For kicks and giggles...

Go to this website and wait for it to download..
it'll take a min or 2 but its worth the wait!!!

http://www.dancesisterdance.com/myvid/index.php?v=b08f5b7e46528


Hehe made ya smile!

WW3...i mean HAPPY DIWALI!!!

Christmas lights?? Caroling? Fireworks? AND Sweets?

One would think someone missed the memo and tried to combine traditions of Christmas, Fourth of July and Halloween into one holiday, but no. This is Diwali otherwise known as the Festival of Lights. Probably the biggest holiday for Hindus. A special puja (worship) is done in honor of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.

While Diwali is popularly known as the "festival of lights", the most significant meaning is "the awareness of the inner light" or the victory of good over evil.
Diwali celebrates this through festive fireworks, lights, flowers, sharing sweets, and worship. While the story behind Diwali varies from region to region, the essence is the same - to rejoice in the Inner Light (Atman) or the underlying reality of all things (Brahman).

our neighbors put lights on our roof..

And the whole valley was lit up in lights.

Firecrackers were flying everywhere followed by the booming and

screeching of thunderous explosions. It sounded like WW3 had started..

While Auntie ji lit candles on our balcony..

This was drawn outside of our landlords door for the holiday as part of their puja. There was some crazy music and lots of bells ringing coming from inside their house.

First there were sparklers on our neighbor's roof..

then there were tons of fireworks on our roof...
We decided to make sweets instead of buying them.

Well one because that's a LOT of sweets to buy and two...they're just gross.

SO we planned on making no bake cookies since they are easy to make and have no eggs in them. One problem though - we realized we were out of cocoa. No problem we thought - we'll just go down the "hill" and buy some chocolate bars and melt them. After we started melting them, we realized our only bag of milk was frozen so we used condensed sweetened milk. They definitely didn't turn out like we had hoped.... But we figured hey! maybe since we don't like these cookies and we don't like indian sweets....maybe they'll like these! So we wrapped 'em all up so we wouldn't have to eat them and sent off our little plates of "goodies" to our neighbors... only to our horror did we receive plate after plate of sweets back.

An indian sweet shop you ask??

nope, these are artery closing, diabetes wanting, headache giving, sugar addicting wannabees. Sick. Brought by a continual knocking on our door from each of our neighbors.

This my friends is a dentist's WORST nightmare. These are varying balls of sugar drenched in more sugar and carmelized or fried with a bad flavor.... Beki has been on a sugar "strike" for a while and taste testing some of these almost put her into hypoglycemic shock. I almost thought she'd gone into a sugar coma when i got up this morning and she was asleep...lol.

Jesus said "I am the light of the world"

I'm dreaming of a white christmas...

We just got back from a visit up north to see Jules and Emily! Yup we are wearing scarfs, jackets, and a lot of layers. It was COLD! The second day we were there the town's electricity went out all day and it rained. burrrrr rabbits! So we went to one of our favorite places to eat there and ordered whatever didn't require electricity (aka made on a gas stove) BUT we did get to have a romantic candle lit lunch without the romance and talked about our hopes and dreams... It was GREAT!Later we celebrated with a Mexican fiesta! Chicken tacos (thats canned chicken by the way), homemade tortillas, queso, fresh pico/salsa, dal turned refried beans and of course kool-aid and water. We are chefs.Our Mexican fiesta was in honor of our one year anniversary!! This month was the one year marker of jules and ems being in country, Beki's one year anniversary since training and one year for me since a conference i went to where i decided to come here! GO CARDINALS! So Jules has been teaching me about a passion of her heart - Baseball and by baseball i mean The Cardinals. I have learned a lot! She told me that i could love the Rangers if i wanted seeing as how i'm from Texas but that's only because they are part of the American league and not rivals of the Cards who are part of the National league. The first morning we listened to the Cards play and they lost. It was a sad day for jules. And when i say we listened to the game at 5:30 am i mean Jules had her earphones in and forgot to plug them in to the computer...So WE listened.haha Love you Jules!!

However i did listen to the game the next morning (some innings sleep won the battle ) but i was awake for some -especially the 9th inning where Yadier Molina's two run shot gave the Cards the lead! So now the Cards will meet the Tigers in the World Series!

So to celebrate, we made pizza from scratch, busted out the Cards t-shirts, made some decorations, and toasted Apple cider with Emily and Beki.

A follow up note: Game one of the world series:

Detroit scored the first run, with the CARDS scoring four runs by the third inning. The score at the end of the eigth inning was Cards 7, Tigers 1.
Detroit scored a run in the ninth, with a score of Cards 7, Tigers 2.
St. Louis Cardinals win with a score of 7 to 2. Yeaaaa!!!

Follow the yellow brick road...

Random post...

So my momma asked me to give her pictures of what i mean by "i live in the boonies on the side of the mountain". Let's just say when we give people directions, we just tell them to follow the signs for a hotel that's farther up than we are, call us and we'll meet you on the road. Otherwise the directions would sound something like this: "follow the road until you see a black dumptser...after that look straight ahead at the dirt pile - there is a pathway next to it that you can't see so easily....follow the path and then go down a lot of stairs."The following is how we get home....goodluck giving someone THESE directions.

Either we will walk the 30 min from town to our village or get an auto - depends on the weather....

Visual one:

If you turned around from here you would see a paved road with a couple autos, dabbas, and a bus stop. So first you walk straight and up the stairs.

Visual two:

keep walking up the hill, pass a dirt courtyard and then up a couple steps then up this incline.

Visual three:

Turn left then take the pathway to the right

Visual four:

take the pathway to the right

Visual five:

go up the really steep incline

Visual six:

when you reach the top of the steep incline,

turn left to see this..

Visual seven:

keep walking straight and follow the path around the corner...

Visaul eight:

and then you see this...keep walking straight

Visual nine:

go around the gate on the side cuz its usually locked

Visual ten:

Walk straight, avoid running into the clothesline

Visual eleven:

hang a left and go up the stairmaster

Visual twelve:

Turn left, open our little mini gate and you have reached the side of our house!

Congrats on your first virtual tour!

Kervachot...

So the night before Kervachaut, Atmum* asked me to do her mahendi for the big day. I said ok because well its just fun... Little did i know that she meant both her hands front and back along with both her feet! So 3 hours later i finally finished. Our super spider slaying auntie and her 2 girls came over to join the fun also. She put a reluctant Beki to work - and yes my friends MY ROOMIE stayed up until 10:30!! (that's PM i might add)

*** for those of you unbeknownst to my dear friend's sleeping habits...

she goes to bed by 9 and gets up at 5.

So on the actual Kervachot Day....This is where all the married women fast from food and drink all day and they pray that their husbands will have long life. The women aren’t supposed to work and they have a “girlie day”. Beki asked a friend who does the cooking and cleaning if the women aren't supposed to work. She laughed and said most still cook and clean but in some houses the men will help but in most they don't/can't/won't whatever. She just said they don't do any extra work. all of our neighbors got together and put mahendi on each other, painted their nails, “took rest”, dressed up in sarees and put on their best jewelry. At night they do a puja (worship) to the moon; then hold up a sieve to look through it to the moon then move it to look through it to see their husbands face. After this they can eat....

So almost 10 am in the morning i was summoned next door to help do mahendi for the other aunties. As i was upstairs doing auntie ji's hand.... Atmum* whisked Beki away downstairs. I had a funny suspision of what was going on when she came back asking to borrow my camera... When i finally finished, i went downstairs and was told we were dressing up and to put on all her jewelry and (really bright) lipstick. My suspicions had been correct...

I missed seeing Beki but was there to help Atmum* get dressed for her snaps. I don't know what the deal is about getting married here but you'd think life builds up to the shining moment of your marriage and then life ends.... and you just spend the rest of your life dressing up as if you were the bride and getting everyone else married off... But they still have a lot of fun doing it!

Packages are neat...

So we've heard horror stories of getting a package from post offices in peoples towns. However, I must say we have had no problems...well except the one time but the clerk was just on lunch break...
It helps when you have a Super Uncle for a landlord and now we just walk straight back to the back room of the post office and pick up our package - quick and painless - even within 10 min. This is quite unheard of but we'll take it. I've even seen a couple computers back there but other than that i would still classify it as organized chaos.

Just a picture of a local indian girl??

NOPE - that would be my awesome roommate...

Glad i only had the small package...

We made it home safely and it was like a mini Christmas!!!

Why yes that is the second season of LOST,

alongside a very strenuous Pilate's selection;

followed by beef jerky (shh don't tell our neighbors),

pancake mix with REAL syrup -heaven.

Which we will need the Pilate's after we drink all the coffee, eat marshmallows, pancakes and beef jerky while watching LOST.

What? We're vegetarians not health nuts...



This my friends is a genuine Pilate's ring,

geared for your fat burning and leg toning pleasure.

Bread, water, ketchup and marshmallows... what else do you need?

(let's just say our freezer contains ice cubes and chocolate chips)

Hungry?? sorry ya can't grab a snickers in this town!

just walk to town, you'll get invited to someone's house for food...

PS that's spelled Mooch: m-o-o-c-h

and we make friends this way- go figure.

The Adventures of April and May: Chapter # 32: The cow who lived on our roof

Once upon a time, April and May moved to the enchanted land of Nimda.

Nimda was beautiful because of its many rolling green mountains and friendly people.

After much searching, April and May finally found a great place to live....

Their neighbors took to them instantly.... they became family to their neighbors and their neighbors became their families. One day April returned home from a short journey to find a welcome home surprise...

Papa ji (the landlord) had brought home a guy !

****"guy" means cow in hindiThis is "Gauri" he said to introduce them.

To which April replied:

"Yes, but uncle....where will Guari live?? there are no pastures around here..."

The uncle laughed and said "Why on the roof of course!"

(Obviously)

"Look i have built her a house..."

And so it was. Gauri spent the next 2 months on their roof. She had a great view from the roof...each evening she received freshly cut grass that uncle and auntie ji obtained from a nearby "jungle" as they called it. They did much service to Gauri and Gauri did much service for them.

Fresh Milk arrived at April and May's house every morning by 8am....

Other things arrived daily that was used and kept for fuel...Some days Gauri danced for April and May....it sounded like thunder when they were inside

Some days Gauri sang for them... It was quite a "Moo-ving" Melody

Since it was still Monsoon season, the rains helped keep April and May's house smelling of Gauri's fragrance....However it was a sad day when Papa ji told them that gauri would be returning to her "native place" a.k.a. his village. So with heavy hearts April and May watched Gauri drive off into the sunset in the back of a truck across the bridge and out of sight...

Don't worry Gauri - they will never forget you! Whenever April or May think of you, you will always be known as their beloved guy who lived for a time on their roof...

Now, for those who hear this tale....

whenever you hear the familiar sound of "mooing"

perhaps it will be followed by someone telling you a guy is moving in on your roof......