"It's chicken. But it's spicy. But it's chicken!"

Diwali!! Whoo!

girls at the center for Diwali... with white powder on their face to make them "fair" which is the ultimate sign of beauty here (it's disgusting how many lotions you can find with bleach in them..)

Diwali at the center was mass chaos. Somehow, 60 or more people managed to cram into the one room center, the ages ranging from 2 weeks old to over 70 years old. The kids were all dressed up and hyped as hell. All the girls wore these frilly westernized day-glo dresses- which I am assuming were provided by the center because they all had the same dress in different colors. All the boys were dressed in stripes which I thought was pretty bizarre and adorable at the same time. Then they [we] danced, sang hindi songs, had tons of sweets, exchanged gifts. We tied day-glo bracelets ( to match the dresses?) we made onto the kids wrists- Peter even bought the teenagers (orphans) Jenga!! Then....

Chicken! Actually an amazing overfilling meal including dal, rice, fresh cut up vegetables, mattar paneer (peas & cheese), orange soda and chicken! But..the chicken was soooo tikka (spicy) that we all, including most of the staff, starting tearing up and having runny noses. This in a center where tissues and toilet paper do not exist. At one point, Jess had a debate with herself about it. "It's chicken. But it's spicy. But it's chicken!" And, of course, she ate it all. And so did we. We ate

sweets to cool our mouths, the kind I liked to call "curdled cheesecake sweet" because of it's taste.

The morning of the celebration, Priya, the house "mom" helped me put on my brand new bright green

Saree. I felt very regal in it and it was actually quite comfortable, although the petticoat, which is

a skirt underneath was tied extremely tight and left a mark. It wasn't too hard to walk in, either, but

I had to use both hands to hold it up when walking up stairs, out of rickshaws, or over mud puddles.

But it survived, and so did I.

The very next night (Saturday) we celebrated Diwali at home. There were 15 volunteers or so, all dressed up for

the occasion, in Sarees, Salwar, Kurta Pajamas. We decorated the house- including creating this amazing mandala

in the atrium on the floor and filling it with colored powder(like the kind in my blog header,

marigold flowers, and candles. Then, we had puja, prayer and we all got red dots on our forehead and

red strings tied on our wrists. Then we sat on the porch as the whole city lit up with fireworks- or "bombs" as they call

them (!). We watched as they prepared chicken biryana in a huge metal tub, which took over 2 hours to prepare,

making our dinner time around 10:15 or 10:30. Then, the fireworks chaos commenced. afterall, the family had

bought over 3 bags worth! They were so loud and pollutant, that wouldnt not jump out of your own skin and you

could barely see across the road. We also had some drinks. It was great to speak to all the volunteers

new & old. New volunteers come every 2 weeks!

in saree, with henna & bindi

making the mandala

other volunteers and i at diwali

I've been practicing henna on myself and some other volunteers. I love it and I'm buying tons to take home.

Making plans to go to Dharmasala (where the Dalai Lama lives!) next weekend. It's going to be cold. Can't wait!

Nam.

Erin