Today's Events

Today has been an interesting day.
1. A wild rain storm raged outside early this morning, angering the old wooden shutters in my room as were knocked around in the wind. I lay sweating in my bed, slapping away the mosquitoes who feasted on my arms, taking refuge from the wind and rain in my stuffy room. As the sun came up, I inspected my arms to find a mountain range of bites. Examining my face with my finger tips, I found 3 bites on my forehead, and a painful lump just under my lower lip.

2. During the morning meditation and then the subsequent yoga class, my mind was racing in a million directions at once, wildly skipping from one thought to the next as I began planning my trip to Africa and then home. Those three hours absolutely dragged on, as my body wanted to do anything but sit still and my mind was sprinting a marathon.

3. There's an hour of down time between the yoga class and the morning lecture, and typically I use this time to drink a chai and read the newspaper. This morning was no different except that my excited, almost hyper hand knocked the chai over just moments after it was served, spilling nearly the entire cup of searing hot liquid in my lap. The splash of liquid was so incredibly hot that I couldn't scream, I couldn't talk, I couldn't think, focusing only on the absolute pain that was ripping into my lower abdomen and thighs. My mind screamed, my eyes cried dry tears, as an overwhelming sensation to pee my pants overcame me. It took all the willpower I had not to further wet myself. The restaurant owner brought me another chai (I managed to drink this one!) and a lifetime supply of napkins to clean myself up.

4. After a great lecture about reincarnation, I spent the uneventful afternoon gorging myself with fresh coconut and mangoes, followed by a food and heat induced nap, and a few hours of reading. Current book? A Long Way Gone. A story of a boy soldier from Sierra Leone and his escape to the US. Not exactly the most uplifting text to be reading in an ashram, but still worth reading every word.

5. The evening yoga class was tough, sweaty, and invigorating. Sweat poured down my chest and rolled down my forehead and neck in an endless stream. This is the only time I can ever recall my sweat not tasting salty. Ok, don't get the wrong idea, I don't regularly go licking sweat from my skin, but we all know, sweat is salty. When you're sweating as much as I was today, a little inevitably finds its way onto your lips, and I was really surprised when I licked my lips and what I got tasted more like warm water than sweat. Maybe I need more salt in my diet.

6. After washing away my salt-less sweat covered body, I went down to the internet cafe. I opened my email to read an email from Vibhu saying that he's coming home early from Europe and will be arriving in Mumbai on Sunday. Shocked, ecstatic, concerned, a rush of thoughts bombarded my mind, as a feeling of sheer joy filled my body. Vibhu's birthday is the day before mine, and instead of having a party with our friends, we had planned to throw a big party for the kids who live in the slum behind his house. But unfortunately, we didn't have time to do much planning before he left, so the idea sort of fizzled out, knowing that upon his return there wouldn't be enough time to complete all the planning and preparations. But now, we have a whole extra week! So I'm going to stay at the ashram until Thursday or Friday and then head back to Mumbai via Delhi. The mountains will just have to wait until my next trip to India, I've got a birthday bash to plan!