Electricity continues to be intermittent in Juanga, so I apologize for my lack of updates and communication! Rather than take the time to write a lengthy missive, I'm sending four photos to give you a visual taste of my first days back here in Juanga.

1) Bapa and I have seen each other every day. Yesterday was the most festive, as we sat and played music together at our village/hospital Shivaratri festival, an annual occasion sponsored by the hospital and recognized nationally to celebrate Shiva. Bapa looks very good in many ways; his internal strength and drumming prowess are hardly matched by any of his contemporaries, of which there are few. There are 4-5 old, old men in Juanga, all of them working each day in the field, but only one able to sit for 10 hours and pound the H$@! out of a mrudanga drum, let alone shout at the other drummers that they're playing incorrectly and then raise a hand at me and ask me gruffly why I'm laughing? Grumpy old men - with a twinkle in their eyes - an international phenomenon. As to his health: he reports no pain, and seems to forget that he has cancer. I spoke with his physician and he said, too, that he expected Bapa to continue as he is for some time, as the prostate cancer he has is slow-moving. I came here ready to find him immobilized; I am overjoyed to find him as irascible and punchy as ever. ApparentlyI played well yesterday, because after another shouting tirade, he looked at me and instead of a feigned punch, he put his wrinkled hand on my forehead and blessed me.

2) I put a sari on yesterday to respect the holiday, and these women, waiting to see our doctor, couldn't believe it and asked that I sit with them for a while and then take a photo. I assured them it was not I who knew how to take 9 yards of fabric and turn it into a lovely dress, but our head nurse, who patiently dresses me whenever such a holiday occasion presents itself. I love it for about one hour, and then cannot believe the heat generated by all that fabric! How do these women do this day after day while cooking over an open fire???

3) The little girl in the dark pink sweater is Mili, whom some of you may remember from my last visit. I and my grade school, high school, college, and music teachers in the US have made her education our responsiblity, as I learned last time that because of an injury to her foot from being hit by a car, she will no longer be considered "good marriage material." She's smart as a whip and now in kindergarten. I spent a bit of time at her house yesterday, eating bananas and trying to explaing to her mother and other women neighbors why I was thinner (they find this very disturbing), why my hair was longer (intriguing, seemingly, that my hair also grows), and why I'd taken 3 years to return (also quite apparently disturbing.) Mili came to the festival yesterday with her grandpa and siblings, and I shot this photo as she was finishing her dinner, seated with hundreds of other villagers along the road in front of the hospital, eating rice, lentil stew, chutney, and rice pudding off banana leaves.

4) I call this picture "Rice Boy," as I don't know his name. I was coming home from a walk and saw this mini-person with a bamboo pole and two bundles of rice stalks on either end, perpetrating the bigger version that all the farmers enact each day as they harvest rice, lentils, and any other crop. In America, we make mini cars for our kids. Here, they make mini farm equipment!!! He was so proud of his "job." and even more excited to see the photo after taking it, his mother and aunties surrounding and giggling that even a foreigner can recognize how cute and really, how hilarious this little boy is.