Sunday 23 September 2012

Wednesday, Septemer 19th, 2012

Somewhere Under The Rainbow
 
Sprague, Manitoba
At the Manitoba/Minnesota border Middlebro, the two officers at this customs place were absolutely shocked to see me approaching their office. One uniformed person came out with hands on hips, then a second.
“What’s going on?” says one officer as if an alien descended from the sky.
“I’m a monk and I’m in the middle of the country on foot starting from Newfoundland. My purpose? To promote pilgrimage.” That softened the two tough looking officers, actually they were women.
After the handshakes I turned to head west. A rainbow greeted me. It was a perfectly defined striped bow in the sky and I happened to walk right under it’s highest point, in other words, in the middle. It was interesting to receive that welcome and in the village of Middlebro (hey, I’m a middle bro).
The bow dissolved under a deep blue Krishna tint of clouds; then it reappeared but only to flaunt its last pride for the day.
I read signs along the way that say, “No Hog Factories in Rural Municipality of Piney”. People don’t want the pig run off into their water systems. They are fed up.
A farmer’s dog came to join me for quite some time. I gave him a mantra to hear, Hare Krishna. After some time my loveable friend got taken by the owner in his pick-up truck.
“I meant nothing at all,” I said, “the dog just kept following me.”
“No problem,” said Corey, the young farmer, who is in the middle of a soybean harvest. Doug, who is 69 from Winnipeg came to join me along with Daruka. We meandered at Buffalo Point Park. Here you see no buffalo, but deer galore. What a great time with these bros walking within the forest cutting ourselves from the harsh and rainy prairie wind. Our evening was spent at 108 Chestnut Street, the ISKCON centre for chanting and walk talking. I just wanted to give the group a taste of what a wandering mendicant goes through in the modern age.
22 Km

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