A day at the beach

We had been promising the kids that we would go to the beach down at Mamallapuram for a few weekends so they could play in the ocean and swim at a resort there. So today we packed up and headed south. The kids had a fun time playing in the sand and ocean and so far no one has gotten sick so the water must have been fairly clean! While at the beach we saw something we never thought we would see while laying on the beach...a herd of cows. Yep, you read it right...cows! Just meandering along the surf were about 20 cows. Where they came from and where they were going who knows, I am sure they knew but they weren't telling. It was something once again you probably would only see in India! I am always amazed at the animals here or I mean everywhere. There are cows, goats and dogs all over this place! There were a few cows that decided to make a mad dash across a busy road and a motorbike almost hit him. There are a lot of vehicles that have cow catchers on the front with good reasons. If we ever hit one it is going in the freezer!

Swimming in the pool made us more eager for our pool. They filled it up with water Saturday night to test for leaks. The really interesting thing was they filled it up from our well...gulp! For those of you from Illinois, you realize what a feat this is. We were pretty concerned that we would have no water left. But I guess when you are this close to the sea and are at sea level water is not a concern plus monsoon season just ended. But while looking down at the well, which is about 5 ft in diameter and who knows how deep we discovered we have fish in our well. Of course my big question that made Bhaskar laugh was "where to those fish go to the bathroom?". I am sure they somehow get out and go in there little fish outhouse. I learned that people put fish in there well to keep the well clean. This open well which is no where near up to code by US standards but does have a metal grate over it, sunlight can still enter in causing algae to grow, thus the fish. It seems like a pretty good idea but just very strange. Fortunately we do not drink the water, we use bottled water for our drinking water.

When they were preparing the spot for the well pump they had to relocate a palm tree. It was neat to see them move it. I told Emily I planted a seed and watered it all day and look what grew! She almost took the bait but then realized in no way could that happen.

Feet or Meters?

Well we are officially the owners of lots of rope! Ted asked me to go and buy some rope the other day for a swing for the kids. Bhaskar and I headed off to the "rope" store. As I have mentioned before getting things in India involves going to a store that specializes just in that item. Bhaskar pulled up in front of the store and said "one moment ma'am". So I stayed put in the car...who knows perhaps women are not allowed in rope shops. In a few minutes he came up and gave me the price per meter. I of course am thinking one meter equals three feet and figured that probably 25 would be enough. BUT remember Bhaskar was thinking meters and me the American was not thinking meters but was thinking FEET! He came out with a whole roll of this really nice thick cotton rope. I asked why there was so much and said that if they had cut just 25 off the roll there wouldn't have been very much left to sell so I really got a good price. We came home and unrolled it and realized that I have over 25 meters of rope...more like 30 meters! So now we have 2 swings plus a rope bridge between 2 trees. At last the rope is gone. Now I joke that we need to get some more rope...not. I just need to pay attention to which measuring system is being used!

Poocha Room

I think that Millie got a bit confused when we found her asleep in the pooja room. She must have thought we said poocha room!

A day with the cook

I must say that I had a wonderful Friday and Saturday. Our neighbors were heading out of town for a few days and they graciously let me "borrow" their cook. Let me just say that there were plenty of things that I borrow from people in Princeville, but I must admit I never dreamt I would udder those words...may I borrow your cook? I really enjoy cooking but this was a wonderful experience. It all began Friday when I told him that he could use one of our drivers to get the supplies. And of course there was no way I was going to stay home. I tagged along with him to get the supplies. Our first stop was the fish market where there were a bunch of fish laying on plywood boards, some of which were covered with banana leaves. He selected dinner...a Promfret fish. The photo below is of our driver Sundar (in white) and Anthony the cook is next to him and of course dinner in on the table.
Then we went to several shops to pick up various herbs and other items. I had him show me where heavy cream and yogurt were located so that I could make my own sour cream. Then we were off to buy fresh chicken and I do mean fresh. Straight from the cage to the oven. The chicken guy proceeded to "prepare" the chicken, then Anthony finished it off at home. I was out while he did this but it is amazing what he did. He actually deboned the chicken but it still looked like a whole chicken which he then stuffed. I am going to have to have him do this again while I observe. Did I mention how amazing this was...wow! We had quite the feast. He made enough to last us several meals. I felt bad that the cook was having to prepare this feast with such limited kitchen supplies as our sea shipment is not here yet. He did manage with the help of borrowing a few things from our kind neighbors! Of course no one can replace my kind neighbors in Princeville...I don't even need to mention names as they no who they are! I was really impressed when it came time to peel the carrots, I offered my peeler, but he chose to use his huge chef knife! I actually took a video of it as I was so impressed. Just click the arrow button to watch!

This chicken was quite curious as to what was going on in the kitchen! Maybe she'll be next!
So after the wonderful meal we just carried our plates in and didn't even have to clean up! The kids want a cook now. But I think they will just have to settle for my cooking but I can't help but hope the neighbors go out of town at least once a month:-)

So if anyone decides to visit us in Chennai I will see if I can't arrange to have a meal prepared for you. It was an incredible experience!

Things are progressing

Well, the pool is coming along. It was supposed to be done by now but remember this is India and they say 1 month and you say 2 months. But that is okay, it is not warm enough to swim...at least that is what the natives say. For those of us from colder climates it is plenty hot enough to swim! The pool construction was amazing. We were not here for the digging but a friend told us that there were at least 15 Indians digging by hand. Yep we are here with a major construction equipment company but they dug the pool with shovels and bowls. This is incredible but we when think of having a piece of equipment do the work versus giving people jobs in the poverty stricken nation it just makes sense. I was really amazed on the day the pools walls were poured. There were about 8 ladies who would carry concrete (or is it cement...never can remember) in a bowl on top of there head and then hand it to a man in the pool who would then pour it into the formed walls. I was really taken aback by this one girl who was just absolutely beautiful. She had the most beautiful smile and carried the bowl of concrete with such grace ( I never realized that that was possible but again this is India!).

A fun day

Our trip to Mamallapuram was a fun time. We had lunch a lovely resort right on the beach. We had fun watching the waves and seeing the boats at sea. After lunch we walked around and saw some of the sites. The carvings and rock formations were incredible. We saw our first monkey perched atop a huge boulder...he truly must have felt on top of the world! There was one spot that had a small "slide". Please excuse the video footage as I filmed it sideways and can't figure out how to undo it!




I realized I should have started this posting with a Happy Pongal greeting...please forgiveme if any of you are avid Pongel celebrators! This morning we woke to a fog...not weather related, smoke related. Pongal begins with burning things thus the air was thick with smoke. These are some photos taken from our rooftop patio. Millie even was checking out the view.









One of the things we purchased in Mamallapuram was a hammock. We have a tree that is just perfect for one but of course I always keep my eyes open for snakes in the tree. Which by the way we haven't seen any snakes yet. I was convinced my this time I would have been bitten by a king cobra! Let's just hope this yard remains snake free. Don't worry you will here my scream far away if I set eyes on one!

Hope that you all have wonderful day! Stayed tuned for photos of the pool construction! And as always to see more photos just check out the link at the right hand side. As you can see I love taking photos!

Another day

The kids are at there fourth day of school. Mason seems to be adjusting, each day a little easier. Everyone says to give him a few weeks and he will be just fine. I met with 3 of his teachers yesterday and they were very impressed with him and are going to continue to monitor him and help this adjustment period. We are looking forward to this weekend as it is a 3 day weekend. The kids have Monday of in celebration of Pongal...a festival celebrating farming (crops, animals, etc). They say that Thursday is the day celebrating the animals so the cattle will be adorned with flowers and have there horns painted. I feel sad for one cow we pass every day to school as he is missing one horn, perhaps they will give her a prosthetic horn that day! The ride to and from school is just amazing. On the way to school we take very main roads but the way back to the house is very different. Our driver calls it the short cut, but in essence we are cutting through the "life" of India. The road is barely wide enough for one vehicle but amazingly 2 can fit. Today some woman were laying at the side of the road, evidently resting from working at a construction site. The pulled there legs up so that we could fit through. You may wonder why would women work at a construction site, well they do very manual labor. They are often seen carrying 12 or so bricks on top of there head or carrying buckets of sand or rock. It takes a very long time to build a house. All the building are made out of concrete and wood. We have some homes going up next to us and it has taken one year to get the framing done and then it will be several more months for it to be finished.

We are still waiting for the internet, satelitte, and electrician to show up. I remember people warning us about real time vs Indian time. I truly see now what they mean. India moves at incredibly slow pace. The work will get done...eventually.

We are going to be ordering meat from a meat market this weekend that will deliver to our house. Supposedly it is fresh and the pigs and cows are fed well as opposed to garbage. I am not sure what the cuts of meat will be but we will figure it out. So far we have had tacos, chicken and noodles, pork roast, pinneapple chicken and pizza. We have had fresh grapes, pinneapple, coconut, green beans (yummm-NOT!) and carrots. Cleaning the fruits and vegetables is more time consuming but since I don't have to clean or do laundry I should have plenty of time!

The pool is coming along nicely. They were delivering more materials last night. The big trucks only drive at night to keep the road congestion at a minimal. However I have been told big trucks can be out if they pay off the police.

Please keep in touch! Have a wonderful day!

Bay of Bengal

It is hard to believe that one week ago today we were bound for India. We are settling in nicely to a routine. The kids have had 3 days of school. Logan and Emily have had great day and Mason's days get better every day. The school feels very big but is about the size of Princeville. Each class has around 15 kids in it. The elementary, middle and high school are in one building. The school has 3 floors with a tennis court on top! I really think that this will be an incredible educational experience for the kids.

Tonight we walked down to the beach. Millie is very uncertain of the waves. She likes watching them but just doesn't want to get wet. Earlier today the guard and I walked down and the guard was trying to show Millie the waves. A big wave suddenly appeared and got Millie wet and the guard got one show all wet. We laughed! She is more curious about all the smells at the beach. Her nose is constantly on the ground sniffing.

Today is my mom's birthday so Happy Birthday Mom. I hope that you have a great day.

The kids are looking forward to this weekend. On Saturday we are going to drive about 30 mins south to a village called Mamallapuram. We will do some sightseeing and eat at a resort for lunch or dinner. Mason is hoping to get a chess set as his was busted in Ted's suitcase and we are looking for a hammock.

We have arrived!!!

Well, we arrived in Chennai, India at around 11:30 pm on January 2, 2008. We had quite an interesting start to our trip. Even though we learned of this adventure 7 months ago I of course stayed up well past midnight to put the final preparations on the house and finishing the packing. Ted teased me that we could have easily moved in July if I did all that work in 5 hours! Needless to say I was exhausted by the time we left our house. We rented a 12 passenger van to haul us: 3 kids, 2 adults, 1 dog, 1 dog crate and 23 bags! We drew a more than a few looks while pulling up to the airport and unloading. Checking in went slowly, there was some form that the airlines said they needed for Millie but finally they agreed to let her on as we said the form was waiting in India for us. Then we all had to head through security. While the security officer was examining Millie’s kennel he tilted it sideways which made her water bottle started leaking. I leaned down to fix it and got in trouble as once the security exam is begun….hands off! Oops, now I know. I claimed ignorance and apologized and didn’t wind up in jail!

The kids (and me too!) were a bit nervous for the first leg of our trip. We flew from Chicago to Frankfort Germany. The kids decided they liked business class. We met a lovely couple on the plane who were from Indianapolis and were moving to England for an ISE assignment. It was great to talk to another mom who was experiencing what I was going through. I am looking forward to sharing emails.

When we arrived in Chennai the customs process went very quickly. I had to use the restroom and reminded myself when in India BYOTP (Bring your own toilet paper! Then we claimed our luggage and found Millie! She was scared but was in good spirits. They had let her out in Germany for a bit so she wasn’t cramped for too long. Then we walked out of the airport. I wish I had had my camera out as when an Indian leaves the country the whole family brings them and sees then. Our driver Baskar gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. They loaded up our luggage and we headed to our new home. The ride to the house was quite. India is very dark at night and seemed quite intimidating to our kids. But the moment we pulled into the house they were ecstatic. The house is very beautiful especially at night with all the lights on. They ran through the house and explored and stayed up most of the night! They finally headed to bed around 3 am and slept until 11 am. The boys were quite sad when they woke up as Chennai certainly does not look like Princeville. Things turned around when Noah and Harry (boys from New York who live behind our home) stopped by to meet Mason, Logan and Emily. They are quite thrilled to have friends right by our home. We have a basketball goal so they have been busy shooting hoops. The kids have also enjoyed playing with the gardeners’ children. Even Millie is enjoying playing with the gardeners’ dog Scooby (a german shepherd looking dog).

We ventured out yesterday to the grocery store, meat store and the fruit store. Mason thinks the store is better that he imagined. That was encouraging! It was interesting to see the kids reaction as we drove through the city in the daylight.

I discovered that our maid has 1 hen with 4 baby chicks on our property. That was an awesome discovery! If only I could find her eggs…oh well, maybe I need to get a few more hens! There are goats right across the street and a few cows as well. We discovered we had coconut trees (the gardeners shinnied up the tree and picked one for us yesterday), papaya, and banana trees. So far no snakes have been found! The pool has a few more weeks (hopefully not months). It has been fun to watch the progress on the pool.

On Sunday we went to church. It was an amazing experience. People from all over the world were in one building worshiping Jesus Christ! It was exiting to see so many different nationalities. The church has around 300-400 people so they are going to do a church plant (hopefully closer to us).

We walked to the beach and watched the waves. We are only about 1 ½ blocks from the beach. The kids splashed in the waves. The waves are quite big and there is quite an undertow so they will probably never swim…plus it is pretty polluted. It is a shame as India is very tropical and could be so pretty if they didn’t throw trash everywhere. There were many Indians walking and playing along the beach. I was brought to tears when this adorable Indian boy walking with his parents ran up to me and handed me a flower he had picked. The kids couldn’t figure out why this brought tears to my eyes. I asked, “would you ever run and give a strange woman a flower?” I am so touched by the warmth of the people.

Today Millie was given her first Indian bath. Sarahsutta (not sure of correct spelling) the maid has been asking about giving Millie a bath. I just kept saying sometime. Well, today I purchased a bucket for her to have fresh water outside. I was quite proud of myself when I was able to fill the bucket and carry it by myself...no one ran and offered to carry it as no one saw me! But, Sarahsutta saw the bucket and assumed it was bathday for Millie. So I got the shampoo and Millie got the cleanest ever! So tomorrow I am off for another bucket...

The kids begin school in the morning. They are excited. It will be interesting to see how different school is and how they adjust. They really like the school today and have met several kids already.

Our adventure is on and we are anxious to see what continues to happen!