Post 14

July 15--

The first attempt at silence lasted less than 24 hours. The second attempt at silence lasted slightly longer than 24 hours. I say attempt because I wasn't able to keep completely silent during my "silence". For example, I wanted to buy eggs to feed to the sick dog and I didn't have any paper to write on, so I had to speak up - otherwise the dog would have gone hungry. The next day I went to the library and it was a knew girl working there so I had to speak up and tell her my name. There is a little sign I wear that notifies everyone that I'm "in silence". Yesterday I finally added to the top of it "Gloria is trying to be...". I think if you're REALLY going to do silence you have to stop most of your activity and that is the most difficult thing for me. I can keep my mouth still (believe it or not) fairly easily, it is keeping my mind and body still that is most difficult. I mean, can you imagine, no writing, no reading, no watching t.v., no SLEEPING!! Ugh! I will still keep trying for this before I leave here. I figure even it is for 10 hours it is something!

Ants are some pretty amazing creatures! Don't laugh -- like I said, I have no t.v. Instead I have my own national geographic program playing all around me all the time. The other day I learned about the courtship of stray dogs in India and now I'm learning about ants!! They are sooo strong! For example, right now there is an ant that is climbing up the door frame carrying a load as big (if not bigger) than it. Not only is it carrying this upward against gravity, there is also a very strong breeze coming through my room right now that is has to struggle against. They are persistent little buggers. I didn't want it crawling toward me, so I blew on it and it simply crawled downward for a little bit and then turned and headed back up.

I only have like one more day of Panchakarma and then I'm finished!!!!!!! I can't wait to be done. I already have my chicken dinner planned for Thursday night! The boys keep asking me if I like the chicken fried. I think they like it fried, but they will only get it that way if I ask for it. At this point I couldn't care less how it is cooked, so long as it is cooked and I get to eat it. I think I remember Jesus telling me about this family that ate a very India type of diet in the U.S. but their health declined rapidly. They found it to be a lack of protein. But they were eating the same things in India and had no problems. Turns out they were eating a lot more bugs (a.k.a. protein) in India that happened into their food/drinks. When I first heard this story, I thought - Ugh! That is so gross! Now, I really don't care. Can you believe I said that? It is true though. Sometimes I'm pretty sure there are little bugs in my rice or chai, but I eat them anyway. Today I found a tiny little ant in my cookie or "biscuit" as they call them. I wouldn't have noticed it (and probably would have eaten it) if it hadn't still been alive and moved. I let it go, I'm not that cruel.

Speaking of cruelty to animals. This morning Shankar was sitting with me as I had my morning Chai. I noticed a big black ant on his toe and told him to watch out. He shook his foot, which caused the ant to land on top of his foot. It then bit him. They are pretty painful bites I understand (luckily I don't know from firsthand experience) and so he flicked it hard with his finger. The poor thing could barely walk and it looked like it's abdomen was falling off. I felt really sad for the thing. You know I'm overly sensitive when I start feeling sad for an ant!

Oh, and don't worry about the cookie I ate. They told me this week when having the enemas that it would be good to have a few biscuits in the morning with my tea so that I have something in my stomach before the procedure. At one point I was eating non-sweet biscuits (a.k.a. crackers) but I figured a little sugar would be okay! :) They didn't specify whether it should be sweet or non-sweet.

So, I checked my e-mail yesterday and still no response to my question about rearranging my flight schedule. So, now that I have my flight info, I'll call her today. It is so difficult communicating over the phone though because their accents are so thick. But, I guess for now, I'll give it a try.