Diwali 2011

The biggest holiday of the season has come. This is my third year to celebrate Diwali here in South Asia and it was very different from the other years. We have had some American guests here with us so every day we have been going out into the villages. These are some pictures of a village that we visited yesterday. This is P, a young girl showing us around. She is having fun eating some sugar cane.

This is R, our wonderful translator for the day.

We took a ride in a buffalo cart with a village family. Not as bumpy as I had expected.

The day after Diwali, people take buffalo manure and create an image of Krishna, one of their deities. After it dries, they worship it. This was on the floor of the family's home that we were visiting. I asked one of the girls, "why do you do this"? And her answer was "we don't know". Overall, Diwali is light hearted but this made me really sad to see this.

No Ordinary Picture

Upon first glance, this may seems like an ordinary picture. But the story behind it is quite beautiful. This picture is of a wall of young girl who is the lone believer in her village of about 5000. The story goes that about five years ago, she started listening to a radio program. Little by little, she began to believe and she had a lot of questions in her mind. She says that she would have these questions in her mind and then the very next day, the radio program would answer them for her. She says "its as if the radio program was meant just for me" She found out later that this was the working of the Spirit in her life. Over time, she came to faith. She made this cross and placed in on her wall and she would lay in bed at night and stare at it. It gave her encouragement during those dark and lonely nights.

She eventually traveled to a town about 2 1/2 hours away and was able to meet up with the local group of believers there for fellowship and discipleship. The cross is still on her wall today. As a sign of His faithfulness. As a sign that she is not alone. As a sign that He has chosen her out. What a might God we serve.

Widows, Monkeys and Snake Charmers

I just took a little day trip to the city of V, which is about 3 hours away from the big city. V is considered a very holy city because its the place where lord Kristna grew up (or so they say). People travel from all parts of the globe to live and worship here. People very literally lay prostrate on the floor kissing the ground where their precious lord used to walk. Many westerners also travel here to find enlightenment.

V is also home to alot of widows who come from all over the country to take refuge here. In this culture, a widow is considered bad karma and a burden to society. Many families abandon women once they are widowed and they are unable to take care of themselves. Many of them take refuge in V where they are offered a shelter and food. But, they still have a pretty horrible life of neglect and imprisonment. Yesterday, I heard their stories and saw their pictures and my heart was grieved.

I failed to bring a camera along which was unfortunate because I saw alot of interesting things. Yesterday afternoon, we were weaving through the small streets taking in the sights. A line of widows sat along a brick wall and held out their tin cups, asking for money. We stopped and talked to a few. Just beyond the widows, there was a snake charmer that was squatting down. He was playing a flute while a hooded snack twisted back and forth to the beat of the music. One of the men in the crowd reached out to the snake and of course the snake lashed out at him. The snake charmer beckoned me to come closer but I ignored him.

The next thing I knew, I felt a warm body on my face. Then I felt pain...then all of the sudden I couldn't see. I screamed. WHAT had just happened? My mind raced to try to make sense of the situation. I quickly figured out- a monkey had jumped on my head, scratched my face and stole my glasses. A crowd quickly gathered. I was sorta still in shock.

A man emerged from the crowd and offered to get my glasses back if I would pay him 10 dollars. Although it was a rip off, I quickly agreed. The monkey smugly eyed me from the roof as he held my glasses in his left hand. People threw him orange slices in hopes that he would drop my glasses for the oranges. But all the monkey did was grab the oranges with his right hand, while holding tight to the glasses with the left.

As I stood there, with my monkey scratched forehead...I tried to come up with a game plan. After a few minutes, the man appeared with my glasses. Whew. I don't know how he got them but he did. They were a little chewed up but usable. Whew. My friend who was with me had some antibiotic ointment and we quickly assessed that the skin had NOT been broken with the scratch. Whew. I have been keeping a close eye on the scratch but everything seems to be ok.

Yesterday was a full day so its no wonder I want to take a nap today. This place never ceases to amaze me.

Around Town

Someone came out to visit in M Town awhile back and took tons of pictures around town. Its always interesting to see this place through the eyes of someone new. Here are just a few common sights

Some boys cheking out the white people. Sometimes I want to break out into mime or start juggling for them..you know...give em something to REALLY stare at.

it turns out even water buffalos need a Coke break

its super easy to find tons of fresh veggies around here. I need to take better advantage of this fact.