hungry hungry hippos

Allow me to introduce you to hippo chips. If you are in a bad mood this is the food for you, because I'm pretty sure no one can read what hippo says and stay upset. See for yourself.


The pics are a little difficult to read. Here's some help.

Hello, me Hippo.
Hippo make lots of Hippo delicious baked munchies for everyone.
Hippo feel bad you work, work, work and not eat on time. Hippo like you keep Hippo munchies handy.
Look, Hippo care for you. Hippo say, ‘don’t go hungry.’
Hippo think hungry people less happy. Hungry people more fight.
Hippo believe world will be better place if nobody hungry.
So, Hippo try.

Hello, me Hippo again.
Hippo happy you join Hippo mission to fight hunger.
But now Hippo need more munchies to fight hunger.
Hippo say mouth round, stomach round, world round. So, Hippo make munchies also round-round.
Hippo say hunger give world hard time. Eat Round-Round munchies and give hunger hard time.
Because what go round must come round, ho ho ho!

Please tell me you're smiling by now.

street sightings

The other night I was walking home a little later than usual and I noticed a street dog curled up and snuggled against a person sleeping on the street. It was so sweet and sad at the same time. There was also a man completely wrapped in a blanket (face and all) sleeping sitting up on his cycle rickshaw. The number of people that sleep on the street in front of my flat is unbelievable...and heartbreaking.

tuesday experienced

Today I went to go pay my internet bill. All this happened in between my house and the office, which is less than 2 miles from my house.

a few minutes after getting in the auto, the driver kicks everyone in the back out and let five people squeeze in the back with their huge bags. FIVE! it's meant for three. i was sitting in the front, thankfully.

get cycled right through a muslim marching band full of old men wearing sparkly red uniforms and playing makeshift drums and brass instruments, complete with a huge sign leading the way.

see two men and a boy stop traffic to herd a group (flock? herd?) of goats across a busy street

see a man cycling with hundreds of eggs strapped to every possible location on his bike

witness a group of men taking their baths in the neighborhood lake (don't worry, they were wearing lungis)

When I finally got to the office, I paid the bill at the "LADIES/SENIORS/PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED" counter, because of course those three categories should be lumped together. Strangely enough, the only three people in front of me were men that were neither physically challenged nor seniors, unless that now means 30 years and above.

So absurd, and yet...so typical.

thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving was decidedly different than last year. Last year we took a little vacation and went to the Taj Mahal and played in the capital for a few days. It was kind of a nice escape to colder weather and different surroundings.

This year I didn't really want to escape. I wanted to plant myself in my city for the last holiday season and soak it in before I leave. I wanted to eat sweet potatoes and pie, because they're my favorite holiday foods and I eat them approximately twice a year. I had already resigned myself to the fact that there would be no sweet potatoes, so I made 4.5 pounds of mashed potatoes in an attempt to make up for it. But...a smart friend had thought ahead and when some Americans came out several months ago, she had them bring a box of instant sweet potatoes and saved them. And more than that, she shared them. Can I tell you that I didn't even know instant sweet potatoes existed? They were pretty incredible. And all of my mashed potatoes still got eaten.

This year it was nice to be around families. Kids were running around playing, we played an intense game of "Celebrity" and just sat around and talked about things that foreigners living overseas talk about. We sang a few songs together and said something that we were each thankful for. Last year at this time, I was having a rough time. I'd been in India for what seemed like an eternity. I had gone 8 months without seeing my family (by far the longest we'd gone without seeing each other) and didn't know when I would see them again. I knew it would be at least six more months, and that seemed like it would never come. I remember thinking that it would be forever until I set foot on American soil again. A year ago, I was a lot closer to "have been" in America than "will be" in America, if that makes sense.

So this year, as I reflect on the last several months, I'm thankful for the life that I have here. When I leave, I'll be sad to leave behind a church, people that I care about, a culture that I've grown to enjoy, places I know, and endless opportunities and adventure. It feels normal to be here and I've sort of forgotten what it's like to live anywhere else. It took a good long while to get to this point, and I'm thankful that I have. When I first came, I couldn't imagine ever knowing how to live here or anything seeming familiar or comforting. I know God ordained the good times and the hard times, and I can look back and see how I've changed, grown, and come to trust him more. So for this, I am thankful. And I'm also really glad I got to eat sweet potatoes and pie with friends to celebrate all the thankfulness in my heart.

the bandwagon

If there is such a thing as a blog bandwagon, I've fallen off of it in a bad way. It's not that my life has changed significantly. I think my outlook has somewhat. Frequently I think, "I should probably blog about this"....and then it slips my mind. Things that were once blog worthy to me because they were so foreign are now common events that blur together and it has become difficult to remember what wouldn't be normal to you. Suddenly another week has gone and I haven't written anything and I wonder, "Wasn't I going to blog about something? I forgot what it was."

I remember being really discouraged at this time last year because I felt like I'd been here forever, and I'D STILL BE HERE next Thanksgiving and Christmas, which seemed like an eternity away at the time. Now I feel like someone has pushed a fast forward button and I can't figure out where the play button is to get things back to a normal speed.

As my time here is beginning to draw to a close, I find myself nostalgic about things that once drove me mad. Every time I get on a bus to go to the slum, I know the number of times that I'll be squished on the bus with countless other people hoping to catch a breeze with the music from my earphones barely drowning out the horns in the background is limited. And I know I'm going to miss life here. Life here has this zest about it that isn't present in America. This isn't to down on America because I'm quite fond of the motherland. Sometimes this zest comes in the form of planning something and knowing that you've got everything under control, only to have all your plans thwarted and for India to smack your backside and laugh at you while you're down. And that day, zest isn't so fun (but it's usually sanctifying). Other days it comes in the form of sitting with someone and talking about life and learning new things and hearing a different perspective. And those days, I wouldn't trade for anything.

how to board a plane

I once read an article in the NYT that was written by an Indian and mentions how his people cannot board a plane like other people. I couldn't help but laugh because I have experienced this several times, and the point of the article is interesting. You can read it here.

Today I had quite a cultural plane boarding experience. I was leaving Bangkok, where people are so quiet they practically whisper into their phones. Sometimes I’m not even sure if they’re really talking or if their lips are just moving. I went to the gate that was mostly surrounded by Indian men. Yessss, feels like home already.

When it was time to board, a man who didn’t work for the airport walked around announcing, “Chelo! Chelo! Chelo! India, India, India! Chelo, let’s go to India!” to half the airport to let us know it was time to get on the plane. Helpful. When we were in line to get on the plane, two men cut me and several other people. I will never understand the purpose of cutting people when you have an assigned seat. If you want to sit on the plane longer, be my guest. I finally got on the plane and started moving towards my seat in row 27. The flight attendants stopped us and told us to store our stuff here because the back of the plane was full. We were on row 11. What did those people bring, anyway?! I can’t really say anything because I completely disregarded the rules with my bag that weighed well over the allotted 7kg’s, plus my purse, plus, in true Indian fashion, a carry-on plastic bag. Thank you AirAsia for not even kind of enforcing the rules. ☺

People were sort of freaking out about the luggage storage situation, so a lot of people were in the aisle trying to move things around and force their luggage in places that were clearly smaller than their bags. One old man swung his luggage and tried to hoist it into the bin from behind me almost hitting me in the head. “You can wait a minute!” I informed him. So he did.

Then, with about 20 people still in the aisle and luggage bins still open, the pilot pushed off from the gate and started heading towards the runway. Clearly we weren’t going to waste any time getting this show on the road.

While we were in line to take off, all four flight attendants had to come to the back few rows and explain several times that phones had to be turned off. Then they went from person to person to make sure they were off because some people were complaining and refusing to turn theirs off.

I couldn’t help but laugh because it was all so normal, albeit ridiculous. I finally made it back and have had several experiences today that left me shaking my head and muttering, “Typical India. Welcome back.”

"Excuse me! We almost died today!"

These were the first words my friend indignantly said to the inn owner after we made it back from a hike that he had given us directions for. He may or may not have been in the middle of a conversation with a stranger at that particular moment, but it didn’t really matter.

When we were in Manali, we kept hearing about Jogni Falls. Everyone goes there. Anyone can do the hike. You can get behind the waterfall in a concave of sorts and take great pictures. Sounds perfect to us. We got directions from the inn keeper and set off on a hike through the woods and a couple of villages. We were told to go past the waterfall and then come at it from the right side because that was the easiest path. There is another really difficult path that goes straight up the mountain to the waterfall but “most people prefer not to take that route as it is really difficult.” At one point in the conversation we asked if there was any hand over foot climbing? NO, we were assured. There is a proper road the whole way there.

Guess which path we ended up accidentally taking?

When we got to where we thought we should turn and start going up the mountain, we asked some locals which way to go. They pointed at the road they were on. Perfect, right? This seemed too convenient, but we went with it. Within about two minutes of walking up this trail, I was thinking it seemed pretty steep and was already breathing kind of hard. I chalked it up to living at sea level and the fact that now we were up 5000 feet in the air climbing a mountain and my poor lungs and heart weren’t used to this elevation. We kept following the trail that was poorly marked with signs and ended up in a forest with no particular trail. We saw some foreigners traipsing through and confirmed we were on the right route…sort of. We crossed a bridge that wasn’t on the hand drawn map from the inn keeper. Then we started legit climbing up the mountain….without a trail. It sort of just disappeared. We could see a waterfall, so we figured we should just keep going up. So we did. So much for that proper road. We definitely took the one less traveled.

We ran into a cute little dog that seemed to know the way. He came to us, then ran ahead, then came to us again, and it made sense at the time to follow him. He was so cute and seemed to know where he was going. I’m only halfway joking.

We ducked under pipelines, did some hand over foot climbing, and found a real live mountain goat. We finally saw a waterfall that was clearly not our destination as there was no way we could get to it unless we suddenly sprouted wings, no people were there, and there was no cave behind it. I did some scooting through tall grass on the edge of…well, the edge and was finally tucked in a little cove that was at least 15 degrees cooler than the other side with the sun coming down on us. It was beautiful, and in a way, nice that no other tourists had come to this point. This was definitely part of the falls that most tourists never see.

After that we began the uncomfortable journey of going down the mountain with visible trail and only a cute little terrier like dog to lead us. We finally made our way to a normal path where lots of other tourists were that took the easy path. Babies!

We found a village we were supposed to pass through and grabbed an auto back to the inn. Then we enjoyed good food, hot chocolate and each other’s company.

That is India. Take a wrong turn and it affects your whole day. We all lived to tell about it though, and at least saw a waterfall even if it wasn't the one we were wanting, so I’m counting it as a success.