Friday, June 25, 2004
This has been very late in coming. I've been adding to it here and there over the last month, but lots has been happening. We've had lots of guests come and go, and a nanny who has come and gone as well. We still have our wonderful Celina with us, who is a cook/nanny. We're all doing well, except for a cold and fever that keeps coming and going (it seems to be going all over town). Badri actually stayed home from work today.
If you didn't receive update #1 (sent in May, I think), drop me a line. Some people mentioned that they hadn't received it. I don't know if there's a black hole where random emails get lost somewhere between here and their destination. I'll send a link to our ofoto pictures, too, so you can see how the kids are growing.
Strolling around the neighborhood: Maya, Charlie and I went for a walk/bike ride—Maya on her “fancy new bike” (she’s called it that since it was given to her on her third birthday 9 months ago) and Charlie in the stroller. There are no sidewalks so we just stick as close to the left hand side as we can. A block and a half up our street (2nd Main) we came across our "press walla". He’s the man who irons our clothes every other day for about 5 cents per piece. As we approached him today we saw flames coming out of the iron. The iron is not powered by electricity—it’s heated by charcoal bricquets that are put inside the iron. Every few blocks there is a press walla and they always seem pretty busy. They just set up a stand on the side of the road, people bring their laundry or he picks up and delivers, and he sprinkles water on the clothes to steam iron. A little later we saw one of the young men who rides his bicycle around the neighborhood yelling “Paper!” I used to think he was selling newspapers, but he’s actually calling out to people to bring newspaper and bottles to recycle. Along the way we went by a yoga master’s house. It’s about a five minute walk from here, and that’s where I’m thinking of taking classes. There are a few classes in the morning and a few in the afternoon. The mother of one of Maya’s friends (Manya, who lives two doors over) teaches yoga, too, but only at 6 am and 6 pm—both impractical times, as I’m either getting up with a baby or two in the a.m. and getting Molly (early-to-bed’er) ready for bed.
Driving the car on the left hand side: Badri and I are thinking of taking driving lessons here. Cars are driven on the left side of the road, and steering wheel is on the right side. The car we lease is stick shift (standard). I’ve driven it a couple times: once when our air shipment came and we had to get it out of the driveway, and another time, just a couple nights ago, when we were going to a neighbor’s birthday party and it was pouring buckets. Basically you have to beep the horn at every intersection to let people know you’re coming. There are no stop signs at crossroads. There are some places on busy streets where there’s a line at the intersection and the word “STOP” written on the road, but it’s rarely paid attention to. At some very big intersections there are signals (traffic lights) that work, or people directing traffic.
Bindis and saris: One of Maya’s friends asked what the bindi is for (the dot worn on womens’ foreheads here) and I asked Amma (Badri’s mom—“Amma” is “mother” in Tamil). It used to indicate whether a woman was married or not, but now it’s more decorative than anything. Some women wear a bindi when they’re wearing the more formal sari, but might not wear the bindi when they wear a salwar kameez (a long top worn over blousy pants). Some women, like Amma, choose their sari daily based on the ruling planet of the day (a Hindu custom). For example, she wears a green sari on Wednesday, yellow on Thursday, white on Friday, black on Saturday, red on Sunday, white on Monday, and orange on Tuesday.
Monsoon season started early: We bought a clothes dryer because monsoon—rainy—season started early, coming in May instead of June. As happy as we are with this house, there just isn’t enough sun in our front yard (we have no back yard to speak of) to dry clothes. It rained so much yesterday that Badri, his mom (Amma) and I took turns sweeping off the lovely patio outside the master bedroom—water was pouring on to the floor in our room through the double doors. You don’t really go for walks when it pours out like this because there are open manhole covers and people have been known to step off the bus and just disappear. We had plans to go out to dinner last night but scrapped the idea because there were several inches of water in the streets. Most of our rain jackets and all our umbrellas will be arriving in the sea shipment (scheduled to arrive first week of June--now it's 3 weeks late). We thought we could afford to wait for them, but evidently not. Our ever able driver, Mohan, went out and bought three for us—including a Little Mermaid one for Maya.
Jaamba Jungle: A few weeks ago we went to a place called Jaamba Jungle. It's a small scale version of Chuck E. Cheese. The girls had a blast. Maya liked the tubular plaything most of all, and Molly liked the carousel. Charlie just enjoyed looking up at the balloons hanging from the ceiling.
Badri's brothers and families visit: A couple weeks ago Badri's eldest brother, Ravi, came with his wife Malani and son Apu. Our girls call their uncle Ravi Peripa, which means older brother of father, and they call their aunt Malani Perima, which wife of father's older brother. They came here from Puna, northwest of here. We had a great time visiting with them, and took a fun trip to Bannerghatta National Park, a park about an hour from here. We saw lions, tigers, and bears and the kids loved it!
A couple weeks later Badri's other brother, Rajiv, came with his wife Renu and their daughter Anya. Maya had a great time with her cousin, who's 6 (Apu is 8, and Maya had a great time with him as well). They traveled here from Delhi, by way of Madras, where they'd been visiting Badri and Rajiv's parents (Amma and Appa left here a couple weeks ago).
Fruit and veggies cart: Every day a man comes by pushing a big vegetable cart (one day when we were in traffic, Maya said, "the poor vegetable man." I asked why and she said, "Because he has to push his cart around all the cars). He stops in front of our house and Celina (the cook/nanny) and I go out and buy together--lately mostly two kinds of eggplant, potato, onion, tomato, drumstick squash, green beans (a couple different kinds), coriander. We usually buy every two or three days. I have to buy with Celina because most of the vegetable vendors are from the state of Tamil Nadu, where they speak Tamil, and I don't speak that language. I did talk to a woman in the neighborhood about teaching me Hindi, though, and she said she could teach me the basics of Tamil. It would be great to communicate with some of the people working here who don't speak English (maid speaks Tamil and guard speaks Hindi).
Close encownters--butted by a cow: A couple weeks ago Badri and I went for a walk with the kids--Maya on her bike, Molly in the stroller, and Charlie in the baby carrier on my chest. As we neared home Badri was about 50 yards in front of me and I saw a cow coming up the road slowly. Badri moved to the side of the road with the girls and then the cow approached me. I thought he was going to come over and say hello, but instead, he lowered his head and butted me in the leg. It really took me by surprise. He scratched me with his horn. It wasn't too deep, but we had a doctor come over (a little over $10 for a house visit) and he gave me a tetanus shot and antibiotics. He also gave me painkillers because he said it would hurt later. Well, the site of the tetanus shot hurt more than the wound itself! From now on, I'll make way for the creatures.
Playgroups: Thete are a couple playgroups we've been going to. One is on Tuesdays, for the younger kids, and the other is on Fridays, for the older kids. Most of the foreigners have taken off for the summer, but there's still a small group of people who haven't left. We're hosting one here tomorrow, but unfortunately our sea shipment hasn't come yet, so there won't be too many toys and games. Some of the people sticking around are from England, Ireland, Sri Lanka and Germany, Holland, and of course, the U.S. The local Indian children are on the India schedule, which means summer break is over (school starts in June by the Indian calendar, and in Sept. by the Canadian calendar. We're thinking of sending Maya to the Canadian school for preschool in Sept). A few of Maya's friends in the neighborhood are back in school and sometimes they get together in the afternoon to play. Maya herself started preschool earlier this month and that seems to be going fine, from 8:45-11:15.
Miscellaneous: We went to a great brunch last Sunday for Father's Day at the Oberoi Hotel. Food was incredible, and the place was really geared towards kids. Outside in the grilling area was a station set up with cookie dough so kids could make their own cookies. There was also face painting, coloring and cutting, balloons, and a cool fish pond.
I'm going to send this off now so it doesn't get delayed further and then the news will really be old.
I hope your summer's going well!
If you didn't receive update #1 (sent in May, I think), drop me a line. Some people mentioned that they hadn't received it. I don't know if there's a black hole where random emails get lost somewhere between here and their destination. I'll send a link to our ofoto pictures, too, so you can see how the kids are growing.
Strolling around the neighborhood: Maya, Charlie and I went for a walk/bike ride—Maya on her “fancy new bike” (she’s called it that since it was given to her on her third birthday 9 months ago) and Charlie in the stroller. There are no sidewalks so we just stick as close to the left hand side as we can. A block and a half up our street (2nd Main) we came across our "press walla". He’s the man who irons our clothes every other day for about 5 cents per piece. As we approached him today we saw flames coming out of the iron. The iron is not powered by electricity—it’s heated by charcoal bricquets that are put inside the iron. Every few blocks there is a press walla and they always seem pretty busy. They just set up a stand on the side of the road, people bring their laundry or he picks up and delivers, and he sprinkles water on the clothes to steam iron. A little later we saw one of the young men who rides his bicycle around the neighborhood yelling “Paper!” I used to think he was selling newspapers, but he’s actually calling out to people to bring newspaper and bottles to recycle. Along the way we went by a yoga master’s house. It’s about a five minute walk from here, and that’s where I’m thinking of taking classes. There are a few classes in the morning and a few in the afternoon. The mother of one of Maya’s friends (Manya, who lives two doors over) teaches yoga, too, but only at 6 am and 6 pm—both impractical times, as I’m either getting up with a baby or two in the a.m. and getting Molly (early-to-bed’er) ready for bed.
Driving the car on the left hand side: Badri and I are thinking of taking driving lessons here. Cars are driven on the left side of the road, and steering wheel is on the right side. The car we lease is stick shift (standard). I’ve driven it a couple times: once when our air shipment came and we had to get it out of the driveway, and another time, just a couple nights ago, when we were going to a neighbor’s birthday party and it was pouring buckets. Basically you have to beep the horn at every intersection to let people know you’re coming. There are no stop signs at crossroads. There are some places on busy streets where there’s a line at the intersection and the word “STOP” written on the road, but it’s rarely paid attention to. At some very big intersections there are signals (traffic lights) that work, or people directing traffic.
Bindis and saris: One of Maya’s friends asked what the bindi is for (the dot worn on womens’ foreheads here) and I asked Amma (Badri’s mom—“Amma” is “mother” in Tamil). It used to indicate whether a woman was married or not, but now it’s more decorative than anything. Some women wear a bindi when they’re wearing the more formal sari, but might not wear the bindi when they wear a salwar kameez (a long top worn over blousy pants). Some women, like Amma, choose their sari daily based on the ruling planet of the day (a Hindu custom). For example, she wears a green sari on Wednesday, yellow on Thursday, white on Friday, black on Saturday, red on Sunday, white on Monday, and orange on Tuesday.
Monsoon season started early: We bought a clothes dryer because monsoon—rainy—season started early, coming in May instead of June. As happy as we are with this house, there just isn’t enough sun in our front yard (we have no back yard to speak of) to dry clothes. It rained so much yesterday that Badri, his mom (Amma) and I took turns sweeping off the lovely patio outside the master bedroom—water was pouring on to the floor in our room through the double doors. You don’t really go for walks when it pours out like this because there are open manhole covers and people have been known to step off the bus and just disappear. We had plans to go out to dinner last night but scrapped the idea because there were several inches of water in the streets. Most of our rain jackets and all our umbrellas will be arriving in the sea shipment (scheduled to arrive first week of June--now it's 3 weeks late). We thought we could afford to wait for them, but evidently not. Our ever able driver, Mohan, went out and bought three for us—including a Little Mermaid one for Maya.
Jaamba Jungle: A few weeks ago we went to a place called Jaamba Jungle. It's a small scale version of Chuck E. Cheese. The girls had a blast. Maya liked the tubular plaything most of all, and Molly liked the carousel. Charlie just enjoyed looking up at the balloons hanging from the ceiling.
Badri's brothers and families visit: A couple weeks ago Badri's eldest brother, Ravi, came with his wife Malani and son Apu. Our girls call their uncle Ravi Peripa, which means older brother of father, and they call their aunt Malani Perima, which wife of father's older brother. They came here from Puna, northwest of here. We had a great time visiting with them, and took a fun trip to Bannerghatta National Park, a park about an hour from here. We saw lions, tigers, and bears and the kids loved it!
A couple weeks later Badri's other brother, Rajiv, came with his wife Renu and their daughter Anya. Maya had a great time with her cousin, who's 6 (Apu is 8, and Maya had a great time with him as well). They traveled here from Delhi, by way of Madras, where they'd been visiting Badri and Rajiv's parents (Amma and Appa left here a couple weeks ago).
Fruit and veggies cart: Every day a man comes by pushing a big vegetable cart (one day when we were in traffic, Maya said, "the poor vegetable man." I asked why and she said, "Because he has to push his cart around all the cars). He stops in front of our house and Celina (the cook/nanny) and I go out and buy together--lately mostly two kinds of eggplant, potato, onion, tomato, drumstick squash, green beans (a couple different kinds), coriander. We usually buy every two or three days. I have to buy with Celina because most of the vegetable vendors are from the state of Tamil Nadu, where they speak Tamil, and I don't speak that language. I did talk to a woman in the neighborhood about teaching me Hindi, though, and she said she could teach me the basics of Tamil. It would be great to communicate with some of the people working here who don't speak English (maid speaks Tamil and guard speaks Hindi).
Close encownters--butted by a cow: A couple weeks ago Badri and I went for a walk with the kids--Maya on her bike, Molly in the stroller, and Charlie in the baby carrier on my chest. As we neared home Badri was about 50 yards in front of me and I saw a cow coming up the road slowly. Badri moved to the side of the road with the girls and then the cow approached me. I thought he was going to come over and say hello, but instead, he lowered his head and butted me in the leg. It really took me by surprise. He scratched me with his horn. It wasn't too deep, but we had a doctor come over (a little over $10 for a house visit) and he gave me a tetanus shot and antibiotics. He also gave me painkillers because he said it would hurt later. Well, the site of the tetanus shot hurt more than the wound itself! From now on, I'll make way for the creatures.
Playgroups: Thete are a couple playgroups we've been going to. One is on Tuesdays, for the younger kids, and the other is on Fridays, for the older kids. Most of the foreigners have taken off for the summer, but there's still a small group of people who haven't left. We're hosting one here tomorrow, but unfortunately our sea shipment hasn't come yet, so there won't be too many toys and games. Some of the people sticking around are from England, Ireland, Sri Lanka and Germany, Holland, and of course, the U.S. The local Indian children are on the India schedule, which means summer break is over (school starts in June by the Indian calendar, and in Sept. by the Canadian calendar. We're thinking of sending Maya to the Canadian school for preschool in Sept). A few of Maya's friends in the neighborhood are back in school and sometimes they get together in the afternoon to play. Maya herself started preschool earlier this month and that seems to be going fine, from 8:45-11:15.
Miscellaneous: We went to a great brunch last Sunday for Father's Day at the Oberoi Hotel. Food was incredible, and the place was really geared towards kids. Outside in the grilling area was a station set up with cookie dough so kids could make their own cookies. There was also face painting, coloring and cutting, balloons, and a cool fish pond.
I'm going to send this off now so it doesn't get delayed further and then the news will really be old.
I hope your summer's going well!
# posted by Kelly @ 10:04 PM 
