Last evening at the close of day, I bathed and readied myself for bed. As I was slipping my nightgown over my head, I realized I was not alone, A small gecko, about 4" long with lovely black eyes was in the folds of the gown. I don't know which was the more surprised party: Gecko or me! Anyway, as a result of its presence, there seemed to be fewer bites when I woke this morning than usual and for that I am grateful.
Yesterday at 5:30 in the afternoon we heard music and drums and the hostess in my home fetched me to watch the parade of the gods. It seems when signs are auspicious, certain gods are taken from their temples , garlanded, draped and carried on raised dias' by large groups of men throughout the streets of the village. These gods are preceeded by drummers and sax players and the procession is quite reminiscent of something one might see in the French Quarter or New Orleans. The procession stops at each home where a food offering is presented, the food is offered to the god and if the god is pleased (I never saw displeasure) some of the fire of the god is placed on the metal plate on which the food was offered and taken into the home where the family pulls the smoke over their head and face then the fire is taken to the pooja room to rest until the embers cool.
Today is India's Republic Day, a celebration of Independence from Britian. We were told it has been 60 years but I am seeing media reports that place it at 59. Either way, we attended one celebration after another all day commemorating this freedom. We started out the day at a school where it was a holiday but all of the children presented their science fair projects. This school has children from age three to age 15 and even the three year olds had poster boards of birds with different types of beaks and why each is shaped differently. All had memorized a 1-2 minute explanation of their project in English even though most of the younger children could not even understand, "What is your name?" There were Christmas trees with cotton snow and pictures of mary and Baby Jesus on them and a model (in the third grade) of a Baptist mission and the student recited a two minute biography of Jesus. Some projects depicted the components of a healthy diet, others talked of fair trade practices (all of this at age 8 and younger).
Chris and Regina were taken upstairs to the 9th and 10th standard (our Junior/senior equivalent) where they were treated to various chemistry experiments that had the two coughing sulferic acid fumes and having to leave and evacuate rooms where experiments had not gone quite as planned..We were then treated to a 45 minute movie of highlights of the school's past year while we ate lunch then one of the top level students in her last year there came in in classical dance costume and performed a 10 minute classical dance depicting the emotions of caution, fear, anger, anziety, happiness, joy, expectancy. Quite well done.
We were also taken to the Police parade grounds where several different dance and martial arts schools did demonstrations. The first place prize was taken by the school for defectives. Thse are children and young adults who are deaf, blind, unable to speak or retarded. Their rhythms were clearly not as tight as the other troupes but they had spirit and beaming smiles and creative costumes and that netted them top place in the competition. We are now in an hour long rest period prior to getting in cars again and heading for Guder for three nights. We need to be there by 6:30PM for Republic Day ceremonies at a large school there followed by dinner.
I have not mentioned this before but we have been seeing swastikas on trucks and busses and painted on sides of temples off and on since we arrived here. They are a Hindu symbol for peace and prosperity and not what we have always equated them as a Nazi symbol. Things are not always as they appear here and that is a good example. In Anantapur, there were red flags drapping the medians and traffic circles throughout town and rickshaws with speakers atop them draped in red and young people in the streets in red shirts and red scarves. The communist party had a week long rally in town to recruit young workers into their ranks. Apparently there has been a presence here for years but it is not looked on as any kind of threat as it does not seem to appeal to very many people....especially now that so many jobs are coming into this area through outsourcing from International Companies to India.
Sunday in Gudar we have another Vocational Day scheduled. Monday we visit Rotary projects thought out the area and Tuesday we go to Sullerpet for the day to visit a bird sanctuary then have lunch and rest for the afternoon at the home of the Sullerpet Rotary President. At 7:30 Tuesday evening we board a train for Hyderabad and will arrive there around 6 the following morning. Our last two days will be spent there in the company of the District Governor, the GSE Chair and a few of the Rotarians we have met along the way. In less than a week we will be home
Yesterday at 5:30 in the afternoon we heard music and drums and the hostess in my home fetched me to watch the parade of the gods. It seems when signs are auspicious, certain gods are taken from their temples , garlanded, draped and carried on raised dias' by large groups of men throughout the streets of the village. These gods are preceeded by drummers and sax players and the procession is quite reminiscent of something one might see in the French Quarter or New Orleans. The procession stops at each home where a food offering is presented, the food is offered to the god and if the god is pleased (I never saw displeasure) some of the fire of the god is placed on the metal plate on which the food was offered and taken into the home where the family pulls the smoke over their head and face then the fire is taken to the pooja room to rest until the embers cool.
Today is India's Republic Day, a celebration of Independence from Britian. We were told it has been 60 years but I am seeing media reports that place it at 59. Either way, we attended one celebration after another all day commemorating this freedom. We started out the day at a school where it was a holiday but all of the children presented their science fair projects. This school has children from age three to age 15 and even the three year olds had poster boards of birds with different types of beaks and why each is shaped differently. All had memorized a 1-2 minute explanation of their project in English even though most of the younger children could not even understand, "What is your name?" There were Christmas trees with cotton snow and pictures of mary and Baby Jesus on them and a model (in the third grade) of a Baptist mission and the student recited a two minute biography of Jesus. Some projects depicted the components of a healthy diet, others talked of fair trade practices (all of this at age 8 and younger).
Chris and Regina were taken upstairs to the 9th and 10th standard (our Junior/senior equivalent) where they were treated to various chemistry experiments that had the two coughing sulferic acid fumes and having to leave and evacuate rooms where experiments had not gone quite as planned..We were then treated to a 45 minute movie of highlights of the school's past year while we ate lunch then one of the top level students in her last year there came in in classical dance costume and performed a 10 minute classical dance depicting the emotions of caution, fear, anger, anziety, happiness, joy, expectancy. Quite well done.
We were also taken to the Police parade grounds where several different dance and martial arts schools did demonstrations. The first place prize was taken by the school for defectives. Thse are children and young adults who are deaf, blind, unable to speak or retarded. Their rhythms were clearly not as tight as the other troupes but they had spirit and beaming smiles and creative costumes and that netted them top place in the competition. We are now in an hour long rest period prior to getting in cars again and heading for Guder for three nights. We need to be there by 6:30PM for Republic Day ceremonies at a large school there followed by dinner.
I have not mentioned this before but we have been seeing swastikas on trucks and busses and painted on sides of temples off and on since we arrived here. They are a Hindu symbol for peace and prosperity and not what we have always equated them as a Nazi symbol. Things are not always as they appear here and that is a good example. In Anantapur, there were red flags drapping the medians and traffic circles throughout town and rickshaws with speakers atop them draped in red and young people in the streets in red shirts and red scarves. The communist party had a week long rally in town to recruit young workers into their ranks. Apparently there has been a presence here for years but it is not looked on as any kind of threat as it does not seem to appeal to very many people....especially now that so many jobs are coming into this area through outsourcing from International Companies to India.
Sunday in Gudar we have another Vocational Day scheduled. Monday we visit Rotary projects thought out the area and Tuesday we go to Sullerpet for the day to visit a bird sanctuary then have lunch and rest for the afternoon at the home of the Sullerpet Rotary President. At 7:30 Tuesday evening we board a train for Hyderabad and will arrive there around 6 the following morning. Our last two days will be spent there in the company of the District Governor, the GSE Chair and a few of the Rotarians we have met along the way. In less than a week we will be home
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