Nagpur Sojourners

The Indian Night Life July 14, 2008

2008-07-15T05:16:00.000-07:00

Before we left home, an American Indian friend of ours advised us to immerse ourselves in everything that was India—to soak, to saturate ourselves in the culture. This, I believe, we have done with abandon.

After recovering from our sickness the first week we were able to go to a down-town restaurant that served Indian, Italian and Chinese, on consecutive floors. The combination was lovely: hot and sour soup and kabobs as a starter, pasta and aloo mutter masala (potato and peas dish) for dinner, and crème brulee and a very sweet dumpling and gravy Indian dish for desert.

Our first really special outing was attending the opening of one of Jon’s employee’s family’s bakery (if you can follow that). It was the first time that Anna and I wore sarees. As Sheetal draped us in yards of fabric and adorned us with some of her most precious jewels we felt like the crowns of creation that we were meant to be.

The bakery, also, was draped in colorful designed fabric—a taste of what it may have been like to enter the tabernacle, with its woven pomegranate canopies.

Jon got to cut the inauguration cake and afterward we went to an ice-cream parlor and got baloons.
This last Saturday was very fun. After visiting a book store called Crossword (their version of B&N) we went to a splendid Gujarati restaurant (our favorite style of Indian food), where they serve you dozens of little dishes, unlimited, all you can eat.

Afterward the maitre d’ took as back to see the kitchen (this is Anna's first Punjabi dress).

After dinner we went to the lake,

There, the children finally had one of their fondest wishes granted. They got to ride a camel!

They also got to ride a horse, and Jett actually enjoyed this the best, because he got to be “prince Daniel” on his mighty steed.

After much strategizing and reconsideration, Anna and I got up the courage to take a camel ride ourselves :). It was quite an adventure.

We weren’t quite sure how we would mount gentle beast, since standing up and sitting down was dangerous for both the camel…and the riders. But the gentleman who owned the magnificent creature was kind enough to help me up, and Jon helped Anna.
Its hard to look glamorous posing for picture while the camel is unexpectedly turning :).

Two men led us down the street, and I kept leaning to the left because it felt kind-of like we were going to fall off. One guy started to sing to us in English—it was rather funny. Other things weren’t so funny, like the guy who came up and tried to convince our lead to give him the camel rope. We were happy to be with Jon and Vijay afterward. Our butts hurt the next day, but it was totally worth it! :)

Last night, Vijay and Sheetal took us to a family birthday party for a five-year-old cousin. For India, it was a rather small party, with only about 100 guests, dinner and desert catering and great music. The really big birthday parties, like the first birthday of an oldest son, would have about 500 guests. The children played with balloons and ate ice-cream and the adults sat, caught up, and laughed. The young adults hung out in groups and I got to meet several people my own age, which was nice. We wore sarees for a second time, and Anna got to wear her very own, black and turquoise saree, which was just finished at the tailor that day and is absolutely breathtaking.

I stayed a bit later with Vijay and Sheetal, and afterward we all went to Café Coffee Day (Their version of Starbucks) for some drinks, and they told me a bit more about their love story—it is perfectly charming.
Next time…On Nagpur Sojourners! More about the wonderful couple who has cared for us so well here in India.

Living In Nagpur July 5, 2008

2008-07-15T01:58:00.000-07:00

Daily life in Nagpur is a bit of an adventure. Unlike the US, things we take for granted are much more variable. A week after we got here, the city started up government issued power cuts, to conserve energy for the city. They start at about 7am and end at 10am, just in time for the air conditioners to come back on before it gets too hot. I usually sleep through them, but Anna and the children do non-electronic activities for a couple hours :). We have a generator, which provides us with smaller lights and fans during these hours, but the television, the microwave, hot water (unless we boil it—which we don’t), the telephone and the computer are unavailable, so food preparation and entertainment are limited until 10. Tonight it was raining when the power went off unexpectedly. Anna and I weren’t sure what the night would look like. Luckily it was just a minor problem and the power returned in about 5 minutes. One never knows :).

As you can see, many of our daily routines and activities are affected by our situation here—its not bad, for sure, its just…well of course, different. In all honesty I find many of these differences extremely fun. For the first week or so here I felt like I was actually living my life long dream of playing “Desert Island,” grown-up style (my Beachmont friends and darling children will know what I’m talking about). Most things are make-shift, or more do-it-yourself. Here are some pictures of me learning how to do laundry the classic Indian way:

We bring the clothes into the bathroom, which also serves as one big shower, soap them down, rinse them, wring them and hang them. Every muscle in my body was trembling by the end of a 40 minute-long load. Now (by God’s wonderful grace) we have a washing machine. But we still hang the laundry. Ironing is also necessary, to fry any pesky parasites that might have made their nests in the fabric while it was drying.

Taking a “bath” is also a transformed process. Instead of the constant water flow from a faucet, like we have for showers in America, Indians conserve their precious water by filling a bucket, and using a large cup to soak and rinse themselves. Anna has a great time giving the children “bucket baths.” :)
As you can see, its just more fun this way :).

Cooking has been quite an ordeal over the last month. Pleasantly we have finally learned enough to begin cooking Indian style: with pressure cookers, spice tins, masalas, rolling pins, and the gas flame, which some things are cooked directly over. Indian chai (tea) is one of our favorite treats.

Next time on Nagpur sojourners: Experiencing the Nagpur night life--Our social adventures!

Using Our Imaginations

2008-06-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-27T02:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-22T00:31:00.000-07:00

[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.

The Trip Here: Part 1- Time Travel Friday, June 14, 2008

2008-06-21T02:23:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This post will make your brain hurt; do not read unless you are willing to exercise your powers of mental visualization and comprehension. If this does not sound fun to you, skip the first paragraph and read on from there. :)

We are finally here in Nagpur. I am so exhausted. We flew to Newark NJ, where we had a 5 hour layover, and then boarded our Continental airplane at 8:30pm. Our tickets told us that we were to arrive in Delhi at 8:15pm Make sure you read that right: leave at 8:30pm, arrive at 8:15pm. A fourteen hour flight? We knew that couldn’t be right, and we knew it had something to do with time zones, but it wasn’t until we got onto the plane, and I saw the flight maps that it made sense. On a map of the world, we were flying from Florida to Delhi, that is, west to east, or left to right. The “darkness” of night which covered half the earth was in the smack dab center of the map. We were on its shore, about to cross into it. If the shadow were stationary, then we would emerge on the other side of the dark ocean, in India’s “morning” (these terms all become so relative when you see the grand scheme of things…hahaha, I guess that’s why its called the theory of relativity, read on to better understand). However, because the shadow on the map was NOT stationary, this would not be the case. As we would travel east/right across the map, the shadow would be traveling west/left. So looking at the map, the “night” and us on the plane, would be “crossing paths” so to speak, moving in opposite directions. We would be flying (literally) through the night, in affect, racing against and through time. By the time we got to Delhi, the shadow would, not only have passed across the US, but all the way around to the other side of the earth, to meet us again, right where we left it, in a way. That is, we left America, staring into the shadow of night, and arrived in Delhi in the exact same position. We had traveled through a twelve hour night, and missed another twelve hour day, in 13 hours—in affect, we time-traveled :). I know this is all very confusing, and I wonder if it will make sense at all reading it, without a map/diagram/3D model to illustrate my words. It will at least give you something to think about.

[For those of you who don’t want a head-ache, this is where you start reading].
The affect, from within the plane was this: we left as it was getting dark. A couple hours later, I was getting ready to sleep, by my regular schedule; but of course, Anna and I stayed up talking (the first of many feasts of fellowship). I also watched a Bollywood movie-which was amazing! I loved it :). So finally, after it had been dark for maybe five hours, I decided to try to sleep, I dozed off and what felt like moments later, light began to shine through the windows. It was so strange! Then, when we arrived in Delhi, it was night again. Add to this the disoriented children, a strange-out food schedule (breakfast for dinner), and a living space that might have rivaled Chinese forms of confinement torture. Hahaha, ok, it wasn’t that bad, but there were times when it felt like it—especially since it went on for 13 hours. We didn’t stop in Europe at all, as I have for other trips across the Atlantic, but flew straight to India. We had been up for 26 hours, with nothing more than a few hours each of shallow sleep. In all honesty nothing has, and I don’t expect anything in India will, been more uncomfortable than that lengthy flight…but it was totally worth it :).

*Note: We are 9 and 1/2 hours ahead of Eastern Time. So, if it is 10:00am in Florida, it is 7:30pm here.

The India Blog is Finally Here

2008-06-21T01:49:00.000-07:00

Hello to all!
You are reading the words of Jessica Masri, fellow traveler of the Morales family to Nagpur India. On behalf of Jon, Anna, Rayne, Jett and myself, thank you so much for visiting our blog. Your interest, thoughts and prayers and are so appreciated. I will be the official scribe/author-voice for our travel narrative, and will strive to make it a delightful journey for you as a reader. I will usually make the posts short, with clear titles, so that you may skim through and choose what you would like to read about based on what sounds most interesting to you. Because we have not had high speed internet until now, the first few posts are catch-up from last week. More to come on our present circumstances soon. Thank you again for all of your kind support. Your friendship and love is a blessing to us.
On behalf of the family,
~Jessica