Happy Karthikey Deepam

Today is Karthikey Deepam....happy Karthikey Deepam! I asked Vasantha Kumari what Karthikey Deepam was, but she couldn't tell me. All she said was that we should go to the temple. Which reminds me, I was supposed to go to teh temple today with a bunch of staff--we planned it long ago--but I think we all forgot. I was also supposed to wear a sari today, so part of me is glad we all forgot! I think today is the true "Festival of Lights" here in the South, rather than Deepavali. Am I right? As I was walking into the internet center, teh girls and women were starting to put out the clay oil lamps, and draw their kolams... until now it was just any normal day. Viji and I asked Ram Anna--the driver--to go buy us some oil lamps in a weak attempt to make the office festive. If this actually materializes (which I will not hold my breath for), I will show you pictures in the next couple of days.

And big news.....The adolescent girls center is about to open!!! After everyone dragging their feet for the past two months, things have been pushed through in a whirlwind fashion in the last TWO DAYS. Now I have so much to do to make sure it's presentable when we haev our "commencement" (we went through at least four different word choices, and I'm not sure I like hte one we ended up with). I want to ask the girls to come up with a name for the center, but I have secretly come up with my own name. In Tamil, Adolescent Girls is "Vallar Ilam Pengal"--so I will call it the VIP Center! We'll have all kinds of activities, including computers, crafts, music, etc. If you leave it up to this organization, there won't be an activity under the sun that we don't offer there! But we'll see how it goes. For now I'm just hoping for Sunday, the planning meeting with all the girls, to go well!

Hopefully I'll have photos to share soon. Hope you're all doing well, miss you!