Local

I love getting asked for directions. Because it makes me feel helpful and in-the-know. Yesterday morning, I was hailed over to the curbside by a Vietnamese daughter and her dad. "Which way is Northern Boulevard?" At that point, it was straight and to the right. Amazing that staying at Juanita's last month enabled me to know this. This morning, after shooting out of bed realizing it was light but I hadn't set my alarm, walking down the street to the train, I was stopped by a nicely dressed woman, "Can you tell me where is 37th Street?" Two blocks that way! I am so lucky. God blesses me with strangers. It is better to give directions than to receive. But in doing so, I am receiving direction, in a way. :)

Caffeine free diet Irene

As I told my friend Julie, I've been meaning to title a post the above for a few weeks now. Ever since I stopped drinking coffee one fateful day, I think it's been three weeks now, and survived the throbbing headache, I have, in fact, been caffeine free. I've quit coffee several times before in my life but this is the first time that I've really appreciated not being groggy and 'in need of a fix' in the morning/afternoon. So, I think I'm going to stick with it. I feel more clear headed, physically--not necessarily otherwise, and it makes me happy.

As far as "diet": I've been tracking what I eat and happily weigh a little less than I did two years ago at this time. We'll see. No big hopes, although I am going to Hawaii with my family at the end of this month. So there is a motivating factor.

I had my first full day as a substitute para-educator today. It was pretty fun. I liked the alternative high school environment I was at. Listened to a great sermon recommended to me by my ex-colleague and still friend Scott that reminded me of many Great Truths and so complaining about my wage is really towards the end of the list of things I can be doing with my life. :) I love perspective.

Scrabble cake made by Jessica. The "I" is for me and it is yummy! Thanks, Jessica!

Oh, and I finished the draft of the play that I was working on! Yay!

And a shout out to Alison whom I had the pleasure of lunching with the other day. She said my blog has been useful in disproving some of my alleged whereabouts. Thank God for that!

Just a sign that I'm in Richlandia. Note the politely stated limit. :) Another bonus of bus-riding: I get to walk a bit too and catch these treasures.

In true cyber-stalker fashion, I really want to meet this woman who reminds me eerily of myself, but she has not responded to my comment. I guess I don't make much of an impression in the blogasphere. :) But if you get a chance, read it! It's amazing.

Ten lepers-esque

Waiting for my re-booked flight out of Salt Lake City (free wifi!). I volunteered to take a later flight in return for 300 Delta dollars and a $7 meal voucher that I just redeemed at Wolfgang Puck Express for a turkey avocado sandwich. And after making up the 86 cent balance, I have 25 cents left in cash.

This is what Christians call a praise report. i.e., I didn't want to spend the subway fare to head into Manhattan but I did want to see Nancy one last time. Remembered that my two-week unlimited expired today and not yesterday. So I got to see Nancy without extra cost.

Then, Nancy paid for my beef goulash at Hallo Berlin after we met Diane--a lonely elder lady who is family-less in NYC and said her company voted to stop paying for health insurance instead of doing layoffs. She said her insurance bill is more than her rent. Nancy shared with her about the only For Sure we have.

As mentioned, my metrocard expired today but I didn't have to use it because last night I went to Jersey City and stayed the night at Linsey's place. And she and Kristen made curry split pea soup, linguini and meatballs, and a huge lemon tart with freshly whipped schlag. Then, they both woke up at 5:30am to drive me to Newark. Did I mention I don't have enough money to pay for the path/nj transit/airtrain? No worries.

Moreover, as far as my Tucson plans I don't have a job yet nor a place to live. I was beginning to wonder: is this happening? Am I gonna have to bum off my parents indefinitely? How am I even gonna GET to Tucson? Cue overbooking of my Salt Lake-Pasco flight. Now I have $300 to fly to Tucson! Wow. Thank you, my God. Love, me of little faith. What kind of volunteering ends up with $307 in compensation? Wow.

Also, on my Newark-SLC segment, I uses the free wifi trial, flight attendant gave me extra Biscoff (dude I love those cookies), and I had the row to myself.

Oh, and since I'm on a roll, at _two_ upstairs climbs on my trip from Juanita's in Queens to Jersey City, a young woman offered to help me with my luggage. Two angels. At separate places at the right time.    

Ninth morning in Queens

I've got two hours to post some photos. Let's go!



Thanksgiving! My whole family at my sister's house with her husband's family too.



Sue, my roommate from my Israel trip, with Mooch's cousin!













The view from Sue's kitchen window. You better believe that I want to take her up on her guest room offer! Amazing.



Currant scone and curd at Rice in Fort Greene.















Nini! Just as cute as last time we hung out.




Linsey with her fabulous new hair cut!

















Anna and Ben's menagerie: Bubbles (the bear), Nay Nay (the donkey), and Pigletta. I didn't get the little ones' names. Hung out with Anna yesterday, met for lunch at Zemi, where the tofu was quite good, and then I saw her apartment in Park Slope. It's beautifully decorated and there is lots of light.




After leaving Anna's, I traveled deeper into Brooklyn to Nancy's mom's house where she persuaded her mom to cook for me (and the rest of the family and half the neighborhood). Chicken and spaghetti. Oh my! Yum! This is it cooking.




And here it is plated, my plate to be exact.


Final shot is Evelyn (Nancy's mom), Alexis (Nancy's brother), and Nancy. What fun! We decorated and laughed well into the night. I am thankful for good eats and shared eats.

Six days you shall do all your work

For me, the fourth commandment begs the question: does taking care of kids count as work? Well, after seven days of watching my Seattle set of 4, I am very ready for today's rest. I left Tucson last Saturday and arrived to Seattle in time for a three-hour briefing on the week's activities from my sister. She and her husband left for Paris in the early hours of the following day and I became in charge, along with my mom who was official Meal-Maker and Keeper. I have no photos to post today because I left my camera at their house and now am at my other sister's house in Bellevue.

What to say about the last week? I can liken it to working on a pitch for Deutsch: all hours, many hours, lots of surprises, few rules, high impact, stressful, constantly short on time. I can also liken it to touring "Flicker" with Big Art Group in France back in 2002: go-go-go, corralling several rowdy and obstinate humans, lack of sleep, barrage of questions--sometimes in a language I couldn't understand, and an abundance of body fluids.

But fun, oh, what fun! Rolling around on inflatable tubes with my nephew waiting for his little sister to finish her soccer session was exhilarating. Doing the youngest's hair with no screaming on her part--I learned to laugh and she would follow suit--was a great accomplishment. Figuring out she was saying "helmet" and "yogurt" from "heh-meh" and "o-gur" was as good as telling the bus driver, in broken French, to turn down the heat. Walking the older two to school, hand-in-hand, "SQUEEZE!"ing past the overgrown shrubs along the sidewalk was hilarious. And plenty more.

Even after they were all tucked in at night, I got the bonus to chat with my mom about my grandparents and her family history. Great great stuff. Yes, I'm tired. But it's a sweet fatigue.

Happy Thanksgiving, all. I am thankful for you, my family and friends.

RZIM

Thanks to Olivia's high connectivity and un-hurried way of living, I have uploaded a large selection of my photos from my time in Chennai, India. To start off, I limited myself to only one flora photo. This was in the yard of Hindustan Bible Institute (HBI) where I spent my first weekend prior to the Academy start. HBI is an amazing ministry with a college, orphanage, guest rooms, medical clinic and community church. My first bonus experience--picked up the term 'bonus' from Jada Pinkett Smith who was interviewed in Good Housekeeping and Trisha Yearwood mentioned she got the term from her for a better term for stepkids. Random factoids.


The orphan girls line up by height and walk in a very un-Indian orderly manner to and from the dining hall.







White people! This team from Chicago blessed me with their presence. They're making fun of me and my wide-mouthed photo pose.







Hephzibah (see Isaiah 62:4), a college student the others call "akka" for older sister. Here I am on Sunday in the same clothes that I departed NYC from in on Wednesday. She was kind enough to let me sit with her and talked to me about her life and introduced me to a bunch of the other students.




New Calvary Church pastor and his family. Biju was so kind, serving as a bellhop of sorts to me. Later, he taught two of the sessions at the Academy. He studied in Chicago which is why the team was doing a missions trip from there, his friends from his time in the States.








The gate I unlocked every morning at 7:30am and went to breakfast. During the first two days, some of the other students thought I worked for RZIM as the dorm 'warden' (not a term associated with jails in India) because I welcomed newcomers and showed them around. Funny, as I was the only non-Indian in the batch.







Glastin, on staff with RZIM, my breakfast buddy.

Ajit Fernando. Works with Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka and was a great inspiration to me. Such a humble, scholarly man and so evidently in love with Jesus and His people. Treated even the most obnoxious students among us with the gentlest respect and honor. Amazing grace.



I want to give you an accurate impression of India so including this traffic picture. Unfortunately, not even this evokes the crowded, noisy, honking, speedy, go-go-go-ness fully.






Our first Saturday outing we went to some place that starts with a 'C' that I couldn't remember then and certainly can't remember now. Anyway, it's like a little South India Disneyland of sorts with mini-villages you can walk through. Here I'm having some coconut juice--a rare food that I don't love.




Later that day we went to the beach--oh, wait, I think I already posted about this. Anyway. Here's another pic of the boys enjoying the waves.






All the students are assigned to lead worship sometime during the course. Here Praveen had me do the hand motions for "I'm trading my sorrows".






My song pick was "Blessed Be Your Name". Here's a shot of the classroom.

Mooch happily listens to Sudheer introduce a Resource Person. :)










Chapati. My fav.








Will let rest of these speak from themselves. But, just so you know, this is a typical buffet lunch for us Academicians.










Handwashing station near our outdoor dining hall. The sink on the right had a broken pipe so it didn't lead straight into the drain. I joked that it was a simultaneous footwashing.









I never found out his name, but this young man who served us afternoon tea (not to be confused with mid-morning tea or late night tea) knew by the end of week 1 that I always came back for seconds.









The corner shrine. Do not use shrines as landmarks.








Pani puri. A north Indian fast food nibble that is sweeping the nation, according to Priyanka. This was got at Spencers, the fancy mall in Chennai, where I got a knockoff Jansport duffle bag for 450 rupees (~12USD) that busted its end pocket zipper before I even next packed. Back to pani puri: it's a crisp shell of fried something that is broken open and a potato mash is dabbed inside and then spiced broth is poured in. Eaten like a raw oyster.

Pani puri purveyors.








Squashed into an 'auto'--three-wheeled open-door motor cycle taxi rickshaw. In Dhaka, they run on natural gas and are painted green whereas Chennai's autos are yellow.






Priyanka arranged dinner at Galloping Gooseberries. David met us. He's a Chennaian.

Raj, another local--about two thirds of our class were--met us too. Gooseberries is an American restaurant. Hence, Leonardo. I also have a great picture of Priyanka with Dana Carvey which I will post upon request.








Here's Pastor Prince, Praveen, Suresh, and Benhail.

Shiv very excited about her cheeseburger. I joked that I was more Indian than she: eat with my hands, like spicier food, know that Tamil Nadu is the state we were in, etc. ;)



Typical lunch, plated.

Uncle Gunar, Raj, Prince, and Santhosh enjoying lunch.








Me at evening tea in my 'schlomit' necklace that I got in Israel. You see, the other students made careful notice of my earrings--which I've been picking up a pair from most the places I've visited this year. But today was necklace day. :) Schlomit--have I already posted about this?--is Hebrew feminine for 'peace' because 'Irene' means peace. I figured Schlomit (which really sounds pretty if said by someone fluent in Hebrew) was cooler than a phonetic Irene necklace.





So I mentioned Diwali or Deepawali in an earlier post. It's the Festival of Lights and here is the debris from our neighbors celebratory firecrackers. Loud is an understatement.









One of my favorite instructors, Cyril. He usually dressed like my high school chemistry Mr. Faddis, in dress shirt and tie. However, when he came back from holiday, he was sporting traditional garb. Note his shoes!









The following weekend, Shalini took us shopping. For atmosphere.








Auto Squeeze No. 2 This time with Kripal and Praveen, the Hydrabad brothers.

They got the driver to let me sit in the front seat for photos.







Average neighborhood cow.

Angeli, one of the housekeepers at the residence. She took a few of us for a walk to a market. She has two (normal sized) daughters. Very sweet and spoke to me constantly, in Tamil. Of which I understood none. And this frustrated her. Then she'd start charades. Which were no more comprehensible.




Of course on our walk, we had to stop for tea. This is Arnold, the youngest in our batch at 19, and Suresh--hours before he shaved the mustache.






Forget what these are called but they are a kind of sweet. Fried milk, sort of a nougat/malt texture with a thin filament of edible silver. Amazing. All Indian sweets, in my opinion, look like construction material.





So the last night, we ran out of tea. So our traditional evening tea was just...water. We used the regular pink mugs though. And had as much fun, if not more, than tea nights.






Suresh and Praveen. Aren't they cute?










Praveen, Suresh, Shiv, Peter, Benhail, David. 90210 style. Not that any of them are old enough or American enough to know what that means.






The day after class concluded, Santhosh, who is a local and was super helpful to me on the first day of class and helped me find a working ATM, took us to around. Having lived in Kuwait, Santhosh knows what it's like to be a visitor and had sympathy on us to take us around. Here's his son with an idli steamer. Remember those little white rice cakes I posted before? Santhosh's wife was kind enough to let me poke around her kitchen, saying: usually we don't let guests see our kitchen, but I thought you'd like to see an Indian kitchen.

Santhosh, Praveen, Suresh at Marina Beach--apparently not the 2nd longest beach in the world.










Our toilet and shower--the bucket and little vessel with a spout is the shower. ;)







The computer in the residence I likened to the hearth. You can see why.