Namaste!
I hope you're all well.
Before beginning, I'd like to remind you all that I'm trying to add photos to my Flickr page as well (although admittedly I've still not taken many decent ones on my camera), and these also get uploaded to my blog on the right-hand side --------->
I'll try to copy some of the photos I've taken on Sangam's camera soon, so I can show you more of what's been going on here.
Sunday was World Sangam Day - and Sangam's 45th Birthday! Wow! It was a crazy hectic day, but SO much fun. The morning began with visiting the elephant who'd arrived during the night. I'd gone to bed early because I was knackered, so missed her arrival, and also the chance to camp out in the campground with the elephant (!), which was a bit disappointing, but nevertheless it meant I was better prepared for the events of the day.
I think a contributory factor in the tiredness was the fact that we'd spent a good 2-3 hours crushing lumps of mud into powder, so that we could then make clay to make tiles for a '45th birthday memories' spot!!! Very long hard work, but also kind of satisfying! :)
We now know that the elephant was named Laxmi, after a Hindu goddess, but at the time, it was just 'elephant' or 'nelly', because there was a guess the name competition later on! When I went down just before 7am, she'd already had her bath, but there was a bit more scrubbing to do, and then she had to have her make up put on and her blankets and cage tied to her back so that people could ride her safely. She then spent the morning giving staff and participants rides, so that she could offer an enjoyable feature of the afternoon to all our birthday guests. As I got up, there was also a group of people walking swiftly round the Sangam site, trying to follow our 'extra surprise' - which turned out to be a camel! Jen had managed to keep that quiet so we were all pleasantly surprised to have TWO animals to ride (although I never got around to the camel, whose name was not Alice, although she did seem to like the song!).
Most people also visited the local temple in the morning, as that is traditional on one's birthday, but I was on 'photograph the hilarious attempts of the first couple of groups to climb on the elephant' duty, and so missed out on that. Again, a little bit disappointed, but there are plenty more birthdays and other opportunities to join a temple visit. After a rushed breakfast, I went to help Net run 'Who wants to be a WAGGGS Millionaire' - which was basically a fun quiz about WAGGGS' history and the 4WC. Had to leave to get my elephant ride with Jessica and Ellen, and the whole morning was fragmented in that way as we had a rota system for riding in order to make sure we all got a turn!
The rest of the morning was filled with various activities from finalising the info. boards I made with details of everything happening during the party, to tying balloons up in every available space (and throwing some in the pool for good measure), and some other preparations. Below is a photo of the boards, because they were a big part of my life for 4 days!
The afternoon was a really nice day. We had visiting tabla players, puppet shows, a potter, a tarot reader, laughter yoga, stalls run by our community partners, dance performances, a raffle, a silent auction, the elephant and camel rides, and an official ceremony and cake cutting. The evening also ended with a forum at which we could learn more about some of the community partners and the work they do.
After all this, we spent some time clearing up (really quite efficiently, we felt) and then fell into bed. It was a really great day and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it :)
TTFN
I hope you're all well.
Before beginning, I'd like to remind you all that I'm trying to add photos to my Flickr page as well (although admittedly I've still not taken many decent ones on my camera), and these also get uploaded to my blog on the right-hand side --------->
I'll try to copy some of the photos I've taken on Sangam's camera soon, so I can show you more of what's been going on here.
Sunday was World Sangam Day - and Sangam's 45th Birthday! Wow! It was a crazy hectic day, but SO much fun. The morning began with visiting the elephant who'd arrived during the night. I'd gone to bed early because I was knackered, so missed her arrival, and also the chance to camp out in the campground with the elephant (!), which was a bit disappointing, but nevertheless it meant I was better prepared for the events of the day.
I think a contributory factor in the tiredness was the fact that we'd spent a good 2-3 hours crushing lumps of mud into powder, so that we could then make clay to make tiles for a '45th birthday memories' spot!!! Very long hard work, but also kind of satisfying! :)
We now know that the elephant was named Laxmi, after a Hindu goddess, but at the time, it was just 'elephant' or 'nelly', because there was a guess the name competition later on! When I went down just before 7am, she'd already had her bath, but there was a bit more scrubbing to do, and then she had to have her make up put on and her blankets and cage tied to her back so that people could ride her safely. She then spent the morning giving staff and participants rides, so that she could offer an enjoyable feature of the afternoon to all our birthday guests. As I got up, there was also a group of people walking swiftly round the Sangam site, trying to follow our 'extra surprise' - which turned out to be a camel! Jen had managed to keep that quiet so we were all pleasantly surprised to have TWO animals to ride (although I never got around to the camel, whose name was not Alice, although she did seem to like the song!).
Most people also visited the local temple in the morning, as that is traditional on one's birthday, but I was on 'photograph the hilarious attempts of the first couple of groups to climb on the elephant' duty, and so missed out on that. Again, a little bit disappointed, but there are plenty more birthdays and other opportunities to join a temple visit. After a rushed breakfast, I went to help Net run 'Who wants to be a WAGGGS Millionaire' - which was basically a fun quiz about WAGGGS' history and the 4WC. Had to leave to get my elephant ride with Jessica and Ellen, and the whole morning was fragmented in that way as we had a rota system for riding in order to make sure we all got a turn!
The rest of the morning was filled with various activities from finalising the info. boards I made with details of everything happening during the party, to tying balloons up in every available space (and throwing some in the pool for good measure), and some other preparations. Below is a photo of the boards, because they were a big part of my life for 4 days!
The afternoon was a really nice day. We had visiting tabla players, puppet shows, a potter, a tarot reader, laughter yoga, stalls run by our community partners, dance performances, a raffle, a silent auction, the elephant and camel rides, and an official ceremony and cake cutting. The evening also ended with a forum at which we could learn more about some of the community partners and the work they do.
After all this, we spent some time clearing up (really quite efficiently, we felt) and then fell into bed. It was a really great day and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it :)
TTFN
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