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. 

Onward to India!

She has been a sturdy mount--good bye old friend, until we meet again.

 We packed 7 suitcases of 49 lbs. each, four

 carry on bags that were about 15 lbs. each, the dog and her cage, a car seat, a stroller, a baby, a toddler, and us. Laura and I knew that it would work out but we really had no idea how. Here is what we did:

Bernie III and David drove us down from Michigan to Chicago O'Hare. We left at 8:00 in the a.m. and began our journey with one last delicious cup of Starbuck's Coffee. Laura and the girls were with Bernie III and they had the stroller and the carry on bags in their car. I rode with Nini, Ranger, and Guapa with her cage and with all of their stuff in the back of the 4 Runner.

 We trailed the Airstream which contained an extra 340 lbs. or so of our luggage in 7 big bags.

Disaster almost struck about 10 miles into the journey as David managed to avoid a Tom Uhlenbrock deer fiasco. As we trailed Bernie III at 70MPH, there was a deer crossing the interstate that managed to dart right between his car and ours--separation of about 100 ft. From my seat in the back, all I noticed was David's yell and a quick jolt of the wheel--not altogether a new phenomenon.

 As we approached Chicago we decided to go for one last inspirational meal to help harmonize our thoughts and feelings about leaving and give us the perfect send off. Would it be the classic American Hamburger since we might not avail ourselves of Beef for a while? How about the always classic Sbarro's Pizza? Perfectly greasy, perfectly American. What about the All-American Kentucky Fried Chicken? I went for a coldcut combo from Subway which I didn't really like--I guess I was subconsciously leaving my home country with a deep desire still burning. BTW, I learned that Jared is STILL the spokesperson for Subway after 15 YEARS! I can't believe he

 parlayed that weight loss shtick into a 15 year job--he could consider eating subway his career!

We set off for the airport and in our infinite wisdom we already knew that Terminal 5 at O'Hare is the International Terminal. We deftly followed signs and navigated our little caravan with a huge airstream all the way to the terminal and parked. David noticed that there was no Lufthansa sign and recommended that I verify the departure terminal. If he hadn't suggested that I probably would have gotten everything onto the sidewalk or in the building before realizing that we were in the completely wrong place! Instead, it was on to Terminal 1.

 We got everything unloaded and onto two $4 carts. I mention that they were $4 because neither in Frankfurt nor Delhi were we charged again for luggage carts. God Bless the USA! We were loaded up with 2 carts, Guapa in her cage, 4 carry ons, a stroller and a carseat. Now to get into the building. Thankfully,  Bernie III was able to help us push one cart and carry some other bags while David watched the convoy. Nini corralled kids and Laura and I managed the rest. We were encouraged by the fact that we only had to walk 20 feet but upon our arrival we realized just how hard it would be without David, BIII and Nini in Delhi. We hugged and said our goodbyes and off went our wonderful parents.

Then Laura wasn't allowed to check in. The Lufthansa attendant said that since Guapa was not going to be allowed to fly to Delhi from Frankfurt, then it was silly to bring her to Frankfurt. We panicked. After another 15 minutes of them thinking through the problem, Laura and I were wondering if we needed to call David and Nancy to dump Guapa on them for a couple of years. Luckily, Guapa was born with a star (as they say in Espanol) and the manager said that we could figure it out in Frankfurt. They let Guapa get on the plane but issued Laura (as the caretaker for the dog--and I'm not sure why it wasn't me since Laura is obviously the more appropriately equipped between the two of us to handle two little kids) only a standby ticket from Frankfurt to Delhi and said that once the manager of the flight in Delhi approved of our paperwork for the dog, then Laura would probably get a ticket--except that the flight was slightly overbooked--but don't worry! they said.

The girls were champs on the plane. They didn't fuss; didn't cry; didn't cause any disturbances besides all of the people around us gawking and saying hello. Naila got passed around the plane a little as our ambassador of good will. We were sitting very near a family moving to Luxembourg to teach. They gave us some advice and set a great example.

In Frankfurt it was agonizing waiting for our flight in part because we were still so up in the air about Laura's ticket/Guapa's entry into the country, and in part because we had six hours to kill with two exhausted kids, and two exhausted adults. We got some snacks and rested our eyes a little. Finally it was showtime as the manager for the flight arrived. Laura must have smiled just right because he not only decided that Guapa had the right paperwork to enter India and issued Laura a seat, but upgraded us all to Business Class. This turned out to be a HUGE deal. We got to recline to a full laying down position, we had table linens, and two 4 course meals. Naila got to sleep in a bassinet and Maya had enough space to sit and play on the ground. It was the perfect last leg of the trip. As we touched down in Delhi, Maya chanted India, India, India, as we had practiced on each leg of the trip so far.

Finally, upon landing our nerves were high. I barely had enough time to fill out the customs cards and we were still nervous based on the Lufthansa experience about Guapa; would the Indian officials allow her into the country? Would all of the confusing paperwork be enough? Did we jump through the right hoops? Also on my mind was the dutiable goods declaration that I previously filled out. I had no idea how to fill it out accurately for our 11 pieces of luggage so I just wrote down 10,000? rupees worth of stuff. Laura and I were each allowed 35,000 Rs. worth so I figured when they found our laptop, ipad, camera, clothes, etc. they could just assign it a value and hopefully we'd be within the limit.

We collected our bags, they brought Guapa, an airport man in a tie (He was not customs, but I have no idea what official capacity he served) took me with the dog and her papers to see a customs official. On the way he asked me why I am allowed to have a dog and come to India to which I replied, "I am going to teach at a school here, AES." He asked if Guapa had visited India before--"no". Then we arrived to the customs area where no one was working. We walked past all of their desks to the back and an official came to meet us. They spoke Hindi for a few sentences and my airport man gave me a head waggle. We walked away and I asked what had happened. He said everything was ok. I asked if the customs officials needed to see the paperwork that amounted to hundreds of dollars and at least 15 hours of work for my lovely wife. He said maybe they'd look at them later. In the end, they didn't look at any of our bags. They didn't look at Guapa, they didn't look at her papers. We walked right out and Laura recognized a group of people looking like they were waiting for someone--it was us. We met Mohan, Paul, Kathy, and many other people. They gave us garlands to wear on our necks as others on our flight looked at us with envy in their eyes. From that moment on we were exceptionally well taken care of. They brought us to our apartment which was beautifully decorated and showed us in. As we entered our bags were already there. Since arriving, we are still exhausted but trying to observe a self imposed rule of sleeping in the darkness and staying awake in the daylight--currently only the male in our family 5 is being successful.

This morning as I lay in bed with Maya, Laura received a phone call. It turned out to be a woman who was looking for employment. She and her husband came up and we sat and chatted. It turned out that she had worked for another family last year and I had responded to an email about her last spring. Another woman stopped by this afternoon and we had a similar conversation/interview. It feels strange to interview someone for a job that we don't even understand yet.

After she finally decided to get up this morning, Maya insisted on taking a bath. While she does love water and like baths, she has never wanted to take one in the morning so we thought it was a little weird. It may have been one of the best baths she's ever taken. She freely wet her hair, let me soap and scrub her entire body and dunk her again. I was amazed.

Everything has been immensely exciting thus far and truly adventurous--it's panning out to be just what we hoped for.

Decoration outside our apartment.

Maya taking her bath.

Naila comforting Guapa.

The end of a wonderful summer

Danger practicing his tactic of divide and conquer.

 This is one of my favorite memories of St. Louis. I loved David's patience as Maya made him her own. Maya at first called him something close to "Ranger", then she liked "Dabit" a little better. Finally she settled on "Danger" which Laura and I agreed was the perfect name for this grandparent.

 One of Maya's favorite past times and one of the first times that she has demonstrated creative/imagined play. It was tirelessly fun sharing in her tea parties. Nini was the inspiration and constant playmate for our little Maya in St. Louis and back in Michigan.

Another great moment with David.

 It is always so crushing to say goodbye to loved ones but we were able to enjoy a wonderful afternoon and evening with Grammy, Nini and David just before we left. It was exceptionally calming and loving on the eve of our departure to India.

Here is an example of one of my favorite things about Charlevoix--the hustle and bustle of everyone trying to accomplish the task at hand.

Two of my three.

What a perfect campsite just outside of G-ma's house. 

 This was the capstone of a wonderful day at the beach. We went to dinner and while we were waiting (for quite some time I might add) G-ma took the kids on some adventures.

 Nini is showing Maya how it's done. Or maybe it's the other way around, I can't remember.

 Summertime fun with the cousins on Grandpa's new grill during happy hour at Danger's cabin.

Maya had such a wonderful time with her Manker cousins. Finally accepting that Annie was back in Arizona she, Owen and Isaac became fast friends.

Beauty in Fenton

In a sudden downpour Burke, David, and I decided to take refuge under water in Lake Fenton. Although shielded from the pins and needles of the rain we were doomed by our own excitement for adventure. We quickly decided to play Gattica and swam to the island in the background. Although it provoked the ire of our wonderful Sheri, it was one of my favorite memories of Fenton. Cheers boys!

While we were having an adventure on/in the high seas, Sully and Maya were pre-enacting their wedding night. They sought refuge in Sully's bunkbed hideout and posed for many a pic.

Adventures in Michigan

Here are the cousins getting ready to watch a movie in Charlevoix. It was a wonderful visit.

Maya and Sully in Fenton leisuring it up in the wagon with Burke.

 Maya is looking tough in her swimming outfit. No, she is not wearing a bullet proof suit, that is her massive upper body.

 My love dominated the wake board. Her comments upon finishing were, "There is nothing like a wakeboard in the morning," and "what, you have to loosen the straps to get the boots off?"

 David took me out on a sailing adventure like never I've experienced. My favorite part was when there was a huge steady wind as we tacked south one time and David steered us directly at and a small ski boat that was parked in our way. The wind kicked even more and we lifted the windward hull almost right over their boat as their mouths gaped open and I hung overboard outstretched. This was the emotional representation of our time in Fenton.

 Burke showing us how it is done.

 These photos make me very happy--, here is Burke flying over the wake. Our snowboarding skills transferred nicely as all viewing may bear witness.

I think I took a bite out of the sun off that jump.

Getting ready for India.