Baluvanahalli

Hey Y'all,
  So, this past Sunday, my family was supposed to go to our language teacher, Kavitha's, willage (also known as village for you people who are reading for the first time). The name of the willage is Baluvanahalli. (Try saying that 5 times fast, backwards, while standing on your head.) My father and I went, but my mother had to back out at the last minute. The reason behind Momma's absence, is because a friend of ours was having her first baby.
   In spite of that, Dad and I proceeded to go to the willage. It should have taken a mere hour to drive there. But India had other plans. We forgot that Sunday was to be the last day of the Indian Air-Show at the Indian Air-Force base. Unfortunately, the base was on our way. Being as church was supposed to start around 11a.m., we left the house about 10 o'clock.
   Even though we were close to an hour and a half late due to traffic, when we got there, the praise band was still in full swing. If you're an hour and a half late for church at First Bapty (FBC Lafayette), you'd walk in during the invitation.
    The small church building consisted of 4 walls, a roof and a window. Because it was a traditional church, I had to dress in traditional Indian clothing. (There's a picture on the left.) Also, the men and women sat segregated. Men on the left, and women on the right.
  Almost as soon as we got there, I was instructed to play the song that I had prepared with my mother, that now had to be turned into a solo. After I sang "House Of God Forever" by Jon Foreman, the congregation applauded. I noticed that while I was singing, their attentions were captured, but I'm not sure if that was because of my skin color or guitar and vocal ability. Soon afterwards, Dad gave his testimony and a sermon about Jesus being the Bread of Life, which my mother had prepared. Both the testimony and sermon were interpreted into Kannada, by Kavitha's husband, Murthy (a very popular name here) and the "organ" player (a cheesy-sounding synthesizer used to establish and keep the congregation in key but was thoroughly ignored).
   Directly proceeding the sermon, the praise team started banging on their copper pots and tambourines, while the congregation started singing and the synthesizer convulsed in a Mozzarella-Parmesan-fashion.
   After the church service, Dad and I went to Kavitha's house for lunch. We were served a tear-jerkingly, nose-dribblingly spicy chicken curry dish, with Roti (flat bread) and basmati rice. We also ate cucumbers snd onions which were doing the back-stroke in some curd-like substance, usually served at every meal for medicinal purposes to sooth the scorched tongues of poor, unsuspecting white children like myself. Not long afterwards, Dad and I hit the road.

 Thanks for reading!
-Birdie

P.S.
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Cows and Parades

Hey Y'all,
  We were driving down the street the other day, and we saw a cow. Yes, this is a very common occurrence, however, this cow had blue horns! I'm really not sure why they are blue, but my guess would be that it was part of a religious (most likely Hindu) ceremony. As most of you probably know, Hindu's do, in fact, worship cows, which means that it is not uncommon to see a cow that is painted or has a flower necklace around it's neck. We have even seen a cow that has a small extra appendage growing out of it's back! If one were to pay a certain amount of Indian Rupees, then one could touch it.
   Last week, we were just sitting in out flat, minding our own business, when we suddenly heard loud music down on the street. When we heard the commotion, we all went outside to see what was going on. Even our house-helper, Kamakshi, joined us on the balcony. It was an all-girl parade in celebration of National Youth Day.  The parade consisted of hundreds of school girls, all in bright, white, freshly cleaned and pressed uniforms. This picture (look left) is of one of the schools' marching bands.

Thanks for reading!
-Birdie

Going to the Willage

Hey Y'all,
    Yes, I know, it's been forever, but I was on vacation. Thus, I didn't write anything. Anyways, the two most exciting things that has happened in the past few weeks was The Hobbit coming out (which, the majority of you could careless about), and going out the "The Willage" or Village as most of you would call it.
     Now, about the Village. Our language teacher, Kavitha (Ka-vee-ta), invited us and another American family out to a village for a church's Christmas Celebration. Now, I say "a church" because Kavitha's husband is the pastor of 5 churches, and one of the five was in this particular village that we went to.
     The drive was about an hour and a half long, which is a rather short time for getting somewhere in India. Ok, so, I'm going to attempt to describe to you what driving in India is like. Driving, or even riding, in a vehicle in India can only be described as a battle scene in Lord of the Rings. Nobody know what's going on, or who's doing what. All anybody know is that there's 5 million other people all trying to go different ways at the same time. On top of that, there's always someone going the opposite way of what they're supposed to be going.
     As soon as we got there, we, of course, asked Kavitha's husband where the bathroom was. When we asked him he just kind of looked around as if he was thinking,"What are these cray-cray white people talking about? The bathroom is all around them!!" I think that now would be a opportune time to note that Indian people will use the bathroom pretty much anywhere, one of their favorite places being the side of the road. (btw, not big potty, only little potty.) Turned out that the nearest bathroom was a 10 minute stroll away, which would have been a different willage.
      When the celebration started, us white people were instructed to go sit at the front of the tent, where chairs and tables were set up, and face the church, who were all squatting on the ground. Needless to say, it was a slightly awkward feeling. Close to the front, were all of the children. There were probably about 30 of them. Every time I would see one of the staring at me (staring is not considered rude here) I would smile, but only one of them would ever smile back. 'Twas quite strange to be perfectly honest.
      I have learned that with any Indian celebration, there must be music. The music at this celebration was all in Kannada, so I didn't understand a word of it. On the other hand, some of the musical instruments were quite interesting. There was a Tambourine, a Djimba looking thing, and a brass pot. The man playing the brass pot had these metal rings on his fingers that he was hitting against it. I'm going to note that when we arrived, I was hoping the the God I worshipped would be there. I was thrilled when I felt his presence in that tent, even though I couldn't understand anything that anyone was saying.
     After the celebration was over, we all ate lunch. They put us white people in a small building where the church services are usually held. The lunch consisted of Chicken Biryiani (Sort of like spicy chicken Jambalaya), Vegetable something or other (which was closest to a veggie Jambalaya), and Chicken Kabab (Drumettes done rotisserie style). By leaving food on out plates, we indicated that we were then full. We were then served dessert, which consisted of fresh fruit, showing us that they had spared no expense in serving us. After the meal, the celebration was officially over, so good-byes were spoken, which exhausted our knowledge of Kannada.
     As we pulled away, trying to avoid getting lost in pot-holes, we successfully located a restaurant where we exchanged the price of a few sodas for use of the Squaty-Potty. Afterwards, I drifted into a food coma while my Father-Dearest wrestled with the ridiculous roads of India.
  -Birdie

P.S. I thought that when we left the states, I escape all the annoying music. However, while we were sitting in a restaurant a few weeks ago, the nauseating, high-pitched, auto-tuned voice of J.B. (I'm sure even you homeschoolers are smart enough to figure this one out) attacked my ears.
    
    

Thanksgiving, Moving in, and Watching a Funeral.

Sorry it's been so long since I've written anything, but the past few weeks have been quite eventful.
   Three weeks ago, it was Thanksgiving, and to celebrate the occasion, we went south to a city in the mountains called Kodaikanal. We spent Thankgiving with about 5 other families. While we were there, we hiked a mountain, swang on a rope swing, which was hanging from one of the many giagantic trees up there, and (of course) had Thanksgiving dinner. For Thanksgiving, we actually got to eat Turkey! Turkey is rather difficult to find in India.
    Two weeks ago, we were preparing our flat so that we could move in as soon as possible. We had to clean the flat from top to bottom. Also, we had to paint two rooms. We painted the foyer a gold color. In addition to that, we painted my room gray. Another thing we had to do before we could move in was buy matresses and sheets. Plus, we had to move in the little bit of furniture we had and get our den and kitchen set up. After we did those things, we were ready to move.
     Last week, on Monday, we took all of our belongings (as far as we know) from the guest house, and moved them, and ourselves, into our new flat. Our kitchen is completely set up, thankfully. Other than that, we have a couch, a love seat, a chair with an ottoman, a coffee table, and an armoir, with a flat screen tv and a dvd player in it. Then, we have matresses on the floor that we are sleeping on for the current time.
     We have been searching for a church since we got here. Sunday, we went to a church that we had never gone to before that some friend of mine from youth group invited me to. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and hope we make that our church. It was the only church that had quite a bit of people my age in it.
     Yesterday, I was sick for the first time since we got here. It was just a common cold, but because I was running a small fever, I got to skip out on language! :) On top of that, we got to see part of an Indian funeral take place right across the street from our flat. The entire time the funeral was going on, there was a guy blowing on a conch shell while playing a small drum. After performing many Indian rituals, that we couldn't see because of the crowd of people surrounding the body, they placed that body, which was covered with a red cloth and lots of flowers, on a ladder like stretcher. Then, they placed the body on the stretcher in a Qualis ( a vehicle sort of like a Montero) and drove away.
     Well, after these eventful past few week, I am quite looking forward to Christmas vaction. It will be nice to have a bit of a break, even if it won't be the full two weeks like back in the states.
     
       -Birdie

4 Monkeys Jumping in the Tree!

  Hey friends!
 This past week has consisted of learning Kannada, doing school, and two very ineteresting things.
   The first was Diwali. Diwali is a Hindu holiday that celebrates the light, and the goddess Lakshmi. During Diwali, it is tradition that everyone buys new clothes, if they can afford it, sets off very loud fire-works, and lights candles, which they set up all around the wall of there house.
   Last night, I walked down the street with some of the people that are staying in one of the flats downstairs, who are from California. We could only walk about 4 blocks when we had to stop because of the locals setting off fire-works (here they are called "crackers") in the middle of the street. We stood there and watched the crackers for about 20 minutes before coming back home.
   Now for the second very interesting thing. Today, while I was sitting here writing this blog, I looked out the window and saw a monkey in our tree! The parentals and I went out on the balcony to look at it. Turns out that there were about 6 of them. We looked up at the roof, and there were two little baby monkeys looking down at us!!! Right after that, a family of monkeys congregated and started chasing each other. (Picture on the left.) Then they all started jumping around through the tree, and chasing each other. They were so cute, I wanted to go on the roof and look at them from there. But then, I remembered that they have been known to steal cameras. Between that and my mom telling me that they might jump on my head, I decided not to.
      Over all, we have had a very exciting week, with lots of loud crackers, and curious monkeys. We continue to look for housing, and we appreciate your prayers!

   That's all folks,
          Birdie

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

     Here in India, there's a monsoon season and a dry season. Right now, it's supposed to be the dry season. However, it has been raining since yesterday morning!!! Not only is it raining, but it's 68 degrees!!! I find it a tad bit on the cold side.
      The cause of the rain is a cyclone, which is hitting a city that is east of us. The city that the parents of Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, are originally from. For all you people in south Louisiana, a cyclone is like a hurricane.
      For an abrupt change of subject, last night, my parents and I went into the home of some friends. Every Wednesday night, they have a bunch of street kids come in for a children's church service. Also, these friends of ours feed the children, who are all dirt poor and living in extreme poverty.Those kids were so sweet. I think it's amazing how these kids have next to nothing and are still so happy.
        On Sunday, my family and I went to the movie theater and watched Skyfall. Over here, they cut out almost every bad part. Also, in the middle of the movie, they add in an intermission. The good thing is, you don't have to miss any of the movie if you need to use the restroom or need some kind of snack. Unfortunately, there is a bad thing about this. They paused the movie in the middle of a sentence.
         We started language last week. We are learning Kannada and, thankfully, it isn't nearly as difficult as Thai was. Our language teacher is a Christian, and her husband leads 5 house churches!! Talk about a lot of preaching.
               
            Well, that's all for this time,
                          Birdie
 

Finally in India

Hey peoples,
    I know it's been forever since I last posted, but we've been quite busy with packing and such thinks like that.
     The last few weeks has consisted of packing, waiting for a visa, getting a visa, getting plane tickets, and finally, leaving for India. The plane ride weren't too bad. We had three of them. The longest being about 14 hours, and the shortest being about an hour and a half. Our total travel time, including layovers, was about 55 hours. Part of that is we had a 24 hour layover in Dubai.    
     We got to our apartment,and we had no food. So, we went on an adventure last night. As we were exiting the front gate of the apartment complex, we discovered that the name of our apartment complex has the words "welfare housing" in it. Are we living in the projects?
     Anyway, in order to get to any kind of store, we had to cross two streets. Now, crossing the street in India is like trying to get across a stampede of bison. Basically, it's ridiculous. So, after crossing the first street, we discovered that we were going to have to hop over some barriers to get to where we could cross the other street. After crossing the second street, we searched for the store, found it, and got what we needed.
     After shopping, we decided to find something to eat. By this time, it was about 8:30 in the evening. Our first night in India, we ate Chinese food because it was the only thing we could find.

Well, I'll be back in the U.S. before anyone realizes it.
Birdie.

P.S.
 Comments? E-mail me at: boidwee@hotmail.com