saturday tale of the day

Today Ariel and I were almost bamboozled by a midget but Ariel held strong to the end.

friday tale of the day

nun origami.
one of the nuns is desperate to learn origami so today we had a secret meeting on the laundry terrace. she was supposed to be doing work downstairs, so we it had to be brief but mission was quasi-accomplished. later she snuck into the nursery and asked for some tips of folding while she pretended to help me feed a baby. life can be so twinkly. 

tale of the day

Life in India has inspired me to commence a tale of the day train. We'll see how far it goes.

Monday

The neighborhood crazy pregnant lady stole our apartment keys today and is perhaps in cahoots with a mute man we thought was an ally. Currently the locks are being changed and we're figuring out a booby trap system to catch the bandits.

Tuesday

Today Ariel and I were initiated. The Indian women who also work with the nuns kidnapped us to the laundry roof and gave us both a pottu. Those are the "third eye" dots or marks most women and many men wear on their forehead symbolizing enlightenment, among many things. I thought this was only a Hindu tradition but then I saw lots of Indian Catholics with them. We learned today that India women also wear them simply for cosmetic purposes, like a beauty mark. The rest of the day they were telling us how beautiful we were.

Wednesday

One of the Indian workers showed us her wedding photos and I was swept away. This culture is endlessly rich. I don't understand Tamil, so her explanations were over my head but these are some things I gathered:
- the night before the wedding the women of the family gather and consume the brides hands and arms with these enchanting henna designs.
- the bride, decked out in fireworks colors, bangles, flowers,  and a dangly twinkle crown, meets her groom at the temple, where a shirtless priest directs the ceremony.
- the ceremony involves the groom peeling away the skin of a coconut and tying the coconut to the bride's wrist. they also swap bananas at some point.
- things are burned and the groom rubs the colored ash on their foreheads.
- the parents or sibling tie yellow cords bearing gold charms and deities around their necks. they will wear these for the rest of their lives at all times.
- similar  to wedding rings, the bride and groom then place toe rings on each other which the bride wears always as well.
It is amazing how much you can learn from 12 pictures, but I know I missed a lot in her explanation. Before, she labeled her marriage a "love marriage," which is different from most of the girls at work. For the others, their parents (or siblings if their parents passed away) select their husbands. Before I knew it we were discussing arranged marriage and their true love for their secret boyfriends as nonchalantly as our favorite ice cream flavors. It is their normal here.

My little world opens every day in this place.

Thursday

Today we are going to visit Auroville. This is from their website:

"Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity."

Auroville Charter

1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular.
   Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole.
   But to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education,
   of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
3. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.

I think that's enough explanation for now. 

La Vache Introduces Pondy

Ariel and I followed a cow around Pondicherry for an afternoon. Here are some highlights. 

Cow from Amelie Brown on Vimeo.

Here's a brief explanation of holy cows in India

www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/holycowPBS Cow Article

Indiaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Whoosh. It's a place.

So many things to word and paint and light up and mourn and celebrate that I can't share now because it's a lot. For now, I introduce the new member of the Amelie-Ariel-A-Team: Angelle.

The Holy Land

 I have observed that when in crazy holy places, I forget there are such things as cameras. Hence, the Holy Land sharing will be spotty, I am sorry to admit. I will say, however, that any future travel plans should be wiped and replaced with tickets to Israel. Very much changed my life. It's all so real.  

GALILEE

*so with the videos, it's going to have to be participatory editing during these travels. for example, with this video, rather than me removing the sound, you get to mute your computer. fun, right? cooperation art.

peacocks were everywhere

Bethlehem grafiti

Jerusalem

2,000 + old olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane. Yes. They knew Jesus.

Pater Noster- where Jesus taught his disciples to pray the Our Father. The place is covered in the prayer in different languages. Breathtaking.

( Amen. )

( in a language I had never heard of )

I GOT TO RIDE A CAMEL

I decided that afternoon that if elephants were not so awesome, camels would be my favorite animals.

look at his knees!

look at his belly!

look at his hoofpawfeet!

what?

and to complete the camel geek-out:

The Church of the Visitation was one of my favorite spots. It's where Mary visited Elizabeth, both with holy bellies, and they said beautiful things. Like Pater Noster, tiles with Mary's Magnificat written in colorful languages adorned the courtyard.

aramaic

georgian

a language

sinhala (sri lanka)

Mary Visits Elizabeth
 ³⁹ At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, ⁴⁰ where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴² In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! ⁴³ But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Mary’s Song

 ⁴⁶ And Mary said:    “My soul glorifies the Lord
 ⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
   of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
 ⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
   holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
   from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
   he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
   but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
   but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
   remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
   just as he promised our ancestors.”

More Impressions of Israel:

hummus, hookah, holy,

clashy and curt

severe robes of severe rites/rights

bowing bowing kissing crying

love and rocks and hurts but it's good and was good and will be good

because it's a promise

accidental photo that I like

More will come for Israel post- in Bangkok airport about to head to

INDIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Split!

 such a name naturally requires an exclamation point.