Last Saturday I rode a camel! Yes, a camel! We went on a camel safari in the Pushkar desert. My camel's name is Baba and he is 15 years old, which is pretty old for a camel because they usually only live 20 to 25 years. The camel driver, Jay, was super nice and friendly, and spoke really good English. I could talk to him about a lot of things. Jay was only 23, and he'd started camel driving when he was 13! I loved riding on a camel. I felt super alive when it started trotting, like I was just another part of it. Other than a sore butt, I loved every part of it. The view was also really nice. I could see a lot since the camel didn't go very fast. We camped out in the desert and it was so much fun. It’s crazy how we were camping in the desert and a week before we had been camping in the Himalayas. The dinner, surprisingly, was really good. We had grilled chicken, grilled paneer, bread rolls that were cooked underground, dahl, and potatoes. Sitting around the campfire, talking was pretty cool too. We told stories and talked about our experience in India. The next morning I woke up early to see the sunrise. It was very different than the one in the Himalayas, because we were at sea level instead of 10,000 feet, but it was still spectacular. At 7:30 we packed up our things and rode our camels back to town. We went to a little hotel where we cleaned up and had breakfast. We walked around Pushkar and then went to a natural lake. The lake in considered holy water, where Brahma, one of the three main Hindu gods, the Creator, and his second wife Gayatri had a ceremony. Many people bathed and prayed there. We did the ceremony of prayer that the pilgrims were doing. It consisted of offering seven things: red powder for good health; yellow powder for luck; rice for food provisions; sugar for sweet relationships; flowers for peace; the holy string for safe travels; and a coconut as a donation to the gods. We also went to the one and only Brahma temple in all of India. There were tons of people from all over trying to get in. Since Brahma is one of the three main gods, it was pretty cool to be there. It's interesting though because all the other gods, including the other two main gods, have hundreds of temples around India, and Brahma only has one. The market in Pushkar is huge! I got a traditional Indian boys shirt, for Diwali, and a journal where I'm going to write about every day from now on. We also saw a small street performance of two girls who were extremely flexible and did a bunch of tricks. My time in Pushkar was really, really fun. Later that day my mom got home safely from Nepal. She had been there since Tuesday for a small vacation with a friend. She had a great time in Nepal while we were having a great time in Pushkar.
Monday and Tuesday morning were the funnest I’ve had in a long time. On Monday I went to the YDN center to celebrate Diwali with the kids who go there with the volunteers in the mornings. Turns out some of the Young Dreamers went there too since they didn’t have school. We decorated the classroom, did a type of painting with colored powder on the ground, and played a bunch of games. At one point, for a reason unknown, all of us piled into a tiny room. Chaos erupted, we started playing keep away with a ball and every person in the room jumped on the person with the ball. I was tussling and letting my energy out with boys my age for the first time since August 30. It was really really fun celebrating Diwali with them and I was sad when they left because I knew some of them I wouldn't see again. Tuesday morning rivaled Monday morning. We celebrated Diwali with The Elephant Village kids this time. We did some of the same things, decorated the classes, did the painting with powder, and played, played, played. It wasn’t quite as chaotic as the day before since we had much more space, but there were more kids. It’s amazing how open and friendly the kids are with you, within minutes I had them all over me asking me to play with them. It was really fun, running around with them throwing a ball around. I picked kids up, swung ‘em around, and put them on my shoulder. Some of the little ones ran up to me and put their arms up for me to hold with. In just two hours I connected with them so much, I will miss them. Those two days playing with both groups of kids, celebrating one of their major holidays, was awesome.
Wednesday was the main day of Diwali. We celebrated it at Kusum’s house. She is Saarthak’s founder. That’s the nonprofit that partners with Young Dreamers. Right when we got there, just after 3:00 we started decorating the house with flowers and colorful streamers, which looks like the tradition here. When we finished decorating we sat down to learn about what Diwali is and what the traditions are. Diwali is the day Lord Rama went back home after defeating Ravan, the Hindu devil. The day he came back to his home everyone celebrated, that day is Diwali. They also pray to Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth. We didn’t really do anything after learning about that. I was actually pretty confused because for two hours we just sat around and it didn’t seem that festive. At 5:30 everybody got changed, the girls into their saris and the boys into their traditional boys clothes. At 6:45 it was time to do the prayer. Everybody took a turn holding the candle and that was really special because it felt right then like I was part of Diwali. Diwali is the Festival of Lights so there are tons of light strings on buildings, and also exploding fireworks in the streets all night long. It was great learning about the main Hindu holiday. I had quite the experience on Diwali.
No comments:
Post a Comment