Coolies’ Visit to India 2011

A small but enthusiastic group of newly-graduated Year 12 students left in November for Madurai in Southern India. Their destination: Boys’ Town, 20 minutes from the center of town and the hustle and bustle of tuk tuks, cars, wandering cows and the vibrancy that is the hallmark of any Indian city. This was the beginning of the 2012 De La Salle Coolies’ Programme. The 2012 group comprised seven young men — Jake Cowan, Phil Stevens, Andrew D’Arcy, Evan Shi, Chris Ngu, Josh Williams and Matthew Heng. These were quiet boys by nature, yet they relaxed very quickly, and their sense of humour and fun was soon evident. Boys’ Town Madurai was established in 1961 to serve poor and marginalized Dalit boys from all faith backgrounds through vocational training. Students are orphans, semi-orphans, or too poor to pay for an education. The expenses for food, board and education are all met by the De La Salle Brothers. Boys’ Town offers a one-year course in welding, lathe operations, electrical wiring, bench fitting or carpentry and woodwork. In recent years, the Brothers have expanded the programme to include agricultural development and training. Our project was to renovate Benildus House, a large complex which had fallen into disrepair. The ‘Coolies’ worked three shifts a day, sanding and chipping paint off walls, sifting sand and carrying bricks to be used by the masons, and repainting the outside of the Brothers’ Chapel. Fellow staff member Michael Wilson and I were impressed by the way the boys approached each work shift. They were always on time and willingly completed the tasks designated them in spite of the heat and the humidity. At the end of each working day the group held a briefing and each member took turns running the session, talking about what they had learned, enjoyed (or not enjoyed) from the day’s activities. It was enlightening to hear what they had to say. Some of the quotes of the day included sentiments such as: Be grateful for what we already have Once you start to compare and criticize, you then fail to understand and appreciate where we are now and what we are experiencing Take what you need and finish what you take No matter what your situation, rich or poor — like the motto on the gates of Boys’ Town, “God’s arms are always open to welcome you”. Another impressive aspect of the group was the way they interacted with the students at Boys’ Town. Communication was difficult, as most of the students could not speak English and we had no Tamil. Yet, after a couple of days, you could see that the Boys’ Town students were eager to chat as best they could with our boys, play basketball and volley ball — in a most competitive manner. After a month everyone at Boys’ Town knew each other well and so our leaving was quite emotional.