a weekend of flat tires and more delicious food I never knew could ever exist

Woo. What a weekend. At Sunday night dinner I forgot my spoon and I ate rice with lintels with chickpeas in it with my fingers for the first time. ( I’ve eaten the bread roti we have for dinner often with my fingers dipping it in the food but not this way with rice before!) When I said this at dinner Frieda gasped and said “Kelly!!!” I figured it was about time! I ate waaaayyy waaaayyyy too much Sunday for dinner. I think this weekend will be marked as one of the best weekends of food consumed in my life. I can’t even begin to describe how good the food is here. You just need to come here! If I lived here I’d be a vegetarian. Hands down no doubt about it. A vegetarian who eats eggs :) The spicy food doesn’t get to me as bad as some other people. I don’t eat chilies straight like some people but the spicy food doesn’t really faze me most times. I love it! Break time at school is called Tiffin time. I think that is what the little box is called that they keep their food in. I am afraid to get one because I would just carry it around in my purse everywhere I go eating out of it. The kids at school are always sharing what’s in their Tiffin’s with teachers. You cannot say no. And of course I don’t. Why/how could I?

This weekend was nice and relaxing. We had Saturday school and we practiced for the Christmas show next Saturday. It is going to be quite the ordeal. All sorts of dancing, acting and singing. Of course I will take lots of pictures and some video too! No doubt there. I guess Friday is a Hindu holiday and there isn’t school. We will be practicing a lot this week for the show and I won’t be teaching too much for the upper classes. Moral Science this week with my first graders we are coloring everyone that was present at Jesus’ birth for the board!

After Saturday school this weekend we went to Dehra Dun for some shopping and some errands. We went to the post office. Which from the outside isn’t labeled and when we went inside it looked nothing like a post office! But they sold me some stamps that are each the size of Texas that I will need to put 5 per letter to the US. They took Lisa and Sharon’s mail so that’s a good sign. They just threw the mail on a stack of books on the table. Somehow it makes it out! When crossing the road to the ATM Lindsey saw me look to the left instead of the right at first and she almost had a heart attack because I didn’t look the right way of traffic. Like I said before traffic is insane here. Last weekend I saw my life flash before me crossing in the village. This motorcycle with two young guys on it had to stop short and fast. But I swear they weren’t there when I decided to dash across the street! That same day I was waiting in front of the shop at the village near Shishya and saw a big military truck almost run over an older couple on a motorbike. I’m pretty sure I yelled out loud in fear before it happened because I saw it all going down right in front of me. Anyways. No close counters this time in Dehra Dun. Liz was able to get her ice cream from McDonalds, which had so many people in it. It was for sure the local hang out. We parked our car to go into a music store only to come out and discover we had a flat tire. We walked across the street… which is always exciting… and we found someone to change the tire while we shopped… and the repaired for about $1.50. Anyways, we went to this little grocery store that had so much food. I stocked up on peanut butter and bread and tea and….. oatmeal cookies. And chocolate. They even had Natural Valley Almond bars. While we waited outside two kids came up to us begging and I couldn’t resist but give them a Natural bar. I was hoping they would open it, and share but no; the other boy wanted his own. So I opened a bar and he tried to take the whole thing but I just gave him one part of it. I think they were brothers because they ran off to the same woman that looked like their mother and I watched her wave them back to us to beg more. Sad.

We went to the Dehra Dun bazaar because Sharon is leaving soon and wanted to get some scarves and they were less than a dollar so I stocked up. Got some really pretty colors. We left the bazaar but not after I got some almonds. This younger girl whose family I think owned the store talked to me and asked where I was from. She asked what I was doing in India and I told her I was teaching English. She wanted my phone number to teach her brother and her English. I said I didn’t have a phone number (which I didn’t) but she was really sweet. For dinner I ate myself giddy on garlic nan, this cheesy spinach sauce, bean dal and this other veggie dish (picture on bottom of this post). For dessert ice cream with hot chocolate sauce. Yes, please. More. Thank you.

Before we got to the Bazaar Lindsey had to make a U turn merging into busy oncoming traffic and this little rickshaw cut us off and Sharon took a picture right when he looked out and made a funny face outside of the rickshaw. This is important because it will come up later. After dinner we made our way back to Shishya and Sharon bought some really neat drums for her son back home. About halfway back to Shishya we got ANOTHER flat tire on the left side this time. We passed a Hindu wedding on the side of the road (pictures and video under Shishya/Dehra Dun picture album) and pulled into a gas station to get our tire fixed. Took about 5 people and 15 minutes to get the jack out from under the seat. Liz said that she heard somewhere that for every one job in the US… about 4 people in India have that same, individual job. While they were changing the tire the wedding passed us by on their way to the reception. Fireworks were going off… loud music and dancing made for an interesting ordeal! It was really neat. While we were waiting this guy walked right up to Sharon and smiled really big and with broken English says “Remember me? I cut you off and smiled to your camera” It was the rickshaw driver that cut us off and smiled for Sharon. He didn’t follow us because he showed up way after we got to the station. It was SO funny! Dehra Dun is a big area and it is so random he came to the same place to fuel up. He insisted on taking a picture of us girls with his cell phone camera. Another friend of Lindsey’s just happened to show up too to help with the search of the jack and putting the van back together. Small town? No. Lindsey’s husband was a little concerned 5 white women were out a little late and getting flat tires but it was good it happened when it did and we were in a busy spot with people to help us! So we made it back to Dehra Dun in Lindsey’s mini bus. I sat in the back with the drums on my lap. Going over the speed bumps and potholes made the ride really interesting for me to say the least. The night was a blast and I had a fun girls night out. Shopping, great food and many laughs is something all women long for and it was just what I needed. I am SO happy here. I get that companionship in plenty here.

I feel like I am starting to get a little bit sick. My throat hurts and I sneeze a lot. Which I already thought was because of allergies but I feel like now it might be sickness! Please no!




Left to right: Lisa, Liz, Lindsey, Sharon and me at Kumar’s restaurant in Dehra Dun.