We have been here almost a month and it has taken all this time to work out the best schedule for the girls in the morning while we go to yoga. The first 4 or 5 days we had friends mind the girls or Alex and I tag teamed until we found a nanny. We found a lovely lady called Ratna who speaks great English and she came for just over two weeks. Things went pretty smoothly for the first week. She arrived on time most mornings (about 5.30am) and the girls seemed happy enough, especially when Ratna brought her 5 year old to play. By the end of the first week however, they had both become increasingly clingy, upset and insecure during the day especially as they are also attending a preschool a few days a week. The second week went downhill quickly and it got to the point where the girls were screaming for me as I left for yoga and finally one morning I had to send the nanny home and stayed with the girls while Alex went to practice.

We figured that this is the beginning of our trip and it makes sense to create a safe and consistent environment for them. So now Emma practices first leaving the house at about 5.30am before the girls have woken and so when she returns around 7.15am the girls are happy to see her come home, rather than sad that she is leaving. Their moods and behaviour has been considerably better since we have stuck to this schedule which will take us through the next 4 weeks.

Daily Happenings

Funny things happen in India. For instance, we see a herd of goats go past our house every day with the “goat lady” who is always wearing a baseball cap and a huge smile on her face. We all pile out the house to see the goats and sometimes give our scraps to feed them. Other times there are cows being herded past our place, horses and water buffalo….you never know what you will see when you look out your window.

We have two coconut trees in our front yard and one day we had a young Indian man come to our front door and ask us in very broken English, if we wanted him to climb our trees and cut down some coconuts for us. We agreed as we watched him expertly shoot up the tree and find the best coconuts to bring us. On the first occasion, he came down with 20 coconuts and needless to say we were eating coconuts for the next week. If you are not familiar with eating coconuts, firstly, a hole is cut up the top to access the coconut water which can be drunk straight from the coconut or poured into a cup. Then he slices open the coconut with his machete knife and peels away the young white flesh to eat immediately. The four of us sit on our front steps drinking up coconut water oblivious to the juice running down our faces and hands. Now he comes once or twice a week often unannounced…we presume when he is low on rupees and feeling hungry (one time Alex gave him dinner of fried rice which he loved so much he ate up two bowls).

WE have made friends with our neighbours who have a 3 year old girl, Shithy otherwise known as “Cookie”. The family is very welcoming and generous often giving the girls warm milk and even inviting us for Sunday breakfast of rice stew called…? One day while we were visiting, their milk man arrived with a huge jug of fresh cow’s milk. When we asked about it, they said “you want?” and we said “yes”! Sure enough, the very next morning there was a knock on our door and it was the milkman with a half litre of milk for us. I brought him a pan to pour it into and then put it directly on the stove to boil it. I keep on asking the neighbours who do I have to pay for the milk, but they keep saying “oh tomorrow”. I have still not paid a cent, yet the milkman keeps appearing at our door every morning…!

We even have a garbage man who comes every day. If I have not put out our rubbish he will knock on our door to let us know he is there. I have to place the rubbish bags on the ground before he will pick them up, so as not to make any contact with him. You see the garbage collectors are part of a Indian caste called “the untouchables” who are considered dirty and not to be touched. We had a drain that was causing us problems so our landlord organised someone to fix it…sure enough it was our garbage man who turned up to fix it. To have our drain cleaned out it cost us AU$3 (100 rupees) which he was more than happy with.

So as you can see, one begins to feel a part of Indian life very quickly especially when you are living in a house or apartment for an extended period of time.

For more photos, see our facebook photo albums:

Our House and Life
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26709&l=65197&id=636555973

Settling in
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=26152&l=8dd6f&id=636555973

First Days
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25191&l=10b93&id=636555973

posted by Alex Grant  # 6:21 PM