Though the mission of loving those in India is the same, some organizational changes have been made.  Please read the Will Work for Food post for Ryan’s description.  New blog posts will be on the new website for ECTA (link below).

We will try to keep posting Ryan’s messages on the ECTA blog, but the best way to get them is to get on his mailing list.  Just email him and ask to be put on the list.  He would love to add you.  Then you’ll get all of the messages (usually 1 every month or so) first thing.  You’ll have to construct his address from the following:

ryan (dot) phillips (the at sign) ecta-international.org

www.ecta-international.org
www.causes.com/ecta (facebook site)
ECTA Introduction Video:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_sHnYydGdQ 

What images come to mind upon hearing the phrase “minimum wage”?  The shaky hands of an elderly man dipping frozen fries into a deep fat fryer?  A poorly complected teenage boy forlornly sanitizing a milk shake machine?  A middle aged mother of three working the late shift, lifelessly scanning bar codes… so that we can all have “Everyday Low Prices”?  A middle aged man too sick to work at the hospital as a janitor anymore and without sufficient insurance to receive treatment there?  To pay a worker minimum wage is to say to him or her, “Your contribution to society is of so little value that only law compels us to compensate you at this level.”  In America, to live on minimum wage is to be small, the last and the least. Continue reading Will Work for Food

Hello all,

     The following is an updated and expanded list of items which we are trying to collect before our return to India on August 18th:

Supplies for Homebirth Kits:
101 Longsleeve newborn onsies*
101 Warm hats for newborns*
101 pair of socks for newborns*
101 receiving blankets*
101 fleece swaddlers*
150 disposable plastic cord clamps plus 5 reusable metal cord clamps
Multiple bottles of prenatal vitamins
(all items marked * are listed in our Babies R US registry)
  Continue reading Supplies Needed

As part of our EMT training, my 28 classmates and I spent 2 days observing and participating at the local ER.  Everyone had different shifts and secretly each person hoped that they would be the person on duty when the most extreme trauma came in.  Maybe it was morbid curiosity, desire for a ‘good learning opportunity’ or the pride of having the ‘gnarliest’  case that fueled this silent competition.  Admittedly, I also hoped that I would see some major trauma or dangerous disease so that I could pick up a few tricks to use in India.  God granted my wish.
Continue reading The Bald Nurse

There is a part of the human brain that is similar to a salmon’s which drives it up a freshwater stream to its spot of origin or a whale’s which leads it across thousands of miles of open sea to the breeding ground of its ancestors.  When we physically see the structure which we call home, a lobe of fleshy wrinkles coordinates a series of emotional, psychological and even physiological responses.  They delicately whisper to us, “You have arrived.  You can relax.  You’re safe. You’ve made it.”  But occasionally, there is another voice that whispers even more quietly in people’s ears to ignore these reassurances and strike off into unknown territory.

Back in January (just after our month in the convent in Git Dubling), Amanda, Asher, Ian and I returned to Daragaon to collect our things. Continue reading Unknown Territory

Hello all,
 
Just a brief update.
 
     The Je Khenpo (Bhutan’s equivalent of the Dalai Lama… more or less) called the Royal family to Punakha for a religious ceremony the day that we were supposed to have our meeting.  Thimphu is very busy with all the preparations for the new King’s coronation on November 6th.  But all is not lost.  Her Majesty Ashi Dorji Wangmo (The queen of the 4th King) did read the proposal and was “very excited” by what she read.  As a result she called a meeting for us with the members of her Tarayana foundation.  The meeting went very well.  All of our objectives are perfectly aligned with those of the Tarayana Foundation… even down to very minute details.  As we talked with the members we felt more like we were talking with friends or coworkers… rather than people trying to sell a project idea to a government.  Support for us seems to be strong.
      Of course there are many hurdles as no one has done anything like what we are proposing to do.  But if Tarayana supports us, and the Queen is behind us it seems like things may go through.  Our proposal will be put before the board at the Tarayana Foundation’s bi-annual meeting later this fall.  So while our meeting with a very busy King was understandably canceled… it seems like we still have many positive signs.  We still have several days in Bhutan, we will see what happens.
 
Ryan 

Long before Thomas More’s famous work, people fantasized about Utopia even if they didn’t have a word for it.  A perfect land… order, peace, tranquility, brotherhood, freedom from want, liberation from pain.  Heaven here and now without all the waiting.  Many people think that we are trying to create a utopia here and now in India… but that couldn’t be further from the truth.   When coining the word, More combined the Greek words for “good”, “not” and “place”.  In other words, ‘the good place that cannot be’.  For me the ‘good place’ is not a place free from pain, suffering and sacrifice.  It is not a place devoid, where I am “comfortably numb”.  For me the ‘good’ is most tangible in the place where all five of my senses come alive in the stark contrast of reality.
In my village I see.
I see Saran.  Last year he was in the Food For Thought program and was seriously malnourished.  After five months of eating lunch in our program 5 times a week he was reweighed and measured.  Devi, Kausila and Sabita had to inform his parents that he was now too fat and healthy to qualify for free lunches.  Saran is bright eyed and ornery.   His 1 1/2 year old baby sister was weighed and measured in January and found to be undersized/underweight.   After school Saran swings the little girl up onto his back and carries her down a flight of a couple hundred steep stone stairs (built by my vigilantes).  He washes her hands and sets her down inside the Swasta Kendra.  The formerly weak and sickly boy spoon feeds his malnourished sister in the same way in which he was fed last year.  Saran is only seven years old. Continue reading Forget Utopia

At five a.m this morning we put a lock on the cabin door.  A half moon directly overhead illuminated the stones in the trail leading away from my house.  After a couple weeks of dust and sweat, a 8 by 10ft. Shepherd’s tent now sits attached to the rear of our habitation.  The insides have be mildly refurbished to accommodate the new additions to our village family.  In the flat blue lunar light every thing looked ready for the sun to rise on another year as a family (now slightly enlarged with the addition of Cameron and Elizabeth) living in uncertain India.The sun looked ready to rise on a year full of possibility.

     Darjeeling is ten days into a ‘bandh’, a general strike.  All shops are closed (no cement for the new school or rice for the workers), no vegetables in the bazaar, the green, white and yellow flags of the political party du jour are flying and all vehicles are all parked.  The Nepalese in India are agitating for their own state… “Gorkhaland”.  If the Government of West Bengal doesn’t grant them their request, the leader du jour, Bimal Gurung, is threatening to extend the general strike up until March 28. Continue reading Striking

Late January 2008

            Living in a foreign culture we are introduced to constant stream of mysteries.  People step around certain objects instead of stepping over them.  Locals move their hands in a prescribed way when exchanging gifts.  There are always fresh cut flowers and a garland of marigolds around a picture of an ancestor.  A stick of incense is burnt for protection before the Taxi pulls away.  The driver barely watches the road because he is so busy talking to us.  The neighbors show up unannounced at any hour and expect us to do the same in return.  A woman rubs a stripe of red powder into the part of her hair every morning.  People say they are full but hold their plate up for more food.  One thought propels us, “There is something behind all this.  I want to understand why.”

  Continue reading Building a Mystery

Hello All,

To the right and to the left are rows of junk food… Chocopies, Mexicorn Crunches, shrimp puff crackers, Pringles, Cup of Noodles, Cup O’ Noodles, Instant Noodle Cup, etc. The air is full of the noise of shopping carts, crunching wrappers and people speaking Tagalog. High up on the ceiling is a fluorescent light and a speaker. The singer’s voice says, “I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart. Feliz Navidad…Feliz Navidad…Feliz Navidad…”

It seems to me that four cultures comprise the Filipino heritage and they have suddenly decided to show themselves simultaneously in the Super Market. In the beginning it was thousands of islands with varied tribal cultures and languages living primitively, Tagalog has emerged the dominant language in recent history. Spain colonized the region and left their indelible mark. Later the country was occupied by America. Today, a culture of mass consumerism fueled by overseas workers rules the day. Continue reading Live from Manila