Happy Ayyamiha

Today was the first full day of Ayyamiha. To celebrate, we had a day off from school work. The girls had bought each other some small gifts and they exchanged those this morning. Nadim and I decided that we should celebrate the beginning of Ayyamiha with a trip to GRS Fantasy Park, a water park in the area. Not only would it be fun, but it would also be a great way to beat the heat for a few hours. They had a children’s play area, larger water slides, a river rapids ride, a huge waterfall and more.

The strange thing about the water park, was that I think I was the only woman in the place wearing a bathing suit. Before your mind goes down the wrong path, I’d better tell you that all the women were wearing either Punjabis, saris, or t-shirts and pants or shorts. There was a group of school kids and they were all going in the pool and rides with their school uniforms on!

It wasn’t very crowded and we were the only non-Asian people there. We did see some people that seemed to be from China, but nobody white. I get a lot of looks even in the city, so I’m not sure if they were looking at me because I was wearing a bikini or if it was just because I look strange to them. In any case I was glad for my wrap when we were moving from one area to the next.

The other strange thing was that many of the attractions were only open at certain times. Then you would show up at the specified time and it wouldn’t be on. Nadim got mad at one guy and so he turned things on. At another point we had to wait for the attendant to finish his chai. Certain things were closed from 1:00 – 1:30 for lunch, and another bunch of things were closed from 1:30 – 2:00 for lunch. We thought that was funny. India’s customer service is not what it is in Canada!

This evening we went out for another Ayyamiha dinner. We also donated another bag of rice and some Baha’i books at a home for the terminally ill. The evening was very nice, once again. The food is always amazing with the wonderful spices that they use here. Everyone eats with their hands, but we’re treated to spoons because they know how strange we foreigners are!

CM