Chalk it up to culture?

Or does that make me some sort of prejudice? Here's a few confusing/frustrating, possibly cultural, experiences:
Indian
Last week our driver told me one evening that he had a family emergency and he was going to have to go to the village for a week or so. He introduced me to a substitute driver (who incidentally didn't speak English nor know his way around Delhi, but that's another story). He has not come back. We had our help, Christina, ask around. He got another (much better paying) job. I'm glad, I don't feel that he owed us anything (Phil's work hires the car company, the car company hires him)... except maybe honesty. I can't figure out why he would tell us that story? What does he gain by it?

Today I took the boys to the zoo. As I got in the 10 person line to buy tickets, I noticed that there were no other women. None. On a Monday afternoon. I get in line with N, in stroller, S, and one of S's friends. We're moving along just fine, until a man behind me starts saying stuff to me. No idea what he's saying, I say, "I'm sorry I don't understand." The man in front of me translates, "He says you should wait over there." As he gestures to the side. "Why?" "Because you are disturbing the line." Then, the man behind me, and the man behind him, push past me. It took a lot of restraint on my part not to shove them as they went by. A lot.

& Mormon
I recently started teaching the teenage girls at church. I think it's a pretty good gig as far as church jobs go. I'm supposed to teach twice a month, and the girls in our branch are a good bunch. But I am a little irritated with the manual. It's not real solid in the scripture department. So far, I haven't felt that there's a whole lot of the "meat" of the gospel in the lessons. Then the last lesson was on homemaking.

I met my all around domestic helper (I can't quite figure out how to refer to her) through church. She calls me Sister Kathryn. It startles me every time. It make me feel old. Like Emma Smith old.

Sorry for the series of posts with no pictures. And yes, I did just mention my driver AND my maid. At some point I'll get around to a post defending why I need all the help.

They are watching

So, we got a bill from AT&T for $2,769.85 for phone calls and blackberry usage here in Delhi, AFTER Phil had his blackberry unlocked, AND he'd changed his sim card to an Indian network. What? How did AT&T know what calls he'd made? Who told them? Suddenly I'm a conspiracy theorist. And maybe all those spy movies really could happen...

Paper or ...er...

Here's an interesting article on Delhi's new law against plastic bags and some of the other challenges of life in this city.
What the law means for me, is that I have to start buying trash bags.

Kurta Pyjama

Friday was Indian dress up day at school, the capstone to India week. Here's S in his kurta pyjama. He was way excited to wear it to school.

What's Up Doc?

We've all been a bit sick. N got the worst of it, we saw the doctor on Tuesday, another ear infection. This evening the doctor called me to see how he was doing and if I had any questions. How cool is that?

Open the Wallet

Incredible India. We did some shopping. Maybe we'll stay here a while...

I already introduced the prompt tailor. Last night we schlepped on over to the framers hut. We wanted to have our family photo (taken in Dallas just before we left) framed. We picked out the wide frame and double matting that we wanted and then asked the price. 1400 Rupees. "Yeah, okay, well, we'll leave these individual photos of the boys to get framed as well."

I ordered some baskets made for our closets, since we had no drawers. They were finally delivered last week (This was a study in the way things work here, 10 days became 35). Yeah, custom made baskets, priced well within the Blackburn tightwaded comfort zone.

Finally, we are currently auditioning carpets. We brought three home and now we have to decide which one we like best. Any votes?

This one is the smallest, about 9 x 6.

Next, about 8 x 11. The spot in the middle is a water drop on my camera lens, not actually on the carpet. Oh, and Phil and S are watching Return of the Jedi in this one. What started out as S's star wars initiation/family movie night degenerated. The rental place didn't have the original Star Wars in stock, so we had to go straight to Return of the Jedi. Then it wouldn't play on our DVD player, wrong region (who's genius idea was the whole region thing anyway). S was not going to be deterred. So earphones and computer screen it was.

Biggest, about 10x16. It fills up our whole room. Sorry the angle isn't the same on this one.

This post is sort of in direct contradiction to all those posts I've seen lately about not spending any extra cash.

What did you do for Republic Day?

Today was Republic Day, which meant a much needed three day weekend. Unfortunately today Phil and N were feeling a little under the weather so they headed home after a picnic in the park. S and I went to a friends place, where they'd hired an elephant to keep the kiddos (and Mom) entertained.