Well [we’re] going home, Back to the place where [we] belong…

Home. We got here Wednesday night after over 36 hours travel, (which started at the end of an 18 hour day). Our spirits were immediately lifted as we were walking out of the concourse towards getting our luggage and there yelling surprise were…wait for it… Emily and Kai! That was totally a surprise. My only regret about this trip (other than so many hours in economy class) was that Emily and her family were not going to be able to join us. Michael still didn’t make it and they have to leave to go back to Phoenix on Monday so they won’t actually be here for Christmas. Still what a wonderful gift and blessing to have them here for the time they can be here. Christmas Gift! Here are a couple pictures taken at the front end of our long journey. We were not quite as chipper by the time we arrived.

The time we have been here has been a bit of a whirl. I honestly have no recollection of Thursday. I know I got my phone switched to use in the US and…I’ve got nothing. No wait. That’s not true. Thursday night we went with Ben and Becca’s family, Merrick, Kai, and Maude and went to the Bounce House, which was having Lights Out. Bounce House is an indoor venue with six or seven inflatable bounce activities. Lights Out is when they turn out the lights except for flashing lights and swirling colors. Amazingly except for one father and his two kids who were there for a short while, we had the place to ourselves. I wish it were possible to capture the fun of the evening but I don’t have the skill to adequately describe the scene of kids, literally, bouncing off the walls, running through the obstacle courses, and flying down the slides. I wasn’t with it enough to take any pictures but here are some Emily took.

Friday we did a little shopping, got Rae’s phone Americanized, and then watched the Brown boys while Ben and Becca went to Skamania Lodge for Ben’s work Christmas party. Before TRYING to get some sleep (we weren’t very successful thanks primarily to Lincoln), almost everyone came over to make gingerbread houses. It was a joyful, noisy, messy time and a good time was had by all. Here are a few pictures of the process and final product. Don’t worry Ben and Becca. There was no serious damage to your house and we cleaned up the mess we created.

Saturday we started the day out with a Portland tradition: Heavenly Doughnuts. Voodoo Doughnuts is better known but Heavenly deserves its name. The Cliffords and Lundbergs came over to join us and what it lacked in nutrition it more than made up for in taste. I was too busy enjoying myself to take any pictures. We would really need to have taste-a-vision to do it justice

The other major activity of the day was the Christmas Ships on the Clackamas River. Again, the pictures don’t do it justice but there were about a dozen boats, ships, and dinghies with lights affixed which navigated from downtown Portland up river to Lake Oswego and back. Sarah had organized everything and was insistent, over some opposition, that we go down to the river and watch. Although it had been raining pretty hard and steadily most of the day, for the most part while we were there the rain stopped or at least slowed to a light drizzle.

Today we went to church at our once and perhaps future Ward. It was good to see so many people we know and love. After church everyone gathered for a family dinner. After dinner we did a cousin present exchange since Emily and Kai are going back to Arizona tomorrow. Rae also gave out some small presents we had brought with us from India. It got a little crazy with all the kids running around, but it was a good crazy for sure. Here are some pictures of that process.

I will end this blontry the way I started it, writing about home. I can’t speak for my sisters, who moved even more frequently and stayed in one location less time than I did growing up. Despite the fact that we lived in Arizona from the time I was ten on, I never really had a sense of home, as a place, growing up. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. Wherever my mom was, was home. Also, Blanding, Utah. For those who have been to Blanding, you may be wondering what is there in this little town of less than 3,000, on a dry, sagebrush covered mesa at the foot of the Blue Mountains that would constitute home. I never lived there and although we visited fairly frequently, it wasn’t once a year on average I am sure. Still because of our many aunts, uncles, cousins, and periodic Hurst reunions, I felt more connected to my roots there than anyplace in the world. What is home but where we feel most connected to who we are; where we feel most ourselves; where we feel loved and accepted? I wish that everyone would be able to enjoy the sense of wholeness that comes with that.

Namaste  

There she stood in the wedding aisle, and the train on her gown had nearly stretched a mile

How many times have we written about the contrasts we see in India? Well, Tex, here’s another one.

We attended two weddings this past week. One with the Hindu wedding of the daughter of the man who runs the canteen on campus. The other was a wedding held at our Branch between two of our members. The Hindi wedding was on Wednesday and the LDS wedding was Saturday.

I could talk a lot of the differences between the two weddings. I might or perhaps Rae will. But first I want to talk about a commonality. Weddings in India never start on time. People often joke about Indian Standard Time (IST). Officially IST is the time zone for India but jokingly it refers to the fact that few things start on time here. Within that overall milieu, weddings take that to a whole new level. The LDS wedding was supposed to start at 5:30. They announced the wedding would start at 4:00 so that people would be there on time. Well, not so much. Finally just after 6:30 it finally started. Which is much closer to on time than any other wedding we've attended. They were waiting for the mother of the bride to show up. At the Hindu wedding (this was actually third day of the wedding activities) the Baraat Swagat (reception of the groom’s party by the bride’s party) was supposed to begin at 8:00 with dinner beginning at 9:00. The groom’s party arrived sometime after 9:00 so everything shifted accordingly. Later in the week I asked Man Singh (the father of bride) when the wedding got over. He told me they wrapped up about 5:00 in the morning.

Although we've been to a couple of Hindi weddings, we still have not experienced the whole thing and we may never get that chance. As noted above Hindi weddings take two to three days. And all of each day. I don’t suppose we will be close enough to a family to get to be there for the entire process. Still the parts of the process we have participated in have been visually amazing and a lot of fun.

The venues for at least the last night of celebrations are often in country houses. Entries are created by draping fabric. Rugs are spread end to end over large open dirt areas, with more fabric hung around the periphery to create the illusion of a large (a couple of acres or more) outdoor room. This particular wedding took place in a dirt lot which was magically transformed by many carpets and lots and lots of fabric.

One of the best parts of the evening was the children. At first they were hanging around near us but not too near, looking at us, giggling, and talking with each other. Then one would get up his courage, come up to us, and say hello. When we said hello to one and shook his hand, the dam was broken. From then on groups of two, three, ten, a hundred kids gathered around us clamoring for attention. Wherever we went, this mass of kids swirled around us. Occasionally some adult would step in and shoo the kids away. Seconds later, they were back.

One kind of funny thing happened on the way to the wedding. We were stuck in traffic. (What? That never happens in Delhi!) We looked over to the car next to us and there was a groom in his full attire. Both Rae and I thought, wouldn't it be funny if that’s the groom for our wedding? Well, in fact it was! What a coincidink, eh?

Here are a few other pictures we took during the evening.

 

The LDS wedding was between two great young people. He (Joshua) is from the South and served his mission in Delhi. She (Rekha) is from Delhi and served her mission in the Philippines. Somewhere along the way they met. He moved to Delhi to be close to her and one thing led to another and now they are married. 

This is how the Church in India will put down roots and have sustainable growth. There are so many single men and women in their twenties and thirties. I wish they could find each other like Joshua and Rekha. If the single young men and women would fall in love, get married, and start raising families the Church would have a sustainable base. There are many barriers to that happening. The greatest being that despite some changes “love marriages” are still less common than arranged marriages. In arranging marriages rarely is religious affiliation a consideration. For most parents the suitability of a bride or groom is based on economic considerations. Another issue is the prejudice that is still a significant aspect of Indian life. Southern Indians don’t like or trust Northern Indians. Neither like nor trust Nepalis. And there’s the issue of caste. Even though castes have been outlawed officially for years, people still  know exactly which class they and everyone else “would have” belonged to. These divisions are breaking down, but they still are evident and a factor in determining who will marry whom.

Next week we will be in Oregon with family. We are looking forward to being home for Christmas. We’ll see if we write a blontry.

Namaste  

Elephant riders to the northwest bring new from father….

When last we heard from our heroes they were regaling one and all with tales of old Amber India and Maharajas of Rajasthan. This week’s episode opens with our heroes in Jaipur exploring some of the adventures of this ancient city. Today we will explore jewelry making, carpet making, how ink block fabric is made, custom tailors, and (wait for it…) elephant rides.

Jewelry Making

The first event we went to was a goldsmith. This was pretty amazing. Not only did they make the rings, bracelets, necklaces, etc. and mount the stones into them, they also cut, shape, and polish the stones on premises. The pictures are of the gem cutters. Their gem area consisted of a small (10’x10’) area, covered but otherwise open to the elements with a cement floor. The gem smiths (?) all sat on the floor, each one in front of a piece of equipment. One person segmented the larger stone, cut it to reveal the gem within. The next craftsman would examine the gem to see how best it could be used. He then would cut the gem into the right sizes and shapes. Next, a person would start shaping the smaller segments to fit the jewelry piece being made. The next person would cut the facets into the stone. The last person would polish the stone and prepare it for mounting.  Here are some pictures from Rainbow Jewelers, where we saw this taking place.

Carpet Making

The next stop on the tour of Jaipur craftsmen was Saraswathii Global Pvt. Ltd. This place was AMAZING! This was the headquarters of a network of 1500 families that make hand loomed rugs of various types. We got an exhibition of how the rugs are knotted on the loom. They showed us how they burn the rugs to remove fibers and make a smooth, uniform finish. The rugs are then soaked with water and the water squeegeed out by a crew of men using flat shovels. They then roll the rugs up and they dry for two months. The final stem is to tie and trim the fringe. One aspect I thought was particularly striking: looming is a craft passed down through families. Each family has the secret for one rug pattern. They use different colored yarns; may use either wool or silk; can make them of various sizes; but, they only know how to do one pattern. This allows them to maximize the number of rugs they make over a given period of time.

The carpet place (as we came to call it) also sold other fabrics and Rae bought a beautiful sari. She had wanted a sari but we hadn’t taken the time to shop for one. The colors and designs in saris are incredible and compared with many of them, Rae’s is quite simple. It is however, beautiful, and she makes it look great!

Ink-block Fabric

The next stop was at Heritage Textiles and Fabrics. Here the demonstration was how fabric is stamped over several rounds with hand-held blocks dipped in dye. The first round sets the outline. The subsequent rounds add different colors. The difficult part is to keep the blocks perfectly aligned. The dyes used (at least historically and in this shop) are natural, vegetable-based dyes. The fabrics have to be cotton or natural fiber. After the last block is placed, the fabric is soaked in vinegar water (this brings out the vibrancy of the colors), then pure water, and then they leave them to dry in the sun for two days. This sets the colors indelibly into the fabric. Here are pictures of the process:

Having grown up in a fabric store, Heritage Textiles and Fabrics was like a dream come true for Rae. Two floors of bolt after bolt of various kinds of fabric for every purpose. Somehow, while Rae and Jean Slocombe were looking at hand blocked table cloths, Eric Slocombe and I wandered over and looked at suit fabric. The next thing I know, I am being measured for a suit. Ultimately Eric, Jean, and I each had a suit made, Rae had a pair of silk palazzo pants made to go with a kurta she was given by a couple in the Branch for Diwali. They took our measurements on Thursday night; we came back for a final fitting on Friday evening, and picked them up at noon on Saturday. Unbelievable. The time it took to make these clothes was impressive. So was the price. For less than two hundred dollars they make these custom fitted suits. I really didn’t want to spend the money on a suit, even though two of the suits I brought with me have bitten the dust in the past month. I agreed when we decided the suit would be an early birthday present. Now I can wear by birthday suit out in public with no embarrassment or arrests. Here are some pictures of the process and outcome of the tailoring.

Elephant Rides

The last event to discuss is the one we most looked forward too: Elephant rides! There are several opportunities for elephant rides in Jaipur. As you saw in last week’s blontry one of the places is up to Amber Fort. There are two or three locations where one can ride “retired” elephants. There is also the Elephant Village, which is where we went. The Elephant Village is where the elephants who carry tourists up to the Fort live. The elephants are used to take the tourists up to the Fort in the morning. In the afternoon they give rides around their compound.

The elephants live in their own enclosure alongside their rider and handler. There are pods of three elephants and the riders and their families. The elephants’ enclosures open to the outside but have large open windows that look into a common courtyard into which each of the families’ quarters open. It is all very communal. In many ways the elephants appear to be treated as one of the family. 

The riders/handlers bathe, feed and care for the elephants. Although we only rode, we did get some pictures of one of the elephants being bathed. If one wants to s/he can help with the bathing. One can also paint the trunk and/or ears of the elephants. Of course these extra activities come with additional fees. But wait, there is more. They are building a hotel on the grounds so that people who want to interact even more with the elephants can do so but return to a nice hotel room at night.

Well, that’s about it for Jaipur except camels. We had hoped to ride a camel. They are all over the place in Rajasthan as they are still used as draft animals. Needing to ride a camel gives us an excuse for another trip to Jaipur, Here are a couple of camel pictures to whet your appetite.

Namaste