Another update from India

I've had a few people want to see some more pictures and video from outside our housing complex. So, here are some pictures that don't have much explanation. Some of the pictures are a little blurry.

OK a little explanation. Everyone here hauls everything on motorbikes. The kids were all trying to say who had seen the craziest thing on a bike. Maddie won when she said she saw a goat on a bike. I think I come in second with the man hauling a ladder.

Most people here ride motorbikes. It's not unusual to see a whole family on one. What you can't see in this picture is the baby the woman is holding. I'm going to try and get a picture of 5 or 6 on a bike. I've seen 5 once, but didn't have the camera ready. It looks alot like "The Ranch School Bus", but on a honda 90 not a 4 wheeler.

Accessory or Necessity?

So...Ellie for the past year has been telling me that she needs glasses. I doubted her because it all the sudden became that she needed them as soon as I got my new glasses. I know how she loves accessories, so I felt like she was just wanting something that she thought would be cute to wear. Well, lesson learned on my part...I got a call from her teacher at school saying that Ellie is having a hard time reading the board and she thought it would be a good idea to have her eyes tested. (Why couldn't any of her teachers at Driggs have been as observant?) On Thursday I pulled her out of school and went to the Sankara Eye Hospital. $3.00 later, we had a prescription for glasses, and $75 dollars later we had 2 pair of glasses, and a really cute and pretty happy girl. Her first comment was, "WOW, India is Beautiful!!" Just wait until she sees the US!!

These are the glasses that the optical shop recommended for her and were a grand total of $20 so we went a head and got them, but...

These are the ones that Ellie really wanted. They said that they didn't recommend them because the are wire framed, and kids break them easier. I thought they were cute, and they too were pretty cheap here so she ended up with 2 pair. I guess it's always good to have a back up.

Who looks the most alike?

So we had Annie's 1 year old pictures taken here. They did a great job. I had many to choose from, and then I came across my other kids 1 year old pictures. OK...so Ethan never really got a 1 year old picture taken, but this is one from when he was 1. Who do you think looks the most alike?

Annie is 1!!!

The Indian tradition for a first birthday is to have a HUGE celebration. My maid kept telling me that I needed to invite "all the childrens in the area" and that she would bake "many cakes" Well, I don't know all the "childrens" so I kept telling her that we would probably just do a small party with our kids. She and our driver came to me on the morning of Annie's birthday and asked if we had rented the party hall in our clubhouse for the party. I told her no that I didn't think we needed a party hall for our kids, we could just have a little party in our living room. They then asked if it was OK to decorate our living room for Annie. I told them that was fine, I was sure Annie would like that. I wish I had videoed them doing it. They were like kids in a candy store all excited. The driver asked if he could go buy more balloons because the package I had boughten didn't have enough in it. I gave him 100 rupees and told him that was fine and if they needed any other decorations to go ahead and buy them. About 100 balloons and alot of streamers later, they were finished decorating. They had even found some of the water balloons that ended up on our shipment over here and were blowing them up. I got a headache just watching our driver blow up balloons. Baby also brought Annie a gift that morning. Vijay brought one that night.

After eating cake she opened her presents from our family. She got a really cute swing that we had to hang in the garage, and a walker that turns into a little scooter bike. Ethan was so upset because he didn't have a present to give to her from him. He went upstairs and got wrapped up his football and gave it to her. Now that is a true gift!

A funny comment on the cake. Here, people DO NOT WASTE FOOD at all!! We gave Annie the cake and Maddie pulled a "Kelli". LOL She was crying saying that she wanted to eat some cake and that Annie would eat it all. I assured her that Annie couldn't eat a whole 9 X 13 cake. When Annie finished, we cut off a piece for everyone to have some. There was still quite a bit of cake left, and I was just going to throw it away because it was all torn apart from Annie. Well, in the madness of cleaning Annie up and getting everyone else in bed that night, I left the cake sitting out. When Baby came the next morning, she got out the left over frosting and was going to fix the cake so that we could have it for dessert the next night. She frosted part of the cake and ran out of frosting. I told her not to worry about it because Annie could just eat the other part again. The kids each had another piece of cake, and I had to hurry and throw the rest out so she wouldn't try to fix the cake again today.

Cows

So I've been debating whether it is bad to take pictures of their cows that are all dressed up. Our driver says they decorate them because they are Gods. So, finally I asked him if he thought it was alright to take pictures and he told me to go ahead so...here are pictures of some of the cows that are paraded around town. Usually led by a young boy with a flute or instrument of some sort, asking for money.

This is one that was outside our church on Sunday. Right after I took the picture the lady holding the baby came to the window to ask for money. We gave her a few rupees, and then the cow stuck it's head right in the window. I thought it was going to lick me.

Dusshera

Monday was the last day of a 10 day (i think) festival Dusshera. Our driver tried to again explain to us what this holiday is for. In our understanding, it is to pray over anything mechanical? He came this morning and did a puja on our car. A puja is a prayer/worship thing that they do. He did a ritual, painting and decorating the car with banana leaves and flowers. I had to go the grocery store so I didn't see the whole ceremony thing that he did, but Alan, Ellie and Ethan watched him. They said that he lit a fire on a banana leaf and walked around the car painting it. He put lemons under the tires and ran them over and took the car for a drive down the street and back. Then he smashed a melon that he had put paint on the inside of and now the smashed melon is ...standing guard? over the car. He also did a puja on all of the kids bikes and scooters. He said that this will now keep them safe for 1 year until next dusshera. After he was done, he told us that the car and bikes needed to rest for 24 hours. (I wonder if he didn't just want the day off? It was the India vs. Australia Cricket match)

A fun day off

Monday here was a holiday so Alan didn't have work and the kids didn't have school. We decided that we needed to go do something so we decided to go check out the safari at the National Park. For $10 we all (including our driver) went on the Safari. Tells you how good it really was. The kids loved it. We all got into a Steel caged bus and drove through some gates, that made you feel like you were entering Jurassic Park. You went through one gate, and they would close it behind you and open another gate. We saw Monkeys, Lions, Tigers, Bears, Deer, and...Termites?!? When we got on the bus, of course we were given the Royal Treatment, because we are white. We got to sit in the front of the bus next to the driver, and every time he would stop, he would wait for me to finish telling my kids about the animals before he would move on. He would look at me for my approval before he moved the bus. Also, there was a bus driver helper that kept wiping the seats and windows because it was raining hard. He decided that he needed to be my photographer so he took my camera and started taking a lot of pictures of all the animals for me...um...OK. I kept trying to tell him to only push the button half way so it could focus, and then you could push it the rest of the way to take the picture. Apparently I don't speak well enough, or he didn't, because hardly any of the hundreds of pictures he took came out. The ones that I was able to adjust in photoshop are the ones that I posted. I finally decided to turn the camera onto video so that we would at least get some pictures. He couldn't really figure that one out either, but here are a few clips he took too. At the end of the Safari one of the things that they stopped the bus for was a big mound on the side of the road. The kept saying termites and were very excited about them, but I wonder if we just couldn't understand them right.

I guess this was the Termites.

When we got off the bus, people again wanted to get their picture taken with us. I tried to take a picture of them taking a picture of Alan and the kids, but...I was trying to not step in a big puddle, so I cut out Alan and the kids. And...our driver is looking at me like I'm a weirdo.

After the Safari, our kids were "STARVING!" , but I think it was because they spotted some chips. Ellie and Maddie got a bag of chips each, and Ethan picked out a thing of corn on the cob. They roast them over coals on the side of the road. Apparently we are getting a little more brave with each outing. (Alan bought it, not me) I had to take a picture of him eating it, because for some reason it reminded me of Nacho Libre when the skinny guy is laying there eating corn. About 1/2 through eating the cob, he started to squirm and cry. I said what's wrong and he cried "MY LIPS ARE BURNING!!!" I guess they put some spices on it.