Driver

One of the things I will miss in India is having a driver. I wouldn't say that Jose and I are best friends. Jose is honest and hardworking but he doesn't exactly have a sunny personality. I miss having the freedom to drive, but with the boys in tow, I do love having someone to run quick errands. If we run out of simple things like milk, juice, water, he can go get them for me. Since he's been working for us a while and since I have learned to call peppers "capsicum" and eggplant "aubergine," he can do a bit of produce shopping for me as well.

Where it gets a little dicey is with the protein. Let's be honest, protein is always a little dicey for us, but when I can't go look at it myself, I have to be very specific with Jose. For example, I just sent him for a chicken and I had to specify...."no head, no feet."

Then he asked, "no feathers madame?"

And no.....he was NOT kidding. Jose does not kid.


****For those wondering, it's not ho sa. It's joz.

Okay.......

Our maid comes in every morning and cleans up from breakfast (and I'll admitt sometimes from dinner the night before). She makes the beds and starts the laundry. She then leaves and comes back in the afternoon for everything else.

This morning, in the interim, I cleaned the floors in the living room. When she got here today, she noticed that I had wiped the floors.

Jennifer: "Madame, did you wipe the floors?"
Grace: "Yes"
Jennifer: "I'm so sorry madame."
Grace: "No, it's not you, I just wanted to do it."
Jennifer: "Madame, you let me wipe the floors, you rest, you are not well."

hmmmm....

More From the Street

The other day I decided to walk home from the eye dr. My mother and Carl almost had heart attacks. But you know, I'm pretty street tough now. This from the lady who wasn't able to go get her mail after dark in Lake Highlands....

Anyways, a typical street and by typical I mean, not terrible, is home to lots of dogs, cows, and chickens. There are babies with no clothes on laying in the dirt sleeping while their mother's sweep. There are professional men and women at food stands getting breakfast and drinking tea out of little thimble sized plastic cups. Children darting in and out of traffic barefooted with backpacks making their way to school. There are portions that are paved and portions that are just dirt. There are great smells like the indian breads cooking and there are terrible smells like animal and human waste, and then there are just "indian smells" like insense and burning coconut shells. On that maybe 7 K walk I passed by doctors practicing medicine through a window, women and children dressed in rags begging for money and food, and all sorts of working people making their way to both domestic and professional jobs. There are fruit stands, mutton shops with the freshest slaughter hanging from a wooden pole, and there are caged chickens from which we get our eggs. There are temples to many different dieties all the way down the street and people line up to stand or sit inside the structure before the image itself.

And then like an oasis in the desert.....comes the entrance to our "compound." By the time I got home I had layer of dirt from head to toe.

The streets in Palm Meadows make you feel like you are miles away from what is just outside the gate......but listen, they can still be tough...

Street Food

Carl is the only one of us who eats street food. Consequently, he is the only one who has been violently ill eleven times and lost 30 pounds. But you know what they say, "No pain, no gain...or loss...or whatever...

Here is a video of one of his favorite haunts.
(All comments regarding the wisdom of eating street food and of frankly even being on the street at this hour may be directed to the man himself.)

Power.

Yesterday...

Everett: "Mom, why can't you call the electwishun?"

Middle of the night last night...

Samuel: "Mom, the power came back on, can you turn on my air conditioner?"

About a half hour ago....

Samuel: "Mom? Is the power being mean to us?"

Now, I know this might sound like I'm going to take a negative tone...but I'm not. Despite the annoyance of the inconveniences of living here, at the end of the day, I am so glad the my children however young they may be, have had the opportunity to live under circumstances in which we don't take things like power and water and food for granted.

The other day we were leaving a restaurant and the same little girls who always stand out front were waiting. They are no more than 7 years old, dirty, barefoot, dressed in rags and holding out their hands for money. (As a side note if we were to give them money they would be forced to give it to whoever is forcing them to stand out there so we give them food.) Samuel simply looked at them and said, "Mom, the hungry girls are here do we have any food?" So I handed him a rice krispie treat from my purse to hand to them. He walked down the stairs onto this crazy busy street in the heart of Bangalore and walked right up to these children looked them in the eye, smiled and handed them the treat. They ran off and sat on the curb and shared the treat, and as we drove off Samuel stared at them out the car window.

I am proud of my son that he can walk into that swarm of people and come face to face with what is really the dark side of this city and smile. I am humbled that God in His grace and mercy has allowed my sons to see, experience, learn, extend and, I pray in some small way, accept that grace and mercy.

My Biggest Critic (and the love of my life) (he made me wite that too!)

Well.....Carl informs me that our blog is too negative. Apparently he doesn't appreciate that positive is rarely funny but anyways....

So begins our week of things we love about India (in no particular order).



#1 Mariannick

A few times week I send a text to Mariannick, a French woman who is married to an Indian man and lives here in Palm Meadows. The next day she shows up on her two wheeler with delicious hot baguettes, chocolate croissants, brioche or whatever I have ordered for the day. (the likes of which you cannot get in Dallas) Due to the lack of other available food, we are able to eat several baguettes a week and treats for breakfast and our old clothes still hang on us.

We will miss Mariannick!

But Now We See

To all the naysayers....I mean sweet concerned friends and family...Carl and I are both doing great and are enjoying seeing without our glasses or contacts!

And yes, the bug spray WAS necessary....wish I would have rememebered to bring toilet paper because as we were told, "toilet tissue is not a custom here."