The girls

The past few times at the homes, I’ve gotten a chance to just hang out with the girls. We hadn’t gotten any of the items we needed for the Christmas projects yet, so we couldn’t start on them. And since I don’t know how to make jewelry I was little help there. I’ve been able to speak a bit of broken English, learn some dance moves, learn an Indian magic trick, and get all my knuckles on my fingers and toes cracked. So one of our conversations we were talking and the girls asked, “Didi, (sister) you eat chicken?” I nod and said yes. “You eat fish?” I said yes. “You eat snake?” No. “You eat pig?” Sometimes. “You eat rat?” “NO!” I said, and they all started giggling and laughing. They don’t know how much I hate the creatures.

“Are you kidding me?”

I had it as a goal of mine to get Su to add a saying to her vocabulary by the time Steph got here. Su’s always adopting Steph’s sayings. It’s pretty cute. All week I’m hearing her say, “Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” and I’m thinking, ‘where’d she get that? Steph doesn’t say that.’ Then it dawned on me that my friend Erin told me once, after I had said, “Are you kidding me?” how many times I say that. LOL mission accomplished!

Market Shopping

We went to the infamous Crawford Market yesterday, which is where Steph buys all the supplies for the jewelry. It makes for a really long day. The heat, the crowds, the chaos of traffic and finding your way through junk to find quality materials is a chore. Then to haul everything that’s bought back an hour home on the crowded train makes for an exhausting day. (Steph and Su are saints!) So funny story. Steph always inspects items before she buys them. Su & I were in this one shop and I asked the man, Joe Cool behind the counter with the diamond in his ear, if I could see this one in particular clasp. He hands it to me, standing in front of me. I took it and bent it and it snapped in half like a cracker. I looked up and his mouth had dropped open. He gasped, “Madame! What are you doing?” I said, “What? I wanted to see if it was good quality. It’s clearly not.” He said, “Yes, but you should have asked me!” “Everyone is saying ‘Good quality, good quality, and it’s not. If I’m working with it and I’m going to have people buy it, I want to know that it’s strong.” “You should have asked me. I will tell you.” I started apologizing profusely cause of course at that point I was laughing. It was funny. I said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll pay for it.” The item only cost 6 rupees which is equivalent to less than ten cents. Clearly it was equivalent to the cost. We bought some nice beads and were on our way.
Story #2 We were walking down the road, and I see some scissors at a stand. As I mentioned to find quality of anything here is a challenge. So I recognized the packaging on the scissors to be the good ones, so I asked Su to ask him the price. “Kit gnaw?” she says ‘how much?’ 20 ruppees for the small and 40 ruppees for the large. “Great,” I say. “Let’s take 5 of each.” Then he looks at me and goes, “oh, no this one,’ pointing to the small one, ‘is 40 and this one….” I look at Su and go, “did he just change the price?” “He just changed the price!” We both walked away shaking our heads, taking our business elsewhere. I taught Su a new word. Audacity….Just because businessmen see a foreigner they double the price. Most of them are quick enough to give it as the first quote though.

Vocational Search

So last week we looked for real estate for a vocational center. It was quite an interesting process. We met with a property agent and he took us around to see a few different places. The first was bright, clean, spacious, and several thousand per month for 1000 sq. ft. The next several were under construction-literally. The agent was trying to describe where the walls would be placed, and I was asking when the completion date was to be expected. Red flag was a new term I taught Sunita. He showed us several office spaces that were over priced and not large enough to have a main classroom. At least we’re starting to have an idea of what’s out there. We’d appreciate your continued prayers in this.

Poverty

India never ceases to amaze me. I went to the train station on the other side of town and there were all these slums lining the road that weren’t there last summer. A baby sitting there (at home) behind a brigade, staring at the traffic 5 feet from him through the bars, exhaust, honking, chaos, while a woman washes her pot from her morning cooking…It’s not uncommon to be approached by beggars in a rickshaw several times before making it home. Some small children with a baby on their hips, and some mothers carrying their infant children, in addition to the beggars in the train stations, crippled or blind. The elderly blind man sitting out in front of the mosque is still the same man from last year. What do you do with that? I don’t have the answers. Just wanted to give a perspective from the other side of the world. Something to consider.

Sister's Earrings

The other day we were having a class at one of the homes. The girls were all sitting around making jewelry. One girl finished a pair of earrings and showed it to the head caretaker. Suddenly I look up, and they’re all giggling and laughing. The sister (nun) who is very minimal, no makeup, a brown sari, glasses with her hair tied back, had these bright blue little bead dangling earrings on. It was the funniest sight ever. I think she actually enjoyed wearing them. She was smiling proudly, but giggling too.

Baby Faith arrives in 2 weeks!

My sister is having a baby in 2 weeks. It’s the first girl of the family-well, for the next generation. I have a feeling she’s gonna be the spoiled princess, coming after 5 boys. Her baby carrier that my mom made is filled with pink and lace. Quite a contrast from my marine nephews!