Friday

So I've been asked many times, "What does a typical day look like for you? What's your routine?" And the short answer is, "Uh...I don't know. I kinda don't have one." At least not in the sense of I go to a workplace, take a lunch break, run by the grocery store and grab a few things, meet with friends, etc. So yesterday could be considered a completely normal day off. We just got back to the city and have a few down days before next week is really busy. Here is a rather detailed version of our day...

9:00am - Meet at the car with a group to go to a movie that started before 10:00. I didn't even know these movies existed, especially in this country.

09:45 - arrive at the mall where the theater is, only to be told by a security guard that we can't come in, the mall doesn't open until 10. We show our tickets and are allowed inside.

09:50- Sit down in a seat that is basically like a recliner in every aspect except it doesn't actually recline. This cost about $1. Try and remember the last time I watched a movie in a theater. Can't remember if it was January or March. Cease to care because suddenly a big Indian flag appears on screen and everyone stands up for the national anthem. I was so surprised that I immediately put my hand over my heart and then thought, "Wait...what am I doing? This isn't my country. Not even the Indians are doing this." Then I giggled the rest of the way through the anthem, but didn't mean it to be disrespectful, I was just amused. Then I watched "Inception." Crazy.

1:00 - Ate a water buffalo burger for lunch. For the record, it was delicious. This was the second burger I've had in 4 months.

3:00ish - Begin making our way toward the Victoria Memorial. In a taxi. In a traffic jam spanning several kilometers.

4:10ish- Arrive at Victoria Memorial. Try to decipher how much it should cost us to get in, and how much they are going to try to charge us. We paid 4 rupees each. Victory.

4:12 - Our friend is pooped on by a bird. Attempt to remove and clean with the only tools we have: toilet paper and a bottle of water. 65% successful, as we couldn't get the TP remnants off her black shirt.

4:15 - Temporarily forget where we are, because this is the cleanest, shiniest, greenest place I've ever seen in this city.

4:20 - Remember where I am as we attempt to find cover during a 3 minute downpour. The only thing available was a rather large tree. Safety first.

4:30 - Notice a little boy throwing rocks and try to steer clear of him. He got a little wild and pelted a teenage girl in the face. Got to whip out the toilet paper from my purse again and help stop her face from bleeding while a lot of people gathered around and stared and made a commotion.

4:40 - Realize that this is a major location for all couples in the city to come to showcase PDA. Scandalous. We renamed the gardens "Lovers Lane." We also met a girl from Thailand, spent time talking with a man who is a Hindu who told us it would be perfectly fine for us to pray to Mother Teresa as Christians, were stared at by many large groups of boys without girlfriends accompanying them, took many pictures, and had fun together.

7:00 - Flag down taxi and bargain for price.

8:00 - Finally arrive at grocery store after another traffic jam. Buy groceries.

9:00 - Arrive home and eat more spaghetti with friends.

10:00 - Talk about our lives, the goodness of Jesus, and the certainty of God's promises while eating frosting and cookies. Both were excellent.

Short and sweet

Hello readers! I know some of you read this blog but don't get my email updates. I try to send them out monthly...or at least every two months. If you read this and want to be on the update list, you can email me at ksellers.rn@gmail.com or leave a comment with your email and I'll add you. I should be sending one out in the next few days.

I have several things that I could and should blog about, and hopefully that will come soon. I'm recovering from a 20 hour train to get home, visiting with people I missed this summer, willing myself to do an expense report, having fun with an American friend visiting, and gearing up for a super busy week next week. So somewhere in between all that...I'll catch you up on life here.

Language Learning Days

I have spent much of the summer learning Hindi in what is considered to be a holy city in this country. I have certainly developed a deep appreciation and respect for anyone who has learned another language besides their native tongue, no matter what it may be.

It’s fun to realize that I now know another alphabet that to many people looks like a bunch of squiggles and can read at about first grade level. I feel like I’ve been let in on a secret code even though it takes me a long time to decipher it. In this language there are 4 different “t” sounds and 4 different “d” sounds. Yes, I still have trouble keeping them all straight. I feel like first graders could still get their letters mixed up, right? For awhile, post positions were the bane of my existence. They're exactly what they sound like. They function like a preposition in English, but when one appears it wreaks havoc on an entire sentence (for a beginner) because the rules affect so many words and so many things change. My teacher says that postpositions are the beauty of Hindi, and I think this has been more of a choice for me than a fact. But then I started to get the hang of that, and moved on to more challenging things like the past tense. Now I realize to native English only speakers that may sound dumb. How hard is it to say “I went” instead of “I go.” We just know these things and forgot that we had to learn them at some point in time. But we don’t say “I goed" or "I gived" so that makes it irregular. So it is with Hindi. Sometime this summer, I became acutely aware of the fact that I am a native English speaker and can manipulate the language in crazy ways that don’t always make sense to someone who speaks English as a second language. I guess since I’ve been speaking it for over two decades, it’s only appropriate. I know that sounds like a ridiculous realization hardly worth noting, and it's okay if you're rolling your eyes right now. For awhile, I rebelled and decided I only wanted to talk in the present tense (like “Yesterday I go to market” and “This morning I drink coffee)…but I’m embracing it a little more now. For my linguistically inclined friends, Hindi is a Subject Object Verb language.

This week I went to my language tutor here for the last time and had a most unique experience. She has heard the good news many times but is not a believer. After helping us translate our testimonies, she posed a question to us.

“You want to tell me about your God in my language. What you will say? Pretend I don’t know anything about him.”

Well, that’s never happened to me before. Nor is it likely for someone in the western hemisphere to ask a question like this. But it was a good way to end our language time, talking about church in America, spirituality here, the saving grace of Christ, and the way its changed my life.

And it was a good way to spend my summer, having my eyes opened to the beauty of another language and how native speakers manipulate it in ways that are beyond me.

The Saga Continues...

So the rain has finally arrived here, and I am beyond delighted. Because it is now about 80 degrees, we don't even have to run our AC very often. This morning, I was kind of cold when I woke up. I know, I couldn't believe it either. Anyway, like I said, it rains here now. A lot. So for the first time since being here, it actually feels really nice to go sit outside on the balcony and enjoy a slight breeze. And there is never a dull moment on the streets, so we even get to be entertained while we sit in what is near pleasant weather. So that's exactly what we were doing the other day. Chaos per usual was going on below us. I kept seeing this kid, who is probably about 12, driving a motorbike up and down our street. Yes, it's the land of enchantment, no driving age seems to be enforced here. Or any rules, for that matter. About the fourth time I saw him go by, he stopped his motorbike in the middle of the street and was giving us the strangest look. I am quite used to being stared at here. Old, young, man, woman, rich, poor...they all stare at us.

But this kid wasn't staring at us in the normal "Look! It's white girls! What are they going to do? If I'm obnoxious, will they talk to me?" He had the strangest expression on his face that I can't even describe. I looked at my teammate next to me to say, "See that kid? What's his problem?" She was looking at me with the same expression. And that's when I noticed the monkey that was perched about four inches away from her. RIGHT NEXT TO US. I remember shrieking and yelling something to the effect of, "MONKEYYYYY! RUN! AAAAHHHH!!!!!" as I turned and sprinted inside. My teammate followed suit, and we slammed our screen door and had it locked within about 2 seconds. Once this was complete, we eyed the little monkey on our balcony, probably much like people here stare at us. He stared back at us with an expression that basically said, "WHAT is wrong with you two crazy people?" I guess he just wanted to enjoy the weather while sitting on our balcony too.

Monkey Business

So there I was, sitting at the table, studying Hindi, minding my own business...when a monkey walked by on the balcony railing right outside our open window. I pointed and squealed, and then he walked by again. Then he stared at us while we pointed and squealed at him. Then he left, and I went back to studying language. When it was time to eat lunch, we were going to have to carry our food outside to borrow the microwave downstairs (that's another story for another time). I poked my head outside and checked for monkeys. Lo and behold, there they were! Four or so, staring at us from the ledge that we were going to have to walk under. I yelped and slammed the door closed. I mean, there is potential they could JUMP ON MY HEAD. We tried to scare them away. They got annoyed with our antics and made mean faces and pretended to lunge at us. More scared squealing and door slamming ensued. We finally gave up and ate crackers and chips for lunch while the monkeys held us hostage in our own house. Monkeys: 1. Us: 0. After lunch I went to the living room and peeked on the balcony. No less than 8 monkeys were staring at me. You can only see two in the video, the others had walked off by that time.

We had agreed to go see a few temples around town later that day with friends, but weren't sure exactly which ones we'd be visiting. First on the list: the MONKEY temple. You have got to be kidding me. It didn't make me feel any better that we were warned not to show our teeth or make eye contact, and had to hide everything in a locker because the monkeys might become upset and then who knows what they would do. That's great news. We made it through without incident and none of the monkeys at the temple seemed to pick up on the "I ran into your cousins/brothers/aunts/uncles today while they tried to take over my house and I would do away with them if I could" vibe that I was sending out. Whew. Close call.

This is through the screen. Look at the babies!




This makes them mildly more endearing.


My personal favorite.

monkeys from Kayla on Vimeo.