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SPRING STREET INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL |
Related pagesSpring Street International School Excerpt 9 - Calcutta and Mother Theresa’s Home |
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Spring Street International School "Dispatches" from the fieldSpring Street International School Travelers Kai Wilson, Chelsea DeCouteau, Alex Freeman, Sonja Anderson, Ingrid Carlson, Evan Anderson, Zack Milkis, Gabe Colburn and Grant Schwinge Photo and narrative by Liza Michaelson
Spring Street International School Travelers Jonathan Balise, Joanna Leff, Alex Oettinger, Anna Haefele, Petra Borhani-Bakker, Lindsey Cummins, Corwin Waldron, Noah Yang (standing in photo) Front row: Alice Haefele, Rebecca Mason Experiential Education journals and tales from afar... Dispatch Eleven: from Pokara, Nepal Maria’s happy voice came sailing at me as she ran across the wide empty street towards me covered with red and green. A trail of little boys ran after her, shooting her with colored water and throwing colored powder. It is only 7:30 a.m. but Maria is not one to stay in bed and miss festivities. "Happy Holi!!!." We made it to Pokara, Nepal under the snowy peaks in time for this long national holiday where roles are reversed and colored water is cheerfully sprayed on one and all. Before long, my face too was covered with intensely red powdered paint. The man smearing it on my cheeks smiled and said I was his big sister. Maria is still out there and as the day has progressed so have the number of people involved. It has gone from little kids to young adults to EVERYBODY as the day progresses… Finn and Justin and I took a bike ride and it is amazing how out of hand the scene is, even in the areas outside of town. By late afternoon, everybody is completely covered in colors. Most stores are closed because there is no way to protect the goods as the shops have a whole open wall to the street. This is lots of fun, but when you glance up and see what rises up to the sky you realize what an amazing vista you are seeing. Picture Mount Baker Mt Rainier and Mt Hood all alongside each other. Now make them pointier and triple the size of it and cut it out and paste that picture against the sky. No joke its for real. And today is sunny, which is nice since we are all soaked with various colors of water and streaked with brilliant powder. Suddenly I remembered that sometimes Holi turns a bit sinister and people throw poopy water around. "Keep your mouth shut"I yelled warning to Finn on the bike ahead of me. "I can't! I am laughing to hard!!" he yelled back over his shoulder, just as a kid dumped an entire bucket of water from a rooftop onto the street, missing both of us. We passed most of our kids out on the street and everybody is colored pretty well, and smiling. How can you resist a party like this one! So far Nepal is gentler and less stressful than India. The shopkeepers want your business since Americans are here now for the first time in seven years. When you walk by, they say "namaste" kindly, whereas in Dharamsala, they practically attack you and demand your return and extract promises from you. It is just not that intense here, there are NO beggars and also there is a lovely long blue lake. We ALL like Pokara. The food includes Korean and Japanese and steak, great bakeries, and much more… Everything is cheaper than India so a good meal can easily be two, or three dollars at the very most. There are tons of stores with trekking gear, big puffy down jackets for 30 dollars, etc. If you come, come empty handed, and definitely come to Nepal! Tomorrow we all walk two hours up to a remote village to visit a friend’s family and I plan to spend the night. Sailing, kayaking, rowing, bicycling and hiking are all available and some folks are even reading and napping after the day out with Holi. Anything is fun under these amazing mountains. Love to all of you at home!!! Liza Michaelson |
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