Duathlon Day!

Today was Bailey and Carson's first duathlon!  Mike also did the duathlon but this was not his first...and his distance was much longer than B & C's race.  That means they ran, biked and then ran again.

The duathlon was at East Coast Park in Singapore.  It was a nice, overcast morning (Singapore overcast that is, which is never too cool) for our runners.

Bailey had a great showing and finished in 2nd place for her age group.  Carson also had an excellent race, finishing in 5th place.  He was amazing on both of the running portions but struggled a little bit with the transitions.  He was in second place on the first run but got passed by a lot of boys on the biking portion of the race.  That was mostly due to the fact that he was riding on Bailey's mountain bike.  So, he should be so proud of himself for finishing in fifth place!

It was great to have some friends to hang out with before the race: Mason Gammons and Holly Lesser!

 It was sweet to have Sammy there to cheer on her friend and sib's in their races!  Next time she might as well race since she had to get up at 6:30am to go support the racers anyway.

                                                                Everyone's a Winner!

Since Bailey scored second place she got a silver medal and $100 voucher for running shoes at a local   running store.  The other girls weren't there to stand on the podium.  The third place girl's mom stood on the podium for her...too funny!

Carson was hanging during the awards ceremony.

Gotta love Bailey...this all American girl was Irish dancing her heart out at the SAS County Fair a couple of hours after finishing the duathlon.  They have a new dance called Gypsie which was really

fun to watch!

As for Mike...lame, I know, that there's no photos of him.  He was hard to catch b/c he was running around all morning getting ready for his race.  We had to leave him on the East Coast so we could get back for Sammy's commitment at the school fair.  We watched him start and he looked great!  It was a bummer that we didn't get to see him finish the race though!  Such a fun Saturday!

Bollywood!

Mike and I had a great time at a Bollywood party last night!  It was at our church here in Singapore.  Fun idea:  they brought in 2 Bollywood dance instructors and split everyone into 2 groups.  We each learned a different dance and then we came together and had a "dance off!"
We had to learn a 2 minute dance routine in about 45 minutes. 
I wish I'd taken more photos but here are a few:

Here's Carrie and I posing with our hennas.  We spent a few days in Little India this week getting our outfits ready.

The ladies!

The men!

 

Notice Mike in the front (the guy with the sweet wig!)

My friend Malia - she won best costume.  Doesn't she look great?

  We were definitely glowing after all that dancing!!!

Thaipusam

OK..I know that I should be finishing my post on Italy, writing my Africa and Philippines posts, etc. etc.  etc. BUT...I just can't resist posting about Thaipusam, a Hindu festival observed by the Hindus of southern India during the Tamil month of Thai (January - February). Outside of India, it is celebrated mainly by the Tamil speaking community settled in Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Sri Lanka.
It is believed by Hindus that on this day, Goddess Parvati presented a lance to Lord Murugan to vanquish the demon army of Tarakasura and combat their evil deeds.

Thaipusam is a celebration of the victory of good over evil.

Many devotees bear milk, water, fruit and floral tributes on pails hung from a yoke and carry them on their shoulders to various Murugan temples, far and near.  In Singapore they get their piercings and their heavy loads at one temple and then walk barefoot 4.5 kilometers to another temple.

Many fanatical devotees go to such extent as to torture their bodies to appease the Lord. So, a major feature of Thaipusam celebrations is body piercing with hooks, skewers and small lances called 'vel'. Many of these devotees even pull chariots and heavy objects with hooks attached to their bodies. Others pierce their tongue and cheek to impede speech and thereby attain full concentration on the Lord. Most devotees enter into a trance during such piercing due to the incessant drumming and chanting of "vel vel shakti vel."

After 6 years in Singapore now I had been meaning to go to this festival for several years.  Usually my friends go in the middle of the night and I haven't been excited about that.  This year, my friend Carrie and I decided to go in the morning when the kids left for school.

We parked in Little India and walked down Serangoon Road where we saw many people who had been pierced and were walking with their families to the other temple:

                                            This is the temple where they begin their walk.

 Here's a pair of shoes that many wear on the walk; definitely not near as comfy as my Tom's!

                      The families bring milk and prepare it for their family members to carry.

This man was leaving the temple to make the walk on only one leg.  Wow!

We watched this guy get "hooked."

Then we saw him get pierced.

We watched the chanters putting people into a "trance" so that they couldn't feel the pain.

Watching his tongue get pierced made me pretty queasy.

We had to take off our shoes when entering the temple grounds.  We decided to keep our shoes in our bags with us...there were hundreds of shoes on the grounds so we thought there was a good chance we'd never find them again.

What an education we got today!  I can't wait to take my older kids to this festival sometime and ask them if they think what our church requires of us is too much.  I think after seeing this they may decide that being a member of our church is a piece of cake!