Frogger in real life...

So I know that I have touched on this subject before, but thought I would share a more intimate look at what the game of frogger means to me here in India...

Do you recall frogger? I remember playing it on the Atari when I was a kid and loved it. I also remember what happed to Ms. Frogger (hey I was ahead of my time as a kid FEMALE POWER *clear throat* any way moving on) looked like when she didn't make it through the traffic . The scene where Ms. Frogger gets squished is fresh on my mind and flashes regularly as I attempt to cross the street here in India. As well as the GAME OVER and the dog that pops up laughing at you that you can't shoot no matter how many times you try (yes different game, but he still makes an appearance in my nightmares).
But I digress, needless to say the picture above is the only way to describe walking in Guwahati unless... you play the mind sweeper that's what walking on the sidewalks are like. When walking on the them you are constantly alert for men peeing against a wall, dog poop, cow poop, hell cat and bird poop, men spitting, people cleaning their mouths out with water and spitting, merchants selling things, beggars begging for things, and let us not forget the Hindu priest threating you or maybe blessing you or heck maybe he's just schizophrenic talking behind you, beside you and in front of you.
As if all that wasn't enough you get to add in broken sidewalks, pieces of sidewalk that move (they remove them during monsoon season)pieces of sidewalks that just don't fit together, rocks, sand and the random bump in the sidewalk that I swear is there just to make sure you are paying attention when walking.
Everyone is like oh let's walk here that way you can learn your way around... Uh no seriously?!?! How does anyone know where they are? Half the time I am looking down to avoid the above mentioned landmines that I don't get to see anything other than the occasional roach that is bigger than my foot or a random lizard. Hell the only time I ever look up when walking is if I become the unwilling participate in the game of frogger mentioned above. And then I find I randomly will grab people's hands to make sure if I get flattened they do too!
So dear friends when in India you have 2 choices. You can either walk like an Indian and force yourself to not care when you trip or stumble. Or you can walk like this ex pat and never see any scenery until you stop to catch your breath or stop to give yourself the pep talk needed to run across the street yelling the whole time "I will not be the dead frog I WILL NOT BE THE DEAD FROG". If you take the latter approach please note that people will not only stare (they do that no matter what) but they will also laugh nervously and walk quickly away from you.

 I have sadly reached the point where I just bum rides from other people or ask the girls to walk me places ;)

Good luck!

Dupattas how I hate thee

An ode to Dupattas...

You are long (too long by anyone with common sense standards)
You get caught in everything particularly rickshaws, autos, bags, doors and under my thigh
You give thy enemies (and sometimes friends JORDANA as well as Tim) a choking weapon to use against thee
You never cover enough to matter
You're required everytime I leave the house
You stain me when it rains (had hot pink hair for 2 days)
You always try to keep me in the auto or rickshaw when clearly its time to get out
You never stay in place (I think its an attention thing)
You hate when I wear anything else including purses or handbags (its you or nothing)
You're never quite heavy enough to help when I'm cold yet never quite light enough when I'm hot
You refuse to block the sun and in fact help it to burn me in weird patterns
You come in every bright color one can image yet none of them suit me
You wrinkle one day and the day I need you to wrinkle you lay flat...

oh dupattas how I hate thee

There's a lizard in my bathroom... his name is Fred

So I ask you what would you do?

I apparently have a lizard in my bathroom that didn't decide to show himself until I was already naked and wet with soap in my hair. What would you do if you were in the middle of a shampoo and saw something shoot across the floor and up the wall? Would you scream like a little girl? Cause that's what I did. FYI doesn't seem to bother people here in India. After I regained what little bit of dignity a person who is naked, wet with shampoo still in their hair and screaming can regain I decided that I was going to finish my shower lizard be damned.

Filthy little bugger was laughing at me the whole time. Now I know some of you are thinking how can a lizard laugh? With his eyes... its all in his eyes. So much for a peaceful shower I mumbled through the remaining 2 second shower. Then as I sped through the rest of the shower I wondered what kind of neighbors do I have that just totally ignored me screaming where am I America? Jeez.

Needless to say after a very intense 2 second rinsing shower where I started at Fred and he stared at me I quickly jumped out and wrapped a towel around me. Talk about modesty coming into play in a MAJOR way. Seriously stop laughing and think about how long would you stay naked in a shower while a lizard watched?!? yeah that's what I thought. After wrapping up in a towel which gave me some confidence... okay and a small pep talked that went like this, "Sara you are a strong, independent woman. You have faced roaches, ants, lice, and rats this last month. Hell you've become numb to the fact there numerous spiders living currently in your apartment and let us not forget the roach you killed that was almost as big as your foot. YOU CAN FREAKING HANDLE A LIZARD..." So I grabbed my squeegee and held it up to the bugger. Wondering how I would explain to the hospital why my hip is broken when I slipped on the wet floor.

He ran I screamed and then quoted The Mummy, "And did I panic... I think not." Well honestly I did slightly for like a second or a minute. I mean after that I threw on my clothes ran to my bedroom and hid under the mosquito netting praying that lizards can't figure out how to get into the mosquito netting. Not to mention that every window I had open all of the sudden became a means for the nasty little creature to get back in so they of course had to be shut. 98 degree weather be damned no lizard was going to get me tonight. Did I mention that I also cursed the lizard as I pushed it out the window. Yeah I did I said, "Curse you Fred I hope the crow that lives out there and wakes me up at the crack of dawn every freaking morning eats you!" And you know what? I totally meant it.

I had thought I had adjusted to living here. I mean the roaches the size of my foot don't make me scream anymore even when they run over my foot. The ants in my kitchen have names now, the spiders too hell they are becoming my Wilson's... I even am use to the mosquito bites on the bottom of my foot (don't get me started on those I still don't know or understand how it happens.) Then this happens...I am drawing a line in the sand. There was no mention of freaking lizards in my welcome to India pamphlet I got at the airport: Welcome to India for the next six months you will eat every meal with rice, you will walk everywhere, your feet will always be dirty, you will drink from bottles, and squat when you pee with no toilet paper unless you bring it yourself. Here soon the temps will reach degree so hot you will lose 15lbs in a month from sweating so much. When the rains hit it will be just as hot with humidity reaching 100% so that you will never feel dry. During that time you won't be able to walk because the streets will flood. We have earthquakes here that if you are lucky you will sleep through. BUT NO MENTION TO ME ABOUT LIZARDS THAT JUMP OUT AND SCARE YOU WHEN YOU ARE TAKING A SHOWER.

And no he didn't have an Australian accent hence the name Fred. He was not nearly as cute as that one on TV nor did he try to sell me cheaper insurance. So I will no longer be sleeping with windows open b/c I will not wake up to lizards on the walls, nor will I be going to the bathroom at night anymore why? BECAUSE I REFUSE I just do... deal with it.

After typing this I realize that I have now become the crazy foreigner that screams and yells in her apartment for no apparently reason... that might explain some of the weird looks I've been getting lately...

We now have 2 wonderful... teenagers

I slightly joke and yet it still amazes me no matter what culture you are in teenagers are teenagers are teenagers.

They act the same, have the same attitude of, I know everything and you know nothing, they laugh at the same stuff, they compete like no other and hate to lose. They are giggly and loud one minute only to be withdrawn and anti-social the next. They pretend not to care what you think, but the moment that you least expect it is when they come to you with their heart on their sleeves wanting love and affection. They hate doing chores, they don't like getting dirty unless they want to, and God forbid you make them eat their veggies.

Yet here I am in India and dealing with all the same issues that I faced back home with the youth kids. We officially have two beautifully tough yet amazingly insecure girls in our home. Both have gone through unspeakable things and yet they still can sit on the floor and color for hours. Watch Tom and Jerry and laugh until their stomachs hurt, draw, paint, play games, talk and eat popcorn endlessly. They are complete opposites and yet inseparable almost as if they know they have similar war stories so they are going to stuck together.

One is loud, demands attention at all times, pouts when she doesn't win, is angry at what has happened to her, demands justice, and draws the most beautiful pictures of flowers I have ever seen. The other is quiet, goes with the flow, doesn't like to upset anyone, won't touch people or like to be touched by people, hates to draw, loves to color, LOVES American music, doesn't care about justice just seeks peace and safety, she only wants to be loved and live free, and sings more beautifully then any person I've ever heard. Yet they both have their moments when they all of the sudden can't understand English, Hindi, or Assamese. They hate eating veggies, don't like chores, can't move fast for anything except popcorn. They desire to only wear their favorite color, giggle and whisper to each other about everyone, pout when they loose and really don't like to be paired with someone who will cause them to loose (AKA me).

Yet today for the first time the one that doesn't like to be touched or to give touched wrapped her arms around me in a hug for just a second. The artist sat down with me for a few hours to draw Mendie on my hand. They both shared their precious popcorn with me last night during the Hindi version of Shrek 2 and insisted I eat my share. Asked me to read them the same story about a stork and a fox over and over and over again. Learned the cupid shuffle then danced it with me a million times and patiently played badminton with me for an hour.

Needless to say I have 2 teenage girls teaching me patience, laughter, humility, compassion and kindness. Most importantly they are teaching me how to love them completely with the attitudes, scars, hurts and bruises. They are showing me how much I can do simply by dancing the same dance a million times over. Every moment that I share with them is more of a blessing then I had ever hoped for.

Thanks!!

HELP

 

A lot of you have been sending me emails asking how you can help me. Right now I am still needing the following expenses:

 

Airplane Ticket home is $1200

Health Insurance a month is $120

Rent is $80 a month

Electricity is $40 a month

 

Right now I have all I need for March, but could use help in April, May, June and July.
Other ways you can help without donating is to pray for the girl we currently have and any new girls we will be receiving. Right now our current struggle in the house is finding enough activities for the them to do that are fun yet still learning.

 

We are also struggling to get into the flow of things here as a group

 

And we really need prayers for the water shortage we are currently facing. Our well in the back yard has run dry and we have no water. So we are paying daily for fresh water to be brought to the home. You can help this situation by donating directly to 7Sisters International. Their donation page is here

 

Again THANK YOU all for everything you have already done I can't express in words how much it means to me. Love you all and will continue to update as things occur here. God has done amazing things and I look forward to seeing more of the things He has in store.

 

We have a girl

So it is official we have our first girl. Things were hetic around here as she arrived. But she has arrived and with her three more are suppose to come next week. We are very excited and I will report more as the home expands!!!

Oh and here is a side story if you are interested in some of the things we are dealing with here in India you can check out the article here.

Food shopping and more

India has many wonderful things. One of the wonderful things happening in India is the fresh veggies and fruit that you can purchase every night. They do have grocery stores, but most people buy the fresh things nightly from stalls that line the streets or the stalls that sell them. All the food shown above with something I already put in the fridge I got for under $20 US dollars. All of this and I still stayed way below my budget.
The food is fantastic and fresh they have similar items like apples, oranges, grapes, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, juice and pasta. I have to admit it was a lot to carry and if I hadn't had 3 friends to help me I wouldn't have purchased so much at one time. That being said I plan to eat well for awhile. I will take pictures as I make things. Since everything here is made from scratch it takes a lot of work to make one meal. There are very few pre-made items. Many times you even pick out your chicken that you want them to kill and cut for you. It is an experience that I plan to pass on. I however, have been known to go into a restaurant and order a whole chicken cooked then use it for a few days or freeze a few extra parts to save me from that traumatic experience. (I have a hard time as it is picking out lobsters to eat I could only image how I would struggle with a chicken).
Back to the food the milk is in a carton and sits on the shelf until you open it. And surprisingly they have Coke here. The difference in coke from US and here is the sweetness factor. Coke is so sweet here it almost hurts your teeth. Practically any soda is the same way. I guess that is one way to break the addiction for me. Otherwise most of the food here is full of starch. There is rice or roti (like a tortilla) or noodles. Most people get offended if there isn't one of those as the main part of the meal. I have even heard people say they were hungry when they went to bed because of the lack of rice, roti or noodles. I am doing everything humanly possible to not end up with rice belly.
That being said I have noticed that my portion size is dramatically smaller than I would get at home. So there have been a few nights where I have gone to bed hungry. Sometimes it is hard to get enough protein here so I find when I go places I order a lot of chicken with little bones so that I can get some additional protein. Also I eat a lot of eggs and veggies in hopes of keeping things balanced. One thing I can not seem to get us to is how they drink everything at room temperature or drink it boiling hot because cold drinks cause you to get a cold or damage your throat. So all the water and soda is warm and sometimes it is just hard to choke down.
I have pretty much tried anything that has been put in front of me most has been fantastic while other items have been a "no thank you its not my favorite." All in all India has been a great experience especially when it comes to food shopping and the shear amount of vegetables and fruit available to eat.