Whirlwind

Well, Kartika ended on November 2nd, which I believe I already mentioned. Since that time things have been quite a whirl. I was quite depressed the last day of Kartika. All of the faces I had gotten used to seeing were starting to disappear and the comfort of knowing what to expect was slipping away. I cried and cried, fearing that all of that special love and energy would be gone too. Afterwards, I moved my things in to a room in a temple in Vrindavan. Two days ago a bus full of people here loaded up and headed to Dheli to celebrate the anniversary of a temple there. There was a parade in the evening, complete with a marching band and two elephants. It was only natural that Natalie and I climb to the top of one of them and ride it for a majority of the parade. I kid you not. We got back to Vrindavan very late that evening and I spent all of yesterday in bed, except for the hour or so I wandered the market in search of elektrolytes, bananas, puffed rice and water. It was not such a good day, but I'm feeling much better now and I'm hoping that by tomorrow I will be back to my normal self.

So now that Kartika is over, what will I do? I'm guessing I will be doing almost exactly what I did the past month, except with far fewer people. All of the temples have the same schedules, with prayer, singing, and class in the morning and evening, three meals a day, and the opportunity to visit temples and dieties the remainder of the day. I will also be doing a lot of service in the temple- cleaning, helping in the kitchen, stringing garlands and anything else I volunteer to do. Right now I really enjoy doing the dirty work because it cleans all the grime in the heart. I'm considering attempting to fundraise a tiny bit of money ($100-200) to fix up spots that are somewhat deteriorated - mainly the bathrooms and showers - but we'll see. A lot of the faucets are broken, paint is stained and chipping, and it'll take a lot of acid to clean the tiles.

There's really no telling what is in store. I hope that once I'm a bit better situated I can share more details and photos with you.

hare krsna,
Kayleigh