Friday, October 30, 2009
I'm Outta Here!
- Eating crackers and tuna for lunch
- Getting blisters the size of my foot
- Peeing on a bush
- NOT showering!
- Getting to know a bunch of kids that I don't know yet. :) High schoolers...YAY!
- Experiencing God's AWESOMENESS!
- Burning lots of calories
- Trying desperately to keep warm
- Missing Chris :(
- LOVING LIFE!
Here I go! I'll take lots of pretty pictures. :)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
A Non-Issue In the States
Original E-Mail
Reply #1. "I don't think the stigma surrounding the killing of cows applies to buffalo's. In fact I'm pretty sure of this. They're viewed as a different species - most importantly, buffalos are dark, cows are white.
Still, it might be best to do a quick survey of the employees."
Reply #2. "As far as I know and believe in, being an Indian and a Hindu by religion, eating of both cows and buffaloes is not accepted. though with time, things might be changing a little bit."
Reply #3. "I completely agree, it will be unacceptable to some staff members, parents and even employees (who will be cooking)."
Reply #4. "The idea of buffalo meat gives the same feeling as the thought of cow meat, and both are considered unpalatable by Hindus living in
Reply #5. "I do not eat in the school dining room but would certainly vote against the buff meat being served here."
Reply #6. "When we were here from 1995 - 1999, buffalo was regularly served. When we arrived in July, I was quite surprised to find this is no longer the case. Most of the same employees were cooking then as now and I never heard anything negative about buffalo on religious grounds. I'd be interested in knowing when and why this changed."
Reply #7. "I humbly request that we stop the all staff replies, which I must take blame for starting even though only a vote of yes or no was requested. Please, high school students and
Reply #8. "I have read many of the responses so far. In the '90s buffalo meat was served regularly in the school. The same employees are cooking now, so why is there such an uproar about it now? I think then as now, many of the staff became vegetarian for that meal, and I guess we can do a survey and figure out how it affects meal numbers.
For me personally, as someone who is from both Hindu and Christian background, and who has in the past been non-veg for several years, it does not matter what the meat is as long as it is from a clean and healthy vendor, you either eat or do not eat meat."
Reply #9. "Dear all,
I want you all to know that this appears to be a budgeting decision but it is not.
This issue (from a budgetary perspective) was never discussed with me nor was it ever initiated by me.
I am meeting with the appropriate people and will take care of this issue. They are as surprised by all of this as me.
We will not be serving buffalo meat in the
Thank you for reading and please consider this discussion closed."
And that, non-buffalo eaters, is that!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Prayers and butt dust....
I laughed...a LOT!
.S. I've posted 7 (I think?!) blogs in the last 2 days! Can't tell if that's totally pathetic or kinda cool...I guess there's just been a lot to share!
Things Are Heatin' Up In Here!
We've got four ways to keep ourselves from entering a perpetual hypothermic state once the real cold hits...I thought I would share them with you to ease your minds!
Our beloved electric blanket, how we love thee! Since Rachel and Yvonne came, we can now heat up BOTH sides at the same time! I'm telling you, it's the little joys in life. :)
We'll be using LOTS of sweatshirts, sweaters, and long-underwear for the next few months. Someone said that in a few weeks they'll put on the thermals, and they won't come off 'til end of March. Chris definitely doesn't love the cold, and while I would rather be cold than hot, I'm not sure about CONTINUALLY cold, with few ways of heating up.
Basically, this post is to let all you faithful blog readers know that my posts may be less interesting over the next few months, since I'll be spending every free moment under my electric blanket trying not to shiver to death. :)
5th Grade Friendship Club Sleepover!!!
So far we've been working on making picture books out of fabric to eventually send to an orphanage. We want to transition them into the middle school club called "Qwest", which is a Christian/Volunteering club. They're really starting to get into it!
Only 6 of the 5th graders could come to the sleepover, but it was a BLAST! I picked them up at 4:00, we ordered food, made some food, played games, played wii, painted nails, told girl secrets, and watched a movie before they went to bed. Some of these kids are here as boarders, so haven't been with their parents for months now, and it was really fun to see their personalities change in a "home" setting. Lots of hugs and cuddling and "thank you SO MUCH Mrs. Farley!" They're sweet, SWEET kids.
Here are some of the highlights. :)
The boys didn't want to watch the same movie as the girls, and then they didn't want to watch the same movie as each other! SO, we set them up with their own laptop and headphones, and they had their own movie experiences. :) Isn't Chris cute between them?
A God of BIG Things
I substitute taught for a friend at Sunday School this last Sunday up on top of the hill that the school is located on (it's called the Chakkar). I haven't been up there since monsoon season was really over, but the snows (snow-capped peaks) were out in all their brilliance! I walked home SO SLOWLY, and just looked...I looked at the huge snow covered mountains standing protectively over all the people living in their shadow, the towering trees that went so far below me down the cud and still stood above me 50 or 60 feet. And then, I looked down and saw the thousands of pine needles, the hundreds of pebbles, all the crawling insects. God is a BIG God...and also a God over the Little Things.
These are pictures that were taken by friends of ours here at Woodstock (I got them off their blog, definitely not claiming them as mine! I think they're SO beautiful...). I haven't gotten many pictures of the peaks yet, though, and wanted to post some so you can see where we live. I felt SO peaceful after my walk, like my inner self understands its place in God's world. It was a beautiful day, and we live in a beautiful place.
Before and After...Ayah!
Diwali Pictures!
Last weekend was Diwali in India, which is basically the Hindu equivalent of Christmas. It was really fun to experience it first hand...it's actually been really fun to just experience INDIA first hand. Randomly in American T.V. shows we're watching here, or books I've been reading, there'll be references to Indian customs that I would have NEVER picked up on before...and now, I do!
Diwali (a.k.a. "festival of lights") is a five-day festival celebrated predominantly by Hindus, but also by Buddhists and Sikhs (though their legends are different). Each day, the people pray to a different god, requesting favors that relate to that god's "specialty". On one of the days everyone prays to Lakshmi - goddess of prosperity - and everyone is supposed to buy something metal...gold, silver, washing machine, silverware. Here's a picture of the metals store. It was mass chaos!
This is an example of how people would decorate the inside of their house. I didn't take this picture...found it on the internet, but think it's quite representative!
Chris and I walked into town on Saturday morning of the festival. These are some of my favorite pictures. :)
This last one has nothing to do with Diwali, but has great lighting and I just liked it. :)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Irrational Fears and Victorious Outcomes...
I was asked to speak at the weekly elementary assembly. Now, you might think "what's to fear...they're all little!" I kept trying to tell myself that, but then I'd just keep going back to how QUICKLY these little souls get BORED! You can feel a collective restlessness come over the room as soon as a speaker has overworn their attention spans...first the ECP/KG, then first, and finally 5th. By the time the 5th graders lose it, the little kiddies are all but bouncing up and down in their seats and running down the aisles!
Needless to say, I was feeling the pressure.
I decided to do a "magic show" sandwiched with a two-part story. The story was about a time that I was less than honest about my contribution to a "rule-breaking session" with my brother. Then came the magic show, which...
was AWESOME!
Here's how it went (imagine each performed with my DRAMATIC FLAIR!)
Act 1: Thumb and pointer finger magically create intertwined rings behind my head (courtesy of my Uncle Doug...WITH accompanying vocals)
APPLAUSE!!!
(encouraged by my 5th grade assistant with a sign that said "applause")
Act 2: One finger "jumps" off my right hand onto my left hand (much less cool than it sounds...also with accompanying vocals!)
APPLAUSE!!!
Act 3: The "Disappearing Man". Our friend Steve Luukkonen stands on the "stage"...on the count of three rolled off while three elementary boys jumped in front of where he was (really, they just jumped). The effect was truly mysterious...and maybe not in the good way?!
APPLAUSE!!!
Act 4: "Voice Detection" - I used my AMAZING magical powers to detect which voice was the manly 5th grade teacher...WITHOUT LOOKING! (mind you, the only other option I gave myself was a 5-year-old ECP girl, but it shouldn't diminish your impression of me!)
APPLAUSE!!!
Act 5: I made my scarf disappear! The fact that it only disappeared (through the air) into the first row of 2nd graders didn't phase the audience in the least. :)
WILD APPLAUSE!!!
It transformed into a lesson about how the things we do wrong and then try to hide are actually quite obvious to God, even if not to the people around us. I then encouraged the students to choose to "fess up" when they're tempted to blame someone else...and then come tell me about it. I already had three "fessers" yesterday!
Ultimately, I just feel really thankful that I wasn't assigned to middle school. I feel like the "magic show" would have been less of a "hit"... :)
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Mr. Georgia Tech!
Definitely didn't know he was such a country star :) I LOVE YOU BROTHER!!!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Family Visits and Hindu Experiences
The city itself is basically a "hippie" town, filled with "soul-searching foreigners" and Hindus that have devoted their lives to worship.
It is said to be more worthwhile to spend a day near the Ganges river than to live an entire life devoted to worshipping the gods of the religion...so I would imagine that a lot of people would want to live by the river! Here's some of the story...
In short (and I'm SEVERELY abbreviating the story because it's really long!), the Ganges River is the earthly form of the goddess Ganga (so it's considered to actually be holy). One of the most interesting tales I read about the goddess-form of the river is depicted in the picture below.
One day, Ganga laughed at the expense of another god, and as a result was cursed to live forever on earth. However, her earthly form (the river) was SO extreme and powerful that if she had descended to earth directly, she would have "plowed" right through the earth and flooded everything. :) SO, the god in the picture above offered to use his dreadlocks to slow the flow of Ganga, and just moved one of his dreadlocks aside to allow the river to flow as it does today. The spot of origin is a glacier called Gangotri (a trek that we'll eventually make). From Gangotri the river splits into eight forks, which all converge at Hardwar (only about 2 hours away...another weekend trip!). And, Rishikesh is down the river from Hardwar and an important location in the Hindu religion.
We were only in Rishikesh for one full day, but I really feel like we got a good introduction to the city. We took a yoga class in the morning, and got to observe a Hindu festival that happens twice daily. Every morning at sunrise and every evening at sunset a "festival of lights" is put on to worship the river. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what it all means, but here are some pictures. It was really interesting...but I'm still wading through my spiritual/emotional reactions to the whole experience.
Rachel, Yvonne and I decided to wear our saris into town....and WHAT an experience! Apparently, people in Rishikesh are VERY used to foreigners, and are NOT used to foreigners wearing saris. So, what we were expecting to be a "fitting in" experience was actually a "STANDING WAY OUT" experience. We got SO many looks, LOTS of stares and pointing and comments, and even got asked for quite a few pictures! Here's gaggle of women...
Another really neat experience we had was visiting a local Hindu temple...with a Hindu guide! A guy from our hotel offered to take us to the temple, and was kind enough to entertain my many ignorant questions. Apparently, there are over 33,000,000 gods...did you know that?! Each god represents different aspects of life, and Hindus present their requests to the god that best represents their problem. Then, they ring a bell which sends the spiritual energy out into the universe. Here are some of the physical representations that they pray to...
And lastly, we all got henna tattoos (a.k.a. mindi) done! Unfortunately, we got TOTALLY ripped off (which I found out once I got back to school and compared prices) but it was a fun experience...and Rachel's #1 to do, so I guess it was worth it. It took forever, but now we've got some sweet tattoos for a week or so. Fun fun!