Saturday, April 19th, 2014

Durban, South Africa

From Tent to Tent

I had paid a visit to the unsung heroes who are doing all the cooking outdoors for the hungry festival goers.  It’s impressive!  Just shy of the golden number 100, are these sizeable pots under fire that are burning and crackling away.  Beryani, a South African favourite, is on the boil for this second day at the Chariot Festival which is held at the old Durban drive in theatre.

Food is one of the major features of festivals.  Apart from the stage where our group brought down the house for the standing ovation performance of Little Big Ramayan, my like at the event is a tent called the Bhakti Cloud.  Here the youth organize presentations of various sorts.  On the program schedule, I’ve been dubbed as The Dance Master, so the expectation is for me to pull off a dance to the sound of half a dozen djembes. 

So much for being The Walking Monk.  Now there’s the expectation that I’m Fred Astaire.  Anyways, our half hour stint went well.  We got everyone up to dancing out and enacting the ten Avatars. 

Another highlight for me was an hour session given to talking at Tent A, about walking experiences.  I wasn’t sure that my Tails on Trails would carry an appeal, yet the tent filled up and interest in pilgrimage was generated.  My final word was actually a question, “How many of you anticipate to do more walking now that you hear how fun and freeing it is?”  The response was, “Lakker”, which in Afrikaans means, “Good”.

May the Source be with you!

5 KM