I did not realize that a visit to the tea plantation could be so telling, but it was. Today we drove up to the mountains of Kottayam where we were surrounded by huge fields of tea and other beautiful scenery. High up in the mountains, it felt as though we had been separated from everything, except for the small villages we would pass through on our way to the top. When we finally arrived, we placed our order for lunch at a nice restaurant and while we waited, we visited a site that our guide, Sabu was very happy to show us… a park, full of pine trees. It was funny to go and see something we see all of the time in the U.S., but apparently it is quite a big deal for people here. It was much cooler up there and we were told that Indians would often go up there to get away and just lay in the shade.
After our lunch, we were treated to visit the behind the scenes view of the plantation. One of the older children from the Precious Children’s Ministry had come with us and wanted to show us the village that he grew up in, where his parents still lived. He was very excited to bring us, and we were very honored to be given the chance to see this place. Our driver pulled up as far as he could and told us we would have to walk the rest of the way. So the doors open and out pop 10 Americans and 2 Indians fresh from a huge lunch.
The first thing that we noticed was that we were in a very poor area mostly filled with small two or three room shacks with a homemade tent as an addition to the house. People were out an about, doing whatever it was that they did on a regular basis, but this time they would stop for a second to wave and greet us. Our group followed Simon, the child whose house we were visiting, diligently over the dirt and gravel road. We did our best to walk around the garbage, chickens, cows and the waste of both animals. When we finally arrived at Simon’s house, his father was more than happy to invite us in to see where they lived. Like most of the other homes, this was only a three room place with a tent out back that looked like where they cooked their meals. He showed us their well they use for drinking water and their 1 week old calf, very proud of what they had.
Then he took us up a short path and after passing through a thin layer of trees, our view opened up to a vast area covered with bright green tea plants. Simon’s father showed us how he picked tea from there for his living and through a translator he told us a little about the process of making tea. It was amazing to be in such a lush, beautiful place knowing that when I turned around and took three steps I would be back in one of the poorest places I have ever been in my life. It’s hard to believe that just yesterday, we were visiting a large home with marble floors, air-conditioning, running water and a lunch buffet big enough to feed all ten of us with leftovers and today we visited a house that you could possibly fit into yesterday’s foyer. But they were proud of what they had, content with what God had given them and extremely welcoming to 10 Americans who probably needed to see such a thing.
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