August 15: Independence Day

Today we celebrated Independence Day- not only for India, but also for Korea. Our day has been busy: we attended an all-school assembly where we sang the Indian national anthem, watched the flag be raised, heard a speech, prayed, and watched a L-O-N-G Indian dance that 'addressed' social issues (mmmmm. I'm still reflecting on this, but I'm not convinced that a bunch of people who make their living dancing are actually changing social areas of greed, poverty, inequality, environmental abuse, caste issues, racism, sexism... the list goes on and on. But I digress!)

What I thought was cool this time in our celebration, was that the Korean students and staff (and there are LOTS at our school) put together a Korean 'dance' for us to watch and they also got up and sang their national anthem. Every year our school congratulates the Koreans on their Independence day, but this year it was fun to see some Korean stuff too- especially since we were just there.

Anyway, after all the pomp, we lined up for Indian food, drank chai out of clay cups and chatted with friends and acquaintances. I was glad to get a picture of me with a friend of mine. She came to WS at the same time that we did and our boys are the same age. She has become like my Indian 'sister' even though we don't see each other much. We're always excited to see eachother and whenever we move from here, I will miss her. What's really fun is that God gave us both little girls named Anna- here we are with our daughters: