Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!
Alex and I made it to the sandy part of the Great Thar Desert, our final farthest stretching destination, in time to watch the sunset on Christmas Day with a couple of camels and play chase-each-other-in-circles with the sweet village boy who brought us out. And sing great hallelujah hallelujah in the open jeep beneath the full starry sky on the ride back to Jaiselmer.

Oh yeah, so we made it to Jaiselmer. Like any good adventure it was kinky, I mean, you know. Like with kinks. We spent two or three days more than was planned in Agra, many hours more than was planned at the Agra train station, and two or three days more than was planned in Jodhpur. The last leg was fairly a fairly epic Christmas Eve escape trick from Jodhpur but we made our bus and even had time to slow down in our rickshaw on the way there to pick up the omelettes that the omelette man had waiting for us.

• The birds in Agra - I guess they are messenger birds, or something, but there are flocks of birds that fly beautiful circles over Taj Ganj which is the part of Agra we were staying in. They are perfectly syncronized in their finest turnings like one body, like, you know, a flock of birds... I loved watching them from the rooftops and rooftop restaurants. There are guys who stand on the roofs too and whistle to them and swing a rope with a flag on it to talk to them, and sometimes the flocks land on their roofs for a while. They are beautiful when they land, they flake off sort of like a steep sandy hill crumbling down while still circling. I like it when people talk with animals. Our camel guide had a whole language of sounds...
• The Taj Mahal, I was surprised to find, is pretty awesome. It really occupies some space, like, it's really there. Was definitely worth spending an afternoon at
• Train friends! We shared a berth with a really sweet family on the way to Agra and I played word games and tic-tac-toe with the 10-year old boy (who was extremely hospitable, and was the leader in outgoing sociability) and 7-year old girl. And then when they were all asleep Grandpa (Dadi) shared his seat with me and asked me to teach him to meditate and we had a really nice connection. We exchanged numbers and would have been able to hang out with them more in Jaiselmer if we had made it here earlier, but I'm pretty sure they've left by now. Between Agra and Jodhpur the train was almost empty except for us and a boisterous band of young men (also on their way to Jaiselmer) who I spent a few hours making animal noises and being boisterous with. They thought Jaiselmer was boring, I think because there were no prostitutes, and left, but they still call me every day making funny noises. Not really to me over the phone, just to the world with the phone there. The phone is an excuse to exercise their native tongue.
• Oh, it's dinner time.
• Tomorrow we start our journey home, training all the way to Delhi, where we have 24 hours, and flying to London where we have a night, then to Minneapolis where we have 8 hours, and then to home where the heart is.

Wishing you solstice smiles and Jesus light

xoxo

Noa

Sparks

Ryan said this doesn't feel like a dissolution, it feels like an explosion. Of goodness.
Some sparks:

• Noa finished his Independent Study Project paper before leaving Bodh Gaya! (four hours, to be exact)
  
• Alex and Noa are headed to Agra to have tea with Mr. Mahal and then on through Rajasthan.
• Olivia is on her way hoooome!
• Aine will be setting up camp in Varanasi

yee, haw.

Have some avocado!

The Dharma is like an Avocado!
Some parts so ripe you can't believe it,
But it's good.
And other places hard and green
WIthout much flavor,
Pleasing those who like their eggs well-cooked.

And the skin is thin,
The great big round seed
In the middle,
Is your own Original Nature--
Pure and smooth,
Almost nobody ever splits it open
Or ever tries to see
If it will grow.

Hard and slippery,
It looks like
You should plant it--but then
It shoots out thru the
fingers--
gets away.

--Gary Snyder
shared with the blogger
c/o Paolo

And they hit the tracks again

Flying out of Dharamsala by Jeep now. I love this place.
Flashing, swirling pieces of home.

Homesick in Dharamsala

First Sunday of
Advent of longing and trying not to
Give in
To boredom and discouragement

Calendar weeks of waiting
Impatient
We make kora
Adding force to spinning prayer wheels
Stop

Before crossing
The line of crinkled eyes
All singing toward the hill
Where His Holiness is

Living in exile

I have no idea what this means

Voices hearty and hopeful
Chanting hands throw flour into the air and

Everyone in this city
Wants to go home

Sounds of Bodh Gaya

Funny how you can see a place once you leave it, and hear it...

-shrill blasts of bus horns
-bicycle bells
-clammering of tractors crashing down the street and their engines
-dogs howling all at once during the night
-cows
-hammers and saws
-loud, high-pitched, techno Hindi music at all hours
-Muslim call to prayer at sunrise and sunset, amplified
-goats, like disturbed children screaming or throwing up
-deep, droning recorded/live chanting at Mahabodhi, emnating from gates or nearby CD sellers, "Buddham, Saranam, Gachaami..."
-bell, 10 min. before class
-see previous list of phrases: shouted at you
-phlegm-hacking, coughing, and spitting of monks and pilgrims at Vihar
-mysterious creaks and movements in the night always possibly attributable to either:
a)hungry ghosts which are known to frequent the charnel grounds near the river across the street from the Vihar, or
b)Burmese pilgrims who keep odd hours, can be found up at any time
-chanting and instrumentation of full moon celebration "Hare, Hare, Hare, Krishna, Hare..."
-drums in the street for funeral processions
-microphone-amplified Hindi voice in the street for public announcements

-Written from Bir, the quietest place I've ever been

Added by Noa:

-"Hello! Washing?" from Balya Devi, the beautiful old washer woman with crinkles and light in her face.
-the sawmill next to the Vihar
-occasional wisps of otherworldly harmonium duets from the rooms of students who aren't supposed to make music in the Vihar
-someone who practices the synthesizer in a nearby village either has an amp of epic proportions or hooks their keyboard up to the village PA system

hello

You probably already know this, but while I am here, we are all safe and sound and not near the recent terrorism in Mumbai.

Angel wings,
Noa