Squatty Potty Diary!

We recently decided to enroll C in a school just outside our city. We are very excited about the new experiences and friendships awaiting him (and us) as a result. He will be the only foreigner in the school, which is and will produce some interesting challenges. The lessons will be in English with a heavy Hindi accent (we call this Hinglish). However, all his classmates will speak their mother tongue outside of class time. I fear that as a result of this immersion, C will be fluent in Hindi way before T or I. Another interesting situation has to do with the potty!! When visiting the school I took a peek in the bathroom and found both western and eastern toilets (the kind that you sit on and the kind that you squat over). At first I was relieved that he would as least have familiarity in this crucial arena, but upon a closer examination I noticed that all the western toilet seats had footprints on them!! This is common here because folks are so use to the squatty they don't know how to use the western style toilet. In considering the situation (the questionable sanitation and possible unavailability of the western toilet) we decided that learning the eastern approach is a must for our son. C and I have undertaken this adventure together. T has chosen to maintain her old habits and currently B only likes to take care of business in his own bath water!! Luckily we have a squatty potty in our home. We had been using it for draining the washing machine, but I recently reclaimed it's original purpose and prepared it for use. Another issue is that the natives don't use toilet paper, but I'll save this discussion for another time!!!

Our family is doing really well these days!! Language study is very difficult and intense, but every failure seems to be followed by a victory that keeps us encouraged and mentally engaged. Please ask that these blessed experiences will continue. Sometimes we learn a word and use it only to find there are two words for that object and we learned the less popular version which makes the whole exercise a wasted endeavor. Then just when we are ready to throw in the towel, a native speaker responds positively to our attempt and we are energized to go another day.

We were also recently given a little valentine retreat that breathed life into our work (and even more importantly) our marriage. We were invited to attend a two day conference with other couples like us. The discussions were great, the time with friends was wonderful, and the food was incredible. A fellowship in the states funded the event and we were so thankful for the investment in us. We even got to go on our first date in 4 months!! I got T a new nose ring for her V-day present. This piece of jewelry has a lot of meaning here and tells everybody that she is a married women. She loved the gift, but neither of us anticipated the pain she would endure to have it installed (I'm sure there is better vocabulary for this, but I'm a guy so give me a break). Never the less after 2 days of struggle, a good deal of blood, and the assistance of a stranger she loves her gift!

Khana Banana!!

What do we eat? Sometime we will have to send you pictures because the food is as colorful and spicy as the culture in which we live. For the most part we have become vegetarians and this not by choice as much as adjustment to the people around us. At this point all of our new friendships are with folks who have strong convictions about not eating meat. This week I told one of my new friends about the cattle market in the US and his eyes began to water with sadness. The good part is that veggies are very fresh and ridiculously cheap. Today I bought a Kilogram of Potatoes for 8 Rupees (which equals about 20 cents). Our bellies are adjusting and we rarely miss our carnivore past. In fact, we now get some rumbling in our tummy when we do eat a dish with chicken in it. The title of this post is Hindi for making food! Above is a picture of a language lesson where T made lunch while using the room to learn vocabulary. This woman is her language helper, is from a believing family, and is in our home everyday! The other lady is our house helper who comes twice a day for $25 a month. She cleans all the floors, does the dishes, and even cooks the evening meal! This is common practice here, but very new and sometimes uncomfortable to us. However, she is a devout Hindu and for 3 hours a day we get to be with her!!! Please remember these two women. Maybe when you are preparing your evening meal you could take a minute to talk about them!!! There is a picture of dad and the boys making cardboard spaceships and the last one is of our new mode of transportation. We are now riding 4 deep on the scooter and feeling very Indian in the process! It doesn't have A/C or a built in DVD Player, but believe me with the sights, sounds, and smells we get to experience who needs the mini-van!!!

Language School

Hey everyone! We are back home after a 15-day trip to Thailand. Our company held a language seminar that was very helpful and encouraging. Because of flight availability we ended up staying a few extra days and were able to enjoy the local pastimes (like elephant rides and night markets). It was a good break, but we were more than ready to be home. For the next few days we are focusing our attention on seeking supernatural help with language learning. There have been 2 times in my life that I focused like this. The first was in asking for a child. The second was a request to live in India. I think the pictures testify that He is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him! Please join us in this request. We desperately want to be able to speak at a heart level with people and there is no time to waste. Already today a huge thing happened in this regard! We were able to secure native language helpers for us both!!

Christmas Dinner

Joy to the WORLD!

Santa Cookies

The same just different!

We have had a lot of people asking and just so you know we had a wonderful Christmas! Internet was a major addition that allowed us to make contact with family. The boys got bicycles and have been tearing up the road in our neighborhood (dodging cows and the things cows leave behind)! We received boxes from the states on Christmas Eve and it really made us feel special to open them Christmas day. We also got to be involved in a Christmas program some of our friends held in their apartment complex. Over 200 people showed up to hear us explain why this day was so special. Above are some pictures of our activities. We invited our landlord and his wife up for dinner and a telling of the Christmas story. He left saying it was the first time the story made sense and that he wanted to talk more about it! We were visited by a group singing Christmas carols. This group of Christ followers really encouraged us! Of course, the boys made cookies for Santa and I must say they were really good!! We leave at 4am in the morning for a language-training workshop and won't return until the 15th of January. I'll try to update while we are gone, but Internet access may be hard to come by. Regardless, I'm sure there will be new stories to tell from the adventure that awaits us.