Faces on the Way to School

Every morning when we leave our apartment complex, wiggle our way through the auto rickshaws and cross the chaotic street there is an old lady with white hair tied back into a bun, beautiful brown skin, a big smile and large white teeth. She stands inside a simple stand painted blue. It is about the size of a phone booth. On the back shelf there cigarettes and other things I don't recognize. On the front shelf there is a row of jars. I assume they are snacks of some kind. To shut the stand, there is a wooden flap that lifts up from the top shelf and then is propped open, like the hood of a car. On the side of this flap there is a white tattered cloth that hangs from one side and shelters the shop keeper from the afternoon sun. These kinds of stands vary in size and one can find them all around India on corners. I would hardly take notice if it weren't for the lady in the stall. Every morning she offers us a big smile, presses her palms together and says, "Hello!"
It is such a relief to see her, after I have pressed the cook and cleaner to leave, hurried the girls through last minute teeth brushing, hauled Flip onto my back, and headed out for our walk to school. I do my best to offer her my biggest smile back and my loveliest hello as well.
It is great to be here and to feel the rhythm of life settling in.

Happy Sankranthi

This year we were here for Sankranthi which happens every year on January 14th. It is a harvest festival and many farmers color their cows in turmeric and paints the horns. I wish I had a photo of that for you all. Star's class when on a field trip and helped paint some cows. This year folks celebrated on Sunday by visiting friends and family in their homes. There is a traditional sweet, in Karnataka, called "ellu bella". Usually I am not so fond of Indian sweets as they are super sweet to me. But this one is great. It seems to be little roasted dals and seeds along with coconut and jaggery. We were lucky enough to receive an invitation from a family in our building. They had spotted Marvel and Flip in the elevator, so they gave us a call. None of us knew each other. When we arrived at their place we found out they had moved 2 years prior from Novi, MI, just 40 minutes from our home in Michigan. Such a small, small world. We visited for a bit and they sent us home with sugar cane and little bags of ellu bella, and a little feeling of connection.
Monday, on our way to school, we saw this beautiful Sankranthi Rangoli on someone's driveway.

Chocolates for a Mixie

In India, or Mysore rather because that is all I can speak confidently about, it is common practice for a cashier to pass out a chocolate or candy if she doesn't have a 1 rupee coin for change. So for example today at the ice cream shop I only had a 50 rupee note and the ice cream was 24 rupees. There seems to always be a lack of change in this country- I seriously wonder where it all goes. So the first question the woman asks me is if I have change. I don't. But she does, which makes me wonder why she asked me for change in the first place. She gives me a 20 note, a 5 coin and a chocolate.
But today after I received my chocolate candy in change I thought of a new plan. We need a mixie to make Dosa and chutney. How about if I load myself down with say 8 bags of chocolates and when I get to the counter to pay I open the bags and start counting out 2000 or so chocolates?

Whatcha looking at?

It was a rough morning. I tried to sneak in and pull the covers up on the girls and ended up waking up Flip. So she missed out on an extra hour of sleep and I had to get dressed while she tugged and pulled on me. At 8 I woke Star and discovered she had 2 mosquito bites around her eye. She started crying because her eye was swollen and she couldn't see properly. Then she actually saw herself in the mirror and started crying because of how she looked. We manged to get breakfast and out the door. Then for extra oomph Flip decided to throw some muscle behind her refusal to walk to school. So there we were- a white woman with a fake smile greeting the usual faces we pass, a 7 year old with a tear stained face and one eye swollen shut plodding along, and a 3 year old dragging behind me whining the whole way. And I wonder why everyone stares?

We're Here!

We finally got internet and when I logged into my gmail I saw my tasks bar with tasks still on it. Tasks that I, of course, can not check off now that we are here. So I just deleted them all and moved on to the present. It will all wait there until we return. So in the same vain I would love to take you minute by minute through our flight, our 3 day stay in Frankfurt, our 2nd flight complete with the pilot wishing us a Happy New Year 30 minutes outside of Bangalore, our early morning drive to Mysore, and our 2 days in a fancy hotel with all the other foreigners/yoga students stuffing ourselves with breakfast buffets and a series of unfortunate naps as we recovered from jet lag. But I will not. I will take you to the present.
We are in our flat. We have been here for 4 days and it is simply fabulous. I will post pictures and make you either incredibly jealous or highly motivated to book your flight. We are the first ones to live here so we started from scratch- cups, plates, cutlery, towels, pots, pans, trash cans, mops, etc. Lots of shopping and with Flip in tow, you all can imagine how fun that has been. So Marvel and I have been going in shifts and buying a bit here and there. Marvel, as our resident Kannada speaker, has the job of manning the house and all the small fixes it needs. He has spent the past 3 days dealing with burnt out doorbells, hiring cooks and cleaners, fixing broken fans, mounting TVs, connecting internet and everything else you can imagine. Even though it has been rather mindless and tiring, his hard work means that we are up and running. Today, while the girls and I went for a swim the cook prepared our lunch and dinner. Marvel walked the cleaner around instructing her as to just how tidy we like our house. The girls actually ate the Indian food and both fell deep into naps. Marvel managed a dip in the pool and now we both sit relaxing. I think we might make a go of this.
The girls have a school called I Can and they are slowly adjusting. The first day, Star was so excited she got dressed in her fanciest Indian clothes and requested that Flip and I do the same. She marched right in, gave her teachers a big hug as she remembers them from when she was 4, and then headed to her class. Flip preferred to stick with me and we slowly explored the different areas of the school until we got to her class. The school has allotted a space in the entry way for a huge sand pit. There are two small slides, buckets and shovels. The sand is so cool and calming, it makes a great welcome for parents and children alike. It has been 2 days now and Star, after a brief moment of hesitation, continues to head to school everyday with a smile on her face. I have spent the past 2 days with Flip at school. She does her best to stick to my side but her curiosity and joy for life gets the best of her and soon she is joining in. The teachers have been very welcoming and very flexible with us and we think it is going to be a great fit for our life. And we walk home past an ice cream shop everyday. You can't beat that.

These are a few of the scariest things...

We are surviving. Our house is a mess and I refuse to clean it. Our feet are sticking to the kitchen floor. There is practically no food left in the house. And if that has not turned you off from dropping by-our toilet bowl is taking on a rare shade of pink. The cleaning lady is due to come next week. I think I will leave her a few protein bars and a couple tanks of oxygen to make it through our home.

But tonight was a special night in the Setty household. I actually cooked so I will need to be brief so I can tidy up before taking on the mountain of clean laundry taking over my basement. Here are the happenings since my last post.

We received Flip's PIO. There was some major confusion over just what kind of visa she could get. The Travisa Outsourcing company who handles visas for the Indian consulate did not know how to process her as an Indian born child who was adopted by Americans and then heading home to the motherland. After being denied OCI- on the day we were due to leave for Florida for a week- we applied for PIO. Thankfully, we received her PIO card and guard it with our lives.

Marvel got word today that he passed all his prelim exams in 3 months! Candidacy here we come. He has an article to be published in The Journal of Global Studies on Education. I can not say it enough- I am so proud of him. He is a Marvel.

The girls are wrapping up all of their activities and saying good bye. Both of them have expressed worry over moving to India and I am so glad they are able to verbalize their feelings so we can talk about it. Star will miss her friends a lot. And Flip is worried there will be people with shakers and people dressed up in animal costumes- basically the scariest things she can think of without knowing what to expect. Marvel and I are doing our best to be realistic and excited at the same time when we talk with them.

We think we have found a place to live. It is in a high rise gated community. Totally not our style but we are hoping there will be lots of other families to meet and befriend. Plus it has a pool! I will have the address later for those of you who want to bless us with some letters of love.

We leave on the 28th in the evening.

The song that bothers us the most

You would think that we would be thinking about packing, but we are not. This song bothers us:

Do They Know It's Christmas?

It's christmas time
No need to be afraid
At christmas time, we let in light
And we banish shade
In a world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world
At christmas time

If I could say a prayer
And pray for the other ones
At christmas time, it's hard
But when you're having fun
There's a world outside your window
And it's a world of dread and fear
Where the only water flowing
Is the bitter sting of tears
And the christmas bells that ring there
Are the clanging chimes of doom
Well, tonight thank god it's them
Instead of you

And there won't be snow in africa this christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
When nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow
Do they know it's christmas time at all?

Here's to you - raise a glass for everyone
Here's to them, underneath that burning sun
Do they know it's christmas time at all?

And there won't be snow in africa this christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
When nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow
Do they know it's christmas time at all?

And there won't be snow in africa this christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow
Do they know it's christmas time at all?
Do they know it's christmas time at all?

--

Because water does flow. For example: the Congo, the Nile, the Niger, the Orange and the Zambezi. So, next time you here that song you will probably think of me and my mom.