SAYCO 2012

SAYCO; I'm going to guess the expansion here; South Australian Youth Christian Organisation.

I was supposed to attend this meeting which was the original plan which was made for me even before I came to Adelaide. The Uniting Church here has always had students from MCC go for SAYCO and so it was planned for me to go for SAYCO this year and attend as a Youth Leader/ Volunteer. Now unknown to me, at that time was that I needed a police clearance to work with children. Child protection and care are such a high priority here in Australia that if you want to work with children, it is really important that you have a police clearance. This I had not done in advance and so I thought I could not go. Gods ways are never our ways. I am extremely happy to have made it to SAYCO and with police clearance done as well. Its amazing even when we think things are impossible, it is not with God. I remember telling my host that I would be at SAYCO if that is where i'm supposed to be.

Well, this is where God wanted me to be and so I ended up at SAYCO.

What did we do in SAYCO. Well, I did from good old fashioned lifting and moving of essentials to actually being a leader to look after the young kids who were participating. I was really privileged to have the Congress kids among us. Congress is associated with the Aboriginal youth associated with the uniting church of australia. For all the Indian's reading this, the Uniting church of Australia is similar to the CSI and CNI there.

I was glad to have met some amazing people, like Sue, who helped out with all the cooking in our camp. I must say that this did definitely bring about a lot my old camping memories from the trips I made from Flamingo Primary School to the Chobe National Park and other places as well. These memories really struck home when I was with the kids playing football (for all americans and australians; its called soccer) and when I stood at the side watching people play volleyball as well.

To play a game and to exhaust oneself with physical activities is one thing that the youth of today are missing out on quite often. This is because people don't understand the value of nature and what the majesty of Gods creation has to offer. Children of today are stuck with their video games and ipod and phones. This is a phenomenon that I see not just in Australia but even in India where sport is now a profession and not played for the fun of it. Makes me wonder why this is the case. Is it because life as we know it has changed so drastically that we have no ideas as to why we exist anymore. Why is it that children who have every opportunity that one can think of generally don't know what to do. Is it to do with the multiple opportunities that we are giving them? Is it not amazing that children who have much lesser options are more inclined to grab at opportunities? I was brought to light about a lot of things that Compassion does in the various countries in this meeting. The uncouth truth about the unfair distribution of food and that really every night about 20,000 kids die of hunger in poor nations because they don't have food while people in rich 1st world countries throw food away and have special programmes to keep their weight under control because its important to be lean.

I wonder where our priorities lie. The speaker for the programme was a man who works with real poor kids around the world. It definitely was an eye opener for many of the kids who saw the light of what the real world out there had to offer. It was interesting statistics.

But the serious stuff aside, I saw kids being kids; where cell phones got thrown away because they were running around on a field playing soccer or simply chasing each other down. Children carry an uncanny sense of innocence that really inspires the human spirit. The spirit that when down will simply lift up above anything else. Care free and utterly free soaring about the clouds where the sky literally is the limit.

I think i've been ranting off and saying things that come to my mind but I think it is important because that is what life is about. Living. Not just being.

Well, I stop this post with these thoughts because more than the fact that I attended SAYCO, I have to say I left SAYCO with these thoughts in my mind that have lingered for a good few days now. I only wish that people would stop looking at their immediate self and see that there are others who are out there and who really need help.

Many may come and say, how self righteous I have become. That is their own opinion. I have only seen more and more of the true world many people continue to close behind a door they wish not to open to see the mess behind.


3 Days on non stop action for 12-17 year olds.

One week and its a farewell

I'm sure you all remember the lovely wine tour I went for. Well, it came back greet me again but this time it was for quite a different reason. Emma, an amazing person with a fabulous personality, decided that even those that she's come to know 1 week ago is a good enough friend to say bye to as she left Australia. This is the story of how I found myself in a house full of strangers!!! :)

After all the confusion of where the farewell will be held, it was finally decided that it will be at her family home out in the hills. I had seen the famous hills from afar many times, but never got the chance to go up there. It looks beautiful from the distance so I was sure I was in for a treat when I got there. Anyway, getting back to the trip; I had to train ride it for almost 40 mins before I could reach the venue.

So my first adventure for the week started on a train. I remember vaguely what my brother told me about railway line in his travel. "Its the same anywhere in the world. No difference at all, well the stations may look more or less fancy but overall, the construct and structure have such and eerie feel of similarity". I was hoping to make him eat his words but to my sad revelation, he was so right. I walked down into Adelaide Railway station only to find myself in a modern style rail system. Nothing that I was not expecting anyway. To find my train that I needed to get on was not going to be such an easy task as the platform that the information screen said had my train had a completely different train. Profoundly confused, I almost made up my mind to go back and ask the information counter or an official for help, however, before that, an instinct kicked in that I never thought i'd use here in Australia. Follow the crowd. The very few ( I could count them on my fingers) people that walked onto that platform continued walking down the platform. So I decided to walk along and find out where they were going. Sure enough, my train was on the same platform parked behind/ahead (depends on how you look at it) the first train I saw. Well, this was interesting. I decided not to make much of it and simply continue to take a seat somewhere in the first rain car. I did not want to be on the wrong train. :)

As the clock lit up with our departure time, the train slowly pulled out. Now, if I compare these rail cars with those in Chennai (Madras), i'm probably going to get shot down by a few chennai residents who read this blog, however, i'm still going to take the risk. I'm going to list each with my comments in brackets

All the seats were cushioned (Like the a/c volvo buses of MTC)
The whole rail car was Airconditioned (That's no surprise to me because everyplace in A/c here)
The door's closed. (Yes they are electronic and you need to push a button to open them. Oh and no hanging out the door like we can, to have the air hit our faces)
The view outside the window (If I did not know I was in Australia, I could have sworn I was in India; Absolutely no difference)

These are the ones I remember and it has been quite a while. I have been too busy to even write a blog. Good I say. :)

Nevertheless; I made it to my destination. I called up my host for the evening, Emma, and I was picked up just as she promised. I was given the grand tour up to the hill home (as I will call it) by Emma's sister, Rachel. The sight of the city from atop the hills was a grand splendeur that I could not have fathomed such a view. In the dusk light of the evening when the streets were just getting lit up with the golden glow of the sun in the background, I could have not asked for a better time to have a camera to capture that moment and save it for the world to see.

We drove down to the house which was situated on the side a lovely hill. What a house. This was Emma's parents house. One that they had so cordially allowed to be used for her farewell. So I finally made it to another place where I was about to meet 40 strangers. Lovely people but all strangers. I'm loving this. I realised that my skill to meet up with new people was being challenged again. I had not had such a feeling since my childhood where I used to have to go join new schools ever now and again.

The house was simply amazing, but the one thing that caught my eyes was the fire that started off slow at first but definitely in place. This brought back a bunch of memories for me. memories that I had from so long ago under the African sky's where I had gone camping and sat under the beautiful stars and in front of a lovely camp fire. These memories flowed in as people gathered around the flames started to share stories. Random stories of each person, but stories that were from the heart of interests and events past; it really did not matter what we spoke. I just enjoyed the moment. It was not too long after that I heard the sound of a guitar on the other side of the house.

Yes, music, the only element that was missing in my mind. Everyone had a go with their guitar. I can't even remember who was playing now but yes, it was a time that everyone started to sing and enjoy each other's company. As the music was playing we were all gathered around a canvas that was out to be painted by every person that came out to the farewell. It was a canvas that Emma said she wanted to take with her to England. Well, is that not something that would be great. Oh yeah!!!

Well, the party wound down into the night with many people leaving but the music and the singing kept on going. It seemed like and never ending scene of songs. We all had to call it quits into the night but this was definitely an experience that took me back many years to the streets and families I knew in Sowa Town and the many memories that still remain with me till this day about that place and its inhabitants.

Well, I better get back to my studies. I think this was a well deserved break that I took to write this down. :)

Party