Goa

I went to Goa (a beautiful beach about 15 hours from where I live) to celebrate Thanksgiving and my birthday. Here are some photos:

Purchasing our Thanksgiving Chicken. Turkeys are very scarce, and expensive! I found one in my town for $100 USD, and it was about the same size as this chicken. I think I've had enough turkey in my lifetime to skip one Thanksgiving!

Cooking our meal on a two burner stove and in a microwave/grill with only two pots.....Hal, we can do anything!


Oh, and we decided we'd wear sarees for Thankgiving....fall colored ones...I know...cheesy! :)

We were doing a "native" style photo opt by the pool.....Michelle was going to throw me in!
Beautiful Hal!


Our hotel boy surprised us with clean towels....how creative!

Fishermen bringing in their catch of the day.



Cafe Coffee Day....not particular to Goa...but definitely one of my favorite places to go!

yum....easy on a poor girl's pocket

Some vendors

My sand art!

Beautiful sunset, Amazing Creator!

From the train on the way home. Dudh (Hindi for milk)Sagar Falls, the second highest in this country. The picture can't even grasp the beauty of the sun setting on the mountains and water gushing down.

Diwali

So, about 3 weeks has passed since one of the biggest holidays here in this land. There a several variations of the pronunciation, ways of celebrating, and supposed myths behind the holiday. Learn more by clicking here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali To experience a little bit of what this holiday was like, you must close your eyes and use your imagination. Ready? (Alright, I know that's not really possible if you are to read what I write.) First, imagine the sounds from WWII. Second, visualize all the fireworks you have ever seen in your entire life. These fireworks lasted from 6 am until 3 am every day for at least a week.

Third, mix 5 lb. butter with 5 lb. sugar and eat it; Take some to all the people you know too. Fourth, get new clothes. Fifth, paint your house and make any necessary repairs. Sixth, decorate your house with lights and candles and draw a picture at the entrance of your house.

This is my auntie doing a puja (worship) of the Hindu goddess of wealth, Laxshmi, and to Ganesh.

Eighth, picture the night before your neighborhood's garbage collection day. Then picture wild animals ripping the bags and their contents to shreds all over the street.....this is similar to what the street looked like with the remants of the fireworks.

friends are fun and my brain is stressed

So, I have some new friends now. The family is the parents, one daughter (who is my age...I think a year older, but our birthdays are 2 days apart), one son ( I really hope this friendship doesn't bring about a marriage proposal), and another daughter (in 11th standard....or grade for those of you who speak American English). I met the older daughter while getting a new phone number in the place that deals with that kind of stuff in my neighborhood. She was working there, and after she helped me, I told her we should be friends and have coffee or something. Now she wants me to come over every day. They're really great, but I forgot what I felt like a lot up in the mountains where I had friends. The feeling..........my mouth is burning and I absolutely can NOT fit one more bite of food or sip of chai in my stomach. Not even a half of one. IM-poss-i-ble. IM-poss-i-ble for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage. IM-poss-i-ble.

My brain is feeling some stress.

1. I grew up speaking very Southern English.
2. I tried to neutralize my accent in order to sound more educated than perhaps I really am.
3. In elementary school I took Spanish.
4. In high school/college I took French.
5. I learned some Romanian when I went there.
6. In college I also took Spanish/Greek.
7. I stayed with a family for 1 month in Argentina ( a really great one if I may add!). This stretched my Spanish. I can really roll some r's (sometimes, on accident I roll my English r's).
8. I studied Hindi for 3 months, 7 hours a day 6 days a week.
9. I took a couple of Tamil lessons.
10. Living in this place, and having a couple of British friends is causing some British English to filter through my vocabulary and accent.
11. Now.....this week, Kannada. And not only is it Kannada, it's a Kannada intensive class. (The amount of material that should be in several months......all crammed into one week!)

My English is breaking up.......sometimes I can't even form complete sentences that make sense. My accent is confused......very confused. Please don't speak to me very fast in any of these languages, I probably won't catch what you're saying.....they're all starting to blend and some are starting to fade. Crazy......Crazy for feelin'...yeah I don't know the words to this song.

Upcoming post: Divali/Diwali/Deepavali........whatever you feel like calling it.

Sad Goodbyes, Henna Fun, and I Hate Blogging.

So....it's been a while. I was waiting so long because I wanted to make a clever post. Then I decided against it and forgot altogether.

A few Saturdays ago, I went with some friends to Palace City about 4 hours away from here. We were supposed to be checking out a festival, but the festivities were few, so we went to the zoo instead. Going places like the zoo can be rather humorous around here. The zoo was actually pretty nice, but we kept wondering why they charge us foreigners double the price. They should let us in for free. Most of the time we draw more attention than the tourist attraction. People wanted to take our picture, or have a friend take their picture with us. I was going to write a story from a young national's perspective of our day at the zoo, but I didn't because there are a few choice words that would've had to been in the story because they're part of normal everyday language here. Also, it only would've been funny if you could say the story out loud with the proper accent. I guess you had to of been there.

I'm becoming a professional goodbye sayer. That should be a real job because it's taxing on a person....physically because sometimes you have to move stuff, and emotionally because some of these things had some roots in your heart and when they're not near you can become sad. Goodbye school, goodbye Searcy's, goodbye family and friends, goodbye ILC and friends, goodbye family and friends again, goodbye USA, goodbye Capital City, goodbye mountains and girls (I really miss the mountains!), goodbye Anna, goodbye Aaron and Steph, goodbye City of Sewer and Sweat, goodbye Jim and Sean, goodbye Caree.

Pictures of the goodbyes to the City of Sewer and Sweat:

The uneventful relocation by train from the City of Sewer and Sweat to my new home in the Garden City...at least I had a camera to keep me occupied:

This week, I met some new friends. A couple of my American friends did lunch with these girls and then had them do henna on our hands and feet. The term here for Henna is Mehendi. Women get their hands and feet painted the day before their wedding, for special holidays, and just for fun.

I seriously need a tan....maybe I should just paint my entire body with this stuff.

Another one of my favorite things to do is get my eyebrows threaded. It shapes them and gets rid of the extra hairs...kinda like waxing them....only they use thread and it just pulls the hairs out or cuts the hairs. It's pretty great. What's even more great is that it only costs like 20 rupees (about 50 cents) as opposed to 5+ dollars in the States.

With goodbyes, comes hellos. Tomorrow, 2 new girls are coming to live in my city. In a week or so, I'll get a new roommate. And this is the official hello to Garden City. Hopefully I'll feel more compelled to take pictures here than in the city of Sewer and Sweat.

So I've said the sad goodbyes and had the henna fun. About the blogging...it's not really that great. I always feel like I'm just talking to myself. And then when I press publish, the thing doesn't look exactly like I want it to. Then, I get aggravated and it keeps me up past my bed time while I try to remedy the situation.

Father, make me humble.

"This post goes out to Jacob, Cracker Barrel, several co-workers whom I consider brothers and sisters, Dr. Horn, Nicole, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Joe Thorn, lack of sleep, a mind that is crazy at times, and to the Father."

In the words of Jacob,

"I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love

and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant..."

Before coming to this distant land, I was a waitress, or server to be more politically correct, at Cracker Barrel consistently for 3 years. This job seems to have caused me a problem. Every time I would go to work for 8 hours or more and my mind would be constantly working overtime. "Table 222 needs a coke, 221's food is at 12 min...better get a manager...line dipper says we're out of mashed potatoes and green beans....what else do they want , Tables 211 and 212 are being pushed together...party of 8, straw...napkin, honey mustard....ice....1 diet coke...2 sprite....1 sweet tea with lemon...2 unsweet teas/one with lemon and no ice the other with no lemon and extra ice....oh no what did table 222 need.....etc."

This vast land has not remedied the problem. I go outside and there are rickshaws, motor bikes, scooters, cars, buses.....all beeping thier horns. There are women in neon green saris and mustard salwar suits....wait, that one's me. Stray dogs with mange, a stray cat with one eye...chasing a rat, a man urinating on the wall, trash, cows, a wealthy family, a farmer, beggars, fireworks. It smells like chapatis, idly, curry, dead something or other, trash, urine that has been accumulating for thousands of years baking in the sun on the sidewalk, jasmine. It tastes like salt water, chili powder, tumeric, curry, cumin, cardamom, and chai.

Because of my problem, I tend to find it difficult to go to sleep at night; Sometimes, it takes about 4 hours of my mind racing to the server's station and back. What is my mind so busy thinking about? You name it.....and that's what...anything and everything.

Tonight, I thought I'd share some thoughts from the day as I'm trying to go to sleep. Bear with me though, because at times I find it very hard to communicate what I'm thinking (I think you'd find this especially true about me in person) because my mind won't stop long enough for me to speak or scribble down a few notes...just be glad I am actually writing this, as opposed to expressing my thoughts out loud.

From a conversation with at friend [friend: "I'm having a non-country day on my radio.....except for 2 songs... :); me: no music for me.....except the birds"]

To myself [hmm....country music....maybe I will listen to music today.]

"Bye, Steph...see you tomorrow." I guess that means I'm alone again in this house tonight....now singing "alone in this house again tonight.....got the tv on, the sound turned down, and a bottle of wine...."

I leave...go to dinner....say some goodbyes....get to talk with another friend....pleasant conversation....return home in a rickshaw through semi-heavy traffic....just watching everything going on around me....listening....hah....how could that baby be asleep on the back of that motor bike in this noise?

What to do at 10 'o clock at night when you're home alone with no tv, no movies, no books, and you're not sleepy. I guess I'll get online. Talk to a couple of friends...yay! Play Faith Hill's album Hits from online. Look at my cousin's website http://www.livingmercy.blogspot.com/ without completely reading, and then click on Joe Thorn's website and read (almost all of) an article on humility http://www.joethorn.net/page/4/ Humility...this is what I need...what a great article....all while still listening to Faith Hill...."Cry a little......for me.." Wait....is this me....am I just like you Faith...thinking I'm humble, but the opposite oozing from my lips, boasting in my humility? Tim to Faith in "I need You" :"I need you like a lighthouse on a coast" ...me: "Lord.....I need you like a lighthouse on a coast." ....Flashback to James book study (my thoughts in italic, my emphasis in bold...actually...I'm emphasizing most everything).

James 1

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. God, I lack wisdom, and I'm asking for it.

6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;

8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,

10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.

11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Forgive me Father.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Forgive me Father. Forgive me. May I continually be a hear and a doer of your Word. Give me wisdom. Help me to bridle my tongue. Don't let my heart become hardened towards the widows and orphans begging on the street. Father, make me humble....truly humble.

".......One of them says, 'you know I've been thinkin' ...Other one says, "that won't get you too far." ...The secret of life is a good cup of coffee...The secret of life is a beautiful woman...'you and me, we're just a couple of zeros' ....The secret of life is monday night football.....mom's apple pies....The secret of life is getting up early....The secret of life is staying up late....The secret of life is tryin' not to hurry....The secret of life is a good cup of coffee....The secret of life is to find the right woman.....The secret of life is nothing at all......The secret of life...."

and my addition....The secret of life is trusting in the Father.

"It's a long way from [Bat Cave ] to the big [country where I stay] and sometimes the butterflies still get me......."

"It matters to me...."

"She's a wild one with an angel's face."

Alright....cd's over. Faith Hill is great....goodnight....wash my face, brush my teeth, take my contacts out, shut the balcony door, did I lock the door?, pajamas, alarm clock, write down rickshaw fare, bathroom, .................

And, why doesn't this stupid blog post exactly how I'm typing in the box?

holidays and headaches

GANESH,



You. give me. a. headache!!!!! I'll just give you the top reasons why.....

1. People have been up until all hours of the morning the past two days (with 8 more days to go) celebrating your birthday. And not only have they been up, they have been shooting fireworks, and not only have they been shooting fireworks, the ones they are shooting sound similar to civil war canons......all of this going on right outside my window. Who can sleep with such racket?


2. Too many people asking for "Ganesh" money.


3. Even just thinking of all the sweets people are eating in honor of you (made with a gallon of ghee--clarified butter, and 5 pounds of sugar). Gross.


4. You're not even real.


5. Millions of people are worshipping you anyways. They are following you to a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

To learn more about Ganesh, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha

Birthday Party!

Note: Because of the lack of human interaction these past couple of weeks, this post is going to be long. I'm posting so that I don't start talking to myself. :)

So, my roommate/teammates have been on a trip out of the country for the past 2 weeks, and I have been pretty lonely. I do most of my work right now (research) on the computer, so I haven't had very much interaction with people. (Except talking to my family on Skype). (Thanks to the Father that tonight "SG" is coming home tonight!!!! I've really missed her!)

The only person I've seen on a regular basis has been our house helper and neither one of us can ever understand what the other person is saying. A few weeks ago, on a Saturday, she brought her daughter with her. While her mom was cleaning, I let her play on my computer and we had a lot of fun. Before leaving, the girl said, "Auntie, my birthday September 15."

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday, I asked the house helper to bring her daughter over today for a present and some birthday cake. And I remembered to ask if they were "veg" or "non-veg" for cake making purposes. I looked online for an eggless cake recipe and started baking away. Note: I've only ever really made one cake from scratch, and now I'm trying without eggs. Also note: read the caption of the last picture of my previous post. The batter tasted ok, I baked the cake, and was completely amazed that it didn't fall apart (all the other cakes (from a box) I've ever made tasted great, but they've always ended up looking ugly and crumbly). The icing, however, was a different story....it never thickened...so I just poured the icing soup on top of the cake. A friend, who shall remain nameless, said to me once, "We can cook!"....and I'm definitely realizing the truth of this statement. Of course I can cook, sometimes it's an experiment, sometimes it's amazing, sometime it's strange, sometimes it's ugly, sometimes it's ok, and sometimes it's just awful.

Today, I got everything ready, and an hour after I thought the helper and her daughter were coming, the door bell rang. Yay! They're here, and the son too.

We all sat down for cake, and on the inside I was laughing so much. As I watched the son try to finish his piece of cake, I had a flash back of "K" trying to finish her food at a friend's house, and of the many times I've had to eat something I didn't like in this place just to be nice. He had to eat the cake, the whole piece that I served him. Funny. It wouldn't have been so funny, except that the cake wasn't good. It was alright, but it was SO heavy, heavier than pound cake, must have been a 10 pounds cake. One bite would have been enough. I could tell he was struggling near the end.

After cake, came the presents. I gave her a Bible story book, and a couple of other small items. The book had all the essential stories, but with lots of colorful pictures; she was very excited. Even though the family is Hindu, the children go to a Christian school. Pray that Father uses these things in this family.

After presents, came pictures. I took a family picture. Note: Today the girl turned 10, and her brother is 15. They are SO small! All of their heads are shaved because of some "important" visit to the temple. The house helper's face isn't really that color yellow. Today, she just did some puja or maybe beauty routine with tumeric powder. Then, the house helper and her son tried taking a picture of me and the girl. This was funny to watch. After about a million tries, we finally got one that turned out ok.

After pictures, the kids and I played cards. War, Go fish (speaking of fish, while I've always enjoyed trout, I'm learning that fish is one of my favorite foods), and then I was out of ideas. So they decided on a game to play and proceeded to teach me.....we'll call it laljgjd;lasj;raj;lfjadlf, because I have no idea what they said. It's a great game though :)

August in pictures...actually, just pictures taken in August

Cricket anyone?





gross polluted river that smells rrrreeeealllll nice right now
...actually all the time.

a Hindu temple


I really love this picture...especially how he's a rusty color
near the barbed wire


bowl for grinding spices


the stove...not mine thankfully.
I'm already discovering my lack of cooking talent.

Indonesia

Shels and I :)


Sheley, Dendy, and I


Rabbit...yum, yum!


take-out from the mall...and Amy's taking the pic!

craziness!


chemically straight hair....and two months later it's still straight!


Karoke, 3 times! Oh, Baby,Baby....;)

burnt a hole in menu.....I see you!

Volcano

Leni and I

volcano again


Amy, me, and Shels...volcano

volcano...again

in the tree





Indonesia was a really great!