Like Cold Water to a Weary Soul

Proverbs 25:25
Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.

It’s 89.2 degrees in our bedroom at 9pm this evening. It got up over 106 today! In this hot weather a cold coffee or cold drink of water from the fridge hits the spot. Similarly, hearing good news from our family back in the good ‘ol US of A also is refreshing.

We’ve heard some great and wonderful news from our close friend and Merrilea’s brother, Jonathan:

One month to go before he marries Sarah Ko!

We wish we could be there for the USA wedding!
We’re very much looking forward to attending the Korean wedding later this year.

This is probably the single most difficult thing about being on the flip side – not being around for family. We’ve missed birthdays and anniversaries and just plain hanging out with our relatives, watching the kids play and enjoying each other’s company.

Love you Jonathan and Sarah!

Merrilea's Birthday

At midnight on the 27th we had a knock on our door . . . several of our friends came by with cake to wish Merrilea a happy birthday! They stayed and played cards for 2 hours! (I went to bed in the meantime!)

While I took Merrilea out for cake & coffee at Coffee Jar and shopping, our kids decorated with flower petals! That's 2 Kilos of rose petals! They even made a trail of them from the front door to the bedroom!

While Danielle and Maria went to ballet class, Joseph and I learned how to crimp our own Ethernet cables! After 4 unsuccessful crimps we've got 6 that work! Now Joseph is making crepes for supper! The girls are back from ballet but they appear exhausted . . . could it have something to do with going to bed at 2am this morning?

We'll try for a family photo this week. They fam is too tired right now!
Blessings on this special day!

Family Time Out

Last week we enjoyed a meal out with our kids and another family…we weren’t sure what to do for supper and decided to give our friends a call at the last minute…we met at a local vegetarian restaurant called Shiv Sagar.

Nafisa enjoyed the attention the waiters were giving her, too. After some mini-taco shells filled with macaroni, a large dosa – real thin rice-pancake with coconut and potato relishes, Pau-baji - buns with a spicy bean sauce with onions, we enjoyed loud conversation, being the only ones in the A/C area for an hour! We walked home, about 3 blocks, passing by our favorite coffee shop, Coffee Jar, to say ‘hello’ to the owners. We fed our family for $13.95. Pretty good for all 6 of us!

Meanderings from Up in the Air

Every time I take off on another flight, I wonder why I didn’t take a bus or train?! For some reason the turbulence on the first and last 15 minutes of the flights are quite bad and very unnerving. I’m not sure why they are so unnerving…I’ve been doing this for more than a few years now. On a recent trip with a friend, he even commented that the flight’s turbulence was the worst he’s experienced this year. For me, it was just a normal flight. My job changes based on the opportunities which arise. So for the last year I’ve been taking monthly trips to Bangalore. The topography we fly over is an arid plateau surrounded by low mountains and forests with temperatures fluctuating from over 104 during the day to 80 at night. I understand about the sun heating the air and it causing irregular masses of air to rise. Also, Jet Streams of air at higher altitudes fluctuate due to air pressure changes causing more turbulence.

But the experience of turbulence in a Boeing 737 is a bit more traumatic than that sounds. Maybe it’s due to me traveling alone so I’m alone in my thoughts? I think I’ll book a train for August. Here we go again…descending into Bangalore!

This doesn’t help either: http://www.airsafe.com/events/models/b737.htm

May 1980; Indian Airlines 737-200; near Rampur Hat, India: The aircraft experienced severe en route turbulence. Two of the 132 passengers were killed.

Joseph’s Cricket

A few times a month, Joseph has gotten together with some friends, boys from an orphanage along with some adults who were involved in Danielle's old school to and play cricket…THE sport of India. He sure enjoys it!

Danielle enjoys just watching Joseph's cricket game from a good spot (she didn't sit there too long!) :-)

On Thursday, Merrilea and I went to Thane, just north of Mumbai overnight to lay ground work for some visitors we have coming from South Carolina in May. Boy was it hot and humid! It was not as hot as Pune but because Thane is closer to the coast, it sure was muggy. Not jeans weather! We were looking for one particular area of the city and we ended up walking in a big circle for 2 hours! It was a laugh when we realized we actually were back where we had started! That does not happen very often to us…but it sure was funny!

Krazy Kitab!

Kitab (Kee-taab) in Urdu means 'book.' We spent hours and hours this last week logging over 2,000 books in a computer spread sheet. When Danielle's school shut down this last week we received all the books back which we had loaned them. We still are not done but we are sure well on our way!
We've got other boxes of books that we will use for this school year as well as ones we've used in the recent past which we need to log and shelve. Joseph will be happy as those boxes line his bedroom walls!

It remains pretty hot here...now most days over 100 degrees. It should remain this hot till mid June when the rainy season starts.
Either way, some of us are having fun!

Easter Sunday Sunrise on the Flip Side

This Picture was taken from our bedroom balcony this morning.

Plans for the day:

Sunrise coffee on our bedroom terrace and reading through “The Suffering Servant of the Cross” from http://stevenjcamp.blogspot.com/2007/04/o-sacred-head-thou-wounded-shame.html#links
along with the Resurrection story from Matthew’s Gospel account.

Eating hot cinnamon buns from Coffee Jar – something which is rare in India.

The kids go to local church service at 11:30 by rickshaw
Our house church will meet at 2-4PM over a church member’s home about 1 mile from our apartment। We’ll enjoy a late lunch together, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

10:30 this am:

While all this will happen, it is a normal Sunday in India: Muslims going to the mosque 5 times today, Hindus visiting their various temples, and the various Christian denominations celebrate in their churches this morning।

This afternoon we helped our friends put on an Easter party in their apartment complex. We had a great time of fun and literally explaining why Good Friday is good when it's the day Jesus was killed.

Fashion or use...which comes first?

Maria has new glasses!

Style and Fashion... whatever happened to just plain 'glasses?'

Congrats Maria! We like 'em!
Dad

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