So, I have now completed my second full week in India.  The Americans arrived today, but they are sleeping.  I went to church today, wearing my beautiful pink Sari, and that was fun.  I really love wearing Saris!!!  I still need help to wrap them correctly, but I am slowly getting better at it.  Today Durga, who usually helps me said that I had done a good job.  And I was all excited and like, oh I did it right!?!?!?  And then she said "a little"  and proceeded to fix me :)   Oh well, a little is better than I had been doing before.  She told me she has to take care of me because she is my India mother.  I am lucky to have such good mothers here.
Anyway, this week I have been learning how to correctly worship the goddess, and one of the biggest things I have learned is that my Sanskrit is terrible!  My mouth just is not familiar with the way in which one pronounces these sacred words.  But, my teachers are very patient with me, and it makes Rajyalakshmi happy, maybe even proud, to see me learning about her faith and her patterns of worship so diligently.  I love doing this project with her as my translator because she loves doing this project.  She told me that she thanks the goddess for the opportunity that she has to learn with me about Devipuram and how to best approach the goddess.  Its fun for me to learn it all, but it is also pretty cool to watch her excitement in learning about this branch of Hinduism that is as new to her as it is to me.
Anyways, I honestly don't know that I have to much to say.  I taught these boys that are always hanging out around the BYU house how to make popcorn last night, which was fun, except they have no patience and I think the pan was a bit too hot, and so one of the boys took the lid off the pan while it was still popping, and a popped bit of corn flew out and hit one of them in the eye!  He can still see, therefore it was really funny.  But then, they were all really scared of taking the lid off after that, and I was like, okay, let me do it, and they were all "no, sister!"  But, in the end they let me and the popcorn was delicious.
Also, another funny thing was that, the other day we were in a rickshaw and,let me tell you, it is a miracle every time you survive a trip in one of these things, but the drivers are the masters of stopping on a dime!  Anyway, you just get used to the constant almost-crashes, and I have actually yet to witness a car crash in Nepal or here, but the thing is its just the way of the road and no one even bothers to react.  Well, that is the state of things, and I was in this Rickshaw with Rajyalakshmi, and this calf wandered out in front of our auto-ricksahw and Rajyalakshmi GASPED!  The fact that she reacted at all was quite remarkable, but while our own and other humans lives are not worth any response, the life of that cow is/was.  That was pretty darn interesting!
Okay, the rest of this post will be show and tell.  Hope you enjoy!

 This is the first time I wore a Sari.  I look so tall in this picture!  Mostly, Durga is just short, but still.  Anyway, that is Durga my Indian mom who is also the Sari master, and her 18 month old Momoksha.

This is a picture of the Goddess from the Devipuram complex.  She really is quite beautiful.

Here we have me, a priestess at the temple, and Soujanya, my guide and teacher into the world of Devipuram.  She is the woman dressed in green.  I love her, and she has this amazing smile that just brings brightness into her face.  Also, see, I am not so very tall after all.

This is a picture from the local farmers market.  Look at all those yummy mangoes!  I LOVE mangoes!  And, while in the states it is like a dollar+ per mango, here is is less than $2 for a pound.  So, that is pretty great!  Oh, the mangoes are everywhere, and I love it!

I took this picture while walking down a hill overlooking the city.  So, everyone, this is Vizag!

Here we have a priest next to the goddess Gayatha.  She is a local goddess with no significance outside of Vizag, but her temple was really cool.  Anyways, you can see that she is totally decked out with flowers, ect, and may also notice the different materials that are used in Puja in this picture.  This priest was very nice to let me take a picture of him. 

These are some cows.  It is baby cow season, and they are just so cute!  They just wander free, all the time.  Its pretty funny to watch the cows.

Okay, I love you all!  Have a happy week,

Emilee

This week has been really great.  I am officially getting swallowed up in research, and I love it!  Well, I love the being out in India and talking to all of these amazing women about their faith and all that Hinduism means to them.  I am fascinated and humbled to witness how much light and joy comes out of a belief system that is so very different from my own.  You know, academically speaking, Hinduism is earth's oldest religion, though I think that just means India houses the earth's oldest and most enduring apostasy.  And yet, even in all that they have lost from what I believe to be true, there is so much light here, and prayers of faith make people happy, and the people of India really love their gods.  I think that is something all of us can learn from Hinduism - how to keep God always in your mind.  Because here, the gods are everywhere.  They cover the walls in the houses, temples are found on almost every street, and at least half of the people's names refer back to their deities.  Rajyalakshmi (my translator) told me that everyone always starts out their anniversary by going to the temple, to thank the gods for their strong marriage.  I want to do that with my husband someday, for what better way is there to celebrate a marriage?
I have begun to focus my research on a sect of Hinduism called Devipuram.  This branch focuses on devoting their worship to the Supreme Goddess Devi, who, though I did not know it before, is greater than all other gods.  She came first, she is the most powerful, and even the great gods of Hinduism call on her for help when they cannot do their work alone.  This leads me to my great question: why are genders so unequal in India if it is common knowledge that the goddess is the most powerful of them all.  Maybe I will figure this out. Probably I will learn something smaller, but I am still super excited to talk to the men and women who have grown devoted to Devi.
On Wednesday I went to her temple, and it was so cool.  The complex was HUGE (also, they have a pretty amazing website, http://www.devipuram.com/ if you want to check it out) and the temple was pretty cool.  It was colorful and the land was filled with trees.  I do love trees :)  Soujanya is a Devipuram devotee, and she showed me all around the complex, explaining to me about the goddess, and how she is connected to us as humans, and explaining that as we worship her properly, we can become goddesses, too.  Soujanya is a beautiful woman, with a huge and bright smile, and I love to spend time with her.  She speaks very broken English, but one of my favorite moments of the day with her was that we were walking past this goddess, painted all in gold, and I said that she was beautiful.  Soujanya paused, told her "you're beautiful" and then, caressing the goddess' face, said "I love you".  And the devotion was so pure and complete, and I knew that she felt Hinduism and love for Devi the same way I feel for my Heavenly Father.  If that comes out as off-putting to some, I am sorry, but oh I admire the faith of this woman, even if her faith wears a different face than mine.  I also got to see Soujanya perform a Puja for the goddess.  She was so reverent and full with love.  I just really admire this woman.  Anyway, those are my thoughts today. Don't worry, after a week of learning to worship Devi, I did go to church today :)  Its been a good week!

I am in India!  I arrived safely, slept for 14 hours straight my first night here, and have been staying busy since.  So, I arrived on Friday, and then slept, and on Saturday we went shopping.  I bought traditional Indian clothing, both Sari's and Salwar Kameez, which are so nice to have because jeans were killing me in this heat.  Honestly, the weather here is pretty similar to Virginia.  Today it is 93 degrees with 70% humidity.  What makes it killer is that it can never be escaped.  Oh well, I knew that would be the case.  It is hotter here than in Nepal, but there are more fans, so it all has seemed to even out.  I think you will find me comparing things to Nepal, often, and if that becomes tedious I am sorry, but it is the closest reference I know.  It is not as crowded as I thought it would be, but maybe that is because I am a DC girl, so I am used to large crowds.  Also, I am not in a super major city, so that is part of it I am sure.  Anyways, I love it here.  We have almost no indoor plumbing which means- you guessed it- squat toilets.  Ugh, I hate those things.  The rest of the third world I can handle without too much complaining, but I just hate squat toilets.  Oh well.  Stronger calves, right?  So, anyway, Saturday was a shopping day, and I also visited a temple in the morning.  It was pretty cool, though I have to say it wasn't my favorite I have ever been too.  It was much more reverently treated than the temple's I used to visit in Nepal, though, and I was able to talk to the head priest, which was cool.  He told me all about how they care for the idols each day, washing and dressing them, and offering them lunch.  Even though they know this food is never eaten, and never will be, they offer it to their gods because they want to take care of them, and show their love and respect.  I think that is pretty cool.  Sunday I went to church, and I saw white people for the first time since getting on the plain in Dubai.  That was kinda nice, mostly because they spoke English.  Very few people in this area speak English, but I have a translator, and I get along okay.
The staff here is wonderful.  There is Dr. Krishnayya, who has been super helpful in getting my project going and connecting me with potential informants.  He is like my social secretary, at least for right now.  Then there Are Durga and Raju.  They are married and have two little boys.  The crazy thing is that Durga is only a year older than me, but our lives are so different.  And I don't mean because she is already a mom and stuff.  I mean because she is a cook for BYU in India, and this is about the best job she will have in her life.  And here I am studying away so that I can have access to endless possibilities.  It is crazy how different the paths we are each set on can be.  Oh, but I love her.  She is a very good woman, she is a sweet mom, and she makes me laugh!  Then there is Sunaje (I haven't quite figured out the spelling on that one yet) and she is 22.  She does pretty much everything.  I think she is one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen in my life.  I don't know why she isn't married...  Anyways, I love her quite a lot, too.  Then there is my translator, Rajlakshmi.  She is older, and so she is kinda like the mom to us all, and she just takes over in every situation.  She has already helped me so much.  And she just wants me to be happy.  Even last night, she thought I was bored so she invited me to her house to watch t.v.  Now, I want to watch t.v. in Telugu about as much as I want to use my squat toilet, but I went because I loved her for thinking of me, and letting me be a part of her home.  Anyway, these are just a collection of random thoughts, and this is not a very coherent post, but there you go.  I love being here, and am so grateful for all the people and miracles that have allowed me to be here.  Let me know if you have any questions about India!  Love,

Emilee