One Day in India...Since None Are the Same

Well, I usually wake up around 7:20 am, so I can beat the kids up and get their breakfast together. Then I wake up Ro and V and we watch Tigger and Pooh or Dora the Explorer. The only problem with Dora is that the show is dubbed in Hindi, but they didn't take out the English and Spanish! You can't understand anything, but the kids still watch it. Oh and yes, I now know EVERY song by heart. It’s not good or cool. During the show, the kids usually eat and get changed. Oh, and if you think for one second that either of these two activities are done independently by the children then you are CRAZY. And the only way Veda will let me change her diaper is if I sing the “Think, Think, Think” song from the Pooh TV show.

Side note: If I haven’t told you all before we live in a VERY empty home with very little things. We been eating off of the same plastic warped plates and bowls for every meal. We also have very nice plasticware from Costco and plastic glasses from Kroger. We are living the life. We have also been wearing the same 7 outfits for 7 weeks. We have learned to mix and match, but there is more mixing and less matching if you ask me. We do have normal showers so no “Fill-a-bucket” for those of you who know what that means, which is good. Bottom line, we have been “house camping” and it is SO fun! Ha. Actually, we just found out that our sea shipment has arrived in India!!! It's amazing how I miss our "stuff". I don't think it's the actual stuff I miss, but the fact that it's a piece of home that makes me so happy. Our pictures, our pillows, our furniture...this move was so different and so drastic that having some of home will be great!

My day then resumes with random men showing up at my door to fix this or that, but of course they don’t have the right tools so they have to come tomorrow. These are just a couple examples of work being done…

Drilling one hole,

putting in one AC unit and painting one wall.

Are you noticing a trend? In order to get one job done it requires a gang. It’s quite humorous really. It’s usually one or two guys doing the actually work. Everyone has been really nice, so that could mean two things….they are nice friendly people OR I am totally paying too much for the job!!

It’s also really fun to talk to these guys. I speak to most of them in Hindi and then I am always using a formal address with them and they laugh. Let’s just say they know I am not from here, but I can hold my own in crunch time. I am sure you going to be shocked, but I tend to ask for completion times from these guys and there answer is always “An hour madam.” It’s funny because I don’t think ANYONE has every left my home in an hour, but hey what ever. The greatest answer ever was given to me one day when I asked the electrician what he is was going to do to fix our generator issue and he said “I am going to fix it perfectly”. Just to let you know we still have a generator issue.

I usually try and run one errand a day. Why one you ask? Well, it takes a solid hour and half to run ONE errand. Between the traffic, bargaining and decision making it’s interesting. The kids are usually napping or playing with their nanny during this time.

When I get home I am back to orchestrating the circus of workers and making sure they clean this and fix that. It’s VERY tedious. Then by 6:00 pm everyone usually winds down because it gets dark and I warm up dinner and then Martin and I get the kids to bed. It’s interesting because while I am getting dinner together the local folk’s children are all just going out to play. The families here eat around 8:30 or 9 pm. I have decided to stick to the Western way of living for the kids.

It’s really quite an exciting day! I have to say though...we also have our easy days where we head to the playground and pool and have a great time!