Kierian Overbeek's Year in India

Kierian spent a year in Jalgaon, India with Rotary Youth Exchange. He stayed with 3 different families. One family was Sikh and two were Jain. All were vegetarian and Jainists will not kill any living thing. Kierian had to learn to just shoo insects away rather than swat them.

There are many festivals in India. Some of Kierian's favorite are:

Ganesh, where large clay statues of the elephant god are created and lowered into a lake at the end.
Navratri, which involves a lot of dancing.
Diwali is celebrated with decorations and gift giving.
Holi is when everybody has colored water to throw at each other.

Kierian had a bicycle and rode all over the countryside with his friends. The Indian Rotarians sent the exchange students on two major trips, one toured South India and the other North India.