Halfway Point of Trip

We've already had a full day and, as LuRue writes this, it's only half over! And today our second India Global Volunteers program officially begins.

This morning both Montana and LuRue were still sleeping when the alarm went off at 8:00. Not only was breakfast at 8:30, but Stephen asked for a team photo. We can only hope that our eyes were open for the picture as neither of us are morning people.

Jeff said a quick goodbye, then was off with Stephen's brother for a weekend at Pondicherry, the resort town where we were last weekend.


About 9:30 the rest of us met to be taken by Stephen to St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Catholic church that he and Sheeba attend. There was a special ceremony to honor the 25th and 50th anniversaries of service provided by some of the nuns. A sister of Sister Rose was one of the honorees. Sister Rose works at the school where Jeff goes every day to help out with the daycare center. The church building was very impressive with stained glass windows throughout. We estimated about 600 or 700 people there, honoring perhaps 30 nuns, among some other special guests. The nuns have a choice of "habit"...either a white garment or a beautiful rose-colored sari.

The bishop was escorted down the main aisle to the altar in a formal procession. Several people spoke, including a sermon by the bishop, but of course most was in the Tamil language. But that gave us an opportunity to really look around, especially at all the gorgeous colorful and ornate saris. Several of the women also wore elaborate gold earrings and necklaces.

After the bishop oversaw holy communion for the Catholics in the congregation, an announcement was made and suddenly the entire group broke into a hearty rendition of "Happy Birthday to You." Without knowing for sure, we think it was the Bishop's birthday, but it was later repeated, so there were apparently two birthdays celebrated. Must say, we never expected to hear the Happy Birthday song at such a dignified occasion!

The ceremony ended after 2 and a half hours with a dance by some girls that we couldn't see very well unfortunately. The girls performed a dance that seemed to remind us of hand motions and moves reminiscent of dancers of Bali and Thailand.

After we returned to the guesthouse, we ate lunch and then said our goodbyes to Marcia and Greg. They leave today for another part of their adventure, heading for Bhutan and then Thailand. We will miss them, but wish them a safe and exciting journey of discovery. Our team has shrunk to three of us.

The afternoon was spent in filming clips of our spy movie. Wonder what Roger Ebert would have to say!? Bad acting aside, unscripted dialogue can send both "actresses" into hysterics, requiring lots (and LOTS!) of retakes!

Happy Valentine's Day to all! Also celebrated here, by the way, sometimes in a rather extreme way:  http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-india-valentines-20150213-story.html