Remembering Emanuel Mission School

कूदाहफिज़

Goodbye to a school where our kids learned about various countries and developed life-long friends from across the globe.
Goodbye to annual jog-athons, daily traditional Indian lunches, endless 'ups and downs' the 3 flights of stairs.

A School Closes...

Daniele has finished another school year yesterday! She's officially in 5th grade as of today. The school she was attending has shut down for good. It was designed for kids like ours who's family works abroad. All 3 of our school age kids have enjoyed being a part of that school over the last few years. They've made some life-long friends there beyond just learning their academic work. That school's been good to us.

Danielle will now start her 5th grade in home school on Monday. No rest for the weary!

Nafisa is enjoying life.

Family Photos March 2007

Danielle with Amanda, her classmate at school program
The family with our friends just outside Aurangabad

Maria and Mandi out shopping...who's the dummy? :-)

Danielle's school program

Kids with our house helper, Zaheda

Things I like About Pune, India

• I can drive any way I feel like and still fit in to normal driving patterns.

• Normal Indian life still revolves around family and evening walks down the street.
• I can hear 5 different languages just on my way to pay my electric bill.
• Pune’s dry season which lasts 2/3 of the year usually makes for a very comfortable life. Even if it gets to 110 or 115, sure it’s hot, but not unbearable.
• Power cuts force me to enjoy candle lit meals more often!
• Entertaining small talk with anyone is the spice of life, besides the tons of green or red chilli’s in your rice.
• Sweet Lassi (a yogurt drink) with a dab of cream from that one dairy shop in Kondwa is AWESOME!!!
• Because we’ve lived in this city for over 7 years, we’ve grown to be known by some shop keepers. We pass by and they want to catch up on what’s happening with our family.
• Coffee Jar…need I say more?
• I can drop my electric bill off at a shop and they will take my money and pay the bill for me...at no cost!
• City Parking fee for a car is $0.11
• City Parking fee for our motorbike is $0.05
• KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonalds are all within 5 minutes of each other.
• George’s restaurant…the best Chicken Makhani in town!
• That one electric shop on MG road where I always have to chat for ½ an hour when I pick up a spare light bulb.
• Sagar’s … the best vegetarian food this side of heaven…pow-bajie and their special Mexican mini-tacos full of macaroni and cheese (gotta have one to know it’s value!).
• Zaheyda’s chicken byriani! She’s our house helper and can she make biryani!
• Friends from various backgrounds and countries.
• The hundreds of festivals makes for a very colorful and musical calendar!
• The vast diversity of people we’ve met here: I can differentiate between accents from South India and the North, people from the UK, Australia and South Africa.
• Cheap prescription drugs I can purchase anywhere without a prescription
• A loooong strawberry and mango season!
• The list continues….

Family News

On Saturday, Merrilea and the kids all went to a birthday party for our good friend Melanie and a going away party for her brother, Matthew who will be leaving for boarding school later this year. They had a blast...and got some sun, too.

Our visitors from South Carolina have returned via Delta airlines on a non-stop flight to Mumbai arriving some 12 plus hours later. Just think, if you ever wanted to visit us, you could take that trip as well!

Merrilea is sick but doing ok. Maybe caught a cold from a friend in Aurangabad. Such is life in the fast lane with all the travel we have beeing doing!

Life in India: Some things are really fun: For the last 2 days I’ve been staying in a hotel in Mumbai near the airport. For some strange reason, I’ve received my meals complementary! When things like this happen, it’s wonderful! Yet, sometimes just getting the simple things done…like changing our address for our cell phone provider …I haven’t received a bill at our new address since informing them of our address change 5 months ago! BUT, as Maria revealed to our guests from South Carolina, she wouldn’t want to live anywhere else! Now, that is awesome! I’m so glad that living here in South Asia has been a VERY healthy thing for us a family.

From "Traveling Bill"

Aurangabad Pictures

Who is the tallest person in this picture? :-)

Somebody is on her tip-toes!






Joseph and His Rock!
At the Buddhist Caves which are hundreds of years old.
Climbing on the hills
Talking with some friendly people

Community Challenge

The team from South Carolina has no translator for Saturday’s work! Apparently the translator's had prior obligations that day.
This will force our team to rely on other members of the community.

Joseph and Maria continue to do their home-school work while in Aurangabad. Joseph called and told me he got 100% on his grammar test today! Ata ‘boy Joseph!

I’m really looking forward to joining back with my family and the team on Sunday night. This week's meetings in Bangalore have been very profitable, ensuring I am equipped with the right skills and tools for my work.

More when I hear more about the team!

Bill

On the Train

Our team from South Carolina is now on the train with Merrilea, Maria, Joseph and Nafisa. The train left around 4:30PM from south Mumbai and they'll arrive around midnight tonight in Aurangabad. New sights...new smells, new tastes!

Latest Update: About 6:30pm today I spoke with Merrilea as her train was chugging along the Indian countryside. The children were doing great, though Nafisa was tired and screaming. I’m sure our South Carolina visitors are a bit tired with jet lag. They should arrive very soon to their city and be in bed in about 2 hours from now.
All is well!
Bill for the fam

South Carolina Team has Arrived!

Tuesday Night March 6th
I just got a phone call about an hour ago from Merrilea that the team has arrived in Mumbai. They are awaiting the bus from the airport to the hotel.
Soon they'll be rested and enjoying a train trip to Aurangabad!

More as the week progresses!
Bill

Lunar Eclipse

Pictures taken with Canon Powershot S3 IS with tripod.

(Thanks team from MABC!)

6:05 AM
6:15 AM
6:19 AM
6:27 AM
6:32 AM

I went out with Maria and Danielle a few blocks from our apartment. (Merrilea and Joseph wanted to go back to sleep). It was great but a bit cool in our pajamas. We are back home now...it's just after 7am here...about 8:30pm EST. Hope you all have a great night while we get on with our day!

Bill for the fam

Maria & Joseph's Turn

Maria and her close friend, Meesha making cookies…or playing with chocolate…? Meesha stayed over last night. I don't think they quit talking till about 1 AM...or at least that's when I fell asleep.

Joseph: Tell me how, while coming down a slide, his head hit his friend Matt’s knee? Gotta like his Rocky pose. He’s fine…just looks bad. He REALLY wanted to pose for this picture with Meesah. We love you Joseph!

From Bill - the one who is enjoying being a Dad.

PS
We've got some visitors coming from South Carolina joining us next week for 10 days. We'll all be going to Aurangabad (5 hours north of our home city) so we may not be updating this for a bit. We sure are looking forward to their work with us. Also, we just found out that we may have a young couple joining our work in July! They will be with us for 2 years. We are very grateful for their partnership with us.

A Day in the Life...

Danielle and friend Esther making shapes with home-made eatable play-dough today March 1^st after school. PEANUT BUTTER!

A glimpse into Maria’s life: board at her desk

Language Intensive

From 9 to 5 Monday through Saturday we are in a Hindi intensive class.

Maria and Joseph have taken a break from their regular schooling to join this as well. Danielle is still going to her school so she comes home every day to see us hard at work!

Here are some Hindi idioms we’ve picked up:

• In English we say, “I passed (or did something) by the skin of my teeth.” In Hindi, it’s “Bal-bal bajna” or “I passed by my hair”
  

• In English we say, “Have some food.” In Hindi, the meaning is the same but it comes out “pet pooja kar leejeeay” literally translated, “Please do stomach worship” (Now there’s something to talk about!)

• In English we say, “I’m starved.” In Hindi, we can say the same thing this way: “There are mice jumping in my stomach” or “Pet may choohay kood r-hay hay”
  

• In English, we can describe something negative as leaving a “sour taste” in our mouths. In Hindi, we say “sour grapes” “Angoor katta hay”

Note: Be careful how we spell and say words:

• Kana is food
• KHana is a one eyed-man

• PyaR is love
• PyaZ is onion

Book of the Month

Finally, I've read this book and loved it.

"The On-Time, On Target Manager: How a Last Minute Manager Conquered Procrastination" By Ken Blanchard and Steve Gottry

It's suggestions are very practical and doable.

3 P's

• Priority: Triage Everything
• Propriety: Bill of Rights:
• Do the Right Thing
• Do it for the Right Reasons
• Do it with the Right People
• Do it at the Right Time
• Do it in the Right Order
• Do it with Intensity
• Do it for the Right Results
• Committment:
• "I Gotta Wanna"

Deep Thought for The Week

It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!

From Rocky Balboa the movie

Merrilea is delayed and I’ve got to fly to Bangalore

Merrilea’s trip is delayed due to snow appropriately for this time of year… but I’m due to fly out of our city shortly after Merrilea would have arrived …so….

I’ve recruited a friend to watch the kids Friday night (THANKS!!!).

Maria is old enough now to watch Nafisa and be the head honcho for a while. She’ll enjoy the few hours of glory while waiting for our friend to take over around supper time. Merrilea ought to be here on Saturday by 3AM. If her flight is delayed, I’ll be making some phone calls from Bangalore!

In the meantime, I’ll sure miss seeing her. I’ll fly back Sunday about midnight.

Bill from the Flip Side,

PS
Nafisa taking some Z's in the Bean Bag...

11 February 2007

Danielle’s school had their annual ‘Jog-A-thon’ yesterday.

Nafisa and I joined for a few laps, though Nafisa only wanted to be held, so I got some good exercise as did Maria. Joseph stayed home as he invited a close friend over to play legos.

All is fine at home. School work is being accomplished, Nafisa has cut several more teeth. Speaking of teeth, we went to the dentist on Thursday to get our pearly whites cleaned. All is fine. Danielle has a few cavities and Maria needs a baby tooth pulled. Our kids are learning the importance of daily brushing. Nafisa has not complained about Merrilea being gone. She calls out for Mommy some times. I correct her, saying I’m Daddy. She smiles, says ‘Daddy’ and then says ‘Mommy out.’ I’m eager for Merrilea to return. We all miss her.

I’ve had some very good phone calls this week regarding work. Things are progressing.

Bill

Merrilea Gone till the 16th

Merrilea has gone to New York to be with her family for her sister Valerie’s wedding so I’ve got the kids till the 16^th. So far, so good. I’m able to spend more time with the kids…it’s fun, though I feel a bit frustrated as I’m not able to get as much work done.

Danielle had a day off from school this last week due to local political elections. Nafisa has had her friend, Sofia, over a bunch, too.

Biggest event since Merrilea’s been gone:

When no one was looking ….

Nafisa got to painting her fingernails with nail polish. By the time I got to her, she was playing with the nail polish remover. Just glad she didn’t try to eat it!

Surviving without Merrilea….for now.

Bill

All that move...for what?

I went back today to check on our old apartment's mailbox and to meet some students from the country of Oman. After collecting some mail and a fun discussion with 3 guys from Oman (positive mind you), I talked with my old neighbor. As it turns out, the slum which burned all that trash is gone....completely gone!

The huts are gone and all that is there is a leveled field of dirt! I’ve been after the employers of the slum dwellers who promised me years ago that they slum was going to be moved. Now, less than 2 months from the time we leave…they are gone!

For some reason God had us move out of that complex…on our part it was solely because of the pollution. I’m just thinking He’s got his reasons for the move and we are supposed to be at our new location. It will be exciting to see why in 2007!

But it sure makes me just smile. Things change here daily!

Life on the Flip Side,

Bill

DELIRIOUS

While I (Bill) was in Bangalore, a large city in the southern part of India for a week, our kids went across the street from our apartment complex and down about 3 blocks to a concert. DELIRIOUS came to Pune on Friday the 19^th. They are a Christian band from the UK. I got great reports from the kids about it. It is very rare that these kind of things happen here so we try to make them into really big events for our family. Joseph said he was yelling/singing so much at the concert his throat hurt! Lots of our kids’ friends went, too. The Picture was taken from our apartment.
Instead of going, Danielle went to her youth group with a bunch of other kids her age. She had a blast!

We want to congratulate Bob and Shamira, as on the 17th, Luke was born...one more person to carry on that van den Akker name!
See their blog at http://flvda.blogspot.com/
(See link to the right)

Back from "Vacation"

Maria writes:

We’re back from our “vacation”. You ask why it’s in quotation marks? Well, it wasn’t exactly restful, Nafisa, Mom and eventually pretty much everyone in our family got at least a cold. We went to an island named Ko Lanta with another family that lives in our city. And besides being sick, one of our most important suitcases (it had most of our swimsuits in it and new blankets from Oma) got lost or something by the airlines and we got it the next day. ALSO it rained about three of the four days we were there.

That isn’t the only thing we did while we were in Thailand though. While Mom and Dad were in meetings I hung out with some of my friends, Danielle and Joseph went to childcare. Joseph and I went with some friends to go paintballing and we had a blast. It was Joseph’s first time, by the way. After Dad and Mom’s meetings were over we went over to another hotel to stay for a few days.

We are now are taking some rest from our “vacation” back in Pune.

Here are some pics from our trip:
At Kho Lanta Island











Bill and Joseph at a scenic view while biking the Island











Danielle with her friends singing Christmas songs along with the hotel band. They were much better than ELVIS who appeared every night!












On the ferry to Kho Lanta Island