Kalke

I don't know enough language yet to understand an entire conversation, but I can pick up words and phrases in a crowd. The other day I was in a waiting room full of people and I noticed one word spoken over and over. If I understood the conversations going on around me I would have never noticed! The word was 'kalke' (tomorrow).

It made me wonder how much time we spend thinking, planning, and worrying for tomorrow? How many times does that word cross my lips in a day?

I read in Eccles. this morning about the Sovereign One and of how it's meaningless to worry about tomorrow because it's in His hands. Great wisdom written thousands of years ago. You think we'd have that learned by now today. But I guess there's "nothing new under the sun!"

Annual Picnic

The annual company picnic was last week. Four big buses took all of the staff an hour and a half away to some picnic grounds. For some of the newer women that would be the farthest they've ever been away from home! The ladies had a blast even on the way out as the music was blaring and they were dancing in the aisle. Disco bus! After we arrived food was served and the women loved riding a few children's rides that were there and enjoying the surrounding garden. It was a great day!

We have to be careful about posting close-up shots of the women to protect their privacy but the distant shot of part of the group is OK. As I was skimming through my pictures of the day I noticed that the one of Adam in the midst of a small group was well done in that it doesn't show faces as well. This is a pretty common scene with Adam. He's the darling of everyone. He constantly gets stopped on the street, too, and he's learning to be very patient even when he's tired of being fawned over!

Temporary Housing

We've been living in our temporary quarters for a week now and have all of the kinks worked out. The whole place needs to be remodeled, rewired, and re-plummed before it will eventually be used for factory space. So right now we have wires (took me several days to figure them all out!) running everywhere for electricity and hoses for water. We have two big rooms, a hallway that we've turned into the kitchen that leads to the cement shower and toilet. I'd call the effect 'rustic retro.' In fact, Steve and my room has one whole wall that the plaster has come off of down to bricks, kind of like a New York loft! Once I got into the groove of cleaning what I can and not worrying about the rest we've quite enjoyed living here. The kids just have to slip across the alley to the main FS building to play in the backyard and we actually have more square footage than we did in the flat we stayed in at first.

We have to look outside the window in the morning and evening to the scene in the courtyard. There's a water tap there that the current tenants use for their needs. When the tap is running we plug in the water pump that gets water into the tanks up on the roof so we have water all day long.

We're expecting to be here for a while. Steady progress is being made on our permanent space (in the courtyard picture you can see immediately to the right on the same storey that the picture was taken what will be our eventual front door!) but it will take some time.

The new T-shirt unit is right over our heads and we've been enjoying visits from the ladies as they go up and down the stairs outside our door all day! On the first day when I was struggling a bit with the dirt, they kept popping in and telling me how beautiful it was. To their eyes it is so I chose to change my attitude to contentment as well. Perspective can be a beautiful thing!

Floor Day

We have a floor in one of the empty holes that will be our permanent home here! This room will eventually be our bathroom and laundry room. First the cement was mixed by hand in the courtyard, hauled bucket load by bucket load up a bamboo ladder in assembly line fashion, and then spread to make the floor. The guys who helped were exhausted! The next floor to be done later is just above this one----but a whole storey higher!

Before we moved here we decided to start a youth group for our own kids and the children of other workers in our area. A week ago while all of the kids were on winter break we organized a couple of days of fun stuff for everyone followed by a meeting on Saturday night. They are a great bunch of kids and we've really enjoyed getting to know them! Only 7 of the 13 are around normally since the others attend boarding school when they're not on break, but we'll continue with whoever is here.

Language Learning

We will begin language lessons in earnest soon. As soon as we arrived both Steve and I were chomping at the bit to get started but others who have gone before us here urged us to wait until after Christmas. They were right! It's taken a lot of mental energy just to learn how to live and get around. But as we've done that we have also internalized quite a few words and useful phrases that we learned previously.

We've been amused at how many people go out of their way to walk near us just to try out a bit of English. Their attempts are often quite cute! Yesterday a young man tried to carry on a meaningful conversation in English with me. I THINK we were discussing the difference in value between the rupee and the dollar, but I'm still not quite sure.

Our attempts at the local language are just as amusing to others. It's a good experience to learn to laugh at ourselves as others laugh at us. And while people are quite pleased that we're making an effort in their language, they're also often quite amused!

It's very satisfying to buy something at the market or tell an auto rickshaw driver where to go and where to stop without any English involved. Every once in a while there's actually just comprehension at what we're saying and no laughing occurs! And sometimes the words are coming without too many pauses to think first.

Steve seems to be absorbing words quite easily and has no qualms about trying them out on the street. I'm coming along as well, but am suffering an unexpected side effect. Several times a day lately I've had to stop and think for the English word for something! Not that I know the local word for it yet, but there's obviously a traffic jam happening in my brain and thoughts are experiencing difficulty coming through. Guess it will sort itself out eventually!

Experiences that are the norm here are very random to us! A few recent ones include:

-A man walking around the market this morning with a basket kept pulling out a hissing king cobra to be admired. Some people gave him money. I stayed as far away as possible.

-Yesterday I had trouble using a 500 rupee note (about $20) because it was ever so slightly torn. Like 3mm. And several shops refused the bill.

-Hannah and Rachel went into a beauty salon today and saw women getting their arms and underarms (ouch!) waxed while other women were having their skin bleached. You read correctly, bleached! Another ouch.

-My purse is inspected by a guard every time I go into a bigger shop. If I have any bags from a previous shop I have to check them in with the guard before going into the store. Whatever I purchase from the current shop is sealed in bags at the cash register. On the way out I have to show another guard the bags and the receipt at the exit. I need to remember to go back to the entrance to pick up the bags from the previous shop as well.

-Several times lately I've nearly fallen over from beggar children throwing their arms around my waist.

-I did fall over on an escalator yesterday. The handrail was going at a faster speed than the steps and I was leaning too much on the handrail!

-I have to watch my step all of the time on the streets to avoid stepping in something unpleasant or stepping on someone sleeping on the sidewalk. It's kind of handy, however, because I need to be careful to not look men in the eye, but I also keep walking right past people I know.

-Lines/cues are non-existent. If I want to reach a cash register I must remain vigilant and not be afraid to confront people of all ages cutting in line ahead of me. (I'm talking a lot about shopping, huh! It feels like I AM always shopping just keeping our family of 6 fed since I can only take home what I can carry each time.)

-There are carts behind bicycles where men pull the most amazing loads for a few rupees. The other day we saw six men helping the bicyclist get a load of steel pipe up a hill. Steve is continuously fascinated by them and is considering a photo montage at some point!