How many cups of tea can you drink in one afternoon?

We went to a little village in the mountains of Orissa called Dantoling for the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. There were between 20,000 - 25,000 people there from all over Southern Orissa, many of them coming by foot. The people set up camp and stayed there for 3 days. There was a huge tent where everyone gathered for Mass and other services. It was a memorable experience.
But what I really want to highlight is my experience meeting my friend Ranjan's family. Meet Ranjan...
He works as a driver - here he is in action changing a tire. He has accompanied us on many of our trips and over time we have become friends. His home village is Dantoling so he was eager for Justin and I to meet his family and friends.
His mother cooked a delicious lunch for us - seriously one of the best meals I've had in India. Their house was simple with 3 rooms. We spoke the little Oriya (the local language) that we've learned to express our thanks. Later in the afternoon we went on a walk through his particular village which consists of one street lined with houses like this:
Ranjan informed us that in Dantoling there are several different villages organized by caste and religion. He lives in the low caste (Dalit) Christian village. We entered several different houses to meet his siblings and cousins. Everyone greeted us with a warm welcome complete with chai and biscuits or other snacks. By the end I did not want to see another cup of tea and I was thankful that I'm not at risk for diabetes because I think consuming that much sugar is so short a time could put you over the edge, but it would have been worse to refuse their generous offer. Yet again I was impressed by how the people were so full of life. As we walked through the street everyone wanted to stop and talk to us. Ranjan was beaming. He was so proud to introduce his new American friends to his family.
Ranjan's brother and his daughter.
Ranjan's niece and I became fast friends despite the language barrier. She is one happy little girl.

Happy Holi !

I'm a little behind, but here's a look at our Holi celebration on March 1st. Holi is the "Festival of Colors" that finds its origin in one of the famous Hindu myths about Ram and Sita. However, from my experience it seems that today the average Indian in the street doesn't know as much about why Holi is celebrated but just that it's "what you do" and it's a whole lot of fun. People run around the streets dousing each other with brightly colored powder and yelling "Happy Holi!" We couldn't join the party in the streets with all the children so we had our own celebration at home, complete with colored powder, water guns, masks, and the inevitable tears as the kids got the powder in their eyes. Overall, it was a huge success. It was great to have all the adults and kids running around, playing together, and making a big colorful mess.