A different kind of charity shop!

I went into the bigger town yesterday, which is about 45 minute bus ride from home. We had a very Indian experience on our way down. The capacity of the bus was about 25 people I would guess, however clearly a Saturday is the day for going to town, so we had over 50 people crammed in this hot sweaty bus at one point. Luckily we all had a seat though, but I had plenty of behinds pushing in my 'personal space'! It was a relief to get of the bus for sure, but it was a surprisingly fun experience!

Now I would like to try and describe the experience of shopping at an Indian charity shop (or thrift store as my American friends keep saying). For one thing, it is an open air 'shop' but it can't really be called a shop as we consider them. They are pretty big in size, and have z beds (how old school) with piles of clothes covering them, and then there's the odd 'wall' with clothes on hangers. You can only shop second hand suits if you know to ask for them. Then a man goes away for a good 20 minutes and comes back with a huge bundle of the second hand suits wrapped in the dupatas. He opens it up and then it's a free for all between the seven of us who were shopping together. The colours in the pile are amazing - every colour of every shade was there. In the end we had been brought three bundles and had even been given a spare z bed to examine them all on. It was so much fun! Some of the suits were  pretty awful to be honest - all ripped, resembling old curtains and they only fitted stick thin midgets. But we also found loads of gems. I got two more suits, but I think between five of us we brought over 10 of them. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the charity shop, but I did get this one if the fabric shop where we got dupatas (the scarves) to match. There is a whole road of of these shops, and they all have at least this much range, if not more! I have no idea how they all stay in business, but they seem to.

Not much else exciting has happened this last week. We had a welsh vicar give the sermon today! I didn't think hearing that beautiful accent would bring me so much joy and contentment, but it made my day! I don't think I stopped smiling all throughout the service. Also, on the walk home Lia and I saw some monkeys in a tree really close to us - adults and babies just swinging about having fun. It's so crazy that monkeys are a norm here - it's the equivalent of seeing a sheep at home (except for Ruth and I as we have a weird love of sheep) - India is amazing!

I feel a blog isn't complete until there is some mention of foody things. I had a very western dinner last night which included pasta (such a treat) and a Swedish sauce - it didn't look very appetising, but it tasted like marmite!! Marmite on toast is just not the same here, and I barely have it as the marmite is my fellows Brits so I don't want to use it all up. However samosa are so much better here than at home, and bigger, and yummier - just to make you all a little jealous.

Much of this blog was written whilst going through our five year old friend's workbook so I apologise if it doesn't completely flow, or some spellings are wrong. She is adorable and wants me to go through EVERY page of her workbook with her to check it because she is an expert at writing numbers the wrong way round. It's all good fun, and she is so funny when she finds the mistake!

That's all for now. Oh, and to correct a past blog - the Maldives has been changed for Cambodia and Thailand. It's a long story why, but I'm really looking forward to all the trip will hold.

Morning has broken

I'm not quite sure where to begin as I haven't blogged in so long. I'm sat on our swing bench overlooking a slightly misty valley which means all the hill ranges are differing shades of blue and I can just make out the lake in the distance - it is a beautiful morning! I am being seranaded by this little guy too.

And these guys just ambled past me. Our home seems to have become a bit of a highway recently as there is building next door to us. We also had some cows who moved in for a few days and left very unpleasant gifts for us all over our garden area.

My flow was interupted by a call for breakfast, there was a miscommunication about the timings but we had pancakes so all was appeased. Can I finish this before our day really starts in 20 minutes? Challenge accepted.

Last Friday we had horrible weather here - the thunder storm lasted for a good five hours at least, and then all through the night as well. The outcome was that we could see all around us, the gross big black flies which invaded for a week disappeared and the weather was perfect! For the whole weekend we didn't experience our cloud bubble, and we could see the lake on the horizon - Sunday was the third time I've seen it since arriving. All our spirits we high and lots and photos were being taken to remember the view. 

I love the depth of the mountain ranges here, it gets to the point where you can't discern if they are more mountains or clouds. We also had a sighting of snow! It's very exciting, and so it makes sense that it will reach us eventually, but it had been really warm for the last couple of days, so it make take a month or more before we have it. But don't the Himalayas look so majestic with snow on them!

Last weekend, I had a slightly more western diet and it was a lovely break from rice. Over the course of about four meals I had pasta, salad, apple pie/ crumble, pizza, ice cream (an Indian ice cream called kulfi which is delicious, it has a slight chai taste and contains nuts... yum!) and potatoes. I felt very western, but I can now enjoy the rice and dahl again with renewed enthusiasm.

Challange failed, I just waffle way too much to be concise. Since last Sunday, we have had a compacted two weeks into 10 days for various reasons. I learnt SO much from our visiting friends who told us about the Father's heart and where we should find our identity. One of the visitors had lived in Chad for five years, and so as you can imagine, I had lots of questions and loved to hear all her stories!! The visitors became part of our family here, so it was really sad to wave them off yesterday morning after they became like our mum and sister. Here is one of the things that we were told this week.

I liked that idea. A large proportion of our family here love Disney, and so we managed to take this idea and combine it with becoming childlike (something else we have learnt). To kind of honour it, we watched Lord of the Rings Part 2 last night (we watched part 1 last week sometime) - I know it's not a kids film, but you can get loads of deeper meanings from it. As it was our day off, Rebecka and I did some baking in the afternoon. We made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies which took quite a while because of the slow oven, but they tasted so good! We made over 80 as we wanted some for snacks for the coming days, but everyone also got at least two when watching the film too. It was a very good end to a restful but productive day.

There's so much more I could tell you, but I can't think of any other vaguely interesting events right now so I think I will leave it here. Oh no, I remembered two more things. Firstly, I haven't shown you my second suit! I'm sorry! Here is Santhiya, Rebecka and I in our Indian dress - it's not a flattering photo but you get the idea.

Finally, some of you may have seen the photo of the sunset on my Facebook. Well, since the crazy night of rain, we have also been very blessed with stunning sunsets. Here are a couple of the ones I have managed to capture.

We have such an amazing artist living upstairs, don't we?!

Mice, melon and material

.I feel I should start by explaining the mouse story that many of you have heard snippets of. It started on  Wednesday morning when some of the girls saw a mouse in our room but it was way too early to do anything about it, or frankly, to care. We watched 'Passion of the Christ' in the evening, so were all pretty tired emotionally, and were just falling asleep when the mouse ran over Julia's pillow. That's when it all started to escalate. Rebecka has a phobia of mice and rats, and so she freaked out - but she did very well throughout the whole experience. I moved to her bed and we squished together so I could protect her from any which roamed to that end of the room whilst Kris started to make traps to catch the culprit. It was a very long, but quite funny, night (not for Rebecka though!). There were 3 false attempts at capturing the tiny thing, and then finally, at 5.30am the trap worked and it was caught. Typically, that was the day we were given a lie in, so 5.30am wasn't our waking up time like normal. We have now duct tape all the cracks between the floorboards and the walls which has kept them out so far. Occasionally we hear them scrambling around trying to get in, but duct tape is just too good! I will keep you all updated on how the situation progresses. Last I heard, another room had mice, so maybe they have moved on. Anyway, a trip to all travellers... duct tape is an essential!

I picked up my suits on Saturday. They're really nice, and pretty comfy. Here is a photo of my favourite one, but I will keep you in suspense for the other one until I wear it and therefore get a photo of it. I just want to prolong the excitement for you all. 

I did some shopping other Rebecka, and because we were both craving fruit and no carbs, we got a variety of goodness and made this delicious fruit salad. It was so good!! And surprisingly pretty cheap too. And by the way mum, you'd be so proud, I brought a couple of carrots to eat too - I am definitely your daughter!

Last night we had a talent show, and we all had to take part. It was a really fun evening! A group of six of us did a song from Mulan called 'Make a man out of you' where we dressed up as guys and sang and did a dance routine to the song. All our practising paid off as we won the 'craziest' award. I also did a skit with the other Brit and the two Americans called 'The little people' and we also won the 'funniest' award. The other acts included traditional dances, gymnastics, songs and a Swedish guy reciting a poem he wrote in Hindi, with an Indian guy translating into English. 

The night was ended in the perfect way too, by teaching some of the group Jungle Speed (the best game).

I just stayed home today and have had a very chilled and lovely day. I even did a couple of hours of art which I am really trying to get back into. I am introducing Rebecka to more of our English culture by watching Sense and Sensibility with her and Santhiya - I figure what is more British than Jane Austen! The coming ten days is what would be two weeks but in a condensed schedule, so I may be a bit slower with my next blog, but don't worry about me, it just shows that all is going to plan. 

My final bit of news is super exciting! We found out where we are going for two months and I am going to the Maldives!! The friends who are also going are wonderful and we are all really looking forward to whatever it may hold.

Material madness

On Saturday, I went to the big town near where I'm staying with lots of my friends here and we went all Indian! The girls need to get the local dress to be culturally respectful, so lots of time was spent in material shops searching for the right patterns and colours. It was crazy how many shops there were, all selling similar things, and how many different options there are for a standard local suit. These are the two sets I brought (there will also be photos of the tailored suits when they are made, however I know that some of you are impatient to see).

For this one, the top material (the blue one) is for the salwar (trousers), the middle one is for the kurta (top) and the closest one is for the dupatta (scarf).

This one is in a different order, just to be awkward. The far left material will be the kurta, the middle one is for the salwar and the one on the right is for the dupatta. I should have the suits by next weekend, and then you will get to see the finished product. We're all super excited!

We also used public transport to get to the town, so a jeep on the way there and a bus on the way back. The journeys were mercifully uneventful, except for a moment when the bus almost died on a steep hill - and as you may know, I HATE steep hills. The other Indian moments included eating momos (kind of like ravioli with steamed veg, they're very good), trying Indian sweets and then in the evening I learnt how to make proper chai.

That evening, two of the American girls were in charge of making dinner, so we had 'poor mans dinner' which consists of lots of vegetables, and meat if you eat it, all wrapped in foil and put in a bonfire to cook.

It was great fun all being round the fire and a great time to chill and bond even more! And of course, we couldn't have an American themed night and a bonfire without having s'mores for desert! They were so scrummy. We were even blessed with the clouds disappearing and eating under the stars. It was a great night!

(That honestly is a s'more!)

Right, that's it for now, got to go and be sociable again. Hope you're all well. Sorry I can't update you all individually but Internet is a precious thing I don't want to waste. Love to you all