Wow, 15 days unplugged must be my personal record, but it actually happened. I am very proud to announce that internet finally reached our Madurai home, and all credit goes to Eial. All I contributed was my whiny reminders on a daily basis that "we really need internet" and "what's taking them so long". There is a lot to catch up, so I am planning to go through our pictures and gradually tell you about our trip and first days of settling in our new home.
It's been two weeks in Madurai and it still feels like an extended vacation or a camping trip. No routine or normalcy established, too many things are still in "pending" state. Everyone is suffering from heat and mosquitoes. Every conversation ends with "we really need to get an AC unit for the kids room".
Homes in India are built with open windows. All windows are equipped with metal bars, but only some of them have real glass windows that can be opened and closed. This arrangement works great for getting the breeze into the house to cool the place down, but does nothing to stop the mosquitoes from invading the inside of the house. After the first week here all three kids were covered with blistering sores from mosquito bites which they can't stop scratching. Eial managed to find one mosquito net in the market, so now we have a bright orange net pitched right in the middle of the living room. It happens to be the coolest place in the house with excellent cross-breeze from windows on opposite walls. All three kids are sleeping on one mattress under the net. It works quite well, except that it's few degrees hotter inside the net on already hot night.
Temperature during the day reaches 96F and it drops to around 80F at night. It's very much what we were used to in Georgia, except that there is no AC environment we can escape to. Ceiling fans help a lot during the day, but by late afternoon we start feeling sleepy and sluggish. By some strange coincidence it is also the time for a scheduled daily power outage. It's usually 4pm, the sun is in full blast, and all of the sudden the fans stop spinning... It's two long hours till sunset, but kids do not seem to be affected by this. They keep zooming around in their regular fashion, whether it's early in the morning or late at night, whether they're sweaty or dripping wet from their last bath.
Speaking of bathing, Indian baths were invented for kids. There are no tubs or shower cabins. There is just single shower head somewhere up high on the wall. Kids can run and spray water any direction they want, the whole bathroom is their wet playground. Kids spend hours pouring water and splashing in their plastic buckets, and I have photos to prove it. We don't mind this excessive bathing too much. As long as they are wet, they don't sweat. Eial told me the other day that his new rule is if a towel is dry, it's time for another shower!
Every afternoon around 5 or 6pm Maya leaves the house for a playdate with neighborhood kids. Sometimes she ends up in somebody's house, sometimes a bunch of kids pile up into our place. Since we don't know all the families that live on our street yet, we usually find Maya by locating her shoes outside someone's gate. Maya and her new friends do not seem to have any communication problems. These kids are from well-off middle class families, they all go to private English-medium school. Hide-and-seek is a favorite game on this part of the world as well, and Maya even met a girl who loves Taylor Swift. There has been some interruption to Maya's playdate schedule, but hopefully we will work it out soon.
One thing that's been very reliable and dependable for us is our cook and housekeeper named Mutumma. She has been working with us since our third day here in Madurai. We've been spoiled by her excellent South Indian cooking. Meals are colorful, flavorful, and half-way through the plate they will make you sweat. Every dish includes ground up fresh coconut. Most of the time you can't even taste it, but I know it's there, because I see Mutumma cracking up a coconut at the start of every meal preparation.
Well, that's it for starters, but I have lots more to tell later. For some funny reason, I kept a log of our daily accomplishments up to today... So here it is:
Day 1 Drinking water, gas stove, cell phone provided by Eial's work
Day 2 Refrigerator is in; pots, pans, and dishes purchased
Day 3 Our cook reported to work
Day 4 Eight ceiling fans installed
Day 5
Day 6 Dining table with chairs, one mattress purchased
Day 7 Boys school arranged
Day 8
Day 9 Water filter installed, mosquito net purchased. First trip to the doctor, although never got to see her. Boys got haircuts instead...
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13 Boys first day of school, second cell phone obtained
Day 14
Day 15 Internet installed. Purchased couple of desks and a bookshelf
And finally, here are some pictures that we took today:
It's been two weeks in Madurai and it still feels like an extended vacation or a camping trip. No routine or normalcy established, too many things are still in "pending" state. Everyone is suffering from heat and mosquitoes. Every conversation ends with "we really need to get an AC unit for the kids room".
Homes in India are built with open windows. All windows are equipped with metal bars, but only some of them have real glass windows that can be opened and closed. This arrangement works great for getting the breeze into the house to cool the place down, but does nothing to stop the mosquitoes from invading the inside of the house. After the first week here all three kids were covered with blistering sores from mosquito bites which they can't stop scratching. Eial managed to find one mosquito net in the market, so now we have a bright orange net pitched right in the middle of the living room. It happens to be the coolest place in the house with excellent cross-breeze from windows on opposite walls. All three kids are sleeping on one mattress under the net. It works quite well, except that it's few degrees hotter inside the net on already hot night.
Temperature during the day reaches 96F and it drops to around 80F at night. It's very much what we were used to in Georgia, except that there is no AC environment we can escape to. Ceiling fans help a lot during the day, but by late afternoon we start feeling sleepy and sluggish. By some strange coincidence it is also the time for a scheduled daily power outage. It's usually 4pm, the sun is in full blast, and all of the sudden the fans stop spinning... It's two long hours till sunset, but kids do not seem to be affected by this. They keep zooming around in their regular fashion, whether it's early in the morning or late at night, whether they're sweaty or dripping wet from their last bath.
Speaking of bathing, Indian baths were invented for kids. There are no tubs or shower cabins. There is just single shower head somewhere up high on the wall. Kids can run and spray water any direction they want, the whole bathroom is their wet playground. Kids spend hours pouring water and splashing in their plastic buckets, and I have photos to prove it. We don't mind this excessive bathing too much. As long as they are wet, they don't sweat. Eial told me the other day that his new rule is if a towel is dry, it's time for another shower!
Every afternoon around 5 or 6pm Maya leaves the house for a playdate with neighborhood kids. Sometimes she ends up in somebody's house, sometimes a bunch of kids pile up into our place. Since we don't know all the families that live on our street yet, we usually find Maya by locating her shoes outside someone's gate. Maya and her new friends do not seem to have any communication problems. These kids are from well-off middle class families, they all go to private English-medium school. Hide-and-seek is a favorite game on this part of the world as well, and Maya even met a girl who loves Taylor Swift. There has been some interruption to Maya's playdate schedule, but hopefully we will work it out soon.
One thing that's been very reliable and dependable for us is our cook and housekeeper named Mutumma. She has been working with us since our third day here in Madurai. We've been spoiled by her excellent South Indian cooking. Meals are colorful, flavorful, and half-way through the plate they will make you sweat. Every dish includes ground up fresh coconut. Most of the time you can't even taste it, but I know it's there, because I see Mutumma cracking up a coconut at the start of every meal preparation.
Well, that's it for starters, but I have lots more to tell later. For some funny reason, I kept a log of our daily accomplishments up to today... So here it is:
Day 1 Drinking water, gas stove, cell phone provided by Eial's work
Day 2 Refrigerator is in; pots, pans, and dishes purchased
Day 3 Our cook reported to work
Day 4 Eight ceiling fans installed
Day 5
Day 6 Dining table with chairs, one mattress purchased
Day 7 Boys school arranged
Day 8
Day 9 Water filter installed, mosquito net purchased. First trip to the doctor, although never got to see her. Boys got haircuts instead...
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13 Boys first day of school, second cell phone obtained
Day 14
Day 15 Internet installed. Purchased couple of desks and a bookshelf
And finally, here are some pictures that we took today:
We cracked up when Eial noticed the motto of the school opposite to our house which says "Learn To Survive". What else do you need in life in India?
Check out the bookshelf we scored today at some second-hand housewares market. Mutumma was negotiating so hard on my behalf, she literally pulled it out of the seller's hands. There was yelling, hand waving, and other things I did not understand. Eial was somewhat perplexed about this purchase, but Mutumma and I were quite proud of ourselves.
And here is the highlight of the day - our laptop screen and our faces lit up when we finally got internet installed. It was a long and frustrating way to get this done. Also, check out the desk I got just in time for the occasion.
Boys just had their first school bus ride back from school and are enjoying their PB&J and a glass of cold milk.
I have three eager volunteers to wipe off the dust and cobwebs of this beaten up shelf.
Our next door neighbor, Mr. Selvakumar, adores our children and they, naturally, adore him back. You can totally see why...
Hanging out on the front steps, waiting for the cow to pass by...
All is very interesting!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI miss you A lot!
Please put helmets!
Love & Kisses, Saba and Savta.
Don't worry, they are only riding around the block!
ReplyDelete