Feelings: India

Hey loved ones,

we're all safe and sound in Sikkim, which is a groovy, magical mountain state that only became a part of this wild country in 1975. but to backtrack a bit-our last blog post said only "holi hell" and some mysterious thing happened to the rest of the blog. Its gone. Maybe forever. Our very own Hillary Brown assures us it was a great one, too. A moment of silence for the fallen soldier............. moment over. back to reality.

when we last checked in, the crew was in Kolkata. We volunteered at the Mother Theresa Homes, working with all different kinds of people. The people we worked with ran the gamut from old, young, deathly ill, seriously injured, mentally disabled, totally sane, mute, fluent in English, and then some. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it was eye opening in a lot of ways. Its difficult to say how it affected all of us here because we each had totally different experience. But I can confidently say that the volunteering lived up to its reputation as a draining, sometimes heartbreaking, hugely rewarding experience. For some of us, it was incredibly difficult to say goodbye. Hillary got really close with a little boy named Phillip. She gave him a guitar and sang him Simon and Garfunkel every day. Karen had a huge bond with a boy named Johnny, getting him to laugh and talk more than most other volunteers ever could. The sheer scope of the city, its poverty, and its density was a sight to behold. Our last day in Kolkata was the festival of Holi, which was just about as wild as wild can be. It's celebrated by throwing water and dye at everyone you see. We celebrated it mostly in the backpacker neighborhood, where drummers pounded out beats and a mix of fellow volunteers and locals danced and threw dye. By the end of it, we were all pretty unrecognizable. Our faces, bodies and clothes were entirely covered with green, pink, red, blue, and black dye. Most of us have recovered, but some of us still have visible remnants. Chrys, for example, still has bright pink hair. Karen has a lot of pink in her hair as well, but at least all the green is out. All of us have patches and streaks, but I happen to think that they add character and look pretty funky.

Now we are far away from the hustle and madness of the big, noisy city that always smells like burning trash. I think that by the end of our stay in Kolkata we learned to appreciate its strange, quirky qualities, the generous monks we stayed with, its egg rolls and street-side chow mein, its bus and metro system and the Bengali version of donuts. Sikkim is a whole different thang. Instead of being woken up by heat or traffic noises, we wake up to cows or roosters. The house we are staying in is incredibly homely (they say homely where we would say homey), the views are not to be believed, air is clean and everyone here is so kind hearted and relaxed. We haven't seen a single beggar since we got here. Also, because it is quite a bit colder, we have been crocheting and knitting hats, scarves, and headbands. During our downtime, we pretty much sit in the kitchen or living room and craft up a storm. Another big change is that we have home cooked meals, which is just ducky (says Ben, leaning over my shoulder). We start volunteering in a small village tomorrow, repairing a hydroelectric something or other. I anticipate adventure. Basically, Sikkim is amazing and feels totally different from the rest of India that we have seen. And I think our legs are getting a little more used to the hills, but we'll see how we fare on our trek.

More later. You're all beautiful people.
Word.
Nina