Happy Belated Hallowe'en!!!!!!!

Over here Hallowe'en is considered to be a children's holiday for Americans, so when me and Rosalynn (my 23 year old, Music Major, friend from Alabama) decided to carve jack o' lanterns and hand out candy to everybody (almost all of whom are 25 and over) smiled indulgently and said,

"It's OK, because they're young and American"

To which I said through gritted teeth, "I'm Canadian"

"Same diff."

"Pshtmgr!!!!!" I war-cried (aka - spluttered) and threw my (full) Nalgene bottle with the Canadian flag on it at them. Unfortunatelyy a sentence that turned my indignation into despair was written under our noble maple leaf:

Made in USA

*cries*

Anyhoo on Hallowe'en I dressed up (as usual) as an Indian woman. I simply lurve Indian dress, because don't have the silly notion that bright and sparkly things are tacky. Thus my churidar was bright blue, purple, and gold, with sparkles, little plastic mirrors, and pinstriped clown pants, and it was all considered terribly becoming of me and tasteful.

*squees delightedly*

I lurve India!!!!

For the whole dayI bounced around handing out candy to any who saw with a jack o' lantern sticker on my cheek and a red holiday-dot thing on my forehead. I'm not sure if it was the obvious sugar-high or the sticker that got me the weirdest looks. . .

Or maybe it was trying to explain why I had gone temporarily madder that got me the weirdest (or were they frightened?) looks. Trying to explain to them that Hallowe'en is a holiday where children dress up in "scary" costumes, (ie. a princess, a peanut, etc.) and go door to door threatening pranks and vandalism if they don't get candy took me half the day. Trying to get them to understand that I wasn't crazy and would they leave me alone if I just took their silly pills took the rest of the day.

So while the Westerners watched adultishly, the Indian staff watched with utter bewilderment, and Margosha (the 18 year old from Indiana) watched with abject terror (Lentil + sharp pointy objects + matches = abject terror) me and Rosalynn whipped out our pumpkins. We had invited everyone to join in, but since nearly everyone here is over the age of 25, they believe the myth that adults are forbidden to have any silly fun unless vicariously. Thus me and Rosalynn each had a pumpkin ALL TO OURSELVES!!!!

*claps hands*

*cackles*

*grins at knife speculatively*

*Margosha backs away slowly*

Or we had a pumpkin each until Louis and Leon, the two Belgium kids of 7 and 9 who are staying here with their family, saw. They promptly rushed over and dug their hands into the (marvelously, beautifully, fanpendously gushy) guts of the pumpkins and me and Rosalynn had to surrender our goods.

Of course I was fine, letting the children have their fun. I mean I wasn't all excited about getting my hands all gucky and messy. I'm mature enough to see that they'd enjoy and appreciate it more than I could. . . *sulks*

But it actually turned out OK, because while the boys did hijack my slimy fun, they weren't allowed to play with the sharp pointy objects and matches

*eyes gleam*

*Belgium mother looks worried*

Therefore the kids drew the pumpkins and we carved them. I've never carved a jack o' lantern before (my muzzah never seemed to trust me with any knives except butter ones. . .) so I was really worried I'd mess up Leon's face. His pumpkin's face, not his actual face. But once I plunged my knife into the pumpkin's eye and felt the satisfying resistance then give of its previously smooth surface, everything clicked and I proceeded to skewer and stab peacefully.

*sighs happily/psychotically*

Afterwards I was looking forward to playing with matches but unfortunately one of the Frenchies showed up and, of course (and Ali-the-Fair you can attest to this) like nearly all Frenchies, she had a lighter handy.

*sulks again*

*lights a match anyways*

*cackles pyromaniacally*

Now, you're probably thinking to yourself "Boooooooooring. Lentil's in India, the most foreign of all foreign countries, and all she has to talk about is Hallowe'en?!? C'mon! I want to hear something weird and crazy please!"

Well never fear, for when you hold weird and crazy dear, Lentil is here!

*cackles poetically*

Unwilling to have our jack o' lanterns suffer the indignity of being thrown into the compost, we threw them at an elephant instead.

OK, so maybe we threw them to the elephant rather than at it. . . And maybe we didn't throw them, but an Indian guy did. .. But my story remains!

On November 1rst, me, Rosalynn, and Aji (a staff member of the school) walked the 100 m to the nearest elephant. He was chained to two cement bricks so that he couldn't move a single step and was forced to stand in his own filth. I had only ever seen elephants when they were being taken on their "walks" on the paddy fields, so at first I was horrified to see the elephant swaying back and forth, like a prisoner pacing in his cell, then I was enraged and wanted to free the elephant, then I realized I'd get arrested if I did, then I felt sad, because I don't feel strongly enough to really do anything about this cruelty and my usual course of action in situations like this was unavailable. I mean, I can hardly boycott elephants, can I?

*sighs*. . .

*spots gecko*

*giggles and claps happily*

Anyhoo, despite the elephant's poor treatment, we treated him to our jack o' lanterns. . . and he ate them!! He just looped 'em up with his trunk, plopped 'em in his mouth, and crunched contentedly. (Oh yeah, Rosalynn brought her camera for all of this, which is why you're getting pictures this time)

As the elephant rolled Rosalynn's jack o' lantern around with its trunk, I turned to the elephant keeper and asked him if it was true that elephants killed people. Rosalynn had told me they did, and I had said that it was probably an extremely rare occurrence and just a story to frighten stupid Western tourists. The man looked at me as if I was crazy and said,

"Of course."

Then he pointed at the elephant and said, "Two."

It took a moment for Ajit to explain that by "Two", the keeper meant the elephant had killed two people.

. . .

. . . !!!

I think I"m going to pass up the elephant-washing offer now. . .

That was not all that happened on November 1rst, however. For you see, while India may not celebrate Hallowe'en, Kerala ( a Christian state) celebrates All Saints Day.

In a most typically Indian way.

There are three things I've noticed about Indian spirituality since I arrived: they're big on temples; no religion is complete without a pilgrimage or two (I can't count how many pilgrims I've seen walk by); and they're LOUD.

The Christians of Kerala are no exception, so I was not surprised to see thousands of pilgrims walking down our street behind highly decorated cars with LOUDspeakers strapped to their roofs, blaring Indian-Christian music and heading to the nearest biggest church. What did surprise me (although I should have known better) was that they started this march + LOUD music at

3bloodyAM!!!!!

Why? Why couldn't they just start at dawn, like most Indians? Why. 3. A. M. ???!!! Why, God, why?

*sobs*

Having a brilliant time in India,
Love y'all tons and tons,
Bisous,
Namaste,

Lentil,

The Girl Who Thinks 3AM Should Be Outlawed

PS - for those of you still so naive as to attempt the hopeless task of keeping up to date on my plans, I'm going to volunteer at a restaurant in Auroville starting two weeks from now until at least Christmas.