We're back, and happy to be here. There's more for us to do, so for the present this feels like home! The children were as happy to see us as we were to see them. I'm sure there's always doubt that anyone will really return. We ended our stay in the US with a great board meeting for Rising Star Outreach at the beautiful home of JaLynn and Greg Prince. Our added bonus was having three more days with Matthew and Natalie Hanson and four of our great grandsons before we headed back.
We arrived during the week of Pongol (harvest festival), the biggest of all the holidays in Southern India (at least big in the length of time they celebrate--five days.) The children will return to school today, after many days off. We're all excited-- the children are ready to get back to a regular schedule. Big event on Thursday was our first official field trip. Children, house mothers, cooks, and assorted others were loaded into five vans for the drive to a nearby bird sanctuary and Mammalapuram, a big tourist attraction at the beach. Exciting day--it almost finished off the adults, but the children having been up since 4:00a.m. were pretty exhausted as well. Ron was so grateful not to have lost children in the high surf or scrambling over the great rock formations. Counting noses at the end of the day and having the same number as at the beginning was big!
In the afternoon, we headed for the local village, Thottenaval, for a celebration with them of the blessing of the cows, part of the Pongol celebration. The cows were beautifully decorated--clean, painted and decked with balloons, flowers, seashell necklaces, etc. The children and mothers were also colorfully attired, with new clothes or saris if possible. We were invited into three homes after the drum corp and parade show, and the puja (Hindu prayer with food offering) was completed. We received food: hot buffalo milk with sugar, fruit, sweets, and chapatti with sugar, as well as a gift of money for each of us. There is much we are learning about kindness and generosity. We find ourselves being the receivers, more often than not.
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