Oh IndiA!

I capitalized the A in India on purpose. We were fortunate to have a couple of friends come and stay with us for about 4 days this week. It was really cool to have them here. Well, we were eating dinner one evening, and unfortunately a piece of dog hair had flown into someone's macaroni and cheese. I said, "Oh, I hate that. It is because we have to have to the fans on high, and it blows the dog hair everywhere." That is when Julie said, "Oh, India." It then became a little game that turned into a song. This is how it went:

Oh, IndiA (emphasis on the last syllable)
Dog hair in my food....Oh, IndiA
Humidity....Oh, IndiA
Power Outages....Oh, IndiA

We would go around the table and insert a line. She even played a little music with it. E has an instrument that we bought at India week last year. It is similar to a violin. Well, this became a fun little distraction over the next day.

We packed a lot into a few short days, but I think they have a good idea of how things are here in India. It took us many hours to just shop at a couple of stores and have lunch.

E and N are swimming every morning. They get up at 5:15a, get dressed, eat, and head out the door. This is M-F. They will also sometimes swim after school. E will not be able to be on the swim team because she is too young, but if Noah has good times, he should make the team. We will have a local meet which all the kids that are meeting the practice requirements will be allowed to swim. The kids who make the team will be traveling to Mumbai.

M has decided to join MUN - a debate club. I am not sure of the details, but she seems pretty excited about it. She really is into debating everything right now, so I am sure this will be a great activity for her. I feel most days that we are in court - she is the prosecutor and I am the defense attorney. Back and forth, on everything! I am sure this is an asset to her personality, but it is tiring for me.

Charles is just working of course. I have been doing some papercrafting projects, printing pictures, and will be showing another person around this weekend. Seems funny that I am now on the other end of that. I am no longer the new person.

We are starting to get some rain as the monsoon season will start soon. I guess it is in the north right now, but we really had a good storm Tuesday night. The streets were flooded, and it smelled bad from all the garbage. We may need a raft to get to school when the Monsoons start! I did not buy rain boots since they were too heavy and took up too much room, but they sure would be handy on the days that it rains. There were also some huge frogs when it rained.

I cannot disappoint all of you who like my bug stories, so here is another one. Wednesday night, I needed put some of the recycling outside. I opened the door to the back where we keep the box, and noticed a pretty big bug. It was on its back and still moving. It could not turn over, so I knew I was okay. The next day we noticed a lot of little flying bugs on the front porch and out the back door. The large bug was still there as well. Wahid told me that some people eat the large bugs. I made a nasty face and he just laughed. I am not sure how anyone could eat something like that.

One more story. We went to pick up Charles from his training on Wednesday. We entered the parking lot, but we had to wait. There was a line. I was looking out the window, and there was a ditch with some wires and garbage next to a little restaurant. Pretty soon I noticed a large rat looking for food. Oh that is so gross!

Have a great day everyone!

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Back to India...Back to Reality

Back to India...Back to Reality

We have been back in India for about 5 days. Our last few days in Michigan were hectic with last minute shopping and cramming in visits with our friends for 5 - 10 minutes.

I think this post will be a little different than the others. Living in India has given me a whole new perspective on life. I kept thinking what a great experience this would be for the kids. They would realize all the things that they are blessed with each and every day. They would see first hand children without clean clothes, no shoes, and very little to eat if anything. They would realize that our world in Hartland, Michigan, is sheltered from so much of the real world. Guess what! I have changed as well.

I went into Meijer to do some shopping, and I wanted to get some Dr. Pepper and Diet Coke. I went into the beverage section of the store, and it was literally twice the size of the stores that I shop in for all my groceries. I was amazed at the selection and cleanliness. Here in India, I get just a few choices of soda - Coke, 7-up, Mirinda, or Pepsi. They are not sold in the case but in individual bottles. The carts in India are just a little bigger than the kids shopping carts that Farmer Jack used to have. Just maneuvering down the aisles of the Meijer store made me think of how fortunate I am.

Another strange realization for me was when the power went out in the cabin we were in in Tennessee. I awoke to the fans turning off, and the rain coming down hard. I thought I wonder if Morgesh knows that the power is out. I wonder if he will get the generator turned on soon, so I can go back to sleep. Guess what! There is no one to jump up and turn on the generator if there is even a generator. We lose power frequently here in India. In fact, we had the generator running most of the weekend. There were no storms, but we had no power.

Coming home made me really appreciate all that I am living without at the moment. I am not complaining, but I am praising God for giving me this opportunity. I loved sitting in church service and worshipping with my church family. I am missing that while I am living here. I loved driving down the road and just marveling in the beauty of America. It is dusty, dry, and dirty here.

We had an absolutely wonderful time being home. It was weird being on vacation in your own country, but I enjoyed my time tremendously. Unfortunately we were not able to visit with everyone....please accept my apologies.

One more observation...we purchased silly bands, an American Dictionary, t-shirt, and a frisbee for the caretaker's family. These were just little things to us, but they meant to much to them. The college age girl can use the dictionary for school. Her studies are in English and the professors speak in English. The little boy did not know how to throw a frisbee, so we had to teach them. These are very minor things for us, but to them it meant so much. Most of us have a dictionary in our home, and we know what a frisbee is.

We left Detroit late, missed our connection in Chicago, got a new flight plan with a different airline, connected in London with just enough time to get a candy bar and drink, arrived in Chennai, and discovered that all 8 eight pieces of luggage were missing.

I came back to a baby lizard hanging out in my craft room. I came back to honking of motor vehicles, congested streets, and a lot of heat, but I am grateful that God has provided our family this opportunity. We have a new stock of food, magazines (another Ford family remembered that I missed magazines, so they packed them in their shipment), and appreciation for life. Life is not easy, but if allow God to direct us, he will provide.

When Charles gets home, I will have him include a link to our pictures. I took almost 700 pictures, so you better pop some popcorn,sit back and relax. We have already started planning our next trip...Thailand.

We are almost over our jet lag, and the kids have started school!