A Winter in India

You just never know what will happen in a day here. Lee Abrahamsen arrived Friday night; we delivered 30 pairs of fleece socks from Grandma Decker to the kids at Faith Foundation yesterday. Today we were about to go out sightseeing when the sights came to us right here. First there were horses parading up and down, then drums started, and buses arrived. Turned out to be a parade to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Lion's Club of India. The parade started just down the street from us, and we had grand views of all the chaos. Parade was supposed to start at 10 AM; finally got underway at 12:45. Two drum bands were competing, then an all girl's marching band, then several flower-draped horse-drawn carts of Lions. Then three elephants. Even though the parade was already underway, when they got right in front of out house, another Lion decided he needed to be up on the middle elephant. So the pictures tell the story: The elephant bowed down, the guy started to climb up its back end, couldn't make it, other people tried to boost him up, still couln't make it, and finally he fell back to the ground, luckily on his feet. Even funnier was that the Lion who was already up there never stopped talking on his cell phone through all of this, until he almost got tipped out himself, and then he finally looked around. I wonder who do you have to talk to on the cell phone when you are on an elephant in the middle of a parade?