Saturday, September 30, 2017

Lessons from India

As the trip here starts to wind down, I like to spend time quietly contemplating my time here and things I've learned.
Luckily there is tons of time for this because of the language barriers and overall comfort with speaking their native language I am frequently left out of conversation.  I mention this a lot, because at times this is overwhelmingly sad. It's been a challenge for me to learn a new language- both mentally and time- wise but yet I really can't expect everyone to conform to my standard.

We slept in this morning while the others got up early for the last day of the festival event. This activity involves putting the bright red sindoor powder, used here to symbolize marriage, on the goddess statue....


And then on each other. 



While this sounds mildly entertaining, I've tangled with this red powder before and it doesn't mix well with my light hair and skin and ends up staining for days, so I'm ok with avoiding it when I can.

A big meal of chicken and fish is cooked in the house today to celebrate the end of the festival, so Roy and the guys went out this morning and had them killed 😳 and food preparations are now beginning.  Later on we'll do some shopping and roaming around town, so that sounds promising.

At this point in the game, I don't at all dread the 20 hour flight or airport logistics, I just keep thinking about getting home and back to my normal life. I'm always looking for spare moments of downtime, but after spending 2 weeks loitering around and doing lots of nothing, I think I'm better positioned to appreciate my hectic life. Just another lesson courtesy of India.


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