9 a.m. and we are gratefully back in Delhi’s Marina Hotel. The last twenty-four hours seems like a dream. We had arrived in Gaya yesterday after a tearful farewell with the Lodge staff who had all lined up, including the manager’s mother, to have their picture taken with us.
Gaya seemed even more filthy than it [...]
Karen is amazing. I return to the lodge to find that once again she has the whole staff in an uproar but this time they are moving furniture and cleaning. First it was our room, where everything was shifted, swept, washed, disinfected and put back and now she has them in the kitchen doing the [...]
» Read the rest of this entry ...It’s the evening before holi and in the surrounding fields, celebrations are already underway with the pounding of drums and the ululations of many voices. It seems to me that we have come through a great ordeal successfully and the sounds of the coming celebration echo the feelings of happiness in my heart. Yesterday, for [...]
» Read the rest of this entry ... At 9 a.m. the heat is already oppressive. The Bodh Gaya mosquitoes have found a hole into our netting and hang bloated from the inside of the white curtain, their bodies glutted with fresh blood. Perhaps the blood is not mine, though, as I can’t remember being disturbed in my sleep.
This morning I feel the [...]
The day begins on an off note. We rise too late and I am grumbling because Karen won’t get up. I bathe and dress the children, order coffee, swallow my grouchiness, take a cup in to Karen and write a little in my journal. I have a head cold that is causing me further discomfort [...]
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