Diwali

One of the big national holidays here is Diwali, or Festival of Lights, which occurred yesterday. It's a Hindu holiday, but because of the large East Indian population in Trinidad, it has been adopted as a holiday here as well, not as big as Christmas, but still significant. The traditions revolve around feasting on Indian food (curried fruits, meats and sweets) and lighting countless clay lamps filled with oil or wax. It's really quite stunning when whole neighborhoods are lit up lining porches, driveways and sidewalks. There are also lots of fireworks. Unfortunately, a drowning rainstorm came up and put out most of the candles in the area that I was in before I was able to get any good pictures. However, I did take a couple of pictures at the Ramdahnie house, friends from Church. They invited me over for their Diwali dinner. I also brought the missionaries, pictured below.



Their little daughter, Rebecca, is quite a handful. She is almost 3 years old, 12 years younger than her next sibling, and 2o years younger than the oldest. Consequently, she is VERY spoiled. I am guilty of it as well, she fills a little of the void of missing my granddaughters. You can see from this picture why she gets whatever she wants, what a doll...




Finally, I wanted to send a couple pictures of the sky. I am always amazed by the beautiful cloud formations down here in the Caribbean. Sometimes when I go out for a run I have to stop and just look. The first picture was taken at sunrise out my bedroom window. The next one was taken from my porch at sunset. These aren't the most spectacular I've seen, but at least I had my camera handy.