Tomorrow is Diwali! (Deevahlee)
In preparation, I have bought a saree- which, in retrospect, I feel was overpriced since it has been systematically falling apart behind my back ever since i took it out of the package. But anyway. Its bright green and fades to teal on the edges....(teal!) Also, a member of the staff, who shows up about 60% of the time and who I will now and from now on refer to as "Grandma Didi", drew a henna design on my left palm in marker and I went over it with actual henna. It's super easy and I've decided I'm going to do it from now on for random special occasions at home in the States for the hell of it.. Dalia & Mr. Tapan gave us all presents- 1. a Spider Man (?) coffee mug with Nav Jagriti Collective India stuck on it with that tape that imprints letters and 2. necklaces made of seashells (which are apparently completely random and not symbolic of anything, but cool anyway). Anyway tomorrow (Fri, 16th) is meant to be no work and all play- a day of celebration and......
WE'RE GETTING CHICKEN!!! A note about chicken. Almost every volunteer here is non-vegetarian, and we talk about chicken like kids talk about candy. We never get it- except for the maybe once a week we all go out and eat tons of it. We binge on chicken so that enough we can store enough protein=energy for the rest of the week. We talk about having chicken all the damn time and every once in awhile, someone brings up steak...which is a horrible thing to bring up, considering it is forbidden in India and we wont be seeing the likes of it for awhile.
THEN, Rajiv & his wife are preparing-get this- MORE chicken for Saturday, and a general celebration complete with fancy clothes, lights/decorations and firecrackers. Yay for holidays! It's got me pumped to come back to America just in time for one of the greatest holidays known to man(and woman)kind- THANKSGIVING.
OH, and just in case you were wondering, I have not gotten "New Delhi Belly" {knock on internet cafe desk wood} in the more than one month I've been in India. Although, earlier this week, for about 2 days I had mild to moderate stomach pains whenever I moved- but I remain as one of the only volunteers who has not suffered the dreaded D word {knock on ten million woods}.
Happy Diwali!
Erin Didi
p.s. I have grown particularly close to Jess, who works with me at Nav Jagriti- shes a kick-ass 19 year old from Melbourne Australia: thank god for someone I can hug on a regular basis- it's something I've really needed.
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Thanksgiving is the favorite holiday of every man, woman, and child...unless you're American Indian and your ancestors were wiped off of the North American landscape in the names of Columbus, De Soto, and others.
ReplyDeleteHere comes Brett the Bummer! raarrr rarrr
What is Diwali about? Many hugs coming your way and I wish you the greatest health and happiness.
Good question about Diwali. Some god killed another god or something and in the end there was a lot of lights. So, it's the festival of lights, but not Hanukkah. The End.
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