Holi-moly, the holidays they have here!

There is a Indian festival on tomorrow called Holi. It marks the end of winter (as if they had one!) and they celebrate it by throwing water and coloured powder on anyone and anything. By the end of the day, everything is transformed into amazing, technicolour blobs. I've seen it in Bollywood movies, and was excited to be here to actually see it in action. But I don't think I knew what I was getting myself into.

For the past few, kids have been lobbing water balloons at me. When it first happened, I was fuming mad. I was ready to punch someone's eyes out. I was getting soaking wet and was not happy about it. But then I told myself "Leora", "Yes?" I replied, "You're 21 years old! Lighten up! It's fun!!". "Wow, that is so true. Thank you so much. You are so wise. And beautiful." "Well, you're not too bad yourself." And thus, I firmly resolved to take the stick out of my ass. Yesterday, I got absolutely pummelled. In only about half a block, 6 water balloons hit me and another 5 barely missed. But instead of getting mad, I remembered when I was a youngin' and threw snowballs and cherry apples at strangers. Those were the days. So now I am trying to appreciate the festival a little bit more. In some respects, it's like the Jewish holiday of Purim that was yesterday. They both involve guzzling huge amounts of alcohol. And even though I can't drink at all (alcohol screws up my malaria medication) I will still be able to appreciate it for what it is: fun! Even for the poor, wet white girl.