Colors of Holi

As we mentioned earlier in the blog, Holi was celebrated on Wednesday. This is also known as the "Festival of Color," for reasons that will be obvious as you read further. There are many different stories that relate the origins of Holi, but the rituals of celebration generally include a big bonfire at night and throwing bright colors at people during the day. Part of the reasoning for the colors is a welcoming of spring. Apparently, all the spring-blooming flowers were mashed up into colors. This is a picture from the 1800s showing Krishna playing with holi colors, so it has been going on for a while.

We had a holi celebration today with the middle school students down at our sports field. The festivities actually started with a water fight. The colors that we throw are powdered, so this makes them stick (and dye one's skin) more effectively.

After a few minutes of water fighting, we started handing out handfuls of colored powders to the students. It was fun to watch the different methods of dispersal that the students and staff used. Some threw the powder in big puffs of color while others got up close and smeared the color on wet faces.

Regardless of the methods, everyone got very well covered in bright colors.

As you look at the colors on Dave's shirt below, keep in mind that it was white when we walked down to the field.

Everyone had a great time celebrating this unique cultural event. There were even snacks and drinks available when we all got tired out. The snacks turned green from the colors on our hands, but it was a nice treat.

In this final picture, you can see the two of us after our holi experience. The group below us on the field was still fighting with water, but we had called it a day.

Now that we've experienced holi, we might take the day off next year. Even after a couple of showers, we're still finding pink streaks in our hair and green splotches in our ears.

Dave and Beth

Mehndi and Manicures

Every month or so, teachers, dorm parents, and all others who have a hard time saying "no" when asked to help out are enlisted to offer "Saturday clubs" to small groups of middle school kids. This past Saturday, our friend Emily and Beth held a "Mehndi and Manicure" club for any interested girly girls around campus.

The easy part of "Mehndi and Manicures" definitely has to be the manicure portion. Painting fingernails and toenails is pretty much an innate talent for girls. Mehndi, on the other hand, is an acquired art. Our best mehndi maker was Aparajita, an eighth grader who has turned mehndi into a hobby! The rest of our girls had a great time practicing their designs too.

By the end of the morning, Emily and Beth had arms filled with butterflies, hearts, and declarations of love for their husbands. The girls really went to town! The good news is, it's still cold enough to wear long sleeve shirts and to only bare our beautiful arms when absolutely necessary. (Did we mention that the mehndi designs last around 2 weeks?)

Dave and Beth

Holy Holi!

Those that keep up with the major cultural events in India will realize that today is the festival of Holi. You may all be wondering why we didn't put any pictures of this colorful festival on our blog. To be perfectly honest, we were a bit too busy to make it into the bazaar today and a bit scared of what might happen if we did. Apparently, foreigners like ourselves are prime targets for molestation and aggressive coloring. Luckily, the school has organized a tamer version of the festival on campus Saturday morning. We're planning on going to that and we look forward to lots of pictures when we're done.

Dave and Beth

Beth the Nurse

On both of the school trips that we've taken (activity week and Lucknow), Beth was put in charge of the first aid kit. This past weekend, our room became the de facto health center as kids approached Beth feeling pukish or having a headache.

If you ever need an ibuprofen, Beth is the person to see.

Dave and Beth

Luckwow!

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to see a new part of India. The grade six students at school took a three day fieldtrip to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. The students were reading a book in English class about the first Indian War of Independence in 1857, so they were there to learn more about the history first-hand.

The first step in our journey was getting there. Lucknow is about 10 hours away, so we took an overnight train that left Wednesday evening after school. The kids enjoyed jumping around from bunk to bunk before we finally made them got to bed. It wasn't the most restful night of sleep, but when we woke up we were only a short distance from Lucknow.

Once in the city, we were off to see the sights. First on the list was the Imambara, a complex built by the old nawabs of Lucknow in the 18th century.

The favorite part of the students was the maze inside designed to keep the Muslim women from finding their ways out of the building and mixing with the men. The kids also enjoyed making it up to the top of the building and taking in the views of Lucknow.

After the Imambara we visited the Lucknow cantonment church. In the time of the British rule, most cities were divided into civil and military areas. This church was built for the garrison and was very similar to the church that figures in the opening of the book that the students were reading for English class. We took the opportunity to get a good group shot of the whole class together.

After a restful night's sleep at the hotel we visited the La Martiniere school. This boys school was established in the mid-19th century (only a few years before Woodstock) and the students of the school volunteered to assist in the defense of Lucknow during the siege of the Residency in 1957. We got our advisor group together for a nice group shot.

Though we did see a lot of historical sights on our tour of Lucknow, we also made some time for modern conveniences. We visited two malls over the course of the weekend to avail ourselves of the air conditioning and enjoy KFC, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. The students also had a chance to do some shopping for little things that they thought their parents and siblings might like.

After spending a couple hours at the Sahara mall above, we made our way to the Residency. This is where the British Resident lived during colonial times (he was the official government representative in Lucknow). The Residency was the center of the Rebellion of 1857 (as it was called by the British) when it was surrounded and seiged by the Indian forces that mutineed against their officers. The kids looked around and took notes before we played some games in the field waiting for the sound and light show to begin after dark.

The next morning was our final day in Lucknow. We wanted to take the sixth graders to visit a haveli. This was one of the large estates owned by the wealthy in the colonial times and they also figure in the book that the students were reading. We had a connection from school that brought us to the house of one of the descendents of the Nawab of Lucknow. He opened his home to us and gave us a tour of the old estate.

After all the sightseeing, the kids were ready for another break. To kill the time between our haveli tour and the train ride home, we visited the home of one of our students. His family is a little on the wealthy side and they told us that we could use their movie theater. Even though the movie was in Hindi without subtitles, it was still an enjoyable experience. The plush leather seats and massaging footrests were an especially nice touch.

After our taste of luxury, some of the students were rudely greeted with our train home. Due to booking problems, we were in a slightly lower class for the trip back to Dehradun. It was dank and dirty, but the kids still seemed to have fun socializing.

It was a great trip, but it was really tiring. We left on Saturday night to take the overnight train and didn't make it to our home in Mussoorie until about 3:00 in the afternoon yesterday. After a quick nap, we brushed our teeth and went to bed. This left little time for lesson planning so we were, essentially, flying by the proverbial seats of our pants today at school. All went fairly well and we're feeling pretty confident about the rest of the week.

Dave and Beth

Security

One more post about monkeys...

We received an e-mail from the administration this week announcing that we finally had a proposed solution to the monkey problem on campus. Rather than trapping and removing the rhesus monkeys that plague us on the way to school, we have hired attack langurs to show them who's boss. We haven't seen any of the pesky brown monkey since these guys have moved into the neighborhood.

(thanks to Mr Plonka for the second picture)

Hopefully it will stay that way.

Dave and Beth

Zig Zag

When we were living in Chicago, we had the luxury of leaving for church on Sunday mornings about 10 minutes before the scheduled starting time. We were only about 12 blocks away, so it did not take us long to get into the car and drive over. Here in Mussoorie, things are a little bit different. The church that we have been attending (and at which we are now teaching Sunday school) is all the way at the top of the hill. We usually need to give ourselves at least 40 minutes to get to church on time. Most of the trip is spent negotiating the Zig Zag Trail. This aptly-named trail has 13 switchbacks between our house and the top of the hill (we counted today as we were taking pictures).

By the time we get to the last stretch of the trail, we begin to wonder why we didn't choose to attend a church that was downhill and along the road so that we could just take a taxi. As we clear the last bit of path though, we are given a beautiful view of the Himalayas.

Then we remember that, in addition to enjoying our time at church, we can see the beauty of God's creation.

The hard part, of course, is going to be when the monsoon rains come back and we'll have to check our blog to remember what these mountains look like.

Dave and Beth