Mara and Kara and Immediate Action
7:54 AM Edit This 0 Comments »
It's been extremely hot here. We really miss the snow. It seems to be in the middle of a heat wave right now. At least, we're hoping it's a heat wave rather than a general trend that will go on until April. If it gets much hotter than this we're going to melt. It finally rained on Tuesday; actually, it poured. There isn't much rain normally during the dry season. Sunny and Gracie say that it will only rain a couple of times. We went and washed our clothes in the rain and also pseudo-showered. Mara stood underneath a pipe draining water off of the roof and drank some of it, but as she's been drinking the water anyways here and consuming salmonella-recalled peanut butter crackers, we figure that's the least of her worries. She also frequently forgets that she has a daily malaria pill to take.
We both got a little sick at different points of the week. Kara had a fever on Sunday, and then Mara didn't feel well on Thursday. It's actually very interesting how much we confuse people when we feel sick. Sunny, Gracie, and all the nuns at the hospital couldn't seem to get what "I don't feel good" means. What do people say when they're sick here? Obviously not whatever we have been telling them. Kara told Sunny she had a fever (he understood the word fever at least), and then she went and laid down on the porch before dinner. Sunny assumed the worst, and screamed "What happened?!" It took a while to convince him that no one was dying. Also, Kara cannot explain to anyone what the word "achy" means when referring to the super-hypersensitive feeling your skin gets that makes you restless. Mara doesn’t get either, but her elbow aches. She also woke up the other morning with her eyebrow hurting. "I got punched in the face when I was sleeping!" she explains. We hope it is this rather than a symptom of a bizarre disease. Mara does at least; Kara hopes she catches whatever Mara has.
We went to our first Indian wedding on Monday. It was held in a very famous church that also serves as the final resting place of St. Gregorious, and a few other random people. No one at the wedding seemed especially concerned with watching the ceremony, and instead there was a constant stream of people walking in and out of the sanctuary to go pray at the bed of St. Gregorious, held in an enormous glass case. (We have no idea either). We both wore our saris. We were worried that they were too fancy, but then realized if anything we were underdressed, as the rest of the women had 100% silk saris, and a million pieces of gold jewelry. Gracie says the reason why white people don't where jewelry is because we're so pale and it looks bad on us. We have other theories. Needless to say, two white girls at an Indian wedding are going to get stared at, and we were not disappointed. We weren't yet to the point of mortification until the wedding photographer noticed us, and then got a lot of candid shots. Of us. We continued from there to the reception. The catering staff saw that we were white and brought us silverware which we proudly ignored. We're getting very adept at consuming with our hands. The dinner was spent with Sunny's constant urging to "eat fast" and with us trying to control the amount of food put onto our plates. The bride and groom walked in during the meal. The bride had a humongous gold necklace. Gracie says that she'll never have occasion to where it again, but doesn’t pass it onto her children. She just now has a three pound gold necklace to worry about. The bride and groom don't eat at the reception, the majority of the time is spent waiting for everyone else to get done eating, and then they take pictures with the guests. We were forcefully included in these pictures despite our best protests. Ah well, that's something to show your grandkids in forty years. "Hey look kids, we had to white girls at our wedding!" We also got invited to Kochin to stay with the bride's father. So that will be an adventure.
Tuesday we went back to the school and were to unveil to the fifth standard our epic play, "King Midas and the Golden Touch" which they will perform on Friday for Annual Day. Don't be fooled, this is not a masterpiece, but more a three minute version of everything we could remember about King Midas. They seem to be excited about it, despite the gaping plot holes and lack of speaking roles. We haven't worked out yet how to turn people to gold onstage. Good thing that kids have great imaginations and the general public doesn’t understand spoken English.
Wednesday we went to the hospital. Our visit was highlighted by meeting an anesthesiologist who informed Kara that because her blood type is a+, she has a higher risk of getting ovarian and stomach cancer. For those of you who worked at the nature center with her this summer, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. He also "SCOFFED" when we told him that we both played football. Girls don't play sports apparently. Silly us. Friday at the hospital brought a film crew from Shalom TV who were filming a documentary on the head priest of the ward. Our friend Linoj managed to convince us that they were actually there to film us because we're white and they go around looking for "peculiar things." The nurses did nothing to dispell this fear, as no one was explaining what was going on. The truth came out quickly however, and we were beyond relieved. We also began teaching people Spanish and French (what little we know). We also know how to count to ten in Arabic now, so that'll come in handy. Our friend Linoj actually shows a bit too much interest in our whereabouts, which we think with more to do with showing off his new American friends than it does anything else. Kara even got a chance to talk to one of his friends on the phone.
That night after dinner, we discovered the true reason for Gracie's constant back pain. While Kara was under the impression that she fell down the stairs, the real story is that she fell off the roof feeding chickens. She landed on the chicken feed pail, and although it saved her life, it is now barely recognizable. We know this because they kept it, and showed it to us. She broke two vertebrate in the fall. While this is obviously a very serious subject, we were unable to keep a straight face when Sunny explained his part of the story: "I here BIG NOISE outside. Sharon, cries. Sharma, cries. Me... IMMEDIATE ACTION!" The memory of his retelling the story is something we will hold near to our hearts for many years to come. Gracie is alright today but has to take medication for her back pain and also calcium pills. This incident explains the severe lack of chickens around the house. Sunny: "Chickens, THROW OUT."
Other little adventures:
-a man tied a rope around his feet and then climbed to the top of the coconut trees to get us a coconut.
-the same man also harvests the family pepper by climbing a "ladder," which is really just a bamboo pole with stubs on the side that he leans up against the tree.
-Kara ate a chicken heart. And very much wishes she hadn't.
-The spiders that used to occasionally occur in our house our now permanent fixtures. We've given up trying to name them. One ran across Mara's hand when she disturbed it's slumber in the book case. Bleck.
-there's a very odd THING on the side of our door. It appears to be small bug like things making a long brown tube. Although we are disgusted, we are even more curious and have decided to let it stay.
We are having an awesome time here. Hope everyone is doing great back home!
-Mara and Kara
We both got a little sick at different points of the week. Kara had a fever on Sunday, and then Mara didn't feel well on Thursday. It's actually very interesting how much we confuse people when we feel sick. Sunny, Gracie, and all the nuns at the hospital couldn't seem to get what "I don't feel good" means. What do people say when they're sick here? Obviously not whatever we have been telling them. Kara told Sunny she had a fever (he understood the word fever at least), and then she went and laid down on the porch before dinner. Sunny assumed the worst, and screamed "What happened?!" It took a while to convince him that no one was dying. Also, Kara cannot explain to anyone what the word "achy" means when referring to the super-hypersensitive feeling your skin gets that makes you restless. Mara doesn’t get either, but her elbow aches. She also woke up the other morning with her eyebrow hurting. "I got punched in the face when I was sleeping!" she explains. We hope it is this rather than a symptom of a bizarre disease. Mara does at least; Kara hopes she catches whatever Mara has.
We went to our first Indian wedding on Monday. It was held in a very famous church that also serves as the final resting place of St. Gregorious, and a few other random people. No one at the wedding seemed especially concerned with watching the ceremony, and instead there was a constant stream of people walking in and out of the sanctuary to go pray at the bed of St. Gregorious, held in an enormous glass case. (We have no idea either). We both wore our saris. We were worried that they were too fancy, but then realized if anything we were underdressed, as the rest of the women had 100% silk saris, and a million pieces of gold jewelry. Gracie says the reason why white people don't where jewelry is because we're so pale and it looks bad on us. We have other theories. Needless to say, two white girls at an Indian wedding are going to get stared at, and we were not disappointed. We weren't yet to the point of mortification until the wedding photographer noticed us, and then got a lot of candid shots. Of us. We continued from there to the reception. The catering staff saw that we were white and brought us silverware which we proudly ignored. We're getting very adept at consuming with our hands. The dinner was spent with Sunny's constant urging to "eat fast" and with us trying to control the amount of food put onto our plates. The bride and groom walked in during the meal. The bride had a humongous gold necklace. Gracie says that she'll never have occasion to where it again, but doesn’t pass it onto her children. She just now has a three pound gold necklace to worry about. The bride and groom don't eat at the reception, the majority of the time is spent waiting for everyone else to get done eating, and then they take pictures with the guests. We were forcefully included in these pictures despite our best protests. Ah well, that's something to show your grandkids in forty years. "Hey look kids, we had to white girls at our wedding!" We also got invited to Kochin to stay with the bride's father. So that will be an adventure.
Tuesday we went back to the school and were to unveil to the fifth standard our epic play, "King Midas and the Golden Touch" which they will perform on Friday for Annual Day. Don't be fooled, this is not a masterpiece, but more a three minute version of everything we could remember about King Midas. They seem to be excited about it, despite the gaping plot holes and lack of speaking roles. We haven't worked out yet how to turn people to gold onstage. Good thing that kids have great imaginations and the general public doesn’t understand spoken English.
Wednesday we went to the hospital. Our visit was highlighted by meeting an anesthesiologist who informed Kara that because her blood type is a+, she has a higher risk of getting ovarian and stomach cancer. For those of you who worked at the nature center with her this summer, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. He also "SCOFFED" when we told him that we both played football. Girls don't play sports apparently. Silly us. Friday at the hospital brought a film crew from Shalom TV who were filming a documentary on the head priest of the ward. Our friend Linoj managed to convince us that they were actually there to film us because we're white and they go around looking for "peculiar things." The nurses did nothing to dispell this fear, as no one was explaining what was going on. The truth came out quickly however, and we were beyond relieved. We also began teaching people Spanish and French (what little we know). We also know how to count to ten in Arabic now, so that'll come in handy. Our friend Linoj actually shows a bit too much interest in our whereabouts, which we think with more to do with showing off his new American friends than it does anything else. Kara even got a chance to talk to one of his friends on the phone.
That night after dinner, we discovered the true reason for Gracie's constant back pain. While Kara was under the impression that she fell down the stairs, the real story is that she fell off the roof feeding chickens. She landed on the chicken feed pail, and although it saved her life, it is now barely recognizable. We know this because they kept it, and showed it to us. She broke two vertebrate in the fall. While this is obviously a very serious subject, we were unable to keep a straight face when Sunny explained his part of the story: "I here BIG NOISE outside. Sharon, cries. Sharma, cries. Me... IMMEDIATE ACTION!" The memory of his retelling the story is something we will hold near to our hearts for many years to come. Gracie is alright today but has to take medication for her back pain and also calcium pills. This incident explains the severe lack of chickens around the house. Sunny: "Chickens, THROW OUT."
Other little adventures:
-a man tied a rope around his feet and then climbed to the top of the coconut trees to get us a coconut.
-the same man also harvests the family pepper by climbing a "ladder," which is really just a bamboo pole with stubs on the side that he leans up against the tree.
-Kara ate a chicken heart. And very much wishes she hadn't.
-The spiders that used to occasionally occur in our house our now permanent fixtures. We've given up trying to name them. One ran across Mara's hand when she disturbed it's slumber in the book case. Bleck.
-there's a very odd THING on the side of our door. It appears to be small bug like things making a long brown tube. Although we are disgusted, we are even more curious and have decided to let it stay.
We are having an awesome time here. Hope everyone is doing great back home!
-Mara and Kara
0 comments:
Post a Comment