Today is Sunday and I have been on "holiday" since Wednesday because of Diwali. Every year, Karnika invites 35 street children who live in an orphanage about 1 hour outside of Jaipuir, to her house for lunch. Myself and the other volunteers went over to Karnika's that day to have lunch and to help serve lunch to the children. The children were bused from their orphanage to Karinka's house, it was amazing. It is the only time that the children ever get invited to any one's home. Karnika said that the children requested five items, mutton (goat meat), Pepsi, rice, puri, and ice cream. I took a picture of Karnika making the Mutton (she insisted on making it herself! Karnika and her five sisters are involved with so many community projects within the Jaipur area. It is truly amazing. They have been blessed to have been born into a family with more money and status and they use the money and status to improve the lives of others.

November 9th (this past Friday) was the main day of Diwali. On this day most people pray to Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth), Lord Ganesha (God of luck), and Saraswati (Goddess of knowledge and wisdom). Karnika invited us over to her house (again) for puja and dinner. Puja is a prayer ceremony and on this day Karnika and her family celebrated and prayed to these gods. Thank goodness for Karnika, because of her I have been able to witness a lot the Indian culture. Today is the last day of Diwali and most places of business are still closed. The fireworks have finally started to die down (people are die hard about their fireworks on Diwali. The streets of Jaipur sounded like a war zone, but lucky for me it was only fireworks.

I am determined to leave India unmarried. I am considered to be too old to be unmarried. While I was in the train station a while back I was approached by about 20 children who were fascinated with Nienka and I. One of the first questions they ask was if we were married. Nieka stated that we were to young to be married. The children laughed and said that this was not true. On the way back from Varanasi I was practically proposed to by a man in the train station. He ask if I was married and when I said no he mentioned that he was also unmarried and had no prospects. I stated to him that I was under strict instructions of my mother that I needed to return to the U.S. unmarried. He laughed. Yesterday I was in line to buy tickets for the new Hindi film and I had a conversation with a young woman and she too thought it was a good idea that I stay here and marry an Indian man. She was amazed that I was 24 and not married, and even more amazed that I have no prospects. I love the honesty of the people here. There is no such thing as being politically correct.