That One Spiritually Sad Weekend

This weekend had some high points but there were plenty of low points as well. We said goodbye to Dance Master on Friday night. I keep expecting her to come out of her room and wonder why I am not seeing her exercise every morning. Then I remember that she is gone. Lame.  Our new Dance Master is named Katie, and we are all absolutely in love with her, it is just sad that we can’t keep both of them with us. 

We spent this past Saturday in Chennai. In the morning we visited St. Thomas Mount, which is a catholic church located by the beach in Chennai. St. Thomas is the apostle that was sent to preach the gospel in India, so there are a lot of things dedicated to him around here. The cool thing about this church is that it is supposedly where the actual remains of St. Thomas are located. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the actual shrine, even though his remains were underneath that shrine and not visible anyway, however it was still really cool. There was a boys and girls side to sit at the shrine (the boys and girls are separated for a lot of different things in India) but not all of us realized that, until after we got up to leave the shrine and realized that we had been sitting on the mens sides. Oops! Sorry homeboys. Besides the shrine, we visited the cathedral that is part of the complex as well. It was all really ornate and beautiful. Katie, is a strong catholic, so it was cool to visit these places with her because she gave us explanations and perspectives that we would have missed out on had we not had her with us.

I didn’t know this but there are apparently only three church in the world that are built over/contain the remains of one of the original 12 apostles. There is St. Peters in Rome, James (?) in Spain, and St. Thomas in India. I realized today that I have visited two of those three places. Sometimes I’ll pause to think about the opportunities I have been blessed to have and I feel so grateful to have had so many different experiences. I don’t know how I got so lucky. It is very humbling to think about. 

After St. Thomas Mount, we went to Phenoix Mall. We ate CPK, found another American market that had treasures such as Twix bars and pop tarts—only I didn’t buy the pop tarts because they were crazy expensive.  The Twix didn’t taste exactly the same, but it was still worth every rupee I spent on it. I also found some raspberry sorbet—which I could of eaten ridiculous amounts of but didn’t. It is probably a good thing the sorbet was expensive as well. While at the mall we got the sad news that Ashley and Jace would have to leave for home early. Like home as in the USA. :( None of us like that very much-not even Jace and Ashley.

Katie and I had quiet the adventure on Sunday too-trying to find her an English speaking mass service. We were told there was one at 11, so she came with us to sacrament meeting and then she and I left to go over to the mass--which wasn't in fact at 11, it was at 11:30 and it wasn't in English at all--it was purely Tamil. There was a garden on the grounds that had the different cross statues in it--basically it told the the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The plan was to kill some time there, but before we even made it to the statues a security guard showed us to this locked door, which is unlocked and gave us a "private" showing of what was inside. There was a bleeding cross that St. Thomas had carved into a stone, as well as the fountain of healing waters. Just outside that there was a gate around a large stone that according to the gaurd had St. Thomas footprints on. I couldn't really see them, but neither could Katie so I quickly got over feeling bad about that. 

I didn't know what to expect from my first mass, and unfortunately I had to leave a little early to touch base with the rest of the group, but it was pretty interesting. The thing that got me the most was the florescent lights everywhere. The cathedral would of blended in nicely in Las Vegas. Katie assured me that wasn't standard, but it made both of us chuckle some. 

The rest of Sunday was spent driving home and helping Jace and Ash get ready to leave. Ashley has been having a hard time with her medical issues and it is only getting worse. I understand and am supportive of her doing what she needs to do, but it still makes me really sad. It made all of us really sad. The worst part is we found out Saturday and they left Sunday night. We had a great time the month they were here, so I am trying to focus on those memories, but if I’m honest I am pretty bummed about it. I just hope they are able to get answers to the list of questions they have so that Ashley can finally start to feel better. We are still really sad about it though. 

Molgovadi

Molgovadi is a popular colony around these parts—these parts meaning Rising Star Outreach and specifically the Elephant House. Molgovadi is where the infamous J. Raj lives. He is a colony leader that is always dancing and singing. I have mentioned dancing and singing in other colonies but J. Raj takes it to a whole new lever. J. Raj creates the level.  Even when you ask  him his name, he sings his reply of “I am J. Raj”, complimented with hand actions and everything.

It's a small colony, and everyone there is always so happy—so I hear, but I also witnessed it myself today as well. This one little lady broke my heart some though. When we arrived she came out (scooted out of her house) to see us—she is not able to walk and is the tiniest little thing ever. I hear she is a legendary Jenga player, but I have never seen it. She wasn’t feeling good at all today. She had a big abscess in her mouth that had swollen out into her cheek. I went over to sit with her and after I had greeted her, she grabbed my hands and brought them both to her mouth where she kissed them. For the next little bit I just sat by her as she leaned on me and held my hand. I have come know that the sense of touch, the sense of not being alone, the sense of companionship (no matter how casual or how short the visit it), the sense of having someone by you, does wonders for your soul. I know that some would say that is a universal truth, that it's the same for/ain all walks of life, but I see it most poignantly within the colonies. I think everyone should have the experience of being a comfort to a resident in a leprosy colony at least once in their lives. It is an incredibly powerful experience.   

When the work was finished, J. Raj broke out his bandana and started a dance party, which of course we all joined in for. He had certain moves that we were all expected to mimic-and it was a riot. Our newest team member, Ciera (I LOVE HER---I’m so glad she is here) jumped right in too, holding nothing back. The dance party lasted for a while, but every second was worth it. We have some sweet videos of that too. I’m quiet happy with the India Video Collection I am acquiring. Some of these memories are too great for words to describe them alone.

On our way back from colony we stopped in the junction and Dance Master and I went to have our eyebrows threaded. Well, actually, she went to do it, I was just watching and keeping her company. But then I decided to give it a try. I was nervous, and there is a small part of me that feels like the lady may have done mine a little too thin, but oh well I guess. You only live once. Plus, it was only the equivalent of  50 cents so why not. I was really surprised by how much it hurt though. I have waxed my eyebrows, plucked my eyebrows, etc. so I didn’t expect it to be any different but holy cow it hurt—probably because for the first time ever all my surrounding little blonde hairs were yanked out too. 

Here is a pic of Em looking fresh while being threaded.

Oh yeah, and speaking about hair, earlier this week I thought I had caught lice. Luckily, it ended up being a false alarm though. I know it is more of a reality here then anywhere else, but I would still like to avoid it if at all possible. Crisis averted for now at least. Fingers crossed that it stays that way for a long time! 

My Very First Blood Drip

This past rest day we went to Mamallapuram. Not everyone went though. It actually ended up being Dance Master and I who chilled together all day. It was nice though, nice to spend some one on one time with her before she leaves for home this coming Friday.  We watched a family of monkeys steal from humans and hiss at dogs for a bit, got amazing foot and leg massages, ate a lot of pizza and may or may not have accidently/kind of purposely put ourselves in the middle of a religious celebration.

It was obvious that something was going on in the temple behind the pizza restaurant because the music was super loud and ongoing, but when we saw this little party of people start walking around, we knew we needed to investigate further.  

By the time we got done paying for our pizza, they had gone up the street and down the beach. We walked down there only to find that this processional of people were continually moving up the street, back towards the temple. Each of the houses along the way had what I would described as offerings set outside them, and when the procession reached each house, the head of the house would come out, present their offering, and then wash the feet of all the members of the processional. Of course this was done to drumming and singing and lets not forget the two men that started dancing in front of the procession. We were trying to figure out what compelled them to just start randomly dancing, and we concluded that they must have been moved upon by whatever God it was they were celebrating because there seemed to be no rhyme or reasons to the dancing, when people would join in, etc. It was cool, but it was almost kind of scary because it was like they were in a trance, either possessed or high/drunk or all three. The people around them had to push them where to go to make sure they didn’t run into walls or whatever else was near to them.

After the offering was made at one of the houses, the lady of the house turned to Dance Master and I and quickly painted a bindi on each of us. I have never been offered a bindi in this fashion before, so I was so excited, except of course I was sweating so much that mine instantly started to drip with the sweat so it ended up looking like I was bleeding from my forehead but whatever. I have come to expect nothing less from my overactive sweat glands. I really hope they calm down once I am out of this climate because if not, I’m going to be super embarrassed about it. She had us come in for a minute, her kids were giggling at us, it was very authentic and very kind.

Anyway, back to the processional. IT WAS SO COOL!  Ever since I got here, I’ve been saying that I wish we were able to attend traditional ceremonies. There is no rule against that but we usually can’t since they mostly take place a night and we can't leave the campus after dark. SO—at least one more Indian bucket list item was checked off today. Hopefully that won’t be the only ceremony I attend in my time here. It was simply fascinating. Sometimes I wonder if I should of gotten some sort of degree in anthropology. I absolutely love learning about and observing all the different ways people live life. It is amazing to me how many similarities we all have, they just usually come in slightly different forms that unless you are paying close attention to them, you wouldn’t necessarily catch it. Ill have to see if I can get some of my videos to load--I've been having issues with uploading those lately.