pics of people

harmonica lessons

up to see shiva, only to be turned away by a lock

johannes the photographer

the aspirant sanyassis

Trichy!

Malathy

Michael and the dancing shiva

Visiting Malathy's house

Double fisting coconut water

Life in india

The chai guy.

When it rains.... it pours

This monkey rather aggresivley approached luke, a guy a i was touring with, and stole his soda bottle from his hands, opened it, and chugged.

flew onto my back... i, rather understandably, freaked out.

around pondi

Social norming in India

Don't tell mom what she's getting for Xmas
)Photo taken by Johannes(

Stonework

The artist and his art
)Photo taken by Johannes(

biking in pondicherry

On our steel stallions
)Photo taken by Johannes(

amazingly, we weren't hit by a car
)Photo taken by Johannes(

This child demanded to have a photo taken of him
)Photo taken by Johannes(

first time riding a moped! I didn't leave the parking lot...
)Photo taken by Johannes(

more from puducherry

hanging around

sporting the new fishing hat

very excited eldery doctor

special tea!
(In restaurants that don't have liquor licenses you can order "special tea" which is beer served in a tea pot. Ingenious!)

photos from pondicherry

Fellow travelers anna and Johannes

american and the italian

Visiting auroville...

worst hotel i've stayed in yet. Should have realized it when quality was mispelled.

goodbye india!

--
Michael Le Chevallier
MDiv candidate 2011
University of Chicago
email/skype: mike.lechevallier@gmail.com
Cell: (+91)9537158645

blogs must wait

broken computers means my flash doesn't work and all my nice updates will have to wait. head off to the US tonight! send good thoughts my way!

--
Michael Le Chevallier
MDiv candidate 2011
University of Chicago
email/skype: mike.lechevallier@gmail.com
Cell: (+91)9537158645

from the hills of kerala

8-29

Yesterday, I had one of those days that every traveler eventually faces: the day where, due to every possible eventuality, travel that should have taken 3 hrs, ended up taking 12. I left Kalady at near 9 in the morning, setting out for the rail station, and then on to the kurismula ashram. At the rail station, I found that all trains for my onward journey on to goa and then Bombay are full. There is a great thing in India, called the tourist quota, where there are a number of seats reserved on each train for tourists with foreign passports. I was told that there are still some of those left, but this station was too small to sell them. I would have to go to ernakulum, one hour in the wrong direction. Are they sold at Kottayam, i asked? I don't know the man replied. It was at this point that I should have realized that I don't know often means no, and that I should take the tried and true path, rather than throwing chance to the wind and heading on. I then decided to catch a bus to kottayam, which was more or less in the direction of my final destination. What I thought would only take an hour and a half, however, stretched into 2 and 1/2. To top it all off, i found out at kottayam, that only 2 cities in kerala can sell the tourist quota tickets: Ernakalum and the capital Thir... in the south. I should take the train, leaving within a half hour, to ernakalum and I can get my ticket there. What should I do at this point? Should I go the 1 hr to ernakalum, knowing it would add at least 2 and a half hours to my journey, but then ensure that I have my ticket to reach Bombay in time for my flight, or should I continue on to the ashram, hoping those tickets would still be available 5 days later when I reached ernakalum again. This time, i took the sure route, and purchased a ticket for the city, and waited.... and waited.. and waited. The train arrived an hour and a half late, no small delay when there is a 9 pm curfew at the cistercian ashram. I reach there and after an hour of shuffling through lines, i was able to get my onward tickets. The next hurdle was to find my way back in the opposite direction to the ashram. It was already 5pm, the time I was supposed to reach the Ashram, but with 7 hrs of traveling already in the bank that day, what would another 4 hurt? I phoned the monks who suggested that if I can't arrive before 9, i should book a hotel on the way and come in the morning. Sound advice, but everything along the way encouraged me to go on. Course, I should have remembered when I was told that it was only 30 mins from Erratapur to kurismula, the town the first bus dropped me at that aside from Indian standard time, IST often also means Indian stretchable time. I arrived at the foot of the hill leading up to the ashram at 9 pm, and was reminded of the time I was turned away from the monastery in france to sleep in a mountain refuge (where i contracted a skin illness caused by bug bites), and had romantic visions of sleeping at the gate of the monastery. I was also burdened with now 3 times the books than I had brought down from calcutta with me, having amassed at least 80 lbs of texts at this point. On an empty stomach, and a day of taxis, buses and trains behind me, each step felt certain to be the last. The fog set in around me, limiting my field of vision to 3 feet ahead. Trusting only the tarmac beneath my feet, i trudged on.
It was almost a perfect arrival for such a long day when the now illuminated mist blew away, and the ashram buildings emerged like a firefighter through a smokey door. There the guest master greeted me, welcoming me to the ashram, healing any internal scar of monastic rejection felt from my visit in france 4 years prior. While I didn't have the courage to rise for the 3:30am vespers, the mass this morning perfectly set the tone for my stay here. Foreign and yet contemplatively comfortable, the mass took the community prayerfully through the whole history of salvation. The rich, green peaks surrounding us and the intermittent rain evoked healthy memories of home in Oregon and home in Normandy. The ashram despite feeling wholly local, also, with its rock cobbled roads, overcast sky, rocky peeks and grazing cattle, has a distinctly medieval European feel. I have been hoping that the monastic treats of Europe: freshly made cheese, local jellies and honey, chocolate (!) or a nice liquor would somehow appear in their bookshop. That, however, would be anything but local. Still, the freshly baked bread and the abundance of ashram grown vegetables are a blessing beyond compare. Furthermore, despite (because of?) its simplicity, the silence of the community, echoed by the sacredness of the space are far better conveniences than any luxury hotel can provide. 
I am joined, besides my constant traveling companions of authors from time past, by another American who studied religion in America. I am happy to find a conversation partner who shares as much passion for the questions of Christianity on the ground as I do.
Michael Le Chevallier
MDiv candidate 2011
University of Chicago
email/skype: mike.lechevallier@gmail.com
Cell: (+91)9790889074

shantivanam- 1 week in

8-24

One week already in Shantivanam and I find that I have quickly become accustomed to a lifestyle of reading, prayer, walks, and cows. Course, it is not too different than my life in chicago, but for the cows and the indian context. Still, it hasn't been the retreat experience I had perhaps hoped for. In part, with an absence of spiritual direction (though if I asked, I might find that) and with too frequent engagement with texts that may be less than devotional (though all has opened up exciting horizons on familiar theological territory).

Still, what seems most lacking in the ashram experience is a face to face encounter with the other beyond me. The ashram instead seems more focused on a realization of the other interior to us.

Is this a danger in the mystical journey? can the mystical contemplative play a role in pushing us towards the other, when it is centrally focused on the encounter with god in the depths of the interior? Still, abishiktandas work has pushed me to a new appreciation for the other as a manifestation of God. Does this totalize the other, or does the realization of the ultimate other and the ultimate same (God who is abyss and who is at the core of our being... distant and incarnate) present not only in ourselves but in ever manifestation push me beyond the silence of my veranda? In this respect though, this is an encounter that ceases to be interfaith relations. It ceases to be a meeting of the other in the other and instead the other in the self.

As Sanyassis (hindu "monks" who renounce everything in pursuit of God), Monchanin and Le Saux must have had constant engagement with the hindu religious other both in their daily lives, in their study and in their studies. Bede also welcomed such an encounter in the interior of the ashram itself, inviting all, while also participating in local festivals and meeting with religious leaders. I still wonder what role the ashram now plays.

--
Michael Le Chevallier
MDiv candidate 2011
University of Chicago
email/skype: mike.lechevallier@gmail.com
Cell: (+91)9790889074

Shantivanam-- first impressions

8-19
In some respects, sitting here on my little veranda at the shantivanam ashram, with a full stomach, shade to cover me from the draining heat and cows mooing (though they really sound like their ommmin... maybe this is why cows are sacred?), I could feel like I'm in a mini paradise. Certainly, one couldn't tell the young calf prancing about freely that it is anything otherwise. Shantivanam was founded in 1950 by Fr. Jules Moncharin and Fr. Henri Le Saux (who later became Swami abishiktesveranda, which means "he whose joy is the Lord's anointed, Christ" later abridge to Swami Abishikananda, and always easily referenced for the linguistically challenged like me as Swamiji. After Jules Moncharin passed on, and Swamiji hoped to pursue the summit of christian and hindu mystical experiences to their full in a hermitage, the care for the ashram was passed on to Fr. Bede Griffiths. Today there are some 9 members of the community living were, with 2 more in bangalore studying theology for the priesthood, and one more who is a missionary in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The Ashram was conceived of as a place for the interreligious encounter both between believers of different faiths, but also more intimately interior to the believer of any one tradition as he or she encounters both the christian sacred texts side by side in prayer. The cultivation of prayer and the search for truth was the initial goal of the ashram when it was founded here on the banks of the kervy river with the construction of two thatched huts by moncharin and le saux. Le Saux deeply interiorized the search for a connection point between hinduism and christianity on a mystical level, proclaiming that the three fold hindu advaitic godhead of saccianada is the trinity. While both Fr. Moncharin and Fr. Griffiths were less radical in their thought, they too sought to explore new dimensions of Christianity through the lens of hindu thought. I have already heard many strong critiques of this form of inculturation from different angles of the church who say that they are only seeking to inculturate into a single aspect of hinduism, brahaminic hinduism. While I still have much thought and reflection ahead of me, what I have read seems to indicate to me that at least Fr. Griffiths expressed in his writings a deep appreciation for every aspect of religious expression in India and further afield, even as he held up christ as the measure for an engagement with any of these. Perhaps I'm naive, but his focus on a contemplative theology goes beyond a mere contextualization of Christianity, that is to say, the incarnation of Christian truths into other cultural forms, and instead, seriously appreciating the mystical experience of other traditions, seeks to explore those truths. Furthermore, the example of Fr. Griffiths seems to indicate that a critical engagement is possible that allows for a mutual critique. While I cannot deign to even try to achieve the mystical experience of either Swami Abshiktananda or Fr. Griffiths, the fruit of much meditation, in addition to my study here, I do hope to more fully immerse myself in the experience of prayer. Having had the opportunity to be broadly exposed to the social agenda of the church, perhaps here my research can be cast in a more contemplative light.

I have only been here for 2 days now, but I'm quickly enjoying the rhythms of prayer. (still, I haven't managed to get up in time for the 5 am chant yet!)

--
Michael Le Chevallier
MDiv candidate 2011
University of Chicago
email/skype: mike.lechevallier@gmail.com
Cell: (+91)9790889074

no cell again

well, this time nothing was lost or stolen. Instead, the service provider decided to cancel my sim. No good, eh? I am, until further notice, under the radar. In case of emergencies, however, I can be reached at the two numbers below:

 

 

Shantivanam
04323-222260,

Jackie grimmit
94427-07229.

--
Michael Le Chevallier
MDiv candidate 2011
University of Chicago
email/skype: mike.lechevallier@gmail.com
Cell: (+91)9790889074

Orissa to Calcutta

Elsa and I have been trucking along since I last blogged. We are now spending our last day together, as mid-afternoon, we split and go our separate ways. For the past few days we have been staying in a dilapidated colonial era hotel in Chennai called the broad lands lodge. It is a great place apart from all the mosquitoes, the absence of curtains and the 4 am wake up call from the mosque next door. Still, my thoughts return to Orissa. I am working against the unconscious inclination to set these experiences behind me, even as I may continue to fight for justice in words. It's not easy. Simone Weil says that to pay attention to human affliction is almost impossible, and any occurrence of it is like a miracle. I don't think that she is too far off. We listened to many stories of human suffering, of people running for their lives from those who would murder them if they did not convert. We saw people in the camps, still living in tents, unable to return to their village. While we heard their stories, I wonder how much we were really able to listen to them. In part, I think it comes from the defense mechanism, hearing but hardening your heart so that the moment the plea for money comes you are able to withstand it. While I hate what money does to potential relations, even more so, I hate what money does to me. I hate how i feel I have to steel myself to such a demand, even though I already know that I legitimately cannot solve their problems.
While these people are in need of relief and charity, before charity, they are in need of justice. As the pope said in his latest encyclical on development, Justice is not extraneous or alternative to charity, rather, justice is the minimum measure of charity and development. These people of Orissa need justice, deserve justice, deserve what is rightfully theirs! They deserve security and peace. They deserve to have compensation for the negligence shown by the government. They deserve to have legal justice: to have the looters and in particular the murderers and the` organizers of the catastrophes be brought to justice.
Still, that does not forestall the demand that they be paid attention to, that we truly listen to them and feel their pain and suffering. Instead their stories came like a distant dream in an impossible world, rather than the hard reality of life. The father who was killed a year ago in the conflict is now forever gone. The camp of 50 christian families are living without land to till, still dependent on what meager resources they are receiving from relief organizations. One wonders how people live on in hope. Still, I must not paint a picture entirely of misery. Those sisters who we met working with them have spoken of a certain joy instilled in these people from these experiences. I can hope it to be true, and have seen them smile at our arrival and in our interactions. Some women we met spoke of how seeing us there, they were able to forget their worries, and that is why they were smiling. Representatives at a baptist camp spoke of how this strike against them has helped them turn away from material worry, recognizing that everything comes from God. The stories of the persecuted, modern day confessors (the name given to early Christians who survived torture and still refused to recant their beliefs) are emboldening. Still, I found disconcerting a certain fatalism, which said that this violence only came about because of God's will, and will only end by God's will. While on a fundamental level there can be some merit to what they say, I worry that it keeps people from expressing their own agency. More so, I worry that they will be less inclined to be channels of God's justice and peace through the legal and governmental systems here in the country.

Our journey in Orissa ended with a long bus ride followed by a long train ride. We landed in Calcutta the next morning, staying at a guest house that was set in the middle of a long stream of Missionaries of Charity homes for the sick, the dying, the destitute, for women, for orphans, etc. Just walking on the main road, I counted 5 of these Mother Theresa houses. Even if the signs were not there, the streams of foreign volunteers heading either to mass or to breakfast at the mother house every morning and the higher concentration of people begging on the street would alone be a sign of the sisters presence. We attended mass one morning at the mother house and ate breakfast with the volunteers following. With so many people from all over Europe and America, I can imagine that Calcutta would be an attractive place to come volunteer: a middle ground between the isolation found in being a border crosser, and an experience still wholly other. Mother Teresa's burial place, accessible from the first floor of the mother house, was a simple raised coffin in the middle of a concrete room. While nothing exotic, there was still a sense of sanctity about the place that made it easy to enter into deep prayer. The sisters themselves serve as an interesting phenomenon in the question of Inter-faith relations. I have become very interested in the question of the spaces that we create to facilitate in the encounter with the other. For the sisters, this space is need. Wherever there is human need and human suffering, it is their charism to be there. In speaking with a sister in Orissa, I learned that there is more than just humanism here. Not only do the sisters find Christ in this religious other, because they are thirsty, because they are hungry, because they are poor, but it was "mother's" philosophy that you need to encourage a Muslim or a Hindu to be good Muslims or Hindus so that they will encounter God there.

One could begin to think that christian discipleship pushes one out lovingly towards the other, and that it is christian discipleship which encourages the religious other to deeply pursue their own faith. My own reflections informed by my readings and experiences have led me to believe that christian discipleship constantly pushes one beyond the walls of the church in love towards the other. This is not a blind love, but as Benedict writes, it is love in truth. In this truth, we recognize that all people are God's children, particularly the orphan, the widow, the stranger, the hungry, the naked, the dispossessed, and the prisoner. Not only are we pushed towards the other, but we find Christ in this other. Love demands, however, that we respect the other as other, as a Muslim, as a Hindu, as an Indian, even as we seek and see God in them. How does one then begin to make sense of that in the other which disturbs us, which is strange and foreign to us?

from calcutta

Victoria memorial palace

St. Paul's

New Cell number

No, another cell phone hasn't dissapeared. I got a new number that is local to tamil nadu. It makes it easier to recharge, and receiving calls is free. Speaking of which, family and friends, feel free to give me a call by skype anytime (well, with a 11.5 hr time difference, mornings and evenings work best). It's only 2 c a minute from skype to an indian cell. Just plug in the number below, but without the +91 country code.
So, here it is: Cell: (+91)9790889074

I'll be in Pondicherry this coming weekend and in shantivanam near trichy for the 2 weeks following. Shantivanam is a christian ashram, that follows monastic rythymns of life but seeks to explore correlations between hinduism and christianity on a mystical level. If I reach enlightenment, i'll let you know.

pour ma famille en france

Voici un extrait d'une email a ma tante en france. Il explique un peu mes experience ici en france.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Je suis très content de voir que tu as vu mon blog. Souvent j'ai l'impression que j'écris pour un trou noir! Je dois écrire qq chose en français pour ma famille la bas. Malheureusement je commence de perdre mon capacité écrit pour la français. (même maintenant, je ne sais pas utiliser des accents avec cette nouveau ordinateur donc, seulement des mots corriger par l'ordinateur ont des accents). Donc, lisez cette email gracieusement, comme je n'ai pas un de mes tantes ici a me corriger. =) L'Inde est vraiment incroyable. Je ne suis pas si pris que mon expérience en Afrique, mais je le considéré comme un don, comme ça me donne la possibilité de voir plus critiquement et c'est enrichisse mes pensées beaucoup plus. C'est très difficile de même comprendre la situation de l'église ici. Il y a des vieux et forts exemples de l'incultuation avec Henri Le Saux et le père Monnarchin. Ces mystiques ont essayer de trouver un liaison entre l'hindouisme et la foi chrétien dans les expérience du "profond." Ils ont commence un ashram que je vais visiter pour deux semaines au fin d'aout. Il y a plusieurs de theologue qui l'ont suivi dans leurs efforts a trouver des liaisons entre les deux foi. Il y des autres theologue qui critique cette effort parce que il dit que c'est seulement un effort a inculture une foi brahmanique. Ils disent que la foi chrétien doit être sur la cote du pauvre, "le Dalits." Souvent ils disent que le dialogue n'est pas possible a cause de cette système du castes qui est fondamental a l'hindouisme. Ce n'est pas facile. Surement la foi chrétien ne peux pas être incarne dans une culture, mais ça doit être incarne dans chaque culture. Au même moment, il porte une vision de justice qui transforme au même moment qu'il est informer par l'autre. J'ai trouve cette dernier encyclique du pape d'être très intéressant au niveau du dialogue. Il expresse bien que la fondation de l'amour, Caritas, est la justice. Il y a aussi un liaison essentiel a la vérité. Je vois que l'amour peux vraiment purifier la dialogue, laissant les gens a aimer l'autre comme l'autre et pas comme un extension de moi ou mes idées.
maintenant la demande pour une dialogue du base, entre des êtres humaines et très claire comme je suis en Orissa, une district Inde, ou les chrétiens était attaquer il y un an et aussi huit mois avant ça. pendant on prends courage des histoires des chrétiens firme en leur foi qui n'est pas convertie en face de la persécution et même mensonge contre leur vie, la situation qui a laisser un idéologie du haine a fleurir est découragement. Encore plus, a entendre comment même aujourd'hui la gouvernement n'écoute pas la plainte des peuple chrétienne qui ne sent pas qu'ils peuvent vivre en sécurité chez eux, particulièrement comme des criminels marche encore dans la rue en pleine liberté. Comment on peut tourner la cœur de la gouvernement, je ne sais pas. Il y a comme même des petites ténèbres de l'espoir. Ici a la "kuidina for Peace and Justice" organisation, il y a des gens de tout religion, lies par leur culture qui combatte pour les droits humaines. Il y a des sœurs et de prêtres qui ont retourner a leur paroisse et leurs institutions avec plus de courage. Il y a des avocats qui combattes des mensonges et des situations difficile pour la justice. Même, il y a des éléphantes, qui commence de détruire des maison en orissa. des hindous dits que c'est  le dieu chrétien, venue comme un éléphantes a venger des chrétiens. Heureusement, les plus partes de chrétien ne veut pas se venger, mais vivre en communauté avec des hindous. C'est important a moi a clarifier que ceci n'est pas une combatte entre des hindous et des chrétiens, mais c'est une conflit instiguer par un groupe des hindous fondamentaliste, les même qui ont tuer ghandi il y a 60 ans. L'organisation RSS et ces enfants le BJP, etc, a infiltre tout les aspects de la société, et il avance leur idéologie fasciste de l'hindutwa qu'il y a un nation (inde), un religion (hindou), une langue (hindi) et une culture (brahmanique). Donc, des autre religions et leurs pratiquants, comme la christianisme (qui est dans la sud depuis le 1ere siècle) et l'islam qui a bien influencer la culture du nord, sont considéré comme des étrangères. Au même moment, des autres cultures et religions indigène sont considéré soit pas vrais, soit des subsidiaire de cette père hégémonique.

Bref, j'ai commence d'écrire une email, et je crois maintenant je suis en train d'écrire une thèse ou une novella. Comme même, c'est seulement que je suis si heureuse a recevoir ton email que j'ecris une si longue lettre. Il y a même encore pleine d'autres expérience a partager. J'ai vu des temples anciens et le tombeau de St Thomas, j'ai gouter la nourriture délicieuse, j'ai rencontre une vrai « Charles de foucauld » dans la sœur manju qui a vécu 9 ans seule parmi des mousleman, restant présent a eux, j'ai partager des chansons avec des kui, j'ai prier avec des mousleman, des hindous chrétiens une service inter-religieuse, j'ai vu le travail d'une artiste chrétienne qui laisse sont imagination être toucher par tous des contextes ici, etc. Mais, je dois laisser ces histoires pour un autre fois, peut-être quand je reviens en France. Ma vie la bas avec toute ma famille me manque beaucoup et je pense souvent a toi et la famille. Mémé si qq fois je me sent déraciné avec tous mes voyages, un peu comme le christ « SDF », je sais bien que je trouve toujours un « chez moi » avec ma famille au USA et en France.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Le Chevallier
MDiv candidate 2011
University of Chicago
email/skype: mike.lechevallier@gmail.com
Cell: (+91)9537158645

mass in the camps

Joining the sisters at mass at a road side camp

The largest hanuman (monkey god) I've ever seen

A throw back from the palace at hyderabad. It just seemed to go on and on.

From the camps

"They said we can't go back unless we convert... we won't do that"

Kuidina forum for justice and peace

Kuidina forum for justice and peace

mass in the camps