Oh, India. This is such a unique and special culture. The
smells here are bittersweet and seep into anything exposed to it for more than
24 hours. The colors are inescapable – they’re splashed across anything and
everything and are such a refreshment to eyes longing for something familiar.
The traffic is out of control. Why do they make stop signs here? They only take
up space… The noise of honking horns is never ending and the bustle of the
streets is overwhelming. I’ve been in India 1 week, and I feel as though 1 week
would never be long enough to get a true taste of India. With each passing day,
I learn something new about this fascinating culture. It’s the little things
that make India unique: the strings of flowers in the women’s hair or the jingle
of their bangles as they carry their produce bags from the market. The men
holding hands and laughing with each other in the street just because that’s
their way of showing friendship. The high pitched whistle of the bus attendant
to let the driver know that someone needs to get off, or my personal favorite…
THE HEAD BOBBLE! 🙂 It’s these little things that become a part of your
everyday life when you live in India.
I honestly knew very little about what my ministry would be
while here. I was guessing Rahab’s Rope was like a rescue shelter for women who
had been trafficked?? Well, I was half right. Rahab’s Rope and the ministries
they do here in Goa are most DEFINITELY a rescue effort. But a lot of it is
rescuing these women and children from the poverty and lifestyle that will
almost GUARANTEE them to be sucked into the sexual world of trafficking that thrives
so silently in India. Basically, this is how it goes:
More than 700,000 people here live on less than a dollar a
day. POVERTY. Women are looked down upon. They are more of a man’s PROPERTY
than his prize. Men everywhere have no work, and often can’t find any because
they are uneducated (no public education in India), so they DRINK. They gamble
(with their wives and children often as the bargaining piece), and they
DISAPPEAR from home for weeks or months at a time, leaving the wife to somehow
support the family. These women are uneducated – no jobs. They HAVE to take
care of themselves and the kids, though, so they will make ends-meet however
they have to. If it means SELLING THEIR BODIES, then they will. If it means
SELLING ONE OF THEIR DAUGHTERS, then they will. Their daughters have no value
anyways. Having a daughter in India often results in beatings from the husband
and his family. 50% of the world’s children that are trafficked come from
India. And most of it boils down to POVERTY.
Some of these women, but NOT ALL of them haven’t “had” to
sell themselves yet. However, there are only 2 or 3 that have not been raped by
a father, brother, brother’s friend, etc. That is the life these women have.
Day in – and day out. So we give them hope. We give them the tools they NEED to
make a living. We teach them, and support them, and encourage them, and love
them. This week has only been a taste of what we’ll be doing, but I’ll say
this: so far it’s the sweetest thing my soul has ever tasted.
