Using Our Imaginations

One of Anna’s favorite things about being in India has been watching Necessity act as the mother of invention. The children, stripped of their usual environment and toys-r-us, have had their imaginations unleashed to create and invent to their hearts’ content. Some of their recent games have included making a toy city under the table:



Creating a tent over their beds with the cloths rack:
And painting and drawing. Anna is particularly gifted in the visual arts, and has generously endowed them with water color pencils, color changing markers, roller stamp markers, coloring books and paints, which they utilize far better than I ever could. Their artwork is scattered about the house, bringing appropriate color to an Indian home. Jett isn’t as original as Rayne, but he finds great joy in asking any adult around to draw Spider man and the Green Goblin, over and over and over…probably a dozen times in a day, for him to color.

One day in the first week, we were able to go out to the market, where we found a beautiful sari dress for Rayne and a Spiderman costume for Jett.


They pretend to be the princess and the hero to no end. Jett is especially in love with his sword.

I have successfully taught the children to say “Its hot in Topeka,” randomly, just for fun. The phrase, from Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends, has at least half-a-million uses. For example, Jett has modified the verb to become a basic pronoun: “Stop it peeko!” and also as a ulternomen for our location: “you don’t want to go to the park today, you know why? Because its hot in Topeka today, it is.”

I would also like to mention, for my sister’s sake particularly, that we have watched “The Land Before Time” almost every day for two weeks :). I’m sure you’re jealous.

One of my favorite parts of this trip has been my reading time with the children. During our layover in Newark I was able to scrounge a copy of “Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” from a miniature Borders between the gates (thank God for Borders!). Although Rayne is five, a year younger than I was when my father first read the books to me, and Jett only three, they have both amazingly enjoyed the story. Rayne listens intently and picks up on new words, and Jett, although unable to understand the general prose, listens patiently and stays very engaged with the general plot, always one step ahead of Lewis in his predictions: Me—“Oh my goodness, what do you think Edmund is going to do?” Jett—“He’d going to do to the witches house!”; Me—“who do you think is going to save Mr. Tumnus?” Jett: “The Lion!”

These stories also seem to have taken on a very personal significance to Jett during our time here. He plays pretend and tells stories all day about being a prince, or Peter, with his sword, who goes to the witches house and kills her and breaks her wand and saves Rayne. He talks about how God is strong like a lion and how God is a warrior with a sword, much stronger than the witch, and how he wants to fight with God. Its really cool.

Next time on Nagpur Sojourners: bath time, buckets and bubbles: what it takes to run an Indian household!

Last Week and Our neighborhood

Last week was an intense one (by the way, that’s one of Jon and Anna’s favorite words: “intense!”). We arrived on Saturday, Anna very much looking forward to spending time with Jon. However, on Sunday Jon was throwing up. This pattern quickly followed in Rayne (Monday night), Jett (Tuesday night) and Anna (Tuesday and Wednesday). Vomit and Diharea all around. It really was very sad.

It was God’s grace that I did not get sick because being the first week, we were also trying to adjust to the Indian way of life: servants in and out, maids coming to clean daily, visitors in late afternoon (at the same time as when the children usually go to sleep) and simply jetlag from the time change. It was pretty rough. I was very grateful for my TESOL classes (Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages), which helped me to communicate with the Indian servants, who do not speak English. We are all good friends now :).


Also, while everyone was recovering and trying to get adjusted, I was able to go out and buy groceries with Sheetal and Vijay. I was also able to go on a little exploratory venture of the neighborhood. :) We decided that this should be the next post so that everyone can see where we live.

When you walk out of our gate from our house, this is what you see to your left:

And to your right:

Taking a right, you can walk down, past a little grocery mart, restaurant, shoe store, etc…

…and this house where there is always a cow tied up outside.
Besides cows, you can see cats, dogs, goats (which are particularly cute)…
…and even camels!
The traffic is light: most people are on bicycles, motorcycles, and scooters. Mopeds and cars dot the road here and there, and people stroll in the roads between the light activity. Families and friends are often seen walking together.

You keep walking until you come to the nearest square:

In this square is a rickshaw station. An Auto-rickshaw is a three wheeled motor bike with an iron covered-wagon on top, with seating for one in the front and three in the back. It has a meter to tell the distance, but prices are usually negotiated before hand.

If you take a right at the square you will find people with fruit and vegetable booths, like these ones:

If you continue walking down this street, you will come to a temple, where people go in to lay offerings and say prayers. You will also see shanties like this one…

…and an internet cafe, where teenagers hang out.

If you take your first left on this street you will walk past some tall buildings which are apartments, with tiny stores on the ground floor. This is a book-depot, owned by the family of one of my friends:

The next street you come to is the street outside of the park. There are many booths selling snacks, balloons and some wears, like this sowing station.

Children play outside of the gate until the park opens.

There is a big play ground, and then several grassy lawns with paved walkways in expanding concentric circles.

There are children playing rugby, girls playing birdie tennis, families doing yoga and the villiage elders comiserate to watch the next generation at play. I like to run around the smallest circle to get my energy out.

I have made friends with several girls in the city and enjoy meeting and walking with them in the park. Yesterday I played with some of the other children for the first time: high-school age girls and little children. We played "out-out" or tag.

That day there also happened to be a whole clan of monkeys traveling through the park! I got video and photos of dozens of them :). It was so *amazing!*

Comming up next: what have the children been doing? Rayne and Jett have been using their imaginations to come up with all kinds of games and activities--find out what, next time on...Nagpur Sojourners! :)

The Trip Here: Part 2- Home Sweet Home Saturday, June 14, 2008

[Continued]

Rayne and Jett (5 and 3 years old) were *amazing* through all of this. They’re a lot like me, in that they become more giggly, giddy and goofy the more tired they get. So although I had to teach them the difference between bunny voices and lion voices (which are only for outside play), and although their joyful exclamations were heard throughout the plane many times, no doubt, they were unbelievably well behaved. People commented wherever we went on their cheerfulness and vivacity. They are a perfect joy to play and spend time with. The pictures tell it best :).

Honestly, the Delhi airport felt a lot like Kennedy or the Chicago airport. The only difference was that in the line to have our passports and visa’s checked, a mouse scurried from under one man’s desk/station to another. :) Welcome to India! That was really funny. Jon was there to meet us—praise God!—and we got to drive through the ever so fun and exciting Indian traffic to our extremely nice Hyatt Hotel (more on Indian Driving in future episode).

Below: The hotel

This morning we were up at 3:00am, because Jett and Rayne were wide awake :). Anna talked to them for a while, and when I was more awake, I invited everyone to my bed for a midnight party. Jon was still sleeping, so the kids, Anna and I cuddled up, by the light of my cell phone and told stories, made puppet shadows and played games. It will probably remain one of my fondest memories of the year.

Below: Delhi
This morning we flew into Nagpur. Below: the trip to the Delhi air-port

This (below) was the first thing we saw when we got off of the plain in Nagpur. These men and women were working outside of the airport.

Vijay and Sheetal, the couple that is caring for us while Jon trains Vijay for the business, met us at the airport and brought us to our new summer home. Our appartment is beautiful; so purposefully and affectionately prepared for us—a taste of what we’ll come home to in Heaven, when we see the homes Jesus has prepared for us :). They are a wonderful young couple with their first baby—a friendly little dumpling of seven months named Araav, (more on them later). Again, the pictures say it all. The bathroom and kitchen are really great :).

One of the most surprising things so far about India is how comfortable I feel here. Perhaps because it holds the same third-world feel of Lebanon; perhaps because of my love for "adventure" and new experiences; most likely because God planted a piece of India in my heart, unexpectedly, before I ever came. This promises to be a lovely trip. I am so grateful to God for bringing me here in His great love, wisdom and power, and can't wait to see all that He has in store. To Christ Jesus be all the glory.