On the driveway

Every morning on the driveways there are new designs that are made. This is done everywhere in India where we have been.

It is called rangoli and the designs are passed from mother to daughter. The designs are to protect the household.

The designs are intricate and nice. It's done with a chalk material that is dropped from the hand in a dust form - not with a piece of chalk.

This was today's design on our driveway. Click on it for a larger version.

I believe it is considered auspicious to rinse the prior day's image with cow urine. No kidding.

The patio

Tara is starting to decorate. The bought some very cool wicker chairs and has made the patio into a nice place. What is cool about the photo, you may notice, is that Tara has not yet replaced some of the vestiges of the owner's decorations - including the felt framed painting of a pride of female lions.

Tara was talking to Mary Skibinski at the time.

Yes!

Finally the internet is up and running!! It only took seven Indian men in my bedroom staring at the computer and arguing in Telugu to get the thing working, but it's done. Yeah!! One thing that I have noticed is that there always seems to be a huge number of men available to do one job. Usually one is doing it and the rest are standing by watching. We have been frequenting the nearby Baskin and Robins ice cream shop and as we were the only customers in the shop there were seven people behind the counter. It still took forever to get the ice cream to us, though.

Tara

Festival

Today is another Hindu festival. It is celebrated most vigorously in Mumbai, not here. It's for the celebration of Krishna's birth. Krishna is a blue guy who figures very largely into the Hindu religion. He is a bit of a womanizer and a practical joker, that is all I know.

One interesting thing is the fact that this holiday is observed by people forming large human pyramids. Watching them construct them is dramatic, but it is all the more fun to see them come down!

Fascinating place....

Labor Day

I have the day off, and I am sending it in interesting ways. I am in an internet cafe right now (connection *still* not working at home) catching up on our former life back in the US. I am glad to hear from you, those of you who have written!

Here's a few lessons:

When someone wants to show respect in India, they touch your feet. This can be very disconcerting when it is an old woman who decides to grab your shoe when you're leaving a rickshaw.

A person who looks like we do can never blend into a crowd here. We will never again be invisible out for a brief jaunt. Everywhere we go, there are eyes on us. Tara has fun with it. She says that when you look at an Indian man staring at you, they divert their gaze (true with me and the boys, as well) but when you look away, they look right back. She has fun catching them in this second glance with a quick turn of her head. It's almost like she has given them a glancing blow.

People here are authentically gentle, I have had not a single aggressive act since arrival. Even in the heaviest traffic, where an average American would be livid, it's all calm stares from everyone. Almost like they're hearing some music that we cannot hear.

Sometimes you can eat things that turn your stomach into a veritable ball of fire. What in the world was that I ate last night?

Finally, the younger the child, the more easily they adapt. It's amazing, I am not sure Aidan and Jonah even know they are in a different land. Actually, India does have a way of reminding you that you're not in America.... often. I take that back, they know we're not in Kansas, but they are totally cool with it.

Pakistan is the devil in the eyes of most people here.

I have probably learned a great deal more, but this is what comes to mind right now.

Hopefully everyone can hear from Tara and the boys soon, it's just that no one else can type a blog entry yet due to the intenet situation! I'll have to fix that.

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. :: Helen Keller

Amusing....

We almost made church today. We went to a bazaar in the other side of Hyderabad today and as we were headed home we stopped by to check out two Methodist churches. They have night services in English. The first church was locked behind a big gate and there was no one to let me in. The other church was also locked, but a person who looks like me can often smile and point at a locked church door and get in. I did this in Aurangabad, and I did it here today, too. They let me in. I checked it out.

In the back of this church there was a portrait of an Englishman who established the congregation. He lived from 1857 to 1931. The words underneath his portrait said that he spent the final years of his life in pain due to his body being broken in service of God. It was inspiring ad interesting.

There were two pigeons flying around the top of the sanctuary, so I was not sure if being there for a service would have been very hygenic.

Next week.

Anyway, here's the amusing thing from today.

Anita is a woman who lives with the Goels, upstairs. She is a Christian, I found that out this week! Also, we found a small vegetable stall where they sell vegetables that you won't find elsewhere. Tara went their today and got asparagus. Additionally, we got flowers on the way back from everything else today. The flowers make our house seem more of a home.

With all of that foundational information said....

When we came home with the flowers, Anita helped us put them in vases. She unwrapped them from the newspaper that they were wrapped in and helped put them in our vases.

During dinner, she came out with the asparagus, which was also wrapped in newspaper, and pointed to the flower vases. Tara stuttered a bit trying to say that they were not flowers. We have a form of silent language we use with Anita and others. We got the point across that they were not flowers, but food.

We all smiled and Anita put the asparagus back in the kitchen.

After a moment of silence, Tara stopped eating and said, "I wish she had not asked and just did it.". We all pictured walking into our dining room and seeing the asparagus interspersed with the gerber daisies. At that mental image, she, Liam and I started to laugh uncontrollably.

We miss our home church in Charlotte! Blessings to everyone at Selwyn!

Out at ICRISAT

We found a nice thing this morning. We went out to the campus where Liam goes to school, which is hundreds of acres in size, and visited a scene that happens there. On Saturdays, the place fills up with expat joggers, bikers, soccer players and the like - but the best part is that the school has a swimming pool. The kids enjoyed a good swim for the first time in a while.

This is what many of the expats do on Saturdays. Everyone gets together to have a good time with a huge stretch of land around them, something that is impossible to do anywhere else in Hyderabad.

There were folks from all over the world. One phenomenon that is ever-present anywhere you go is that the French-speaking people stick together for the most part. That rule stood true for most of this event, as well. But, by the end the French-speaking folks were talking to everyone else.

It was great to connect with other expats in this way. Last night we went to the expat gathering that happenes every Friday at The Walden Club and we enjoyed it, as well. There was a teen aged girl from Finland at the expat party last night. She spoke English just like an American. When I asked why, she said she had spent time in an international school in prior years. I came to learn it was four of her elementary school years, in China. I guess American English has become the lingua franca of the world's expratriates.

Overall, it has been a 24 hours of meeting people from outside of India who are in the same boat that we are, and it has been fun.