Border Bravado

While we were in Amritsar over quarter break, we decided to take a look at the India-Pakistan border ceremony. There is only one place where these two countries allow traffic to flow between the border and it is a little ways outside of Amritsar. The sculpture of hands clasped in peace and friendship below is a bit misleading. The ceremony was a crass display of nationalism at its worst.

When we arrived, Pakistan and India both had their flags flying high to signify that the border was still open. The ceremony that we were to attend would end with the closing of the border and the lowering of the flags.

Soldiers on both sides of the line were wearing their elaborate dress uniforms.

We could not see the Pakistan side of things very well from where we were sitting, but the Indian soldiers had a bizarre display of goose-stepping and foot-stomping all to show that they were better than their neighbors.

Any time any of the soldiers neared the actual border line, there was a fierce stare-down of the soldiers on the other side.

In the end, the two countries flags were lowered simultaneously so that they could both be equal. As soon as it was down, the soldiers grabbed India's flag and goose-stepped it back to their barracks. The border was then officially closed and no more buses could get through until the next day.

It seems likely that this is as close as we'll ever get to Pakistan. It was interesting to see such a spectacle and we're definitely glad that our national relations with Canada are a bit more civil.

Dave and Beth

We're Golden

This past weekend was our quarter break here at Woodstock and we decided to have one last traveling hurrah. Our ambitious plan involved traveling to Amritsar and Dharamsala. The first stop on our trip was the Golden Temple in Amritsar. This is the holiest site in the world for followers of the Sikh religion. Naturally, at such a sacred site, we were required to wash our feet before entering. This essentially involved stepping into a shallow pool of gross-looking water, but it seems to have gotten the job done.

The Golden Temple itself is situated in the middle of a large pool. Sikhs like to go for a quick dip to be blessed and cure illnesses. The lifeguards on duty had pretty sweet uniforms and mean-looking sticks.

We decided against swimming in the pool, but a lot of the faithful decided to take the plunge.

Another part of the Sikh religion is that men need to have their hair covered at all times. In the Golden Temple complex, the head-covering rule was extended to anyone that visited, so we made sure to keep ours covered.

One of the best parts of the Sikh religion in general and the Golden Temple in particular is the desire to feed those that come to visit. If you go to any gurudwara (Sikh temple), they will probably give you something to eat. Because the Golden Temple is such a big pilgrimage site and a big tourist destination, they have to feed lots of visitors. The whole operation involved several large rooms where people were cycled in an out. It also involves a lot of plates and cutlery.

Just outside the dining room was a huge open air kitchen. The big cauldrons below are full of dal being cooked for the guests. There were also teams of women making dough and rolling our chapatis. The man with the long stick below is actually cooking the chapatis that the women are making. We were not too trusting of the sanitary conditions of the kitchen and we're not huge fans of dal, so we decided to have lunch elsewhere.

The Golden Temple is free to visit, so after seeing some of the other sites of Amritsar, we thought we'd stop in again to see the building at night. It was a beautiful site.

People have told us that Amritsar is an overwhelming city and that we shouldn't have planned to go there over break. We found it to be no different from other large cities in India and really enjoyed our experience at the famous Golden Temple. We don't need to plan any return trips in the near future, but we're glad we visited.

Dave and Beth

India's Got Talent

The big event this past weekend was the annual staff talent show. Last year, we had the show in the fall, but this year it was moved to the spring. Rather than jumping right into the talent this year, we started with a fashion show. We decided to sit this part out because we're just not that fashionable. There were some great examples of Indian, African, Tibetan, and other clothes from our wonderful colleagues.

The actual talent section of the program was full of the usual songs, skits, and dances. There are definitely some talented folks on the staff here.

There are also some ridiculous members of staff. Dave and three other male co-workers decided to do a dance to the song Maniac from the movie Flashdance. They were all decked out in tights, leg-warmers, and cut-off sweatshirts. The dance even included the iconic scene of water being dumped on stretching dancers. It was great fun, even if the students ended up having nightmares that night.

The final event of the show was an all-staff Bollywood dance number. Dave had changed out of his tights by then and we wowed the crowd with our great dance moves.

The night was fun and a bit embarrassing. Thankfully, Dave won't be able to do an encore performance of his dance next year.

Dave and Beth

T-Shirts

We are occasionally astounded by the messages we see on t-shirts here in India. It seems that clothing companies like to take random English words that they think sound cool and place them in a random order on the shirt. Yesterday, we caught a glimpse of one of our advisees wearing what looked like an interesting one.

On close examination, his shirt proved to be completely incomprehensible.

Yet another thing to be missed when we leave India in the next few weeks.

Dave and Beth

CAREing in Middle School

As the advisors of the CARE (Community Service And Restoration of the Environment) program in the middle school, it is our job to get kids interested in this important part of their curriculum. Ever student needs to take part in at least one CARE activity per semester and this weekend, we had a morning of making useful stuff out of re-used materials. We had students making journals out of old paper:

Some were making cloth bags out of old t-shirts:

Some were making friendship bracelets out of old string and beads out of old paper:

And some were making hanging candle-holders out of old spaghetti jars:

It was a very successful morning and we're even thinking of selling some of these items at an upcoming middle school event. If we do happen to make any money, we'll donate it to some worthy community service causes.

Dave and Beth

Happy Losar!

For those that may not be aware, not only was yesterday Valentine's Day, but it was also Losar. This is the lunar New Year as celebrated in Tibet and is the biggest holiday of the year for our Tibetan students. Beth and several other teachers decided to wear their traditional Tibetan chubas to celebrate the occasion.

Ordinarily, these dresses are worn without an apron by women who aren't married. There was one other married woman besides Beth in the picture above, but she must have forgotten to put her apron on.

Dave was able to get in on the Tibetan dress action yesterday, too. One of our students brought a new shirt back from Nepal that actually fit Dave. We looked very sharp in our new Tibetan digs.

Unfortunately, this will probably be the last time that Beth wears her chuba in India. Her clothes are starting to get a bit tighter lately, and it won't be long before the baby makes it impossible to squeeze on.

Dave and Beth

Only One Day

The last stop on our travels with Emily was a day in Mussoorie. After taking our taxi from Corbett National Park up into the hills Beth and Emily went up to see the snow-capped mountains in the distance. Thankfully, the weather was clear and they had a great view of the Himalayas.

To complement the wildlife that we'd seen in Corbett, they also saw some langur monkeys on the walk around the hillside.

After going out for lunch we traveled deep into the bazaar to take a ride on Mussoorie's man-powered Ferris wheel. Dave had to sit opposite Beth and Emily to make sure that the wheel was properly balanced.

After a spin on the wheel, we got our picture taken in some traditional costumes from our area of India. These Garhwali outfits really made us feel like locals.

From Mussoorie, it was back to Delhi to drop Emily off at the airport. We had a great time with her during the trip and we're definitely looking forward to being closer to family in a few months.

Dave and Beth

Camels, Camels, and More Camels

The next stop on our tour was the city of Bikaner. This was a smaller and more relaxed urban center in Rajasthan, but it had one of our most unique experiences. To begin with, we visited the old fort that the rulers of the area used to occupy. It was really well preserved and the audio tour was quite nice.

After that, we went to the annual Bikaner Camel Festival. This was quite an experience! We were met by hundreds and hundreds of camels and camel drivers. Most were decked out in their finest.

There was an amazing parade of camels around Bikaner's municipal stadium. One of the best parts was that this event was not too touristy. The vast majority of the spectators seemed to be Indian with a few scattered Westerners. It was wonderful to see the camel beauty peagant.

There was also a contest to see who could shave the best design into their camel's wool.

We also really enjoyed the Mr Rajasthan contest that was held. I don't think that this little boy won, but it may have been a result of his attitude.

We spent a couple of hours in the hot sun, but it was definitely worth it. The only sad thing was that we had to miss the camel races that were organized for the next day because our train left too early. Oh well...maybe next year...

If you want to see more picture of these crazy camels, check out our website.

Dave and Beth

Block Printing

The second stop on our whirlwind tour of northern India was Jaipur. Again, this is a place that we've been to before, but we wanted to be sure that Emily got to experience it with us. To make us all happy, we visited a block-printing factory that we didn't have time for a year ago. Block printing is a beautiful traditional Rajasthani artform. You can buy these fabrics all over the place in Jaipur and we want to see some of it being made. It is a very labor intensive process that involves several different impressions with various patterns using different colors.

This man was a true artisan and made some beautiful pieces of fabric.

We also took a quick trip over to the palace of the winds. We saw this pink edifice from the outside when Dave's sister visited last year, but we actually had time to go inside this time.

It was a great chance to go to a place that was somewhat familiar, but see some new and interesting things. The rest of our trip to Rajasthan, though, is all uncharted territory for us.

Dave and Beth