Mara and Kara and the Big Big Hot
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We apologize for the delay in posting this update. We are trying to get back on schedule and hope to post much more often in the remaining three weeks of our stay.
Saturday we received a surprise visit from Sunny’s cousin sister, who was just passing through the area for a bit. Sunny told us, in the spirit of hospitality, to “put the sugar in water” for her, referring to the Tang we picked up in Ranni last week. Sunny seriously enjoys Tang but has to drink it on the sly as Gracie is convinced it contributes to his allergies. We prepared a large lunch for ourselves and the cousin sister, but had to eat rather hurriedly as we were expecting Rebecca from the Santa Maria school. We were to be honored guests at a special meeting of her Rotary Club. The meeting consisted of around 15-20 women aged anywhere from their twenties to their seventies. They were all very curious as to what we were doing in India. After standing up and giving a short speech about our experiences thus far we were requested to sing a song (of course) which didn’t go as bad as some of our previous attempts have been. When we reached the subject of major cultural differences, we were delighted to learn that it isn’t just school children that giggle when we talk about boys touching girls as the subject had a similar effect on the middle aged ladies in the back row. The ride home was spent teaching They Might Be Giants songs to the three little girls who had decided to ride home with us.
That night we helped Sunny cut beef with his toes before he left on a mission to convince a number of high ranking political officials to attend the function for Bishop Makarios’ 1st Death Anniversary. While he was gone we helped Gracie complete a few household chores, including ironing Sunny’s dhotis. Gracie said “Sunny is small baby” because he always loses buttons off his shirts and doesn’t know how to iron his own dhotis. Mara spent a good amount of time running the iron over every inch of a 3 yard-long dhoti before Gracie taught her the trick of folding it up then ironing just the top layer. Sunny returned with the news that the Opposition Party leader would indeed be in attendance at the function but his excitement sobered as he encountered our full assault about his dhoti ironing ineptitudes. We slept outside on the porch that night because of the intense heat.
The next morning we had to get up early to go to Bishop Makarios 1st death anniversary service at the Eastern Orthodox headquarters; however we were woken up slightly earlier than necessary by our driver who masquerades as the paper deliverer when he threw the paper on to the porch and hit Mara in the face. The service itself was pleasant even though it was fully in Malayalam and the only words we were able to consistently catch were ‘bishop’ and ‘Makarios.’ We had the opportunity of making up for our incorrect greeting with the head bishop as he is always present for those services and blesses everyone as they leave the church, which involves individuals leaning down to touch their heads to his gold cross. Mara may not have been spot on as she misjudged the distance and brought her head down more forcefully to the cross than necessary, but at least it wasn’t a handshake. Upon exiting the church, each person was handed a banana and a fried Indian sweet, however the guys handing out bananas got a little too excited by our presence. They were pulling the bananas out of the reach of old women to give them to us instead and eventually forced us to take way more bananas than we knew what to do with. We made the mistake of telling Sunny we wanted coffee and before we knew what was happening, we were being lead into the priest’s mess hall for a full breakfast. Sunny let us know that at the service he had seen his best friend from the fertilizer business who he hadn’t talked to in 15 years. So of course, after leaving the church we spent some time driving around different neighborhoods in search of Sunny’s BFF. We finally located his house and he and Sunny shared a blissful reunion.
After lessons we attended St. Dionysius’ 75th Death Anniversary Jubilee, where there were a number of very important individuals including the Head Bishop (that guy gets around), several members of parliament, the Australian Archbishop of the Armenian Church, and the Opposition Party Leader. Also, as everyone had to go up and greet the Head Bishop before they spoke, we were able to see a variety of ways that is deemed appropriate to greet His Popeness. Kara was delighted to see one man grab the bishop’s hand and raise it to his forehead; it appears she didn’t mortify herself as much as she thought she did. After the speeches, there was a music program that consisted of traditional Indian music. We both loved it, and are now on the lookout for a music store where we can purchase cd’s, though we’d also be happy if we could get our hands on a sitar…
Monday at the school was spent teaching a large amount of Spanish and French to the kids. At first the teachers were a bit skeptical (after all, what are people going to do here with those two languages?) but we knew we had them convinced when they sat in the back of class and learned along with the kids. We also found out that Roshin, one of our favorite 9th standard boys, had his appendix out the previous Thursday, so we went to visit him after school. Upon returning home, we discovered that our well was so low that the pump couldn’t draw any more water up to the house, which according to Sunny has never happened before. It has been ten times hotter than it has ever needed to be here. A few weeks ago we reported that if it got any hotter we would melt; however, that comment was drastically premature. The average here has been 38 degrees (that’s Celsius), though we have it from a source back in the States that that temperature feels like 110 degrees… Fahrenheit. Sometimes we wish we would’ve picked a location with a milder climate. It also probably would have been a good idea to have looked at the Kerala weather before we left America.
Tuesday was a continuation of foreign language lessons. We now walk around the school with ‘hola’ and ‘hasta luego’ shouted at us. We returned home to a surprise; there was a large truck parked in the driveway with two huge water tanks emptying directly into the well. It costs Rs. 500 for 3000 liters of transported well water. Unfortunately, when the water in the well fell below a usable level, the pump became broken. Even with the additional water, we had to rely on a bucket and pulley to draw it out of the well because the taps don’t work. Regardless, it is nice to be able to brush our teeth and shower again.
Wednesday the hospital was a little more insane than usual. Jobi the nurse was still in a disturbingly good mood, the German nun was wearing a completely different color robe and habit, and oh, there was an enormous hole in the wall. We think that they are intending to increase the size of the ward but no one was able to tell us for sure. Later in the afternoon a two-man work crew came in and smeared cement over some of the crumbling bricks. From what we have seen about methods of construction over here, we are really glad that Kerala isn’t on a fault line. Sunny and Gracie told us Wednesday night that they are cancelling on us for the Bangalore trip because the water shortage forced Sherma’s hostel to close and she is coming home early. We tentatively decided to go without them, but Sunny remains worried that we will be cheated too much in his absence.
On Thursday morning both of our professors called and cancelled lessons, so we had an unexpected but greatly appreciated free day. We sat around doing homework most of the day but went to the school for a few periods when we knew the older students had free time. Kara taught some excitable 9th standard students how to play Frogger and we both played a little soccer with the 7th standard boys.
On Friday we were all ready to go to the hospital but as 9:00 came and went it became clear that our driver was not going to show up. So we met Sunny at his shop and after he persuaded his neighbor to climb on top of some buildings to steal Congress Party flags for us, he helped us catch the bus into Thiruvalla. The construction was still under way on the hospital wall, but that didn’t stop medical procedures from happening in the waiting room. It is probably the only place in the world where cement is mixed and chemo is administered in the same room. On our way from the hospital to the bus station, we saw our old friends Linoj and Swapna. Linoj is still bothered that Kara never receives his phone calls, but otherwise they seem to be alright.
Saturday after our lessons we had Presanthe drive us around to a variety of stores. We went to the DC bookstore, but accidentally went in the door for the Malayalam books and had to be directed to the English side. After driving around and asking directions of a few totally clueless pedestrians we arrived at FabIndia where things were a little overpriced and there were half a dozen bored employees hovering silently over us. When we made it out of there we went to the supermarket to pick up some more Tang. We were distracted by a couple of friendly Bible college students who made us all but promise to visit their campus. The whole process took a while and we bought a Pepsi for Presanthe for all his trouble. This may not have been a good idea, however, because he steered the car with his knees in order to drink it.
On Sunday our lessons were pushed back so we were able to attend church with Sunny and Gracie. While we couldn’t understand anything that was going on, we were extremely proud to find we could sing along with the hymns by reading the Malayalam script. We did get lost every once in a while, but there was always someone nearby willing to get us on the right page. We stopped at home before leaving for our lessons and it took us a minute to register that the unfamiliar person in the yard was none other than Sherma, home from nursing school. She was as confused as we were. As we were in a rush, we only had time for a hurried “Oh, you must be Sherma!” before we frantically grabbed our bags and hopped back into the car.
After lessons, we had an invitation from Sharon to visit the Eastern Orthodox Seminary, where he is a student. As exams started the next day, we felt slightly bad at distracting him from his study time, however he assured us that he hadn’t even been studying when we arrived (we made sure to not mention that little detail when Sunny and Gracie asked us when we returned home if Sharon was prepared for exams). Sharon gave us a very detailed tour of the grounds, and we even got to see the room where Bishop Makarios stayed when he was a priest. The seminary has kept it in the exact same condition as it was when he stayed there.
Technically, guests are only allowed to look in through the door, but as Mara needed a better angle for a picture, Sharon snuck us in after a furtive look around to see if anyone was watching. We got to meet several of Sharon’s classmates, and were even pleasantly surprised to meet one student from Chicago (we promised him to find him on Facebook). It’s always a shock to hear an American accent other than from each other. We were invited for evening prayers as well, but as it was getting late we declined, saying we’d come back another day.
Little Adventures:
-Dr. Thomas may have been sent a package of anthrax. We’re not sure if he misspoke or we misheard, or if he was actually sent a package of anthrax.
- When we arrived, every day after school a group of guys would come and play soccer in the school yard. It used to be four or five guys. They caught us watching them from the porch, and since then the number has grown to 10-15 with more arriving every day. They are now dressing suspiciously more fashionable, if you ignore the middle aged men who pull up their dhotis to play.
Saturday we received a surprise visit from Sunny’s cousin sister, who was just passing through the area for a bit. Sunny told us, in the spirit of hospitality, to “put the sugar in water” for her, referring to the Tang we picked up in Ranni last week. Sunny seriously enjoys Tang but has to drink it on the sly as Gracie is convinced it contributes to his allergies. We prepared a large lunch for ourselves and the cousin sister, but had to eat rather hurriedly as we were expecting Rebecca from the Santa Maria school. We were to be honored guests at a special meeting of her Rotary Club. The meeting consisted of around 15-20 women aged anywhere from their twenties to their seventies. They were all very curious as to what we were doing in India. After standing up and giving a short speech about our experiences thus far we were requested to sing a song (of course) which didn’t go as bad as some of our previous attempts have been. When we reached the subject of major cultural differences, we were delighted to learn that it isn’t just school children that giggle when we talk about boys touching girls as the subject had a similar effect on the middle aged ladies in the back row. The ride home was spent teaching They Might Be Giants songs to the three little girls who had decided to ride home with us.
That night we helped Sunny cut beef with his toes before he left on a mission to convince a number of high ranking political officials to attend the function for Bishop Makarios’ 1st Death Anniversary. While he was gone we helped Gracie complete a few household chores, including ironing Sunny’s dhotis. Gracie said “Sunny is small baby” because he always loses buttons off his shirts and doesn’t know how to iron his own dhotis. Mara spent a good amount of time running the iron over every inch of a 3 yard-long dhoti before Gracie taught her the trick of folding it up then ironing just the top layer. Sunny returned with the news that the Opposition Party leader would indeed be in attendance at the function but his excitement sobered as he encountered our full assault about his dhoti ironing ineptitudes. We slept outside on the porch that night because of the intense heat.
The next morning we had to get up early to go to Bishop Makarios 1st death anniversary service at the Eastern Orthodox headquarters; however we were woken up slightly earlier than necessary by our driver who masquerades as the paper deliverer when he threw the paper on to the porch and hit Mara in the face. The service itself was pleasant even though it was fully in Malayalam and the only words we were able to consistently catch were ‘bishop’ and ‘Makarios.’ We had the opportunity of making up for our incorrect greeting with the head bishop as he is always present for those services and blesses everyone as they leave the church, which involves individuals leaning down to touch their heads to his gold cross. Mara may not have been spot on as she misjudged the distance and brought her head down more forcefully to the cross than necessary, but at least it wasn’t a handshake. Upon exiting the church, each person was handed a banana and a fried Indian sweet, however the guys handing out bananas got a little too excited by our presence. They were pulling the bananas out of the reach of old women to give them to us instead and eventually forced us to take way more bananas than we knew what to do with. We made the mistake of telling Sunny we wanted coffee and before we knew what was happening, we were being lead into the priest’s mess hall for a full breakfast. Sunny let us know that at the service he had seen his best friend from the fertilizer business who he hadn’t talked to in 15 years. So of course, after leaving the church we spent some time driving around different neighborhoods in search of Sunny’s BFF. We finally located his house and he and Sunny shared a blissful reunion.
After lessons we attended St. Dionysius’ 75th Death Anniversary Jubilee, where there were a number of very important individuals including the Head Bishop (that guy gets around), several members of parliament, the Australian Archbishop of the Armenian Church, and the Opposition Party Leader. Also, as everyone had to go up and greet the Head Bishop before they spoke, we were able to see a variety of ways that is deemed appropriate to greet His Popeness. Kara was delighted to see one man grab the bishop’s hand and raise it to his forehead; it appears she didn’t mortify herself as much as she thought she did. After the speeches, there was a music program that consisted of traditional Indian music. We both loved it, and are now on the lookout for a music store where we can purchase cd’s, though we’d also be happy if we could get our hands on a sitar…
Monday at the school was spent teaching a large amount of Spanish and French to the kids. At first the teachers were a bit skeptical (after all, what are people going to do here with those two languages?) but we knew we had them convinced when they sat in the back of class and learned along with the kids. We also found out that Roshin, one of our favorite 9th standard boys, had his appendix out the previous Thursday, so we went to visit him after school. Upon returning home, we discovered that our well was so low that the pump couldn’t draw any more water up to the house, which according to Sunny has never happened before. It has been ten times hotter than it has ever needed to be here. A few weeks ago we reported that if it got any hotter we would melt; however, that comment was drastically premature. The average here has been 38 degrees (that’s Celsius), though we have it from a source back in the States that that temperature feels like 110 degrees… Fahrenheit. Sometimes we wish we would’ve picked a location with a milder climate. It also probably would have been a good idea to have looked at the Kerala weather before we left America.
Tuesday was a continuation of foreign language lessons. We now walk around the school with ‘hola’ and ‘hasta luego’ shouted at us. We returned home to a surprise; there was a large truck parked in the driveway with two huge water tanks emptying directly into the well. It costs Rs. 500 for 3000 liters of transported well water. Unfortunately, when the water in the well fell below a usable level, the pump became broken. Even with the additional water, we had to rely on a bucket and pulley to draw it out of the well because the taps don’t work. Regardless, it is nice to be able to brush our teeth and shower again.
Wednesday the hospital was a little more insane than usual. Jobi the nurse was still in a disturbingly good mood, the German nun was wearing a completely different color robe and habit, and oh, there was an enormous hole in the wall. We think that they are intending to increase the size of the ward but no one was able to tell us for sure. Later in the afternoon a two-man work crew came in and smeared cement over some of the crumbling bricks. From what we have seen about methods of construction over here, we are really glad that Kerala isn’t on a fault line. Sunny and Gracie told us Wednesday night that they are cancelling on us for the Bangalore trip because the water shortage forced Sherma’s hostel to close and she is coming home early. We tentatively decided to go without them, but Sunny remains worried that we will be cheated too much in his absence.
On Thursday morning both of our professors called and cancelled lessons, so we had an unexpected but greatly appreciated free day. We sat around doing homework most of the day but went to the school for a few periods when we knew the older students had free time. Kara taught some excitable 9th standard students how to play Frogger and we both played a little soccer with the 7th standard boys.
On Friday we were all ready to go to the hospital but as 9:00 came and went it became clear that our driver was not going to show up. So we met Sunny at his shop and after he persuaded his neighbor to climb on top of some buildings to steal Congress Party flags for us, he helped us catch the bus into Thiruvalla. The construction was still under way on the hospital wall, but that didn’t stop medical procedures from happening in the waiting room. It is probably the only place in the world where cement is mixed and chemo is administered in the same room. On our way from the hospital to the bus station, we saw our old friends Linoj and Swapna. Linoj is still bothered that Kara never receives his phone calls, but otherwise they seem to be alright.
Saturday after our lessons we had Presanthe drive us around to a variety of stores. We went to the DC bookstore, but accidentally went in the door for the Malayalam books and had to be directed to the English side. After driving around and asking directions of a few totally clueless pedestrians we arrived at FabIndia where things were a little overpriced and there were half a dozen bored employees hovering silently over us. When we made it out of there we went to the supermarket to pick up some more Tang. We were distracted by a couple of friendly Bible college students who made us all but promise to visit their campus. The whole process took a while and we bought a Pepsi for Presanthe for all his trouble. This may not have been a good idea, however, because he steered the car with his knees in order to drink it.
On Sunday our lessons were pushed back so we were able to attend church with Sunny and Gracie. While we couldn’t understand anything that was going on, we were extremely proud to find we could sing along with the hymns by reading the Malayalam script. We did get lost every once in a while, but there was always someone nearby willing to get us on the right page. We stopped at home before leaving for our lessons and it took us a minute to register that the unfamiliar person in the yard was none other than Sherma, home from nursing school. She was as confused as we were. As we were in a rush, we only had time for a hurried “Oh, you must be Sherma!” before we frantically grabbed our bags and hopped back into the car.
After lessons, we had an invitation from Sharon to visit the Eastern Orthodox Seminary, where he is a student. As exams started the next day, we felt slightly bad at distracting him from his study time, however he assured us that he hadn’t even been studying when we arrived (we made sure to not mention that little detail when Sunny and Gracie asked us when we returned home if Sharon was prepared for exams). Sharon gave us a very detailed tour of the grounds, and we even got to see the room where Bishop Makarios stayed when he was a priest. The seminary has kept it in the exact same condition as it was when he stayed there.
Technically, guests are only allowed to look in through the door, but as Mara needed a better angle for a picture, Sharon snuck us in after a furtive look around to see if anyone was watching. We got to meet several of Sharon’s classmates, and were even pleasantly surprised to meet one student from Chicago (we promised him to find him on Facebook). It’s always a shock to hear an American accent other than from each other. We were invited for evening prayers as well, but as it was getting late we declined, saying we’d come back another day.
Little Adventures:
-Dr. Thomas may have been sent a package of anthrax. We’re not sure if he misspoke or we misheard, or if he was actually sent a package of anthrax.
- When we arrived, every day after school a group of guys would come and play soccer in the school yard. It used to be four or five guys. They caught us watching them from the porch, and since then the number has grown to 10-15 with more arriving every day. They are now dressing suspiciously more fashionable, if you ignore the middle aged men who pull up their dhotis to play.
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