A Quarter Century!

What an incredible birthday! 3 days of endless celebration, people in the house, sweets and treats and lots of musical beats!Dec. 6 we hosted a party with about 14 people. Guitars and drinks made the party last late into the night, with several people staying over. I love having an open home. I love waking up with a home full of people!
Dec. 7 One more was added to the bunch, Andres from Honduras came to couch surf. So 6 of us ate a delicious brunch together. More friends arrived and took Sunny and Andres to a fort somewhere in Delhi. I slept a glorious siesta until they came back and we cooked a stellar dinner.

That night, the clock struck 12 marking the start of my real bday day. Sunny walked in on cue with a candle lit chocolate cake singing happy birthday, while Andres (still on his first day in India) slept off the jet lag in the outside room.
Midnight cake! and so many thoughtful gifts! what a lucky girl!

10am the next morning, Maria, a Spanish friend living here until April as well, arrived with a cake she made for me! from midnight cake to breakfast cake, the sugar infusion had begun! what a wonderful way to start the day, full of friends and food.

We all took off for our respective jobs, Andres came with me to Jamghat where we met the website design team for a 2pm meeting. The kids had made several Bday cards for me, and each came and wished me happy birthday. Right then the other children ran in with more cake, Sunny, the secret creator of the surprise party, following close behind, and an impromptu party began, putting an end to any productive work that day! Quickly the kids decided it was a good idea to shove whole pieces of cake into Didi's mouth (that's me, didi means sister). So in a matter of 10 minutes i must have eaten about 5 squares of sickly sweet white cake, heaped with icing. the icing soon decorated the floor and our faces. The fun and giggles behind the chaos made the day extra special!To finish the bday, people invited themselves over that night as well. The whole group consisted of incredible musicians, and we sang the night away, in English, Hindi, Sufi and Spanish.Awesome.

Mixed in all this fun, were loving calls from afar, from those i think of daily and miss dearly.

So much love to you all! thanks for marking my quarter century with such thoughtful gestures!

Ins and Outs of Hindi

wow, how did a whole month go by without me writing?
it's not that there's nothing to say, so much happens each day, it's just finding the time and the interesting things to write about. I"ll just write and see what comes out!

Jamghat has become entirely satisfying. I've been given so much responsibility and trust, i feel totally invested in it and love every minute. Everyday I go to the boys home, where 15 former street children live, and meet them, play games with them, work on the computer while they show me pictures they've painted. It's become a home away from home and I'm so attached to each of the boys now, I'm imagining a very teary goodbye in a few months!

These boys are my main Hindi influence. They don't speak much English at all so the necessity for me to learn Hindi is high. and it's coming, slowly slowly, dhire dhire.
The highlight of yesterday was that I carried out a conversation with Ali, all in Hindi! simple answers from my side, but i really understood what he was saying!

I think what has happened is that the children in Jamghat have learned my current vocabulary. So when they say something that i don't understand (evident from the blank look on my face and simple response "kya?", 'what?'), now they immediately slow down and use the words i know to explain their question to me. It's incredibly satisfying and our relationships are growing because of it.

so one interesting thing in Hindi: the word for yesterday and tomorrow is the same, "Kal". Do you think that affects people's concept of time? Sunny says no, because the verbs that go with the word are conjugated to imply past or future. So I suppose it doesn't make much difference to time perception, but i do enjoy the ESL mistake of confusing tomorrow and yesterday!
"You will go to home yesterday?" "Tomorrow was Sunday" :)

Another part of language and culture that i like here is that everyone is either didi (sister), bhaiya (brother), uncle or auntie. When I run down to the little corner store to grab 3 eggs (1 egg = 3 Rs, 1CAD=40Rs), uncle is there in his button up shirt, lungi (like a checkered sarong), and slip on plastic sandals, shyly and humbly selling small items each day.

Recently he has worked up the courage to ask me my country, "Madam, you country name is?" but looks away quickly after asking, seemingly nervous that his English isn't good enough.... "Canada, lekin abhi mera ghar India me, che mahina" (Canada, but now my home is in India, for 6 months), I respond with uncertainty, as my Hindi is much worse than his English!

When the language barriers remain, like with my cleaning woman, we find other ways to converse. Mostly we ramble in our respective languages and then laugh at the other person when they continue to stare blankly back! The maid started this, not me.

So the language is coming, and with this, more comfort in my surroundings. It's so satisfying to switch to simple Hindi with street vendors and see the surprised smile that comes over their face..."Oh madam! you Hindi speaking?!"

"Nahi bhaiya, sirf toda toda" (no brother, only a little)

Fun fun!

hugs