A Day in Our Life...

So, many of you have asked what a typical day is like for us.... well.... I can't really answer that question, because there aren't any "typical" days.... everyday is different and tends to have many unexpected surprises... Today was one of those days....

Our friend Deepak comes over once a week to learn stories... (It's usually a different day each week - again, no typical days or weeks).... Deepak always comes over. Sometimes his wife and son come, and sometimes Kamla (family friend) comes.... well, today it was Deepak, Sunita (his wife), Daniel (Deepak & Sunita's son) Kamla, Kamla's Daughter (Mona), Mona's baby, and then two other kids that were somehow related to Kamla...

So.... in case you have lost count, that's 4 adults, 3 toddlers/preschoolers, one infant, plus Me, Adam & Aashini.

Oh -- and the 4 adults & 4 kids all came in ONE rickshaw! (and Sunita is 8 months pregnant!). (Here's a pic of a rickshaw below in case you forgot what they look like :)) So when they got here, I started making the chai... well, I guess the ladies thought I wouldn't make a very good batch of chai, so they took over the kitchen - which was pretty funny (and pretty normal).... they went through all the cabinets and drawers (even though all of the tea ingredients were already on the counter). During this time they were holding Aashini and she let out a little tiny cry so they rushed her to me and told me to hurry and feed her. They can tend to be pretty funny here when babies/kids cry. They don't think they should ever cry. I told them that I just fed her 10 minutes ago but they insisted I feed her again (even though she had now stopped crying).

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Mona's baby Angel was born the day after Aashini and she was a preemie too - so that was pretty cool :) It was funny to see Mona with her baby. She would let out a tiny cry and Mona would rush to feed her. She would finish feeding her and then 5 minutes later she would let out a little cry and she would rush to feed her again... it was pretty funny - she was feeding Angel most of the time she was there!

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The ladies that were here are from a more villagy area of our city, so some of the cultural things that they think and say can be pretty funny to me :) For example... I was wearing short sleeves... they were all wearing heavy sweaters... so they thought I just HAD to be cold. They lectured me and told me that if I wasn't warm, then my milk wouldn't be warm and Aashini would be drinking cold milk and therefore, she would get sick...

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They also told me that I needed to rub oil on Aashini's soft spot every day... She said that the soft spot was the passageway to the brain, and if I did, the oil would go into her brain and make her smart....

There were some other funny things they said, but I can't remember them right now...

At one point Mona asked me if I used diapers. I said, "yes" and then she asked: "daily?"... I said: "yes"... then she goes to tell me that she only uses diapers when she's out of her house and at home they don't use diapers... Believe it our not, that's pretty common - but I'm not so sure how that works...

Now, of course nothing is private here... everything is everyone's business! - that can actually make for some funny stories :) So Mona & Sunita decided that they needed to look through everything in our house. Sunita is usually quiet and stays with Deepak, but today I guess she had more courage with Mona around... So Mona asked to see Aashini's room... well, she sorta has a room... it's more of a guest room that houses all of her stuff right now though.... (Aashini sleeps in our room)... It's a mess right now (and I need to clean it - my parents are coming soon!!)... I told them it was a mess (hoping to deter them from wanting to come inside) but they pushed their way through anyway...

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They started going through every closet, every drawer, every bag... well... everything. THey wanted to know what everything was and how it worked. Since they didn't speak a lick of English that proved to be quie challenging!

Then they wanted to see our bedroom and Aashini's bed... so... we go in... The first thing they see is Aashini's cool mobile... (I'll post a pic on the baby blog soon, it's a New York Yankees mobile :))... They kept asking me if it would turn around... I told them yes but they wanted to know how it worked, so I wound it up and it started spinning... but they kept asking me how it worked - haha! I thought they just wanted to see it work, not know how the mechanical parts of it worked! haha! At this point I was feeling like a tour guide..... "and on your right you will see the TV that I accidently left on" (and yes, they did lecture me about leaving the TV on :))

So, after a crazy day of playing hostess / tour guide, trying to be a part of the story / training time, helping clean up a couple of the kid's "accidents" (thank goodness for marble floors!), and answering a million questions... HALF of our day was finished....

So, to keep this blogpost from being any longer, I'll keep it at HALF of a "typical day" and save the other half for another time :)

(The pic above is of Adam holding Angel. Babies here are born with a lot of hair... they were quite concerned with Aashini's lack of hair once they found out that we hadn't shaved her head - haha!)