Why does everything always happen to Z...

We were on the motorcycle heading to language class...Z felt his Blackberry slip out of his pocket...so he stopped, got off the bike and walked back towards the spot where he thought it landed...he did not see the phone while walking up to its supposed location but he did see two guys look at him and then speed off on their bike - then Z had that sink in your stomach feeling 'uh oh! they have my really expensive phone.'
There is a good outcome to this story but I want to precede the happy ending by describing the array of unfortunate events that have been plaguing Z within the span of 1o days. Oh and another interesting twist to this story...Z's Blackberry is a fake! we did not know this at the time of purchasing - so basically he paid the Blackberry price for a phone that looks and functions as a Blackberry but it will not sync to the Blackberry network because it does not have a valid PIN...because it's a fake. *Don't buy Blackberries off Ebay! Anyways on to the list:
1st - He got a really bad haircut...and not just 'oh it will grow back' bad...I mean really bad! The barber cut his hair unevenly with dull scissors - we did not know haircuts could get this bad.
2nd - Z went to pick up his motorcycle registration...when we got there he had to pay a fine because his bike was registered late. We were really confused...'how can it be registered late when we turned in the paperwork as soon as we purchased the bike?' The answer to that question left us scratching our heads in even more confusion - apparently we have to pay a late fee when the bike is 'registered' late...and the bike was 'registered' late because the government registration office was closed for a four day holiday...therefore causing the paperwork to be 'registered' late and the penalty is a late fine. Is this rational at all clear to any of you? If it is please email us and give us further clarification.
3rd - Z got the 'nasty G'...no not a popular rap album but Giardia...which causes some very unpleasant tummy problems.
4th - Since the weather is so nice we have been having language class on the roof of Mr & Mrs' house. Everyday Z gets pooped on by a bird that has nasty yellow pooh...Myself, Mr & Mrs have yet to be pooped on.
Now back to Z's phone saga...
When Z returned to our bike he told me that he did not have his phone, he thought it dropped out of his pocket and that some perps drove off with it. Being the eternal optimist (even though my blog is not that optimistic) I said 'are you sure you didn't leave it at home?' Because in my mind I was thinking 'Surely some punks didn't just take off with your really expensive Fake Blackberry!' We were only a block from Mr & Mrs' house so we headed there. When we sat down in their house I tried calling his phone - the whole time thinking 'what do I even say to the person who answers? -they will only speak Hindi and they stole from us...' I did not have to cross that bridge because the phone was shut off...which meant they were taking apart the phone to try to unlock the password. You can't do anything with the phone without inputting the password... Kind of nice that even fake Blackberries have the same security protection as the real ones. Mr & Mrs were really sweet to Z, they made him chai and let him vent and come to grips with his loss before starting language class. It was during language that I received a call from one of Z's friends...I knew it was important because Z has strictly warned his guy friends to only call me when it is an emergency, not just when they can not get a hold of him. I handed the my phone off to Z (with some hesitation because it was the last cell phone we owned) he talked to his friend and was quickly out the door...His friend W called Z and one of the perps picked up...so glad they picked up when W called and not when I called, W speaks the language. The perp on the phone stated he 'found' the phone and was willing to return to the rightful owner for a 'reward'...W made arrangements for Z and him to meet up with the perps and recover the fake Blackberry. Z gave them a 500 rps/ reward (which is roughly close to 10 dollars)...and now has his phone back.
Today we are so thankful for friends like W, understanding teachers like Mr & Mrs, medicine that gets rid of giardia, and perps who do the right thing in the end.

Byriani

The mother of a friend comes over to my house weekly to give me Indian cooking lessons - It is much needed because I am just as clueless about the cuisine here as well as the language...which brings up another hurdle - my cooking teacher does not speak a lick of English! So lessons usually go like this: she gives me one simple command...I don't understand...then she repeats herself a second or third time with hand gestures...the hand gestures are very helpful and I finally understand her instructions...then I do what I think she is telling me to... she quickly takes over the task herself because I am not doing it right...once she has done the task a couple of times she has me mimic her...This must be what Helen Keller felt like.

This week's lesson I learned how to prepare Byriani...which is rice, spices, meat and fat mixed to perfection. It is one of my favorite dishes here.

So I always try to get on my teacher's good side...I don't know how my compulsion to be the teachers pet began, all I know is that it came about around third grade. I am now a grown adult and I am still sucking up to my teachers. I have been known to bring baked goods to Mr. and Mrs on a handful of occasions. So to win over my cooking teacher I prepped my kitchen to a tee...I had all the spices on one side and the fresh chopped ingredients on the other...I meticulously chopped onions and had them sitting in a bowl...I guess I envisioned the ease of grabbing ingredients that one would see on a cooking show. Anyways this work did not earn me brownie points - Come to find out you keep one onion whole for this recipe...and the others had to be sliced...She took one whiff of my spices and did not like what she smelled so she had Z go over to her house and grab her spices. So the entire cooking process took much longer than it should have because of my teacher's pet tendencies.
On a happy note the Byriani tasted wonderful...this woman knows her stuff.

My poem:
Byriani is a wonderful meal,
I eat it with gusto and zeal.
I will make some for you,
You will like it too!

Decor

My extent of Thanksgiving decorations...place mats and napkins :)

I tried Martha Stewart, I tried...

M sent me the place mats and napkins in my Thanksgiving package...when I took the tags off they said 'made in India'...so now they are back Home.

Friday treats...

I am so happy today is Friday...I have the entire weekend off from language classes - woo hoo! In the spirit of celebration I went to this little shop

It is a bakery located a block from our language classes. They do a really good job making European and American sweets. It opened a month and a half after we moved here. I think it was sent here from God specifically for me :) Anyways today I bought my usually wheat bread and I picked up little treats...

Mmmm...Happy Friday to Me! Refined flour and sugar, just what my brain needs after a long week of language.

*After this picture was taken I ate the chocolate doughnut on the right.

On another note today is E's 1st birthday. Since she is far far away I celebrated by looking through some pictures of my cute little niece and getting a little misty eyed...I can't believe how fast she is growing!

our hood

My favorite place to go is our roof (it is like a balcony/patio on our roof). So I sit up there with a cup of chai or green tea in my hand and just take in the fresh air, the sights, the sounds, and the happenings of our neighborhood. Our house looks out to an open field. We see all sorts of animals roaming around this field - cows, goats, water Buffalo, and horses. We also see children flying kites and chasing stray dogs...very interesting hobby choices I know...Anyways like I said it is my favorite place.
So today I saw the sun setting so I quickly got my tea ready and scurried to the top of the roof to enjoy it. I tranquilly sat there and observed...and then sadly below our house I saw 'A couple of guys, they were up to no good, started making trouble in the neighborhood...' (Thank you Will Smith for your contribution to my blog). 'See what had happened was'... there was a very disheveled woman, she was not acting in her right mind and she was meandering around the field. I had never noticed her in our neighborhood before. Well this group of boys in our neighborhood who I call the 'little jerks' were mocking her.
Before I continue with what further transpired I need to explain what kind of previous behavior warranted the name 'little jerks'. This group of boys are in the age range of 9 to 13 years old. Z has had some run ins - they were blatantly disrespectful to him which is very unusual because most children give respect to anyone who is their elder...but not these little jerks - they walk around here like they own this block. They suffer no consequences for their actions from their parents. They love playing little pranks on us, such as ringing our door bell and running away. I think it is funny that they are trying to prank Z - they obviously don't know who they are messing with...Z's college pranks were pretty ruthless.
Anyways you are probably thinking they are not so bad - and people I thought the same thing as you until today...Today I saw the little jerks turn into little demons! So they were not satisfied in merely taunting and harassing the poor mentally handicapped woman. Mainly because she got the best of them, as they were closing in getting closer and closer she scared them away with a crazy look on her face. Not willing to let her get the best of them they proceeded to throw rocks at her! Luckily they have puny arms and they missed her...They stopped throwing stones when they realized more adults were coming out of their houses. When Z came up to the roof I told him what had happened. The lady was still in the neighborhood and the little jerks were watching her from the other end of the block. We were watching the little jerks...making sure they did not mess with her again.

~Thankful~

I have not had the best attitude lately...I have been mopey a lot during the past two days. Today I made a conceded effort to stop the moping and think of things I am thankful for...
~ toilet paper: I know, kind of a superficial thing to be at the top of the list but remember I was mopey at the time when I made the list. ~ Sweat pants (instead of mopey pants) ~ Z. ~ My wonderful family, ~ the thoughtful things that my wonderful family do for me (aka: care packages full of Thanksgiving food) ~ Cooler weather: AMEN! it was 118 degrees when we arrived in Curryland, now it is a very pleasant 76. And mostly I am thankful that ~ God is in control: ALLELUIA!
After I made the list the moping subsided, now I am ready for Thanksgiving - 12 days! Woohoo!!!

that just ain't right...

Last night we were invited to a friends house for dinner. We love the family and also the tasty Indian food they prepare. The ladies of the family are going to start giving me cooking lessons...Z likes their food so much that he has dropped hints about cooking lessons for three weeks now.
For dinner last night a dish of brown meat with gravy was served with homemade flat bread. Brown meat means that it either could be A) mutton or B) water buffalo. I am still trying to get used to the latter...And last nights meat on the menu = Water buffalo! My initial impression was that they prepared the meat very well, it was really tender and not too fatty. After a couple of bites they shared precisely what part of the Buffalo we were eating...the (gulp) udders...yes, the UDDERS people!!! Instantaneously I lost my appetite. Z did not mind a bit - that kind of weirds me out as well...the fact Z likes eating buffalo udders.

big city and back

Here is a run down of the highlights, interesting events and disturbing occurrences of the past 96 hours.

• Received 3 care packages!!! Thank you so much M, Dabby, M's sweet friend, and B mania!
• Saw some friends I have not seen in 3 years...so far everything is coming in threes in this list...
• 3rd bullet point.!.
• OK those faint of heart DO NOT read this bullet point, just skip it...I'm serious! When we were traveling to the big city on Friday our taxi driver was going very fast and weaving in and out of traffic. I was feeling very nauseous. At one traffic jam (there were several)...a crowd of people were gathered on the side of the road looking at a turned over truck...so I looked over at the turned over truck (I really need to stop following the crowd)...Beside the truck was a pair of shoes, a pool of blood, and two bones - I gagged, Z did not see any of it, and our taxi driver was the least bit fazed, he just kept on driving dangerously fast!
• While in the big city we had a different (and much safer!) taxi driver...He looked like Santa with a turban.
• We bought Christmas presents for our families back in the States...so it was only appropriate that Santa took us around the city.
• On Sunday we spent some time with a group of International believers...A strange man from Chattanooga talked to me. Later on in the service he tried multiple attempts to take my picture...Z keeps reminding me that I am a weirdo magnet.
• Skipped and played follow the leader with two of the cutest girls in Curryland.
• Almost broke my leg trying to save my husband from a "deadly" mosquito...Z's life is saved, my leg is wounded, and the mosquito died in my fingers!

Mutiny!

Z decided to change things up a bit today, our routine has been the same day in - day out...It was time for an adventure. After Language class Z spontaneously decided that we needed to visit 'Mutiny Church'. Interesting name huh? Actually its name is St. Johns Church...there doesn't that sound more churchy. The history of this church is very interesting. It was built in 1819 by the British whose military occupied hundreds of acres north of the city. There was a revolt in 1857 when the British officers ordered that all the bullets be coated with pig fat...the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who fought under these officers were outraged!

The bullet wrappers had to be opened by biting it off and the pig is considered an unclean animal to all the afore mentioned religions. So there was a mutiny and the first shots fired were at St. Johns Church.

We hopped on the motorcycle and headed off, except we really did not know where we were going...so of course we got a little lost. The Indian military now occupies the area that the British once occupied so we had to stop at different check points. At each check point...and sometimes the same check point the second time around...we had to make a lot of U turns, we would ask 'where is Mutiny church?' The soldiers had no clue what we were talking about...we tried every descriptor possible for this church...'St Johns Church', 'Very historic Church', Angrezi (British) Church', 'Famous Church'...One time I think we even asked 'Do you know of any Church around here?' Apparently no one in uniform knew their history. Eventually we found the Church, it was huge! How did people not know about this massive structure? We walked up to the gate...(insert climatic building music)...and it was locked - man what a bummer! We circled the fence and tapped on a second gate a Gardner eventually let us in after he gave us a lecture that we had to call and get permission to see the church. We were shown the inside of the church, there was a very impressive pipe organ and a balcony. Marble and brass plaques were laid in the concrete walls, white pillars stood down the aisle holding up what they could. Birds were flying above the balcony, dust and cobwebs covered most of the candle holders and light fixtures. So much history and yet the building was in a sad disarray.

The church can seat 3,000, nowadays only 60 people meet there every Sunday.

Yesterday I took a 'language learning self assessment'. At the begining of the assessment I was very happy with myself, I was breezing through the questions with glee...Question 6 I can tell people my name and where I am from - Check! Question 9 I know the words for major color distinctions - Check! Question 12 I can give someone directions on how to get from one place to another - um, depends if they are going shopping. Question 16 I can describe what I usually do on the weekend - Check! Question 17 I can request items, discuss prices and handle currency in a situation involving a purchase - Oh buddy I've got a closet to prove it!
Then around questions 25 through 50 I got really discouraged. Question 30 I can lodge a complaint, giving the reasons and details of why I am dissatisfied - Not so much! Question 38 I can persuade someone to do something he doesn’t want to do or to stop doing something I don’t like - I see how this would be a very helpful skill here but I do not poses it. Question 39 . I can describe a complex object, such as a car or bicycle or computer, in detail, using the correct vocabulary - I can't even do this in ENGLISH! Question 49 I can talk to dignitaries or influential people - Lord help us all if I ever talk to dignitaries!
Anyways maybe the assessment was not the best way to start the week.