Weekend update

FRIDAY:
this friday emily and laura and i had made plans to go with our family to celebrate the festival Naviratiri. I don't really know a lot about the festival. I know it lasts 9 nights. for the first three nights they worship Durga, the second three nights they worship Lakshmi, and the third three the worship Saraswati. I guess as a result of this goddess worship it's a family female dominated festival. the women downstairs had made plans to take us somewhere (we weren't really sure where) at 6.00. So Laura and Emily got dressed up in Saris, and I wore a Salwar Kameez ('cause my Sari petticoat doesn't fit right)and we met our family downstairs. They said we were walking to a house near where the program house is. When we got there we went inside and were led to a small room with a huge "gobra" set up. It was basically a huge display of dolls- all set up on different levels of this elevated platform. Most of the dolls were gods and goddesses, but some were of cricket players or little toy trucks. So we sat there and had slightly awkward broken tamil conversations with the people who lived in the house, and then they decided to sing a song. It was really relaxing- sitting there on the floor with these women singing these slow tamil songs over a recorded chant that was playing quietly in the background. The room was really hot and pretty suffy from the insence- but it was comfortable too somehow. Then the women brought out Prasada and gave us little bags with beans and coconut and bananas and bangles (where were too small for any of our hands), and flowers for our hair and sandlewood paste for our forheads. Then we said goodbye and I thought we were going to head home but our mom from downstairs said we were going to another house. We ended up going to three houses to see the Gobras, and then a few after that to meet our family's family around our neighborhood. Everyone was so nice and so excited to meet us. it was one of the first times i've been introducted to someone and not felt like it was someone just showing off a white person- it was more like the women from downstairs wanted us to meet their family- not just that they wanted their family to meet us. Then today I saw my mom's mom and recognized her as i was biking by and she smiled. i guess it's maybe just a reassuring feeling- like i wont always be quite the foreigner.

So by the time we went around to all of these houses we were all really tired and hungry and our family invited us back for dinner. the family we live directly above is working class. they have two children and both the husband and the wife work as ironers on the street. they're really traditional in a lot of ways- very religious- but are pretty progressive in others - like the fact the wife and husband work together. The family who's house we went to for dinner is right next door to us. They're really well off and have huge bedrooms with beds (most people here sleep all in their entry way on the floor), and they have a water filter, a big TV, couches, a dinning room table, and a son in New Jersy. Anyway, we went to their house for dinner and they fed us so many delicious dosai until we were so full and i had to hobble up to bed.

SATURDAY:

Saturday we drove out to a village to see a kind of colony where all the work that's done is done with the Gandhian mentality. Everything that can be done by hand is done by hand, even if a machine could do it- and most of the dyes for the fabrics are all natural (i guess there's a movment in India to get rid of chemical dyes by 2010!). It was interesting to see all of the places where people were working- making honey, making food, weaving and dying fabrics. There is also a school on the grounds so there were a lot of young boys playing cricket. We went into a small classroom for little kids that were mostly orphans and they sang songs for us in different languages that they're learning. Our guide for the day was this guy who was probably in his 20s. He said that he was born on the colony and went to school there and now he's working there. The people didn't get paid a lot to work there, but they got good benifits and retirement plans- which seems pretty progressive to me.

I guess that was mostly my weekend. Although- last night was the last night of Naviratiri, and so all of the trees have lights in them, and all of the cars have flowers and banana leaves on them. We saw dozens of rickshaws lined up in a field that's usually empty- all really decorated. We were wondering what they were doing there and then about 3 hours later they all drove by our house on parade- honking their horns, full of screaming children. And our litte brother Ajit ran after them- really excited to see them pass by.

Today i went to the potter and he took some pictures of me and his nephew and neice and the potters wheel. I will maybe post them up online later this week. Pottery is so thereputic. no matter how tired or stressed or exhausted from India I am- it always makes me feel better.

that's it for now. I hope you're all well! keep me updated on what you're up to!

much love,

--- catie