India Part 3 (October 5, 2009)

Namaste Sabhi!

...or "Hello Everyone" in Hindi. I have started learning Hindi for half an hour every morning. I'm starting with the basics (How are you? I am fine? etc). Hindi is really hard. The different sounds and alphabet make things extra complicated. I am enjoying myself though and the girls find it quite amusing when I practice new words or phrases on them.

This week, around 15 of the girls and I took a trip to the local market so that they could spend their allowance. What an exciting event for them! Each girl had 10 rupees to spend (about 25 cents). We must have been at the store (more of a stand) for an hour and a half. All of the girls were very careful in deciding what to buy, first examining all of the options closely. Some girls chose to save their rupees. It is good that, though in a small way, the girls are slowly learning to deal with money.

Last Monday, we celebrated Dussehra. Dussehra marks the victory of Lord Rama over the Demon Ravana. The festival was celebrated with a day off from school, a special lunch, and the burning of a newspaper Ravana once it was dark. Apparently Dussehra celebrations get quite spectacular in Delhi. Our Ravana was 3ft. tall and made of newspaper. Burning him was lots of fun though. We also lit some firecrackers.

This week I learned how to make roti, the bread that we eat with every meal. The girls make it look so effortless! It took me at least 10 tries before I was able to roll out a circle of dough without it getting all stuck to the table and rolling pin. The roti I made were distinguishable by their strange shapes but tasted normal. Hopefully I'll get better with practice.

I spent all of yesterday in bed with a bucket next to my head (sorry...TMI I know) really regretting the pizza I ate on Sunday. It tasted great at the time but apparently eating dairy products here is not a good idea. My fever has gone down and I'm feeling better today though.

I got a chance to see my first real Bollywood film. It was called "Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Sad", starring Shahrukh Kahn, one of the biggest stars. The movie was an impressive three and a half hours long. It was surprisingly entertaining in all of it's cheesy glory.

I miss you all and I hope everything is well in Palo Alto, Salzburg, Kenya, New York, etc...

Love,
Emmiliese