Newish Furniture and Naila’s 5 months

Ganesh statue on campus

  Namaste, this post is from Laura.  I apologies in advance for not having the amazing writing style of my husband, this post will most likely have errors but I promise it is from the heart.

Bernie's reading chair

Last week we had our couch and two chairs reupholstered.  This is an experience I have been looking forward to since before we arrived.  I had heard about the unique process of fixing up your house in India and I was up for the challenge.  I bought a beautiful rug (check), reorganized the furniture (check), bought some decorative pillows (check), and now it was time to buy curtains and fabric.  Courtney took us down to GK1, Greater Kailash, to Fabindia, a great store for home goods.  She helped us negotiate the overwhelming process of looking at different materials and curtain samples. We finally made our decisions and set up an appointment for the tailor to come to our house to make the slipcovers.  The next day he came, measured, and said he would be back in a few days to make the covers.  When he came back he set up shop on our living room floor.  

This is was the part I had been waiting for.  For two days he worked his sewing machine and make us the best looking slipcovers I have ever seen.  I love our living room.  It is looking more like home everyday. I hope we have enough room for all of our stuff when the shipment arrives. 

Who needs a plug?

The finished product.

My bangle baby

 Maya and Naila had another great week.  Maya likes to where her bangles and a bindi everyday.  I do not have a good picture of her bindi because she will not let me, but I did get the bangles.  Naila turned 5 months and posed for a picture in our new chair. The girls are becoming friends.  Naila loves to watch Maya, she thinks anything her sister does is hilarious.  Maya likes to know her sister is sleeping in the same room as her.  I cannot wait to see these girls grow up together.  It makes the chaos of two babies worth it.

The monsoons have continued. I don’t think this picture does it justice but it poured for about five hours, which means a fifteen-minute drive turned into a 2-3 hour drive. I am so thankful I live on campus.

Sunday morning I woke up to best sound.  Bernie was “facetiming” with friends back in Denver while they filled out their Fantasy Football draft.  I was great to see some many smiling faces and hear a little about life back home.  Here’s what you all looked like from our end.

So daily life here is great.  We wake up between 6 and 7, have fresh fruit for breakfast, say goodbye to the girls and take off on our two-minute walk to work.  If I feel like a mocha, there is a coffee shop on campus that I stop at for a cup.  We teach wonderful students who thank us for the lesson, go home for lunch with Maya, Zach, and Courtney, and back to work.  After school we usually go to the pool where Maya is becoming quite the swimmer, home for dinner, and off to bed.  I think Bernie and I are working harder than we ever had but we have so much more time to work so it makes it worthwhile.  Naila usually does not have more than one bottle a day because I am able to come home to feed her.  I love that the school is supportive of families.  The assistant principal had a question for me, when she saw me walk by she said, “are you going home to feed the baby? Can I walk with you?” AMAZING! I love that they understand my family needs. 

Thanks for following along.

So that is probably enough for this week.  Soon we will write about Indian issues.  I keep thinking about the division of labor in this country but I do not think I understand it yet.  Here is the main idea, no one does anyone else’s work.  One person mows the lawn and another picks up the cut grass.  One paints the walls, another watches, another cleans paint spills, another watches, another sweeps the room after, and another inspects the work and accepts praise for the hard work.  It is very interesting, more to come.

Monsoon heat and Maya's birthday

Growing up, one of my deepest fears was that feeling of being trapped in close spaces; claustrophobia. At times I remember it as a debilitating feeling that governed some of the decisions that I made—go in the closet or no? Allow siblings to bury me in sand or no? etc. With time I was able to rationalize that fear away and it was all but forgotten until coming to India. No, we haven’t felt the swell of massive crowds that we expected here, for me the feeling has returned with a vengeance in the form of heat. This is not the hottest place I’ve lived (not yet at least) but the type of heat combined with the humidity is oppressive in a completely new way. Heat in Colorado, though sometimes over 100 degrees F, is escapable; you find some shade, you can go indoors, step into a breeze, or go to the mountains. Here the heat is an inescapable sauna. It is like wearing a sopping wet hot towel; like being trapped in a 104 degree hot tub and not allowed to get out. The air is thick here as if you can grab it, take a bite out of it, swat it away. But you can’t, it is always there. This is the inescapable, nauseating, claustrophobic feeling of monsoon India. To illustrate my point, here’s a quick example: since our arrival we have taken to playing ultimate Frisbee a couple of times a week. Each time I’ve gone I’ve remembered to bring an extra shirt (originally my thought was that I could change into it for the walk home and not be too disgusting upon arrival). In fact, I’ve been so sweaty and indeed ‘weighed down” by my shirt that I’ve changed my shirt half way through the game each time. With each of my shirts after playing Frisbee for an hour and a half, I am able to wring out a couple of cups of water/sweat. The same is true for my shorts which cling as if by static to my legs. Moral of the story: To my sweaty brethren, be glad you are not here.

 It was Maya’s birthday this past week and while we are still adjusting and getting settled we had to honor our little one’s second birthday. Since visiting St. Louis over the summer and seeing Charley’s beautiful dress we knew that it would be the perfect gift for Maya. Also, prior to shipping all of our gear from Colorado my lovely wife had the insight to think of another perfect present for our agile little Maya. We got her a Strider bike, which she has taken to like Guapa to chipmunks.

In addition to her wonderful Tio Zachis and Tia Court, Maya's friend Chloe was there to open presents and eat some cake. Sully was the first to wish her a happy birthday though, from Colorado.

Maya loves her new dress!

Both presents at once!

After turning two, Maya has some new responsibilities.

On the morning after her birthday, Maya went out with me for Guapa's morning walk and insisted on picking up the poop poop. She even coaxed Guapa along saying "Guapa, haz poop poop. Guapa, haz poop poop."

Guapa also go her first non reptile kill this week. She and I went out to the middle school field outside our apartment just as the rains were beginning for the day. I let her run in the enclosed area and she darted directly for a crow that was hopping along the ground. It turned out that the crow underestimated her speed and or her intent to kill. She pounced just as the bird was taking off and broke its neck. The three companion crows swooped her a few times as I was trying to regain control of her. After I disposed of the bird the rains truly began; Guapa and I both enjoyed a moment of true excitement as we watched the clouds open up and within seconds I was drenched as the winds began to howl a little. We stood in the downpour and in that instant I was happy, I was calm, and I was almost cold.

Almost ready for school

 We've spent the week at many meetings and had only a little of time in our classrooms/offices to prepare for classes. We've been happily surprised that many of our meetings are very helpful and aimed at being supportive. On Thursday we had the interesting experience of having to go to FRRO and register as foreign nationals. Just as we were leaving to go to the office our Air Shipment arrived! Laura had to sign several sheets of paper saying that everything was intact and good condition (not that we actually had time to verify any of that) and then we were off. 15 of us teachers and children together went to the visa registration office. It turned out to be 3 hours of waiting in an office with about 150 other people and an impossible system to decipher. Luckily, we had a representative from our school taking care of everything and all we had to do was sit there--or maybe I should say stand there. There were so many people that most of us didn't get chairs. Maya probably preferred it that way. We marveled at the way that many woman just grabbed Naila and took a turn at holding her.

After a long week learning and preparing for school we had a "street food" party in the middle school entryway and Hall of Peace. The school treated us to delicious foods from all over India and supplied beer and wine for a couple of hours. It is really shocking how much of a contrast this experience was with what we have come to expect in the education world. Laws and funding aside we have never felt so supported or appreciated in our professional community.

Maya is also adjusting nicely and has found a few little two and three year olds to bum around with on campus. She has become fast friends with Chloe who is also new to the school.

More pics to come soon.

Adjusting and sight seeing

This week has been incredible. Incredibly good in many ways, incredibly challenging in others and incredibly rough in some. We have begun adjusting to life in India with the most immediate priority being sleep. Before going through the experience myself I'm certain that I underestimated the effects of a 12:30 hour change on the body or perhaps more accurately just never really thought very deeply about it. I remember seeing Zach and Courtney napping midday when visiting and just thinking it a "curiosity"--now I understand that the feeling of dragging your body out of sleep and its natural rhythm  is much more like being swaddled (tight wrapped) in a wet blanket and bearing the weight of an anvil while being forced to function as if it were reality when all you want to do is enjoy the delightful comfort of drifting back to sleep.
 
We have found a nanny for the girls and are beginning to feel a little more settled in that way; we still don't have many of our things but just knowing that the girls feel comfortable during the day is a huge weight off our shoulders, in particular, Laura's. On Saturday we took a tour of Delhi while Anita watched our little ones. It was nice to hear Maya shout in glee as we walked out that she had the pleasure of spending some time with Anita at the playground! Music to our ears that our spirited little one is so readily adapting to her new Shirley (oh I wish she was really Shirley!). We saw some amazing sights around Delhi--Gandhi's eternal flame, a cultural artisan museum, Parliament, etc.

This is the first meal that our Ayah prepared for us. We sampled some Indian cuisine and were extremely impressed. It was all perfectly delicious.

This is our kitchen. It boasts the biggest fridge I've ever seen outside of the good ol' US of A. We also have a full sized stove.

Bedroom--walls to change colors soon.

This is our balcony, which is notable for two reasons. First, it is awesome and overlooks the back of the faculty residence area to the tennis courts and the community beyond. Second is that due to the immense humidity here, every morning these windows are completely covered with condensation. We can barely see out of them.

We don't have laundry facilities in our apartment but were happily surprised this week when Durjen, our dhobi, showed up and told us that he would be taking care of our laundry. It is an added expense but in keeping with the philosophy of the school of trying to remove all barriers to us being great teachers (spending time doing our own laundry in this case) we decided to give it a go. Durjen brought our clothes back wrapped in a white sheet like a present. Upon opening, the presentation only improved. Some of the clothes were layered, some color coordinated, all of it seemed to form interesting geometric designs. It was a true work of art in an art form that I hadn't even realized existed.