaster of the Hmarkawlien school, BFTW’s second largest school.

So everything said, we had a great, great time in hills. It was a very rewarding and humbling experience. I will never forget hearing all the people from those very remote and impoverished villages telling me how sponsorship and help from the American people has changed their lives.

Thank you for reading.