the main temple in sarnath has one of the buddha's teeth, and they took it out on tuesday for its yearly showing. i went with my nun friend shanti and there were HUNDREDS of people there - mostly pilgrims, monks, and tibetans. i was actually one of only 3 westerners there. but, following the usual method of waiting in line here, we found some friends toward the front and cut past about 75% of the line. inside the temple, there was the buddha's tooth (under a glass container that was under another glass container) and 4 or 5 monks. one to take money for offerings, one to shine a flashlight on the relic, one to point at it, and another one to push people out the door. all in all, it lasted about 20 seconds, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

last week jojo's lip swelled up to about 3 times its normal size. she's better now, but nobody seemed to know what was wrong. she went to two or three doctors, and they gave her all kinds of medications - anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, antihistamines - but nothing worked. everyone had an opinion on what it was, though, and how to treat it. bee stings, infected mosquito bites, lizard bites... the list went on and on. my two favorite theories, however, were from a medical student who we see at the chai stall all the time and a girl in the hostel. respectively, they were:
- a physical manifestation of negative karma being expelled from jojo's body as a result of all of the buddhism that she's studying here
- she peed outside somewhere and angered a naga