I Am Home!

December 16, 2008
The last week of the first part of my trip was quite crazy. Lynne and Ratnam got back the 5th, but their flight was 5 hours late, which meant that it messed up the normally good timing to get over jetlag. We spent the 5th playing with the babies and Ratnam slept pretty much the whole day.

During the day though they got a call from the IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers-in-training who had come for diwali, who wanted to invite some kids to their campus to play with them and it had to be the next day because they were about to go back home. The problem is getting sixty kids arranged to be ready to go on an outing takes a lot of planning. Lynne and Ratnam went through the list of kids to pick who would come. They took the oldest kids first because they thought they could get the most out of the people to be their role models, since these people will become probably the most paid and respected people in India in a few years. They also took some little kids that were easy to manage because they are the kids that the officers-in-training want to play with. We called Jayapaul at 6:30am on the 6th to get the kids ready since they wanted us there at 11 and it takes over an hour to get there. At 8:30 we set out to the hostels to make sure that they were looking presentable. They all looked very nice, but some how that process took over 2 between the 4 hostels, which meant that we were late. The hosts didn’t mind too much. We went to their cafeteria and all the kids sat down while the hosts handed out cookies, crackers and tea. The hosts went around to different tables to talk to the kids. Almost all of them found a table that they liked the most and spent most of their time with them, luckily most of they were different table so all the kids had some one to talk to. Every so often the kids got up and sang a song for the person sitting with them. At around 1 they served a nice lunch for the kids. After everyone finished they took us to their clubhouse, which had ping-pong tables, Carrom boards, and chess sets. The kids had a blast in here. They then took us to their pool to look at it. They then continued our tour through their campus. Their campus was so big that some of the kids got really tired and I ended up having to carry one on my back for a while. At around 4 we headed home and everyone was exhausted.

On the 7th Lynne and Ratnam had to go all the way back to the IAS officers campus because the officers-in-training had raised Rs. 75,000 and they wanted to formally present a check to Lynne. While they did that I had my last classes. At around lunch they came back. After my two classes in the afternoon I came back and helped Lynne and Thanuja who were sorting the 9 suitcases that they had brought from American that were pretty much all toys for the kids. We also sorted the frocks into hostels so that we could go try them on the next day to make sure that they fit.

The 8th morning we went over to 4th hostel to try on the dresses unfortunately Suma had some how messed up and a bunch of the dress were to short, which is a big problem since they all sit on the floor. We swapped a couple to try to make it work, but the biggest girls getting frocks they just didn’t fit. In the afternoon we tried them on at 3rd hostel. All the biggest dresses were shorter then the smaller ones and they were way too wide for any Indian kid. Again we tried to switch them around, but they just did not fit 7 of the girls, meaning that I had to see Suma again which was not going to be a happy reunion.

The 9th we brought all of the toy filled suitcases over to 6th hostel to start laying out the Christmas presents for all the kids. We had to do it somewhere where no kids would be, so that they wouldn’t see then until the day of Christmas. The morning we spent separating the toys into young girls big gifts and young girl small gifts, then older girl big gifts and older girl small gifts. We also did the same for the boys. These big gifts were really quite big and Lynne got them all for 5 dollars or less. The young girls had nice dollhouses and baby dolls. The young boys had cool cars. The older boys had big remote control cars and the older girls got cosmetic things like nail polish, hairbrushes, hair things, body butter, body wash, mirrors and other things. After we sorted we headed back for lunch. Right after we finished we went back to 6th hostel to lay out bags for every kid and the started giving out the big gifts. We started with the boys because they had the most toys. After we finished the boys we started with the girls we worked until 9:30 and pretty much finished giving all the big gifts except the older girls cosmetic packages. So we took all the supplies and their bags back with us so that we could make the bags back at the house in our nighties with coffee the next morning. We worked for two or three hours and the packages came out nicely for the girls. We then had to go to the office so that Lynne could finish off the accounting with Hafeez from when she was gone. I worked in the office organizing the applications and did the SSA for the months of October, November, and started the December one. It took quite a long time because there is a lot that they have to buy in three months. At around 5 we went back to 6th hostel to put out the general gifts like towels, pencils, erasers, toothpaste, and pens. We had to go back early because one of Ratnam’s friends came over for dinner.

The 11th was a more relaxed day we hung out at the house in the morning to play with James and Luke. We then went back to 6th hostel to put out the belts for the older boys, the nighties that we had and filled out gifts that we thought were lacking a little bit, We did something else but I am not remembering. The 12th you guessed it we went back to 6th hostel where we stuffed all the bags and put labels on the gifts that were too big to fit in the bag. The presents are pretty much done except that we did have enough nighties or towels. We then came back for lunch. Lynne had planned to take me to this big handycrafts festival but it didn’t start until the 13th. It is actually the same place where I went when I went to visit TT , but all crafts makers from all over India come for about 3 weeks at the end of December to increase the number of shops 10 times. We decided to wait until the 13th so we went to Suma to try to deal with the miss fitting frocks problem. She tried to deny that I gave her a good sample size, but luckily we had brought the girl who happened to be wearing the sample dress we had given Suma. She decided that she would use the scraps of cloth left over to add to the bottom to make a little flare at the bottom. We let her try and show but we did not have high hopes. While we waited for her to do we went to the boys hostel to check on the blanket situation because they we saying that they didn’t have any and since it is there winter they now need some heavier blankets. We brought so more blankets from the “go-down” (storage house) and gave them out an went back to see Suma’s work. It was not bad except that she didn’t have big enough pieces so she had a really weird seem which did not look good. The 13th I spent the morning packing and then in the afternoon we were almost out the door when the SSA officer dropped in and stayed for 3 hours. As soon as she left we headed off to Shilparam, the handy craft festival. It took about an hour to get there, but it was more than worth it. It was amazing the amount of people, and so many more will come in a week. I bought up the place and we finish only when the stall owners started putting up their tarps so that they could cook their dinner and sleep in their little area at around 10:30. We then went out to a really weird dinner. It was late so they were trying to hurry us up which is understandable, but when we came in no tables were clean. After thy supposedly cleaned a table, the chairs were covered in crumbs and when out food came we found a cockroach on the table. It was just not a good experience. The food was ok, but it didn’t really matter.

This morning I packed everything that I had bought at Shilparam and then we headed off to monda market to get the towels, short sets, combs, saris, and nighties that we needed to finish off Christmas shopping. We did pretty well, we got every thing except the nighties. We then rushed back because a man showed up at the school to interview for a position as either a teacher or as a warden. Only in India people just show up on Sunday without calling for an interview. While they were having the interview I hung out with the boys and said good-bye. After they finished with the interview we went over to 3rd hostel were we hung out for a little while. And then we said a very quick good-bye to 2nd and 4th hostel. We then went back to the house so I could finish packing and giving Lynne the rest of my notes so she knows what is going on when I leave. We left at 11 for the airport. I said good-bye to Lynne and Ratnam and checked-in. The check-in and security process was painless. All my flights were fine and uneventful. I am now home enjoying my extremely comfortable bed and having all the doctor, dentist, and hair appointments. I feels good to be home, but I miss everyone back in India. Hope I get a chance to see everyone before I head back.

Last Before Holidays

December 3, 2008
So this will probably be my last update before I head home for the holidays on the 15th, which I am really excited about because I will get to see you all. And the fact that I am coming back after New Year’s makes leaving a lot easier.

So there is not too much to report, still teaching and tutoring. Thanksgiving was very relaxing we actually didn’t have school. Not for a happy reason though, Hafeez’s brother-in-law passed away and so he had to go home to his village. Since both bus drivers quit a month or so ago, there was no one to drive the school bus. The other teachers actually went to individual hostels and taught, but there was no one to drive me and I sort of can’t teach computers without the computers.

Outside of school, the septic tank kept backing up on our street and so we had pipes put in, in front of the house. We had a huge hole and the water was cut for almost two days, but it is all-better now. On Monday I did something fun, I had Thanuja teach me how to cook one of my favorite curries that she makes. It was really good and it was nice to talk to Thanuja about other things than just the babies. After the delay of Lynne and Ratnam coming back because of Ratnam’s papers, they will be arriving on the night of the 5th. Because of the Mumbai terrorist attack, Lynne thinks that we should stay out of the old city, which is where we had planned to do a lot of the rest of the shopping because it is the Muslim district. So I guess we are going to have to find another way to get the last minute things that we need. We will see.

See You Soon!