pongal!

it's pongal weekend! pongal is the harvest festival here in india. during pongal, the women put a design in rice flour in front of their houses called kolam. the kolam attracts all the bugs that would usually make their way into the houses and keeps them outside. the designs can be really intricate and in lots of different colors. another aspect of pongal is kite flying! ciee provided all of us with kites and string and when we asked our indian friends if they would fly kites with us, they just laughed at us. it seems to be the equivalent of easter egg hunting at age 20. you can either fly your kite peacefully, or put pieces of glass on your string and try to cut other kites' strings.

on friday, a group of us went to the shilparamam craft fair again. we saw lots of pongal festivities:

there's a kite up in the air if you look closely

 

they marched around with these decorated cows

ice cream!

getting mehndi on my hand

ben, nicole, lindsey, me, and matthew

 

hi! i'm in front of the elephant!

 it was a wonderful friday!


happy pongal friends,
love,
lauren