"Beauty is pain." Don't believe that? Trying wearing toe rings.
My blinged out foot. And this was only the beginning. Perhaps I should start at the beginning....
This week is Dasara, a celebration/festival thanking the gods and celebrating their sacrifice and victory. If you would like information, you can check out wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasara .
In short, I was invited with the family to attend a celebration at our neighbour's husbands factory, where they would be performing a pooja as well as giving out bonuses' to the employee's (this has the same significance to our Christmas, well, the level at which it is anticipated is). So, after being invited, I said I would love to go, as it is very cultural and all ;-) To be appropriate, well, I should wear a saree. I've been here a month, but I haven't yet bought one (the fabric, for the nice ones are a minimum of $20, which seems like a lot over here). So Tricia agreed to let me wear one of her's. After spending the night with one of my friends, I headed back home and we began the process of dressing me in the saree. Now I've heard that the national women can dress in 5 minutes, it took me that long to figure out what was what! I had Tricia and one of her friends both working around me, attempting to dress me in the "right" way. They say there are 32+ ways to wrap a saree. haha, we had trouble accomplishing one! A saree consists of a blouse (the tighter the better they believe, and not much longer than needed), a petticoat (a solid colour skirt bought to match the colour of your saree) and then the 6+ yards of fabric which wraps around one's body way to many times. All of the fabric is tucked into the petticoat to stay on. Now, the trick is that there has to be pleats. Yes, pleats, like a curtain, or a kilt. But enough of me trying to explain, maybe the following pictures will help you understand a little better....
AND the final result!
Lizzy and I (not really fair that my 8th grade student should be taller than I.)
And my charming 4th grader.
Even though I could probably write for ages more, I'm afraid you would get bored with my ramblings. The day was wonderful and full of food. Lots and lots of food.
One thing that was bittersweet for me was when, at the end of the celebrations they handed out sweets to the families (boxes of goodies). Each family got one. I got my own each time we went to a different function (we went to a doll viewing as well as a the factory, check the wiki site if you are confused about that ;-) ). For the first time in my life I was counted as my own family. Even though if gave me a little pride in being independent, it made me miss my family. But, hm, more sweets for me. ;-)
Much love to you all, please write and let me know how your days are going. Even if I don't reply to your emails, I love getting them!
Blessings,
Beth
