Happy Holi

Happy Holi everyone! For those of you who do not know what Holi is, well, I am in the same boat as you. From what I understand it is a celebration of the end of winter and the coming of spring. Except what passes for spring in India is 90 degree weather. Pretty warm. I am used to 60-70, rainy, and grey springs. Anyways. Back to Holi. I am sure there are some Hindu legends and Gods associated with Holi. There is for just about everything. I just don't know what they are for Holi. To celebrate Holi you first buy some cheap squirt guns and water balloons. Then you buy as much powdered colors as you can. Bright ones are best. Especially bright, hot pink and neon yellow. Next, gather as many friends, neighbors and family members together as you can find. When you can't find anymore find as many strangers as you can and adopt them for the day. Eat as much as you can. If you are a drinker then drink as much as you can. Then have the biggest national water fight in history and throw your powdered colors all over each other. Then go find even more complete strangers to douse with buckets of water, pummel with water balloons, and light up their lives with all the colors of the powdered rainbow. End the day by stumbling through the now pink streets singing and laughing. Give a few complete strangers a hug. Wish them happy Holi. Then hug a few more. Congratulations you have now successfully celebrated Holi.

Sadly, I missed the main part of Holi. I was not quite sure when it started. However, I was the victim of a pretty nasty water balloon ambush in an alley. Later in the day I witnessed the aftermath and watched buckets of colors being thrown from rooftops onto mobs of pink, blue, green, and yellow young men. Plenty of drunk guys covered in so many different colors they were dark, dark blue came up to say hi to me. I got a few random hugs. Most of my day was spent walking up and down the streets that were by that time running pink. Seriously, there was so much color and water that it was running pink. All in all a good day. I will have to come here again for it now that I know what it is about. Or I could just celebrate it back in the States. I don't see any reason why not.

Sorry folks I don't have any pictures. I figured carrying a camera around might be a bad idea.

Other things of interest this week, we visited one of Maitri's HIV testing and counseling centers. Good news everyone, I am HIV negative. It was really interesting to see the front lines of our efforts to fight HIV. It is inspiring what the people at Maitri do.