Spiritual Omnipresence

I am humbled by the ubiquitous presence of spirituality here. Shrines and ornate temples are around every corner, cabs have little figures of deities blessing their dashboards (for much-needed luck), and my host family has a shrine in their house for daily puja. This area is about the size of a small closet and it is filled with hundreds of images and little statues. Homeless on the street have nothing but a blanket, rosaries and statues. I asked Chitra (my host mother) if we could visit a temple and talk to a Sai baba, and she told me we will do this tomorrow when we go to the beach. More to come about this.

It is amazing how people here accept the work they do. There are no complaints, and nobody gets bothered if you make them do more work. If you are a paying customer, it is because of you that they have a salary. The annoying part is how pushy salesmen are, but this is mostly because they just want you to be happy with what you buy... and because they don't want you to go shop somewhere else.

I bought a phone today (1,100 Rs ~ $20), feel free to call me (it's free for me to receive calls). If you call me from Skype I think that's free for the both of us.+91-9962425692

Short entry but I should be getting to bed. Love you all so much! I am missing things about home already (mostly being able to eat raw vegetables). Indian food is healthy but it's a lot more complex carbohydrates than I am used to (breads, rice, potato). But honestly I need to start saying "no" to food more. I feel so rude but they ask me if I want more this, one of these, some of this, more this like FIVE times! I need to grow some kahones and just say no. Five times. No, no, no thank you, no. It's also weird having servants do things for me. Not sure how to react sometimes. I just want to do things for myself, but then that person wouldn't have a job.

Much love to you all. Om shanti.