19 March 2010

Inspiration...

A good friend of mine inspires me almost on a regular basis. She is able to capture things in her art, photos, and words which I cannot. She is a true artist...heart & soul. She also finds the greatest things and shares them. I appreciate her for who she is and allowing herself to be a blessing to others by using her work to raise attention to important issues such as slavery and human trafficking. I love her heart for the neglected and abused. She's a beautiful person trying her best to be transformed to be more like her Creator.

You can check at her blog here: http://simplediva.blogspot.com/

She recently posted this on FB and it really sums up where I feel I am at in my spiritual journey.

Thanks Sarah Ro! Love ya babe! mwah!

Patient Trust In Ourselves & The Slow Work Of God

By Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are all, quite naturally,
impatient in everything to reach the end
without delay.
We should like to skip
the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being
on the way to something unknown,
something new,
and yet it is the law of all progress
that is made by passing through
some stages of instability-
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually –
let them grow,
let them shape themselves,
without undue haste.
Don't try to force them on,
as though you could be today
what time (that is to say, grace and
circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you
and accept the anxiety of
feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

18 March 2010

Another ride thru the city...

I couldn't get this to load on the other entry, but here it is. Enjoy the ride!

My new godsons....



Random pics of my life...


These are my favorite flowers here.

I felt adventurous and was low on cash so I asked my language helper to become my beautician.

First, she dyed my hair. No more grey! (my hair has gotten so grey since coming here. when i put my hair up in a ponytail my hair looks completely gray. i don't really care but here random women were commenting about it on the street and in the market. it's actually that culturally inappropriate!)


Then I asked her to cut my hair! Yes, I've lost my mind. She's never done steps (layers) before. I assured her it would grow back and I could always go get someone else to fix it. She did great! (even with the below audience jeering her the entire time)




To finish it off, I got my eyebrows threaded...


The Common Wealth Games are coming here in October, so there is a lot of construction going on. This is one of the stadiums they are building.



Sai Baba of Shiridi is a very popular guru. Here's a temple in his honor. For more info see... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_Baba_of_Shirdi

This is THE Sai Baba...not the one who people know in the States (you know the guy with the big bushy hair dressed in orange).


Since my language helper is Muslim, I am usually at their house during at least one if not two of the prayer times. His a picture of Naniji doing her daily prayers.



You might have heard me talk about the fog (sorry, I mean smog) here. This is my street in the middle of the day...


Here's a video that will give you a taste of what it's like to take a ride in an auto rickshaw through town.

Cleaning up nicely...

I also played Holi with my fourth graders at the Japanese School. Then cleaned up nicely for graduation.



The students preparing for the ceremony...




One of my students giving a speech (with her sweet Georgia accent...born and raised there until this past year)



A video of part of the ceremony...



After the ceremony, most of the English headed to TGIF to celebrate the end of the school year. TGIF offers a lunch special M-F Noon to Five....for Rs 199 (which is like $4) you get unlimited drinks, an entree and another dish (soup, salad, appetizer, or dessert). It's a popular lunch stop. It's either TGIF or the local roadside cafe for us! Since we were all dressed up we chose TGIF.

One Year...

Here's some friends of mine who gathered to celebrate my one year mark....



The Gang minus one...poor Scott was the only male. Not sure what I'm looking at?



My first roomie from Down Under
What's up with the hair stuck to my forehead in all the pics?



My friend Cynthia (who happens to be my boss' wife)


Her two wonderful kids...Scott and Sophia



My American gals who are also Educators...Vicki & Kathleen

I made a wonderful TexMex lunch and I learned that the cornmeal here isn't good for making corn tortillas=( Then we headed to The Big Chill, which is the only place I've found that serves ice cream that even comes close to the stuff back home. But of course, nothing is as good as Blue Bell=)

The Girl Who Cried Elephant...

Here are some pics of elephants in front of my Hindi School for any of you who doubted my accounts of elephant sightings.


Near...

Far...

The Festival of Colors (Holi)

What is Holi?

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

This is what it was for me...

Saturday I went to Brinda's house. She works at the Japanese School with me. It was nice to be in her home and finally meet her mother and husband. Two other co-workers and friends from the Japanese School joined us, Gunjan and her daughter Megumi and Rama and her granddaughter Anya (sp?). It would so much fun and the food was delicious. Brinda is from Calcutta where fish is a specialty. We were treated to some fresh fresh with lots of yummy sides!


Here we are!

After lunch I went home with my friend Gunjan. I stayed with her and her family till Monday night. I enjoyed learning to cook every dish we ate.

Here are some of the things learned how to make:

Yellow Dal (lentils)
Vada frying
Vada Dahi (Vada with yogurt and a special sauce)
Muttar Paneer (peas and cheese) and chapati/roti (Indian tortilla)
Raja and Chavel (Indian Beans and Rice)
Jeera Pulao (cumin seed rice)
Aloo Methi (potatoes and fenugreek)

Fro Holi a special sweet is made and then offered to Holika. It's called gujiya. It's delicious!



It's filled with khoya, sugar, almonds, raisins, cardamon powder & coconut.

Khoya is a milk food, made of either dried whole milk or milk thickened by heating in an open iron pan. It is similar to ricotta cheese, but lower in moisture and made from whole milk instead of whey. It's like thick condensed milk.

Sunday a bonfire is made for each community. Different families have different traditions surrounding the bonfire. Some do poojas (worship) while others do not. I went to watch my friend and her family offer their gift to Holika. I saw people doing very different things depending on their family's tradition. My friend offered a gujiya, water, color and other traditional items.

For more info on poojas in general: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puja_(Hinduism)

After the ceremony which functions as a purification one can play color...

This is my friend's mother-in-law. I call her dadi because she is Megumi's dadi (paternal grandmother).

The next morning it was time to really play Holi!

Before and After...

The playing...




Here's a video I took of the people dancing.....