HOLI!

one word colourful. which is fitting as it is the festival of colour i guess! there doesn't seem to be any meaning behind it other than embracing spring. First of all we welcomed in to the bosom of Gorkhathe tribes from Laxmi bazaar (the regulars), Besi Sahar and Bhoti woda, who bravely took the buses here. That eveing Anna, Carmella and i set out in search of powder paint and water balloons, to arm ourselves against the forwarned onslaught. we came back with, green, yellow and green - which turned out to be vibrant pink when mixed with water. i was itching to get the production started! But alas i had to wait a night, spent chilling on our roof and listening to the prison guards screaming. when we woke up production commenced almost immediately- 2 to each colour and magnus on water filling. Then anna and i took over water, more colour on us than in the ballons. The floor was full of burst balloon carcasses! But we did end up with a bucket of ballons and a plastic bag full too. They were our ammo. We were worried that we might be the most prepared people in the town and that holi might not actually be such a big thing! Suddenly Sarah, Caitin and Will appeared smothered in red paint and t-shirt dappled all sorts of different colours. It was on. But before we set out in to town, our first target was those who had yet to arrive at the house ie. Kirsten, amy, Fiona and pippa. Then each other of course, our washing was tinged a little yellow. We then set out, armed with make shift water pistols made out of water bottles filled with dye and water with a hole in the top. As soon as we were out the door the neighbouring boys came at us with handfuls of powder paint and smothered our faces. we were still relatively unscathed until we reached the junction in town, and it just continued from there. Water rained down from the roof tops, as did water balloons. Purple, red, green, yellow, pink and even gold paint was thrown around, usually on to the foreigners. there were a lot of us! i think the community had planned this! When we finally retreated back to our house, and the others dispersed on to buses in various directions we attemped to wash. I mean, we did look like oompa loompas, but the paint was stubborn old stuff. I still have pink hair, magnus has purple hair, julia is multi colour and ed, well he's ginger. Hope you like the before and after shots - My clothes were white!