The small occurrences of daily life in India

I was inspired to write this post while eating yet another lunch of rice and vegetables. I unknowingly ate a green chili and half of my mouth still feels like it's on fire. It's a small thing that has become somewhat commonplace, yet is a distinctive part of my life in India. Some other common things that characterize life here . . . A small roach and a trail of ants running across the counter as I make a cake in the kitchen; making sure to set my alarm so I can take a bath with hot water before 8 when the power goes out for an hour; the afternoon siesta; playing outside with the kids and being called in for spicy chai and biscuits, decoding and correcting the chidren's "Yoda-like" inverted sentence structures -- (ie. "so many chocolates I have"); walking through the market and averting my eyes as a man relieves himself in the street; greeting curious, staring children in their own language (namaskar) and watching them smile with delight; women carrying loads of hay, rice, or vegetables on their heads; watching the gigantic bats (possibly Indian flying foxes) flying over the house as dusk falls; and of course tucking my mosquito net under the mattress before I crawl into bed.

For your viewing pleasure

Sorry for the delay in posting.  The past couple weeks have been busy and now I am in the midst of traveling in Orissa.  It has been great having my friend Justin here.  He provided some welcomed help with the kids and I know Chito was happy to have another boy around.  We are having a blast experiencing and exploring India.  Take a look...

We went to a tribal festival called PARAB in Koraput.  A little bit like the state fair Indian style.  I'll put some other photos of the festival up later.  It was awesome.

  This is an old one from the Diwali festival.

We took the kids for a little picnic and saw MONKEYS in the wild!  I was thrilled. This is us feeding them biscuits and nuts.  If you weren't fast enough they would come and snatch food from your hand.  There were lots of screams and kids yelling at me to give them more biscuits as the monkeys were getting impatient.   

We took a walk in some rice fields that are ready to be harvested.  The scenery was beautiful.

                Justin and I helping the children write an essay about our monkey adventure.

                             We found some pepper and coffee plants!  Two of my favorite things.

                                           Having a little fun on our road trip to Rayagada.