Carpet Party

First carpet Party tonight at the director's lovely home, which is like a museum of his world travels.  Bob Hetzel invited Mr. Khan, whose family has been in the business of traveling and collecting carpets from Afghanistan, Uzbechistan, and Iran for generations, to show the newbies some prizes: silk, wool, cotton - beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.  This large one is now in our living room, and the stack of carpets I'm sitting on are distributed throughout our home. 

We spent an earlier part of the day crushed in a room full of foreigners seeking visas from the Dept of Immigration.  We were shoulder to shoulder with the kin of the people who made these carpets, as well from a plethora of other nations.  The traditional garb, the facial features, the languages and gestures - it was a feast during which I sat transfixed for three hours.  There were peoples from the west and Asia and places I'm not sure I could find on a map.  Indians themselves are so diverse, they so easily absorb all us foreigners.  We feel so welcome, but unnecessary.