lauren arrives in delhi!!

Just before taking off for our home leave, Lauren flew out to visit us in New Delhi. This picture to the right is Lauren's exciting first day in India when it rained all day, and the power went out at least 15 times. It's a normal thing for the power to go out almost every day. Sometimes it's just once, but it's not unusual for it to go out a few times. But not as many as that day! Everyone has generators, so it's fine, but it is a nuisance.

I was more than a little worried about Lauren's arrival at 1am. I don't know why! She has flown alone on international flights before. Maybe I was remembering my own experience of feeling a little freaked out ... Anyway, the night before she was supposed to arrive, I woke up in a crazy panic at 4am. I thought I had slept past going to the airport at 1am! I had told her the airport wifi is impossible and she wouldn't be able to reach me, so she should meet me at gate 6. I knew for sure that she was there waiting for me, most likely sobbing for hours after being abandoned by her mother. I've never been so panicked! I hopped out of bed, "OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH! How could I let this happen? OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH! Why didn't Sharma call me? Where are my clothes?!" I was opening and closing drawers trying to find something to throw on, and dialing my driver at the same time when Mike said in a very calm voice - "Isn't Lauren coming tomorrow?" I immediately ended the call to my driver and walked over to the bed before I fainted. What is wrong with me? I should have known I was wrong because I would never let something like that happen!

When we got in the car the next day at 1am, my driver said to me in his quiet voice - "4am, ma'am?" To which I replied, "Yes, Sharma, I called you at 4am ..." So sorry!!!

Thankfully Mike and Michael went with me which turned out to be super helpful since there were three separate doors she could have exited from. It would have been nerve wracking to try to watch all three of those doors by myself! And I think we waited at least an hour for her to walk out. Sharma watched with Michael as if he knew who he was looking for. Hahaha. He's so great!

Lauren's first day with us was Monday when the weather was terrible and we did nothing. On Tuesday morning, all of the boys (including Mike) woke up with Collin's sickness. All had diarrhea, and Matthew had even thrown up. Michael really wanted to go to school since it was the 2nd to last day. That part is covered in an earlier post ... So we did nothing on that day also. Everyone went to bed super early, and I was the only one who ate dinner! On Wednesday Michael made it through his half day of school. Matthew was feeling a little better, but not so great. Mike was sicker than I've ever seen him. He was so sick! And he couldn't stop describing the details to all of us which was making me sick (literally). We were leaving for Nepal the next morning, and we were concerned that he would not be able to go.

ANYWAY, on Wednesday afternoon we finally did some sightseeing. And it's a good thing since our plans changed a little bit in the next week. Yeah, so we took off to Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, the Sikh temple that Mike and I visited with his colleague. I thought that would be an interesting thing for them to see.

Lauren thought it was strange to take a picture there.

And Collin thought it was strange that we were there at all. haha!

Collin thought we were getting glares from the Indians, but I think they were curious stares. 

That's ok! So, yeah, you have to wear these cute head coverings. Michael rocked that look.

We then drove around Connaught Place where the British once ruled, but now it is a shopping area. And then we drove down Rajpath, starting with the president's home, driving along the Republic Day route down the road, and ending up at India Gate.

It was a super hot and kind of humid day, so it was nice to be in the air conditioned car! But we did get out to see India Gate.

Our next stop was the Lotus Temple which took some time to get to in the traffic, maybe 30 minutes. I hadn't been there before, so I was looking forward to seeing something new. I think we were seriously the only tourists that day. Everyone else appeared to be Indian! The smart tourists must have been somewhere cooler.

The Lotus Temple is a Bahai house of worship that was built in 1986. This is what Wikipedia has to say about it: Notable for its flowerlike shape, it serves as the Mother Temple of the Indian subcontinent. The Lotus Temple has won numerous architectural awards ... Like all Bahá'í Houses of Worship, the Lotus Temple is open to all, regardless of religion or any other qualification. The building is composed of 27 free-standing marble-clad "petals" arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides, with nine doors opening onto a central hall with height of slightly over 40 metres and a capacity of 2,500 people. A 2001 CNN report referred to it as the most visited building in the world.

Michael and Lauren were obviously on their tiptoes in this picture! It's so funny now 

when the kids are all together, the first thing they all want to know - "How tall are you now?" 

I maintain the title as the shortest, and I think all of the boys are now taller than Lauren.

This is a shot from my helicopter. NOT. 

Here you can see how there were NO tourists. We were all

waiting in line with our bags of shoes to enter the temple.

Before we were allowed inside, the man gave a speech

in Hindi. And then he said, "And now in English - " And

we were like THANKS, because the English was for us. :)

Photography is not allowed inside, so these are from Google Images. Isn't it beautiful? I was glad we went there.

Next stop NEPAL!

a talent show

We had a little talent show for the women at our church that was so much fun. 

I had to share some of it with you. I loved these girls dancing!

Some beautiful singers!

 

I love Sister Asha getting everyone to clap. :)

And a dance that I want to learn!

michael's 8th grade graduation

Hooray for Michael!! After attending exactly one quarter and one semester of middle school, he is now "moving up" to high school! Of course, we did some hard core homeschooling in between that one quarter and one semester, so it's nice he got to participate in an official ceremony.

This picture is after the ceremony, but I'll begin with it because it is my favorite. What an amazing opportunity it has been for Michael to attend AES! He has done so well. Here are a few of the comments from his report card:

Drama: What a delight it has been to have Michael in Drama this semester. I have enjoyed watching him grow as a theatre artist, taking risks and working outside his comfort zone. He continues to show great potential as a performer and has good instincts when working with scenes. Michael is a meaningful and strong collaborator, taking a great deal of responsibility for performing and directing scenes or monologues.

Humanities: Congratulations, Michael, on your excellent year in Humanities. You were such a wonderful part of our class because of your work ethic, insightful comments to class discussion and overall positive demeanor. In both literary and informational texts, you read fluently and demonstrate an insightful understanding of a variety of works. Undoubtedly, many of your literacy skills can be attributed to the fact that you read for pleasure, a habit that is proven to promote development. I'm sure you've already picked out a stack of books to read for fun over the summer! It's been a pleasure working with you this year, Michael. Our entire class was enriched by your perceptive nature and inquisitive attitude. 

Math: Michael is a highly intelligent student that is an incredible thinker. He is motivated to get things done. He came to us with strong foundations and he could really synthesize his understanding to new and unfamiliar concepts fairly quickly and at a high degree. He really likes to be challenged and I think there are times that he needs to be the person that is creating the challenge so that he doesn’t become stagnant. Lastly, he may want to take the time to improve his handwriting. Hahaha!!

Back to the Moving Up ceremony - So they strung up all of these beautifully 

fragrant flowers like Indians do for any special event. They smelled so good!

I think there are close to 100 kids. It was such a nice ceremony!

I had to zoom way in to see Michael in the back.

They had each of the kids write 40 words to sum up their middle school experience, 

and then two of the counselors read the 40 words as each kid walked across the stage.

I was so worried about what Michael would say! He always likes to be different ...

But it turned out to be perfect. And very funny! I like the nod at the end. :)

Way to go, Michael!!!

They had a fancy reception set up for everyone afterwards

which was nice for visiting and taking pictures with friends.

Michael and one of his best friends, Sander, who is from Australia.

Sander's mom told them to put their arms around each other, so they were laughing.

Michael and his friend Thomas who is from Thailand.

In the picture to the left is Michael's friend Sueng Wan ('which sounds like someone')

from South Korea, and this funny guy Kabir popped in at the last minute.

In the pic to the right is Cosmo who is Dutch (funny guy!),
and Bryce who is from the good ole USA. 

We left Michael at that point to enjoy the graduation party for the 8th graders with 

Mongolian BBQ, swimming, and general socializing. What a great way to end the year!

But the year wasn't quite over yet - There were still three more days of school the next week. Kind of weird!

Collin had been sick that weekend of the graduation, and was slowly recovering. Mike, Matthew and Michael all had the same symptoms going into Tuesday morning - stomach related grossness with general weakness and feeling lightheaded. Michael didn't want to miss school, so he went anyway. The rest of us were in the family room when I saw that AES had posted this picture on Facebook showing the 8th graders going to the Tiger Den for the first time, a privilege only given to high schoolers. We all thought Michael looked really pale, and wondered how much longer he would last. Sure enough, I got a call from the school nurse about 15 minutes after that. Michael had a fever of 101 degrees! Poor Michael. He said they had an assembly, and he felt awful. Then they had a tour of the high school, and that pretty much killed him off. That's when they went to the Tiger Den, and then he laid down on a couch and asked his friend to take him to the nurse. Poor guy! The next day was a half day, so he made it through. Had to go! But Michael didn't have the sickness as bad as the other guys. More on that later ...

So now my youngest child is the only one left, and he is in high school. HIGH SCHOOL! It's so weird. School starts super early - August 9th. Michael is really looking forward to high school, and I think he is going to be super awesome. In the meantime, we are so ready to enjoy summer. We've already begun with a trip to Kathmandu, Nepal. Insane. But that's a story for another post ...

english class -- my most favorite thing!

I came to India with the intention to volunteer my time in some useful way. I thought for sure it would be with children since children have always been my thing. In fact, I would have bet on it being with children. But this opportunity to teach English fell into my lap, and thankfully I took it. The missionaries at my church most often teach free English classes for anyone who is interested, members and non-members alike. They are great classes, but I think they are pretty casual. In our case, the New Delhi Mission is offering an official curriculum from Cambridge University at Level 3, with the opportunity to receive a certificate upon completion of a 10-week course.

Hey, that's me!! Haha. I actually really love that photo above.

But the photo below is so bad! Anjani and I were trying to decide if 

we should use the word 'flashy' or the word 'bright' in the given sentence. :)

So I started teaching in March, and began team-teaching a class on Tuesdays nights with a friend of mine. After I taught the first class, I offered to teach at a different location on Thursday night. I knew they needed teachers, and it was a lot of fun! So much fun. It quickly became my most favorite thing about living in India. I love teaching my classes!!

It has also kept me very busy as I have been helping to make the powerpoint presentations for the classes. We want a set presentation for each class so that anyone can step in and teach without having to do a bunch of preparation. Having that powerpoint is such a great place to start, and makes it so much easier to teach. We have many classes all around the district, so all of the teachers (many of whom don't have the time that I do to prepare) can access the presentation and tweak it for their class. It has been very rewarding helping with that. I have also made up some homework sheets to go along with each class. And then I also grade the big quiz we do every few weeks.

One of the guys in our congregation is a talented photographer, and he
came in one night to take photos for the flyers. These are some of my students.

The elder standing on the left, Elder Mall, used to help us at our building. He was transferred to Mumbai, so here he is with the students there. I miss him! He would call me every Tuesday to ask if I needed anything. And he would usually call a few times with random questions. Super nice, helpful guy.

One night our mission president's wife came in and took a few pictures
while my friend and I were teaching our class. You can see how great it is!

Learning English is obviously SO MUCH FUN!!! I love these
girls. They are both nannies, and they were so quiet and sweet.

Our 10 weeks were complete just a little bit ago, and here we are the 

Tuesday night when they received their certificates. I was a little sad that 

more people weren't there for the picture, but these are most of our regular students.

Silly Pose!

Everyone wanted a picture with "ma'am" before they left. Haha!

These three are siblings - Vijay, Sushma & Arun. They're so great!

Another Vijay (to the left) was our most serious student, 

and my friend to the right is one of the nannies. Love her!

Anna was one of our superstar students, and her mom was also amazing.
And then Steffi (to the right) came with her sister Jennifer. Their dad Leo John
started out coming, but we couldn't convince him to stay. Super nice man though!

 

I just met these guys at the church the other night since they missed our last night. T.M. Mavalavan is the dad. He makes prosthetics for a living! What a fulfilling job to have. He does the whole process from making the molds, to fitting the prosthetic. You can see below some pictures he showed me. So cool. Anyway, he basically started coming for his son M. Navakanth (who always brings their little neighbor Sahil), but we convinced him that he was a serious student too. He did so well in the class! 

Navakanth (in the middle) was another one of our superstar 

students. So funny. We are working on ways to control his enthusiasm 

(and correct answers for everything) so that others can also learn. Ha!

These are the pictures from Mavalavan's work:

Back to class ...

Here are a couple of my favorite elders (they're all my favorite!),
Elder Dayaam and Elder Uppe, who helped so much with class.

And then the picture to the right is of Elder James and Elder John.

Elder James was the most eager to help, such a happy and funny guy.

But really they were most excited to get pictures with Ironman. Hahaha!

That was my Tuesday night class at our church building that we go to.

On Thursday night I teach at a different building to a very different class.

They are all teenagers with a few little kids! This class has been the best!

The kids are great and so eager to learn. I have a lot of fun teaching them,
and I think we all enjoy our time together. The missionaries are so sweet, very
thoughtful and kind. I just love all of them! I only wish more people were there
for our last night. You can see above the little kids. They're so great! And very cute.

More people got certificates, but they weren't holding them up.

Elder Nekkanti to the left has been wonderful. Justin, standing next to him, is the
class clown - "Can I start my story with 'Hey, yo!' ?" Haha. Reminds me of Matthew.

The brothers Matthew and Prince (on opposite ends) were the best students,

along with Komel who came along midway through. Such a sweet girl with her mom.

Sarvesh, in the turquoise next to me, usually wears a hat. He wants to learn English

so he can be a Bollywood star someday. Haha! Or he's just pulling my leg. :)

I am sad to miss the next session of classes while we are on our home leave, and am really looking forward to teaching again at the end of August. I'll have to take more pictures then to get more of the people who aren't shown here. Anyway, English class is truly the best thing ever, and I am so glad I have been able to get involved in it. I love it!