Sunday Mass

Sunday 06/22/2014

I was awake at 3:30 AM this morning and could not go back to sleep. We had told Uncle Jack that we would go to mass with him and the other father's at 6:30. I have been to mass maybe twice in my life, once for a wedding and once for a funeral and I don't really remember what either involved. Leslie was raised Catholic so I figured I could count on her for queues and whatnot. The one thing I had already learned was don't take communion.

Their church is upstairs in the residence building, above the dining room. It had bamboo coverings over the walls and smelled of incense. There were about 16 comfortable-looking padded stools arranged in the middle of the room but Leslie, Uncle Jack, and I took seats on the perimeter of the room.

I was worried about what I should do during communion and I had asked Leslie the night before about what she thought. She said that I could go up and cross my arms against my chest and be blessed or I could just not go up at all. I asked her again as church was just about to start and she decided to just ask Uncle Jack. I couldn't hear what she said but neither could our Uncle (he is hard of hearing at 87) but he caught the jist and said “Well he better not take communion then”. How helpful.

I realized after writing the following short paragraph that it is a mildly offensive description of what mass involves. It was only meant to illustrate how absurd the ceremony appears to someone who was raised outside of the religion. So, if you are easily offended, please skip the next paragraph

For those of you who may not know, a mass involves a lot of audience participation. There was some off-key singing, some “repeat after me”, some “when I say ____, you say ******”, and of course the repeated use of church gang signs. Eventually we got around to the church sanctioned form of cannibalism. Nervous about what would happen when it came to my turn, I watched, wide eyed, as the little tray was brought out, filled with little tan pogs and a small class of wine. The presiding priest got to go first, after all, it was he who performed the miracle and was likely famished for it. He then offered it to another father and another. Thinking he was going to come around to me and I would have to turn down this holy man, I started to get fidgety. Luckily, he then passed the tray to the father he had just given communion to and in turn that father passed it to Uncle Jack. He gave Leslie hers and when he came to me he simply put his large hand on my head and said “God Bless you”. Easy.

In reality, the mass was not long and drawn out but kept simple and casual. It was actually a pleasant way to start the day. At breakfast afterward, Uncle Jack mentioned that he would like to take us to meet these three American students who where here in Patna working on a project that Uncle Jack described as taking solar energy and turning it into ice.

To get to this mission which was across town we took an autorickshaw (three-wheeled motorized vehicle built to hold 5 people but actually holds up to 8-9) to the train station where Uncle Jack began to ask directions of a man outside the station. Although Jack speaks Hindi like a native, within seconds of his question a large crowd began to form around us people trying to give their advice or just listening. Eventually someone took us over to the place where we could get an autorickshaw to our destination.

The mission was set back in a small residential area and surrounded by a gate. When we got there, they were still having church so we waited outside. This mission is home to the Jesuits but also to a program called SAAP (Solar Alternatives and Associated Projects) which is affiliated with the University of Dayton. Each summer the university sends some students to work on a solar alternative project. This summer, Ohio had sent three students named Jose, Matt and Aaron. While we waited, we checked out the solar projects that were lying around. The pictures below show some solar water heaters that had been made. They create steam in the vessel in the center which is then used to cook and clean.

We met the three young engineers after mass and we chatted with them while they ate breakfast. They had been in Patna for about a month and seemed to be fitting in very well with the locals. They encouraged us to learn cricket from some locals which we will certainly try to do at some point. After breakfast they took us downstairs and gave us the ins and outs of their project.

The goal of the project is to make a solar powered refrigerator that can hold a temperature between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius which will be used to store vaccines in rural hospitals. The refrigerator uses a day-long cycle that involves the vaporization and condensation of ethanol. In order for the ethanol to be volatile enough to be used, however, they needed to create and sustain a near-vacuum in the system. And since vacuum pumps will not be available in these rural hospitals, the vacuum needs to last for the lifetime of the refrigerator. This is where they were having the most trouble because there refrigerator has many different components that kept springing leaks. This project has been going on for three years now and Matt, Aaron, and Jose think they will be the ones to complete it so I wish them the best of luck. We then went back to St. Xaviers by autorickshaw and arrived in time for lunch.

Earlier in the day, I first mentioned to Uncle Jack that we would like to meet my friend, Sagar, in Darjeeling on Friday afternoon. We had made plans with Sagar to meet there and then travel north to Sikkim to do some backpacking. Uncle Jack had made some noises earlier that he did not want us travelling alone an that he intended to accompany us wherever we went. This was making me nervous. When I asked him if it was possible to meet this friend in Darjeeling (which is about 14 hours North-East of Patna by train.) he immediately said no. I asked him why he thought that and he said “well maybe its possible” Later in the day we broached the topic again and had a long discussion about the logistics of the travel. It seemed simple to me but Uncle Jack still felt it would be insurmountable to Leslie and I. He decided we could go but only on Saturday, once Sagar had already arrived and stayed one night to make sure everything was settled by the time we got there. We didn't like this idea either because we didn't want Sagar to have to wait a whole day for us and we basically did not want to be told what we could and could not do. Leslie and I had a pow-wow with Sagar over the phone and came up with some ideas that would involve Sagar picking us up at the train stop on Friday and taking a taxi all together to Darjeeling which was another hour and a half from the stop. Uncle Jack grudgingly agreed to this but has insisted that he will come on the 14 hour train with us to make sure we meet up with Sagar OK. He does not want to let us out of the hands of an Indian guide at any point. I understand that he is just worried for our safety but it is frustrating nonetheless.