So what have I been up to?
Well for Shivratri in early March I spent some time in Varanassi again. I love the city. I love it’s crass face-to-face confrontation with death…the bodies being burned by the river. IT’s beautiful…what’s not is the touts, fake sadhus, large groups of travelers wanting only to get high and the store after store of “hippie” clothing to tailor to the aforementioned.
On the 20th 4 friends and I left for Bikaner. Spent the day in the desert looking at the fort and stepping gingerly in the “Rat Temple” (a temple filled with rats (supposedly incarnates of a minstrel caste). One rat stopped for some time tickling my big toe with his whiskers…supposedly good luck. We also saw a white rat (rare and an even better omen) however it was dying from a horrible wound/disease in its head – now, that can’t be auspicious. We headed to Jaisalmer on a typically horrid bus ride. Spent the day running away from young children as they tried to cover us with powder in preparation for the festival of Holi (if you don’t know what this is…google search it) On Jaisalmer day 2 we headed to the desert after booking tickets with the most sketchy tour operator ever. For the first morning of our trip we had creepy guides and crazy lazy camels as we toured “ruins”. For the afternoon we were jeep-ed further out of town and met the camel guide, his posse and our camels (mine, a good looking camel if there ever was one was called Shar Rukh Khan…unfortunately on the second day another camel Kalobi was feeling ill and, as one of the smaller people of the group, I had to ride Kalobi and give up SRK for the day…luckily Kalobi regained his strength and Shar Rukh and I enjoyed our last day together) Anywhoo… on the first day, bumping through the flat dry lands with small sparse brush through a random dune or two to this little (opposite) oasis of dunes. We spent our first night sleeping under an insanely bright moon on the dunes…it was beautiful!!!!! The second night we spent in the middle of the flat desert beside a tree size cactus and a ruined city. Luckily, the security guy of this ruin city also played the flute and offered to play for us as we fell asleep. It was wonderful. The last day we returned to the city with sore chaffed asses and headed to Jaipur for the Elephant festival.
Held in a stadium the elephant festival is a touristy thing as the maharaja and royals ride in on very elaborately painted elephants. Dancers and musicians fill the stadium and the camels, dancing horses and elephants parade around. A ridiculous polo match on elephants ensued. At the end of the day they asked those who wanted to play holi to stay in the stadium and those who didn’t to leave. Since my buddy ethel heard you got free shirts to play holi she charged towards the center ground. I got asked if I wanted to ride an elephant and play holi. Of course. So Mr. Elephant Driver, Some random Elephant guy, Me, Julie and Ethel all packed on an elephant and started the colour pant war with those on the ground and on other elephants. It was amazing. All the pant flying through the air, the photographers…By the time we got off the elephant we were completely covered with paint. Completely. The rest of the vacation will have to be explained at a later time.
…
As for work, the workshop Mona and I created has passed. As the solo facilitator for the majority of the workshop and the girls chaperone I’m exhausted but happy and content with my work. The girls learned so much and had a lot of fun. I’m amazed by how quickly their skill in photography developed and with how much their attitudes change and knowledge grew regarding HIV/AIDS. The workshop was meant to bring in 2 girls from 5 countries and send them home as empowered and skilled in photography and HIV/AIDS peer educators-I think that goal was accomplished. It feels good but you know how it is, I still think I could have done a better job. Oh well. It’s the weekend!!!!
