Growing Roots in Rishikesh

Finally, after five months of near constant travel since we left our home in Parigi, Indonesia, we have found a new home in which to unpack our bags and settle, for the next couple of weeks at least. We are now in Rishikesh in Northern India, at the foothills of the Himalayas. It is another holy city as it is close to the source of the Ganges River. The water is quite clean here, especially compared to Varanasi.

A view of one of Rishikesh's biggest temples

Rishikesh is a funny city. We were really looking forward to coming here because had heard so much about the natural beauty and the “quiet, car free” section of town where many ashrams are located. In our first couple of days we were disappointed to find that Rishikesh was in fact covered in concrete: from the river ghats (stairs), to the compilation of eclectic concrete buildings spread haphazardly along the riverbank.

Oh the cows and the motorbikes on the bridge!

And indeed, the cows and the motorbikes that we were looking forward to leaving behind are here in spades – on both sides of the river. In fact, when crossing the huge suspension bridges that connect the two sides of Rishikesh, it is a constant traffic jam as pedestrians and motorbikes try to squeeze past stubborn cows that hang out on the bridge. The honking is just as loud as ever, the streets are busy and dirty… and as was written about Rishikesh in one book I read, “I cross a huge bridge but India is on the other side as well!” We started to wonder if we could really spend a month here as we had planned.

And then we found Ramana’s Garden. Ramana’s Garden is a children’s home that provides a safe residence, food, medical care, clothing and complete support for over fifty children. This organization also provides free education for 130 children onsite at Ramana’s Garden School by paying for teachers and school supplies as well as the children’s uniforms and a free, healthy lunch for all students who attend school here. The resident kids also run a café onsite that serves organic food grown in their very own gardens, and the proceeds from the café cover the daily costs of running the orphanage. The meals that the children eat are also almost entirely sourced from their own gardens, which all the kids help out in. They grow a great selection of vegetables like broccoli and kale that are not grown elsewhere in India but which thrive here and are so nutritious. They also have their own chickens, cows, and goats, which are well treated, well fed, and provide milk and eggs for everybody onsite! All in all, it is a truly incredible place!

Playing 'memory'

It turns out that our timing in arriving at Ramana’s Garden was very good, as one long term volunteer had just left, and another was leaving a week later. We jumped in with both feet and got involved right away since the kids were on holiday from school and needed organized activities most of the day. Now that they are back at school in the mornings, we do programming for them from lunchtime onwards, including taking them swimming in the Ganges River every day, helping them with their homework and extra tutoring, and running fun games and activities. About a week ago, we were asked to move in and live onsite to help out, and we seized the opportunity! It has been amazing to be able to help implement some routines and systems to help the kids’ days be more consistent, and getting to know the kids has been so rewarding.

Also, as you will see in our photos, the compound itself is beautiful and tucked away from the traffic and chaos of the town outside. Not only can you not hear honking here, but a five minute clamber down some rocks brings us to a beautiful section of the Ganges where the kids can swim… with NO concrete! The water is mighty cold, but the kids waste no time jumping in! It is such a bonus that by living here they also learn to swim, which is not something that most Indian people learn to do.

You can find more information about Ramana’s Garden on their website, www.sayyesnow.org.

The girls dancing at the five star resort

We feel so fortunate to have been able to get involved in this magical place. We will be here at least until the end of the month. We love the kids, and we are amazed by all they can do… everything from shoveling manure, to working in the café, to making jewelry to sell to tourists to help fund their education. They also all learn traditional Indian dance, and those who excel have a weekly gig performing at a nearby five star resort! We had the privilege of going to watch them last Saturday and they were phenomenal- as tight as any professional dance troupe! It seems there is nothing these kids can’t do, and given their backgrounds, this is deeply touching.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Varanasi

Sunrise over the Ganges in Varanasi

Last week we spent a few days in the holy city of Varanasi. If any place in India is an assault on the senses, this is it! After getting off the 31 hour train ride to get there(!), we were immediately confronted with the reality of being back in North India… a little dirtier, a little louder, a little busier, and a little stinkier than South India!

Sometimes we wonder if we should be drinking the chai (milky teac) here!

If there are two things that affect our frustration levels here in North India, it is the number of cows in the roads and narrow alleys (sounds funny, but they really block the traffic, and their excrement is everywhere!! You seriously have to watch where you step!! And then there are the flies that swarm them….) and the number of motorbikes honking at volumes that are literally illegal in Canada! So indeed, from the minute we arrived in Varanasi, we had to take a deep breath.

Bathing and praying in the Ganges

Varanasi is described as a magical place, and it is that, but it took us a few days and many hours of wandering through the alleys and alongside the river to really fall into the rhythm of the place and be able to properly appreciate it. That said, everywhere we looked made us want to reach for our cameras in a somewhat futile attempt to try to capture the innumerable fascinating scenes of everyday life that were unfolding around us all the time. Varanasi is a very holy city, and many people flock here to bathe in the Ganges River, said to purify believers of their sins. All along the river, you see people bathing and doing their laundry right beside where water buffalo are being washed in heaps of garbage (the water is extremely polluted and dirty, unfortunately).

A forbidden photo of the burning ghats where cremations take place. We actually didn't know it was forbidden at the time, but decided to save the picture.

Varanasi is also considered the most auspicious place to die and/or be cremated, so there are two big burning ghats (public cremation areas) right beside all the other activity on the riverbanks. The bodies get dipped in the Ganges before being cremated, and the ashes are then returned the river. It is certainly unlike what we are used to, but actually not grotesque as you might expect. There is something very ‘full circle’ about the openness of the process here. It is ‘ashes to ashes’ in the most confronting sense of the expression. There is a certain closure – and a sense of the natural order of things – to see up to fifteen bodies at a time being blessed for the last time. The scene is somber, but not depressing. Public grieving is not condoned here, as death is supposed to be taken in stride, knowing that the soul of the person lives on. It’s hard to put it into words, but it is a very powerful thing to watch.

All in all, Varanasi was a very interesting place to visit, and worth the effort to get there and away. With a 19 hour train ride to get from there to our next destination, we spent fifty hours on a train in less than a week! More on that later, however…. We are currently in Rishikesh (North of Delhi, West of Nepal) volunteering for an orphanage here. Stay tuned for more details in a future post.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Living the High Life in Goa and Mumbai!

View from reception at the Marriott Goa hotel!

Well, after about seven months of consistently cutting corners in order to stay within our overall budget of $30 each per day (including food, accommodation, activities, transportation etc.), we had a taste of the high life for three nights in Goa!

We met up with Cayleigh’s friend and colleague Nimisha who was in India visiting family during her March Break holiday from work. She booked us into the Marriott Goa- a five star hotel with all the bells and whistles! It was not a place we ever would have booked for ourselves, but it was a real treat to enjoy the life of luxury for a few days. We made ourselves very busy sprawling in lounge chairs by the pool, enjoying evening cocktails, and throwing will power to the wind at the decadent all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet! As Nimisha might say, “amazeballs”!

Cocktails at the Marriott with Nimisha!

We also fit in a few tourists highlights, taking one day to go check out Anjuna Beach (okay- admittedly, this was somewhat of a ‘lowlight’… after a long cab ride to get there, Patrick’s first comment was, “um… is there actually supposed to be a beach here?!” As it turns out, we just got dropped in the wrong place, but a long walk in the unforgiving sun led us to the actual beach….  largely empty except for some slow-roasting Europeans who didn’t seem to mind the bad music competing from various restaurants’ speakers, nor the ‘debatable’ training of the beach masseurs who clambered right onto the lounge chairs with their clients! We quickly left there to enjoy lunch at Baga beach, which was more of what we were expecting- packed with people, a good vibe, etc.) and then appreciated the luxury at the Marriott even more when we got back!

Speaking of the Marriott, how to describe the sensation of melting into those mattresses and pillows?! Perhaps our perspective is somewhat skewed after months of hard mattresses, but it was delightful! But I digress…

We also spent an afternoon in Old Goa, checking out some old churches, and were amazing by the tranquil feeling of the area, and the pervading evidence of Portuguese rule that lasted right up until the 1960s!

Enjoying 'gola' at Juhu Beach

And then, it was off to Mumbai! We spent our first night with Nimisha’s extended family who live in the suburbs. It was such a wonderful opportunity to experience Indian hospitality at its finest! They welcomed us into their home with open arms, fed us the most delicious food, treated us to a Hindi movie night, and topped it all off with a dinner that we will be salivating over for months to come!  We were a pack of 14 at dinner and it was a blast, followed by kulfi (ice cream) samples on the street, and then a trip out to Juhu Beach for more good eats and cool treats! What a priceless few hours!

A drink (ok- a "yard pitcher"!) at the famous Leopold's Cafe. (Note the bullet hole in the background from the 2008 terrorist attacks...)

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Nimisha the next day, and then we hit the streets of Mumbai on our own. What a great city! It feels like it could be New York or Chicago fifty years ago, with old taxis, buildings that once might have been quite grand but now boast sagging stairways and peeling paint, and hustle and bustle of every description on the streets! We enjoyed eating at the famous Leopold’s Café and Mondegar Café, oogled the impressive British-style architecture, and even had a sunset drink on the 33^rd floor of the Four Seasons hotel!  (We are getting good at blending into the scenery at five star hotels… we even conned our way into the business centre for free internet… I think our flip flops were the only give away!)

Dharavi Slum- thousands of people living right beside the train tracks (note the laundry drying in the foreground)

All that said, Mumbai is very aptly described as a city of contrasts. Just before visiting the Four Seasons hotel, we had wandered through Dharavi, one of Mumbai’s “slum” communities (and one of Asia’s largest slums) with thousands of people living in tin shacks, concrete tenement buildings, and everything in between. The sights and smells were humbling, but there was actually quite a happy, calm, organized feeling there, and we did not feel unsafe at all. It was amazing that we were able to walk freely and really did not get noticed or pointed out the way we had expected.

All in all, we leave with a really good impression of Mumbai. As with Bangkok, it is a city we could see ourselves living in at some point, with so much to offer in every way. (But don’t worry, Toronto is still home and our hearts miss it more by the day! We will see you all in August!)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hiatus in Hampi

Having sold our bikes more quickly than anticipated, we realized we had time to hightail it to Hampi, a place that innumerable people had told us we just had to visit in India.

Hampi is about 8 hours east of Goa, directly north of Bangalore. We took a train from Goa to get there on Thursday, and an overnight bus back to Goa on Saturday night. With only two full days to explore the area, we didn’t have a lot of time to spare, but it was a beautiful place, and well worth the effort to get there!

Hampi has magnificent ruins spread across a 29 square kilometre area. It is touted as “the world’s largest open-air museum”! Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire between 1336-1565. The historical ruins are quite amazing- they are often compared to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Although we didn’t actually think the workmanship in Hampi was quite as refined and impressive as in Angkor Wat, but the comparison is understandable. Equally (or to us, perhaps even more) breathtaking, however, is the surrounding boulder-strewn landscape. Some of the boulders were so huge and precariously perched that they truly seemed to defy gravity! As sacrilegious as I’m sure this is to say, it almost seemed like we were wandering around Universal Studios at times- the boulders were so smooth and impressive that it seemed like they must be part of a man-made movie set! With the temples evoking Indiana Jones and the boulders tricking you into feeling like you were on the set of Jurassic Park, it was quite the surreal place to be!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Trading Bicycles for Yoga Mats!

These sculptures surrounded the lakeside spot where we had our afternoon yoga classes.

Well, we intended this to be a year of growth, stretching ourselves in new directions. We have quite literally done that for the past ten days.  Thanks to a recommendation from our friend Jonny Ball, we checked ourselves into an ashram for ten days of cleansing! We abstained from meat, alcohol, and physical contact! In all seriousness, though, the Sivananda Ashram in Neyyar Dam is quite a phenomenal place. They truly teach about all aspects of the yogic lifestyle, requiring everyone who stays there to follow a strict schedule. They teach about the five points of yoga: 1) proper exercise; 2) proper breathing; 3) proper relaxation; 4) proper diet; 5) proper meditation and positive thinking.

Our days began at 6am with a half hour of silent meditation in the main hall, followed by a one hour ‘satsang’, where everyone participated in devotional chanting and music. Although the chants were of the Hindu faith, the purpose was to clear the mind from distractions and to feel part of a larger community. At 7:30am, we enjoyed tea time before our first two hour yoga class of the day. Being complete beginners, this “yoga vacation” was the perfect way to learn the postures in a safe and supported way. It was amazing how much stronger and more flexible we felt after just ten days of intensive practice! Yoga is definitely challenging in a whole new way for us, forcing us to spend time upside down and inside out in ways that we didn’t know our bodies could go!  We also recognize how much room for growth we still have!

One morning we had the opportunity to hike up to a temple and see this beautiful view overlooking India's western ghats (mountains).

“Breakfast” followed yoga at 10am. After enjoying a meal that we westerners would more commonly encounter at lunch or dinner (vegetable curry, rice, etc. – the diet at the ashram is strictly vegetarian, and forbids garlic, onions and chillis because they are said to excite the mind and make it hard to concentrate!), we enjoyed a bit of free time before another tea time at 1:30pm and a lecture on yogic philosophy from 2-3:30pm. At 3:30pm we had our second two hour yoga class of the day, followed by dinner at 6pm. Yes- you are reading this correctly- we adjusted to not eating until 10am and then only having two meals a day! At 8pm we all regrouped in the main hall again for another half hour of silent meditation followed by an hour of satsang chanting.  At 10:30pm, it was lights out… the girls in their dorms, and the boys in a separate dorm building!

In some ways, this was like yoga summer camp for international adults! It was very different following such a structured schedule and completely checking out of the “real world” for a while- not having to worry about where to sleep, where to eat etc. Of course a true yogi, as we learned, would say that what we consider the “real world” is in fact all just an illusion formed by our ego and our desire to appease our 5 senses, and that ultimate self-realization comes from connecting with the inner silence and recognizing that we are all “one”- but I digress!

This is a photo of the founder of Sivananda Ashram- a quirky man, but who left a great legacy in bringing yoga- and his message of peace and love- to North America.

All in all, we really had a great experience and feel motivated to incorporate yoga into our daily routine on an ongoing basis… although probably not for four hours a day! The talks on yogic philosophy were also really interesting- nice to have some intellectual stimulation and something to gnaw on for a while. Meditation was definitely the hardest thing for us- and the verdict is out about whether it is something we can really pursue- but just because something is initially hard or uncomfortable is not a reason to immediately dismiss it, either. The first Sivananda Ashram is actually in the Laurentians in Quebec, so perhaps we will be able to visit there someday.

Ten days later, it was time to leave the ashram, and with time we will continue to digest what we learned and experienced there. Certainly, once we left that little oasis, life took on a different pace immediately. After our morning yoga class and breakfast on Sunday, we checked out of the ashram (at $10/day/person including all meals, accommodation, yoga classes etc., it was a pretty cheap stay!) and biked 35km back to Trivandrum, where we jumped on a train and headed north to Kochi. With just a week until we meet up with Nimisha in Goa, the reality of trying to sell our bikes was weighing on us… hard to know where to start and how long it might take.

John, the proud new owner of our bikes!

We spent Monday morning visiting bike shops and trying to post an ad that we had bikes to sell. We did a lot of running around and it was starting to feel like we were going in circles. Back at our hotel between errands, our hotel owner knocked on our door and said HE wanted to buy our bikes! After about half an hour of chatting and negotiating, the deal was done! With $500 back in our pocket, feeling equal parts lost and liberated without our two-wheeler companions, we tried to come to terms with our new reality! While Patrick gave the bikes a final oiling, Cayleigh raced back to the train station to see if we could jump on a train that night instead of Wednesday night as planned. We were put on a waiting list, but luck was in our corner once again, and at 11:30pm Monday night we hopped on a train heading north.

Blue Train

As we write this, it is Tuesday morning. We are in the fourteenth hour of our fifteen hour train ride, whizzing alongside beautiful countryside, heading for Goa, the land of hedonism, in dire contrast to the ashram lifestyle! En route, we have succumbed to nearly all the vendors that endlessly pass our bunks on the train. “Chai? Peanuts? Vegetable biryani? Samosas?” After our self-restraint at the ashram, it would appear our will power is shot! Patrick grins like a little kid in an ice cream shop every time a new vendor passes with yet another 20 cent indulgence on offer!

And so, as one big chapter ends, another has already begun.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Two bikes, three oceans

At the tip of India!

Well, after several days of cycling in extreme heat (43-47 degrees Celsius), we have arrived at the southern-most point of India: Kanyakumari.

If you picture India as a diamond shape, we are at the very southern tip where the Indian Ocean meets the Arabian Sea and the Lakshadweep Sea.

When we said 'coastal' , we got coastal!

After leaving Amma’s ashram, we headed south on our bikes, very determined to stick to tiny coastal roads, despite constantly being redirected by well-meaning villagers to the main highway. “Yes, sir. Very good road, sir. Bus way. Speed way.”  It was so hard to communicate that the road with buses zooming past with millimeters to spare was not actually our idea of an ideal road! Indeed, the route we took was much more circuitous, resulting in more than one dead end, and several incidents of pushing/carrying our bikes through sand and sea, but it was worth it!

Oops- a dead end- the road was washed away!

Just to share one example, at one point we came upon a construction zone along the beach, where huge bulldozers were moving piles of sand, and the road seemed to disappear. There was a road that led away from the beach, but we tried to get a sense of how far it would be before the construction ended and the coastal road was passable again. A man told Patrick it was fine just ahead, beyond the mountains of sand. Perfect. We pushed our bikes, laughed, took some photos…. and then kept going… and then as we rounded a curve and saw yet more beach sprawled ahead, we wondered where the road was. Finally a man flagged us down and told us that there was no road the way we were heading, that we had to go back to the main road just 1.5km “that way”. Well, “that way” consisted of about 200m of water! “But how do we get across the water?” “Good road. 1.5km that way.” “Great. Thank you. Can you tell us how we can get there?” “Just that way.” “Yes, but we don’t want to swim. Is there a road?” (Patrick actually had to clarify that we didn’t want to swim with our bikes!) “Yes- just 1.5km. Very good road.” “Can we walk around the water somewhere?” “No, sir- you go that way” This inane conversation must have gone back and forth for at least ten minutes before we finally realized that there was a boat (they never mentioned or offered this), and that in fact it was a free government service!! Seriously! It was hilarious, and it turns out the men were really trying to be helpful, they just forgot to mention the boat part!

After many such adventures, we spent nights in beautiful Varkala Beach and Kovalum Beach, enjoying the sound of waves crashing against the shore and another chance to jump in the surf. Then we set off south, aiming for Kanyakumari where the three oceans meet. (Our first challenge was remembering the name of the place so we could ask for directions!) We initially thought we would take two days to cycle from Kovalum to Kanyakumari, because the 91km distance seemed a bit much in the searing heat. We had covered 52km by lunch at 11am, and took a break for 1.5hrs to miss some of the hottest sun. In this time, we found an internet café, checked google maps, and saw that indeed, there appeared to be a coastal road the rest of the way. So we set off in a new direction, notably lacking a map, a GPS, a compass, or an idea of where we might spend the night! At times we would ask for directions to two people standing beside each other, and they would each indicate a different road! Once, we asked if there was a hotel nearby, and we were told there was one in the next town. Excellent! It turns out that in this part of India (like in Kenya), “hotel” actually means ‘restaurant’, not somewhere to sleep. In the end, we had to come all the way to Kanyakumari in one day after all, a total distance of 110km after all our detours through small, awe-struck villages complete with high fives from the teenagers, giggling children, and women doing laundry.

Arriving here across a small bridge was, as Patrick said, “monumental”. If we could have had a bird’s eye view of our route over the past few days, snaking around the very tip of India, it would have been pretty neat. As we arrived into town after 7.5hours of peddling, the last shades of deep red, orange, and purple were just settling in the sky after one of the most spectacular sunsets we have seen yet. It seemed to be a pretty symbolic way to end our bike trip of 3400km over five countries.

As dramatic as that sounds, however, bike tripping always is a study of extremes. After the high of reaching town after two big hills with a headwind, we were left with the unenviable task of finding accommodation amidst darkened streets, blaring car horns, and relentless touts (“Yes, sir. Come to my hotel, sir.”) Exhausted, we took the first place we found- it was cheap and (on first sight) clean. We paid, hauled our bags up to the fifth floor (“the penthouse”…. Ish), and only then realized what a crap hole we had committed to. Pardon the pun, but the bathroom (which we hadn’t checked) really was a crap hole, with a squatter toilet when our cycling legs just wanted something to sit on. We then realized that the shower was broken, resulting in taking a very deflated “shower” of sitting on the tiles and sticking our heads under the tap intended for filling buckets! This was not the most glorious way to celebrate our achievement, and had we thought it through in advance, this might have been a night to spring for a slightly more expensive hotel room! Of course, then we wouldn’t have had the charming din of four competing generators to welcome us as we settled in for the night, nor the competing drum band downstairs, nor the pet spider, ants, and large cockroach, all with the slight smell of sewage to lull us to sleep! We had to remind ourselves humbly, though, that many people in this world have a whole lot less.

Indeed, it feels like a true accomplishment to reach this geographical landmark, and the amazing sights and scenes over the past week have made us very glad that we decided to bring our bikes with us to India. We are facing a new chapter now, as we prepare to sell our bikes somewhere in the next few weeks, either in Kochi or in Goa. We have realized that Kerala and South India are an entity unto themselves, but the rest of the country doesn’t appear to be as cycle-friendly. When we head back north, our bikes will no longer be our mode of transportation. It will be sad to let them go, as they feel like an extension of us and have defined a lot of our trip to date. However, surely it is fitting that Cayleigh’s bike shorts finally ripped through yesterday, ceremoniously indicating that our biking days have come to an end!

As an ode to biking in South India, here is a short video- our first attempt at video editing and putting different clips together. Cayleigh takes full responsibility for the corny music. =)

 

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Ever feel like you just need a hug?!

Amma, the "Hugging Mother"

Who better to seek a hug from than Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, AKA the Hugging Saint.

Amma, as she is more commonly called, was born into a normal childhood in a small coastal South Indian village, but soon was seen to have a higher calling. She teaches that love and selfless giving are the most important guiding principles, and she embodies this – literally- by spending hours of every day giving hugs and consolation to anyone who comes to her. Over the past 30 years, she has hugged millions of people all over the world!

By spending 3 days at her Ashram, which is located on the property where she was born, we were able to gain some insight into her work… and of course we also got a divine hug!

It is hard to know where to start in summing up our experience at the Amritapuri Ashram. Suffice to say that it is truly a whole different world. Walking through the gates of the ashram, you enter a community filled with people wearing flowing white clothing, eating communal “gruel”-type meals from stainless steel dishes, and spending their days chanting, praying, and connecting with their spiritual selves, as guided by Amma.

The ashram is a spiritual place, so photographs were strictly prohibited, but your imaginations will paint a pretty accurate photo- everything from our bare room with mattresses on the floor, to a sea side full of meditating practitioners from all walks of life!

We were impressed by the commitment of Amma’s followers to lead simple lives without materialistic distractions. It is hard to think of better guiding principles than love and selfless giving, and we fully believe in the basic teachings which Amma shares. We were also impressed by the magnitude of the ashram itself, having 3000 permanent residents, with the capacity to house an additional 2000 visitors. It is massive, but it feels like a small village. Everyone is expected to complete at least two hours of SEVA (selfless service) to keep the ashram running, so while we were there, Patrick and I helped with the composting program, and also washed dishes at night. Everything runs relatively smoothly and it provides a safe space for many people. Amma also heads the Embracing the World charity, which is often one of the first to arrive on scenes of world disasters. By all accounts, this is an inspirational woman and a special place.

We must be honest, however, that we also had certain reservations over the course of our stay. There is a real sense of idol worship that felt a bit misguided. Somehow, all the “fuss” around ‘Amma the idol’ distracted from her core message. There is a true “Amma-mania”, complete with every possible trinket you can think of available- rings, watches, bags, T-shirts, postcards (of her feet!), etc. When she walks anywhere, crowds rush for a glimpse of this woman that is on display all day on stage as it is.

And then there’s the hug. Sounds great, right? I am a hugger- I love hugs. And a divine hug? Sign me up! Well, sign up indeed! You get assigned a time when you can get in line to have a hug. After an hour in line, one of her assistants literally grabs you and shoves your head into her sizeable chest…. and holds it there!! That hug will end when She decides it’s time! It is a somewhat awkward, strange experience, and unfortunately, I can’t say it was the most moving or enlightening spiritual experience I have had.

Patrick had an equally baffling experience, culminating in Amma whispering in tongues in his ear, and then saying, “I told ‘im, I told ‘im, I told ‘im”…. okay…. we are not sure what to make of that… perhaps she has a direct line to the big Him and felt Patrick needed a favour or two!! Time will tell, I guess!

Oh well, it was very interesting as an anthropological study, if nothing else! We are glad we went, and will try to remember the core messages more than anything else.