indian chub

guess who's sitting here using the internet from the comfort of her own floormat??? (and by floormat, i mean bed... it's luxuriously firm, and is cause of the mysterious shoulder and hip bruises! ha!)

it is i, fearless pizza orderer, bucket launderer and temple traveler!

i want to write a thousand things. hmmm. well, for starters, it's clear that my honeymoon period with India is over. the logistical issues and venders and sickness and crazy food and the sheer force of will and amount of focus it requires to hear everything an Indian person says have finally caught up with me. suffice it to say, i'm exhausted! haha... life is still good though, and the Father has never ceased to give what i need.

since my washing machine is freakin out like a two year old or something, i decided i had had enough of waiting (and i saw that i had only one pair of clean pants) and set out to do laundry on my own! ok so here's what i have: one broken washing machine. one full box of powdered laundry detergent. working water spigots. two water buckets. a hamper full of dirty clothes. one community clothesline on the front porch. three flights of stairs. i got going! i used the broken washing machine to set my camera up and take pictures (coming soon to a monitor near you), put the laundry on the floor, the detergent and water in one bucket, scrubbed the clothes, threw them in the sink, rinsed and squeezed them out, put them in the other bucket, and carried that bucket down to the line. that's the simplified version, but let's just say i won't be complaining doing laundry from second floor McKinney next semester :) what an adventure my every day is! i do love it.

today, the team and i went out into old Delhi and saw within the stretch of one mile, a prominent Sikh temple, a Hindu temple, a Jain temple, and the largest Muslim mosque in all of India. it was a very enlightening experience that really helped me understand more about India, having now actually experienced it. At each temple we removed our shoes out of respect (man are indian floors hot!!) At the Sikh temple, we had to cover our heads. we first came upon the people worshiping, and moved on to many different rooms, observing different practices or outreaches of the religion. Peter says it's a mix between the Hindu and Muslim faiths. The most fascianting thing there though was their kitchen! i got to sit with the ladies and make naan (like tortillas) for a little bit, after which we walked out into a big room to see a meal going on. I learned that Sikhs are very socially active, and that they feed the poor and help the needy in India. for some reason, this was particularly touching to me. The Hindu and Jain temples were very quiet and pretty similar. the people would light fires and bow down to the images of their gods and offer food and flowers to them as sacrifices of worship. Jain is a small but influential sect of Hinduism that is extremely conservative. they don't believe in killing ANY living thing, so they're all vegan. there at the temple, they have a bird hospital. It was slightly perplexing to me, and quite the contrast after seeing the help the Sikh people offer to the poor in contrast to the bird outreach of the Jain. After that was the Mosque - a beautiful but somewhat deserted building. we could only bring one camera in, so i was appointed photographer which i DO NOT mind :) ever :). the girls were given kimono-like dresses to cover up when we went in, and Ron, the Liberty team leader, was wearing shorts so they gave him a skirtish thing too... haha.

after all the temples, we went out to eat at a hole-in-the-wall place that served genuine awesome Delhi food -- my favorite so far!! i'm gonna figure out how to make butter naan and bake it for y'all when i get back... you may not have lived until you've eaten butter naan and tandoori chicken. YUM.

well, after English class, chat over coffee, and two interviews for my internship today, i ordered pizza in for Raj, Josh Hamm and I since we live in the same house. the ordering alone is pretty challenging just getting your message across, not to mention the fact that i had no menu. Raj is a pretty big guy, so i figured i'd order us two pizzas. they come ( to the wrong house number. MY BAD. i'm sorry i said 2292. but i can tell you the order, the correct house number, how much it cost, and the name on your paper! i promise i'm the white girl who ordered it! please, give me the pizzas!), and as he finally hands me the pizzas, i hang my head in shame. sweet, so in India, medium pizza means like 'could feed a medium sized child'. Raj, as i mentioned, is very tall for an Indian, and i've had dinner with him before so i've seen his eating habits. i decided just to leave the pizzas in the boys' room and leave before they could reprimand me for knowing nothing of indian culture, but it turns out we were ok - we just gave Raj a whole pizza and 4 pieces of the other was enough for me, and Josh said he doesn't eat as late as we were eating so he just had 3. all was right in the world, but NOW i know.

i'm gaining weight with all the good food, but i'm not too worried. i gained 23 pounds in peru and lost it all in the first 2 weeks back in the states. these kurtas cover it all up, too, and i have no mirror in my house except a tiny one so i can't tell if i'm looking a little chubby or not! it's okay either way.

india is worth the chub.

:]

tired but content. kids club early tomorrow.