Our neighbor's

Many of you have commented on the little boy playing in the sand so I thought I would show you his house. It really isn't much, a hut with a dirt floor, no running water and no electricity. The family consists of a mother, grandfather, 2 boys and lots of goats and chickens. It really is rather surreal when you look to the north to see their home and then to the south to see our home. The elderly man takes his goats out everyday to let them graze up and down the street. The lady wheels her cart to the end of our road and sells a homemade all day long. The children to attend school, but when home they are busy riding bikes, with old tires, or helping with the goats.



I had actually written this post several weeks ago as I was waiting to get a better photo of the grandfather. Today I sadly learned that he passed away around 4 pm. I would see him take his goats up and down the road every day and I would always smile brightly at him. He would put his hands together in front of his face and look bow his head slightly. Sometimes at night we would see him curled up with a blanket in front of our house on the paving stones. I haven't seen him the past several days but I figured that he had went to a village to visit but unfortunately he had fell while out with his herd and never recovered. The picture below is of this man, age 63. I asked Bhaskar what we could do for this family and he suggested money. I walked over and gave his daughter some money and embraced her. We both had tears. I am sure she was shocked to have me embrace her and also shed tears for a man a didn't know. It is just the reality of life and death. Tonight I walked outside and saw that they have a large fire burning in front of the house and the man is adorned with flowers and laid out on a raised bed of palm leaves and has a beautiful canopy over him. This shepherd, age 63, now has two men sitting outside keeping watch over him tonight.

We are famous...not really

Well, we are officially famous, well not really but the kids think so. Recently the company that provided our relocation service publishes a monthly magazine called At A Glance – Understanding India and each month they select an expat family to interview. Our family happened to be in the May issue of At A Glance.

It has been very interesting as people from the Vet Clinic to the grocery store have commented on the article! So if you are interest just click at the At a Glance link above and read all about us!

The Chicken

Big news around here...at least for me. Our chicken laid her very first egg! On Friday I heard her cackling (the sound a hen makes after she laid an egg). I ran outside to try to find her and her egg, but no luck. I later told my maid that I thought the chicken was going to lay an egg because she was about 20 weeks old and I heard her cackling. She said yes ma'am in a few days she will lay an egg. Well today she laid an egg! Yippee, I was excited. when I saw the small brown egg. I am sure you think I am crazy but I had been told all along that this hen wouldn't lay eggs because we don't have a rooster, she was a rooster chicken. I didn't believe that, hens do lay eggs with or without a rooster. The eggs just won't hatch unless the hen has visited with a rooster. One egg a day will be laid by the hen from 20 weeks of age and she will continue to produce eggs for several years although her production will slow down the older she gets, but she will still lay even if there is no rooster around. I know this for a fact as in Princeville we had 14 hens and got 14 eggs a day and there was no rooster around our house. But in India I supposedly had a rooster chicken which means that she won't lay eggs unless I have a rooster. I thought this can be true, can it? But maybe because we are in India and she is after all an Indian rooster chicken. Today though I was certain I had proved my point that my "rooster chicken" laid an egg without a rooster. Then late in the day the news was broken to me that about 10 days ago a neighbor's white rooster came courting my hen. Of course now everyone firmly believe that she only laid the egg because the rooster visited! So now I am on a mission to keep my hen away from any roosters to prove that she can lay eggs without a rooster around!

Gecko eating cat

Cleo our cat is certainly earning her keep in India. Instead of mice (thank goodness we don't have those) she catches geckos for us! Some houses in India are plagued with lots of these little unwanted house guests but fortunately for us our house does not have many. About once a week one manages to run in the door. Well, the cat has decided that geckos are really fun to catch and play with until they are dead. She used to eat them but now she just leaves them for us! I am guessing I have some friends here that wouldn't mind a "cat rental" every now and then!

We are not in Illniois anymore

This week has been a week in which I have learned a few things about being an expat. In an expat community there seems to be an invisible bond of trust between parents. The community in Illinois in which we moved from is a very small community (approx 2000) in which everyone knows everyone. Consequently our kids never went to someone's house that I didn't know. But in an expat community that is not the case. Now granted you do know some of the parents but not all of them. Chennai is a huge city and people are so spread out and often there is a language barrier. Some parents come to school and some just come occasionally. I discovered this week that I have let my guard down because we are so far from everything in which the kids have ever known and I am so grateful that they have friends that I have become to relaxed! I realized last week after dropping one of the boys and 2 of his friends of at a birthday party that some questions that may not be the norm are going to be asked from now on. The birthday party was held at a go kart track which I was aware of and was fine with. But what I didn't know was there would be no parental supervision and that a teenager would be driving them. Thankfully everyone was safe and at least I learned a lesson from it! Here are a few questions I will will be asking:

Will there be parental supervision while my child is at your house?
Who will be driving my child?

The boys are each at a sleepover tonight and I will sleep in peace! It sure is quiet here!

The Electric Guy

There are many dangerous jobs in India. I ran across one occupation this past weekend that just must be electrifying...a man fixing electrical lines. There was a guy up at the top of the pole standing on a board that was tied around the pole. Then there a group of 4 men on each side of him pulling on a yellow rope that was keeping the pole upright while this guy was on the pole. One rope actually went across the road. Of course there were no men waving flags warning of "Men at Work, Slow Down", remember this is India!

Notice the rope going diagonally over the road

These were one of the groups of men holding the rope tight

Shrinking Serfdom

Okay, this sounds pretty tragic doesn't it...shrinking serfdom. Some friends of ours have teased us about the large serfdom we rule as we have had so many people working for us. But not anymore. We have been letting the heads roll, well not really but it makes it sound much more dramatic.

We had 2 gardeners employed, but one (Vinkat) rarely showed up, instead he sent his wife and his elderly father to help in the garden. So we often had 3 people out in the yard doing various things, way too many people! The main reason Vinkat was hired was because he was going to lose his job, but he didn't. The house came with a couple, Saraswathe and Sampath (pronounced Sarasooti and Sambit) who took care of the house and the garden. There was quite a bit of friction between all the people and it seemed like there was always bickering going on. Plus we always had so many people underfoot! After our pool turned green last week due to Vinkat's negligence on coming to work on the pool we decided to let go of Vinkat and his entourage. We proceeded to ask Saraswathe and Sampeth's to care for the entire garden, pool and house for an increased salary. They were thrilled and honored to know be given this responsibility. The flower bed are looking awesome as Sampeth has been working very hard on them. We have been purchasing lots of flowers and plants. Of course ma'am is not allowed to get her hands dirty so I just supervise! Since school is out Sampeth's oldest son is helping some so now I feel like I am enlisting child labor...

One thing that Sampeth is thrilled about is our new lawnmower (although here they are called grass cutter). It is just an old fashioned reel type mower that is just perfect for our lawn. We had no desire to purchase an electric mower because then you need more people to help, one to push, one to hold the electric cord up and one to keep it plugged in at all times. We could have purchased a gas mower but they are very expensive and since we can't bring it back to the US we would have had to try to sell it before we left. So the old fashioned one works great, cuts much more even than the shears and is much faster. When they cut it with the shears they would get the yard done and they would have to start again. The trimming still is done by hand, no solution for that yet. No one went for my idea of bringing in some water buffalo, they would have gladly taken care of the yard for free and would have even supplied their own fertilizer!



The pool is finally clear again thanks to Ted working diligently with Sampeth to maintain proper chlorine levels and to clean it thoroughly. I had to laugh when one man came out to test the pool and I pointed out that the directions said he should add more drops to properly calculate the PH and Chlorine levels, he informed me that we had different water. Some days you just want to bang your head against the cement walls! Isn't water the same everywhere??

So now our small serfdom consists of 1 gardener, 1 maid, 2 drivers, and 4 guards (only 2 per shift). Our family is looking forward to having privacy when we visit the US this summer...although who will open our door, do the dishes, take care of the laundry, clean, drive us around, carry my groceries in, wash our produce, etc. Yikes, I am getting spoiled here!

An auspicious time

Today is an auspicious time to buy gold....today is a day in which the Hindu's celebrate Akshay Tritiya (clearly a day celebrated by the Hindu's). The newspaper was full of ads to buy gold in the form of jewelry or coins. They believe that any form of gold brought into your home was sure to bring boundless luck or prosperity to your home. I joked with Ted when he came home that he didn't bring me any gold! Of course then when our driver Sundar became terribly ill I teased Ted that it was due to the fact that we had no new gold in our house! Poor Sundar looked absolutely terrible. Evidently he was suffering from heat exhaustion. One guard claimed that Sundar ate chicken at lunch and one should only eaten mutton on a hot day...never chicken! I will have to remember that one! Sundar went to the hospital and thankfully is at home recuperating. He is doing better and will be given injections the next 3 days, they are big into injections here. Not sure what the injection contains but whenever someone is sick they always get an injection!

It also appeared to be an auspicious day for businesses to close down. I went out to do some shopping to find several stores closed. Evidently they were closed due some merchant strike but who knows perhaps they were out buying gold! It does get frustrating here as store owners close up shop in what I would not consider normal times. For example, often stores will be closed on Tuesday afternoon and Friday if they are owned by Muslims.

While out today I was involved in our first accident. Nothing major, an auto rickshaw ran into the side of the van. It doesn't look to be badly damaged. Perhaps that aggravated Sundar's heat condition as he got quite worked up. At one point I thought there was going to be a fist fight, but they just yelled and swung their fists around.

It really is a good thing I don't believe in Akshay Tritiya as we had a lot of things happen today!