Festival Of Lights

the "pooja" (worship) tree by our house.

view from our roof of all the lights

my neighbor Mindy

My house helper and her family

Diwali got off to a big start today here in South Asia. I had all these big plans and dreams of how we were going to visit and see all of our new friends that we have met here. This morning, I started out by calling people, to tell them we were coming. The first family I called, nobody answered. And the next friend that I called told me that SHE actually wanted to come see us. She promised us she would be at our house within 2-3 hours. 3 hours turned into 4. And 4 turned into 5. We waited...and waited.... with her promising that she would be there "soon". We finally came to the realization that she stood us up.

By this time, it had gotten dark and so Heather suggested going around and looking at all the lights. So, we walked down the street for awhile. People were putting out candles and kids were shooting off fire crackers while giving us greetings as we walked by. As I was looking at lights, I wasn't paying attention, and stepped right in the middle of fresh cow manure! Here I was in my fancy clothes with poop on my shoe!! It sounds like a good title for a country song "Got All Fancy but Got Stood Up (And Stepped in Poop)" After the manure incident, I just felt grumpy and disappointed with the day.

But you just have to roll with the punches here. After we returned home from looking at the lights, we ended up visiting our neighbor Mindy and her family. And then my house helper surprised me and showed up to invite us to her house for a bit. The day ended fine. And I actually got to spend time with the people who I see and love the most. So, all in all, it was a successful day.