Former Barrington Resident Gets Second Chance at 70

“I am 70 years old. Isn’t this exciting – at my age – to have this brand-new life before me?”

Meet former Barrington resident Karla Chandler. She’s 70. She’s vibrant. Oh, and she’s packing up to go live and work in India for two years.

Chandler is following a dream with roots in her high school days. It was the 1950s, when the Peace Corps came into existence, and Chandler always hoped to join. But then life happened – marriage, children, a career as a social worker – and she no longer was able to make the dream a priority.

Now, however, Chandler’s life looks a bit different. She’s retired, her husband has passed away and her children are grown up. Now, International Development & Educational Associates (IDEAS), an organization that hires Christians to do professional jobs overseas, has given Chandler a chance to pursue a dream from her youth.

“They said because of the skills I had listed on (a service website), they would like to interview me for a job to develop a women’s empowerment program for the Dalit women in India,” Chandler said. “I just felt really held by God that this was where he wanted me to serve at this point in my life.”

So last November, Chandler got on a plane and flew to the campus of IDEAS’ partner organization,Operation Mobilization India (OM India), in Hyderabad, India. During her eight-day trip, Chandler met with OM India workers and assessed the situation in which she could potentially work. She was able to observe India’s caste system in which the Dalits – previously called “the Untouchables” – are considered by many to be worth less than animals and not worthy of personal relationships.

“I could see the women just kind of standing back,” Chandler said. “You could tell they were just there to serve and that others were more important than them, so I could … see myself getting more into a relationship with them.”

Once Chandler returned to the United States, she was offered the job. She leaves Oct. 1. 

Chandler knows that her background in social group work will prepare her to do the job well, but an even more motivating factor for her is the people of India. During her trip in November, Chandler found herself a bit culture-shocked; the crowded culture, the subpar infrastructure and the lax traffic laws, among many other things, were intimidating at first. But Chandler says the people she met readily offered her advice for dealing with the cultural differences.

“The people in India are the most loveable people in the world,” she said. “By having people teach me how to handle (the differences), I thought: ‘OK, I can do this.’ ”

Until October, Chandler will be studying Indian culture and brainstorming tentative ideas for developing her group. She knows she’ll have to be flexible because the circumstance of the Dalit women is not going to change soon.

“They have a core value of themselves that says: I am worth nothing more than an animal and I can only do the jobs that my parents did,” Chandler said. “I’m not going over there to change their circumstance; I’m going over there to help them see that they have value regardless of their circumstance.”

Initially, her job is going to center around building trust between her and individual women on the OM India campus. From there, she hopes women will become open to meeting in small groups to teach her to be Indian.

“I will be sharing a lot of my difficulties and being open with them, building that relationship of trust with them,” Chandler said. “Because of our relationship, I will be valuing them. That is going to translate into: ‘Oh, I do have value. I have something to give.’ ”

Chandler is eager to help the Dalit women on OM India’s campus start new – if private – lives for themselves. But she’s also excited to start a new life of her own.

“Sometimes we go through life and we feel like we’ve made some mistakes,” Chandler said. “I’m at a point in my life now where I do not want to have to die and face God and say: You asked me to do this and I said no. So that’s a huge motivating factor for me. This is just a gift.”