Xtreme Science Experiment

The big deal here this week has been the celebration of the harvest which coincides with the solar eclipse that took place this afternoon! We've always gotten excited with solar/lunar eclipses, and as excited as we were about this one, we couldn't help but see and feel that this eclipse meant something totally different over here. In fact, this eclipse was different than any other we'd experienced ... not so much from the standpoint of the eclipse but rather how it was viewed. Today, the city basically shut down as the moon crossed paths with the sun. The schools were dismissed for this holiday, but you didn't see any children running around. And as you can see from below, the streets were empty. It took us a while to find a rickshaw today and when we did find one, we had to pay more than what we usually pay because of the demand. The intersections below are typically jam-packed with cars, taxis, buses, motor bikes, rickshaws, cows, and camels ... all trying to get through at the same time. From these pictures, you can almost feel the eeriness from the deserted streets.

The majority of the shops were closed as well....

When we heard about it, we did some research and decided to take science outside today and put together a little experiment that allowed us to watch the sun's shadow change as the moon passed in front of it.

What started out as a low-key family affair quickly turned into a full blown audience. Even the men from the landscape crew decided to check things out.

We then noticed some of our friends looking directly into the sun and found out they were using these.

We were excited when they asked us if we wanted to take a look. We were also excited to find out that a man in one of the buildings was selling these shades for about 50 cents!

This is what we saw when we looked at it without the shades (we didn't actually look directly at the sun, but our camera did).

And this is what we saw WITH the shades. It was an amazing thing to witness the moon making its way in front of the sun. How can anyone see this and not KNOW He is responsible for our creation? Thank You, Father, for speaking this place into existence!