Final 46 days!!!!!!!

I just peeked at our "countdown sign" and today it reads 46!! That's 46 days until we depart India. We will be moving out of our villa 4 weeks from Friday!! We are all so excited to be heading back home. As terrific as this past year has been... it is time... I can't wait to step foot on American soil and take a deep breath of the smog around JFK airport. I feel like it's crunch time to gather up mementos and get photo books made up. I am desperate to hold this experience close in our hearts and clear in our minds. Thank goodness I kept this blog, because much of it is really a blur to me!

One of the things I will miss the most is the simple happiness and contentment in the eyes of everyone. Even in just doing the simplest of things...

Election results, day at the field, and cobra snakes...

Pat and Andrew survived their long, hot day in the sun. Temps were in the 90's today and there just is no place to escape the heat out on the athletic fields. Andrew ran hard and qualified for the finals in both the 200 and 50 meters. Here's a shot of the crew representing Indus...

We are quite leery of open fields here in India. I have not blogged at all about the snakes here, but they are prevalent - and deadly. There are more than 270 species of snakes in India, 60 of which are venomous! Vipers, pythons, cobras... all the big ones. Everyone here has the snake catcher's mobile # on their speed dial list. 2 weeks ago we had a 4 foot long venomous snake in OUR YARD!! Yikes! You need to be especially careful in big open fields (oh, did I mention the track competition was in a BIG OPEN FIELD!). Check out Lauren running through said field...As we departed the field... we saw a group of locals gathered on the roadside, some with their cell phones snapping pictures. I knew instantly it was something amazing - because trust me, nothing surprises the locals here. We pulled over to see what the fuss was all about. It was something amazing alright - 2 cobras performing their rare mating dance ritual. I scrambled for my camera and Pat was able to snap a quick shot of it (forgive him, he is just an amature with the camera) You can just make out the snakes in the direct center of the picture - they were at least 6 footers, standing 4 feet high and completely intertwined and "dancing". It is something that almost never is observed in the wild... lucky us! Thankfully these two were busy at their own party and did not bother slithering around our feet at the track.

We left the field, dropped Taylor off at her bowling party, and headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe to eat. One problem with this plan...The Hard Rock is closed????? A couple of guys out on the street reminded us that tonight is the release of India's election results... so all bars and pubs are closed. It is not legal to sell alcohol for the 3 days surrounding the elections (which were held last month), or on the day the results are announced! This law is part of the effort to avoid violence related to the hotly contested elections. So it was off to Toscano for some italian (no wine though!).

Busy, busy, busy... so unusual!!!

Today is a busy day, which is actually quite unusual! One of the major perks of this assignment has been the mellow schedule. I remember how rare (and GREAT!) it was back in NY when we would have a completely free weekend. Here you can almost always clear the decks if you want to and just relax. It helps that the kids' activities (sports and hobbies both) are incorporated into the school day. In addition to phys ed., they have their chosen sport (Taylor plays basketball and tennis while Andrew runs track and plays soccer) as well as a hobby (Andrew takes karate and Taylor, Indian dance)... music is in addition to this, and art! It's no wonder they are out of the house for 10 hours a day.

Today, though, is a busy one. Andrew took the bus at 7 this morning into the city as he was chosen to represent Indus at the Global Athletics Competition in Bangalore. Harish drove Pat over, leaving at 9:30, dropping him off at 11:30... then high tailing it back here to pick up the girls and I and take us back to the city to drop Taylor at a bowling birthday party. From there it's over to the track to try to catch Andrew in the finals and then racing back to the bowling alley to pick up Taylor before 6:00! Squeezing in there grabbing some food, somewhere! Now a year ago, this day would have seemed like a walk in the park. But quite honestly, I am really out of "soccer Mom" shape. We are just about to leave for the bowling party drop off. I will drop a blog in tonight with a few photos and with Andrew's race results!!

Oh, the Mango...

Mango season is in full swing here in Bangalore. I must admit, that apart from possibly a mango daquiri while on a carribean vacation... or maybe a slice that found it's way into a fruit salad somewhere.. I never actually ate a mango... I cetainly never bought one... and I don't think I even knew what one looked like!

Chalk this up to one of the thousands of things I have learned this past year. Let me start by saying.. yum! Mangoes are just delicious. We have a tree right in our back garden and Sheela loves to take Lauren out every morning and pick the ripe ones. There are mango stands all around the villages...

They will cut them for you on the spot if you want, or you can buy them sliced up and in a bag like french fries...
I have also seen them on a stick, like cotton candy. And of course, there are even the Mango Puree Corn Flakes!!
This weekend we had the most amazing mango salsa that our friend Dev made. This will surely be on my list of party snacks when we get back to NY!!
A few interesting facts... The mango is the national fruit of India and is native to the Indian subcontinent. More than half of the world's mangoes are grown in India, yet only 1% of them are exported from India. I am thinking that the BILLION people who live here consume an awful lot of mango!!

May???

It is May already!! I have such mixed emotions, as time has seemed to FLY by, yet it seems like we've been gone forever. By the time we get back we will have been in at least 10 different countries on 4 continents in just 12 months, WOW!

As good as I have been about capturing everything with my camera, I am in the mad rush of snapping random pics of our everyday life here in the hope that it will help keep these memories fresh in our minds forever. I love this sequence that I took this morning...

Taylor and Andrew ready for school...

Pat walks them to the corner...

Lauren calls Andrew back...And asks for another kiss...
Then he runs to catch up...I try to get to the Leela Palace at least once a week. It is about a 20 minute ride from home (that's very close in Bangalore terms), they have a great group of shops and the Barista there makes a mean espresso! When I arrive, I take my usual seat, overlooking the pianist below (who plays primarily American classics... maybe she does that just for me?) I get the head nod from the waiter and return it with a head waggle... a few minutes later, voila... espresso. I usually bring Lauren with me (OK, I sometimes bring Lauren with me) and she orders some big chocolate drink which invariably arrives with piles of whipped cream and a fancy straw. I sit there and look around and think, "wow, India really is a dichotomy." I think it really is more of a "tri"chotomy, but there will be plenty of time, over many glasses of wine back home to discuss all of that. Back to the Leela. Last week, on my way over to my waiting coffee, Pat called and said he had a couple of hours open in his schedule at work. What a treat... he came along with us. Here's a shot of Pat and Lauren who is swinging a bag with her coveted sugar doughnut (the one she always chooses and never eats!)

She is quite at home in 5 star establishments now. Not sure Panera will measure up for her when we get back!

A keeper for the scrapbook... Pat with a goatee and showing off his braces.

Some sad news from this week. Our neighbor's beloved dog, Lilly, went to doggie heaven. Lilly was one of Taylor's best friends here in India and we will all miss her dearly...

Sitar

We just got these photos of Taylor's sitar performance at Indus from our lifesaver friends, the Patels (thank you Vim). For some reason, seeing Taylor sitting up on that stage playing a sitar was one of the highlights of our year for me.

Farm Visit...

Last weekend a coworker of Pat's, Neelmegh, invited us out to see his family owned organic farm. The day proved to be quite informative. We had a 2 hour car ride, during which I asked him a dizzying amount of questions. It is nice to hear the point of view of a guy who was born and raised here in India!!

So it turns out his family owned a 6 acre parcel of land just on the outskirts of Bangalore. As the city grows, more and more of these privately owned lands are being "bought up" by the government. When their land was purchased, they decided to reinvest some of the money in an organic vegetable farm. India law only allows a person to buy farm land if he is a "farmer," proven by ownership of other farm land. This is meant to prevent businesses from buying up farm land to build commercial property upon. Since the land they sold to the government was farm land which had been in their family for generations, they qualified. They purchased 6 acres of land about a 2 hour drive from the city of Bangalore nearly 5 years ago. Since then, it's value has increased 5 fold!!

On the ride to the farm we saw a strange sight. A half mile long section of village road needed to be widened to support the growing traffic flow in the area. Apparently it only needed to be widened enough to take down half of the shops and stalls along the road. Now you can picture half in many ways, but you likely would not expect to see this... it's one of the most bizarre things I have seen this year (and trust me, that's saying a whole lot)!

These places were just chopped off to where the government needed to and then left that way!
Once we reached the farm, we met Neel's farm hand. They hired this farm hand, a guy who lives on the land and tends to the daily chores... planting, watering, harvesting. He is paid a small salary and also gets to eat from the land. He greeted us and then promptly climbed up a coconut tree to get us a welcome drink.

High in the canopy are the young green coconuts. It is a long climb for a drink though. These are sold anywhere and everywhere on the street in India, cut up on the spot for you, for Rs 10 (about a quarter). The coconut water is full of natural electrolytes and totally hygienic, unlike much local water; they say it's the best drink for the heat!

After a quick drink, we strolled around the farm. First stop... the cows. They have 2 cows, neither of which is kept for it's milk production. The cows' real value is in it's manure. These cows produce enough waste to fertilize the entire farm.

Next, we checked out the ragi crops. Ragi is a hugely popular grain grown primarily in the arid areas of southern India as well as in Africa. It is also known as finger millet. Similar to rice, it is eaten by people in Bangalore in some form nearly every day.

We picked some Ragi, which can even be eaten raw. Lauren loved it!The mango trees were ready for picking, too. When you pick a mango, there is a good amount of clear sap that drips out of the fruit. This sap contains the same chemical found in poison oak and poison ivy. You must immediately wash off any sap that contacts your skin, or the rash is... YIKES, bad!

One mature tree like this one can produce more than 1500 mangoes in a year.

After our stroll through the tomato, eggplant, pumpkin and pomegranate, it was out to the bananas... Bananas in India are much smaller than those we are used to back home. They are very sweet though, and are plentiful in southern India. In addition to the fruit itself, the banana leaf is a valued commodity. Especially in southern India, the leaf is used as a plate! It is brilliant, really. The leaf of the banana plant is thick and wide. It has a naturally waxy coat and is full of nutrients which are absorbed into the food (especially hot food). Best of all, it is 100% biodegradable! So when it was time for us to have lunch, which Neelmegh's Mom had graciously prepared for us... the farm hand went out and retrieved a "plate" for each of us. I watched as he trimmed each leaf with his trusty curved knife... this is the same type of knife all the coconut vendors use...

We ate lunch from our banana leaves, said our thank yous and goodbyes, piled back into the car and headed back to the fairy tale that is Palm Meadows. It was a refreshing break to spend the day in the country!!!