sunday monday tales

sunday

Dad and Kia have arrived and we have a proposal for them. we offer a chance to be initiated into the Outlasters (we go the name from a local Indian "hiphop" group) of Rainbow Nagar.

Initiation into ORN
i. negotiate a rickshaw down to 40 rupees. if you get lower you can skip of the these 10 steps.
ii. chug a chai in under 20 sec. bonus if you do it outside in the sun.
iii. trick the temple elephant into giving you blessing without giving it money.
iv. change a diaper type II and enjoy the nonexistence of baby wipes at the orphanage.
v. get the nuns to pronounce your name correctly.
vi. learn a song in tamil. extra points if you accomplish the indian inflections.
vii. eat street food. coconuts don't count.
viii. haggle an item in the grand bazaar down 100 rupees.
ix. smack a cow's butt when riding through traffic (rickshaw-fine; bike- more street cred)
x. insert the indian "yes" head-bob smoothly, correctly, and without the conversant suspecting you of mocking them.

monday

a woman on the street asked me to spit on her daughter this morning. i said no.

Amelie a Parrot and a Coconut

ariel has fun with the camera and debuts her work

marvelous memory- we talked to green parrots and drank coconuts with the village priest.

village dispensary

when we are not with the kiddies at Shishu Bhavan (the MC sisters home for mentally and physically handicapped children) we are rollin' in the ambulance with the other Mama T's ladeez. with them we visit different villages to hand out medicine and crackers to very beautiful very poor people. sometimes we help distribute medicine but mostly we play with the children. usually that involves some singing, speckled with some hokey pokey, and then chasing them until we're tired (they never are).

on the road back into Pondicherry we often stop at produce stands to support the farmers in the area. this day was watermelon day. tremendous. 

tale of the day thursday hey friday whoa

thursday

friday

the 6 nuns took Ariel, Angelle and I on an exquisite field trip today.
we visited some other nuns down the street because one of their nuns died last night. in India they keep the body nice and exposed for you to pay your condolences, so we had to get there while she was still out. so we gathered around this dead nun and prayed. while Angelle and I were of course focused and reverent, flipsy Ariel was lost in distraction during this time. during her childish spaciness she did, however, observe a little Indian charm. printed in red capital block letters on the side of the coffin read this:

BOX FOR DEAD BODY.
FREEZER BOX FOR DEAD BODY.
THE BEST AND CHEAP.
979017669

genius. what better advertisement space is there? 

Pondicherry and some things

this is our town. 

we have a park 

and a beach.

(with a Ghandi yesss)

(we drink coconuts)

 we have crazy streets

with crazy rickshaws.

and temples. lots. 

but this is just one. 

 we also have an elephant. 

i love him so much. 

 and i think he might love me too, a little bit. he hugged me once.  

this is our neighborhood, rainbow nagar.

some things 

this is wonderful: every day here the woman of the household sprinkles salt in front of her house in designs such as these. they do so to keep evil spirits away. 

enchanting, yes? every edifice has them. homes, stores, temples, etc. and the women's free-hand salt sprinkling is consistently impressive. 

one day we went to a cafe where the french bohemians sip things and we listened to a guitar and a woman hum hum hum together.

one day we were attacked. 

 these men approached us and covered us in colored powder and shouted "happy holy." 

we learned later that this was normal. this is how you welcome the spring in India.

 one day Ariel and I found a MotherTree.

we kissed her. 

textures. 

tale of the day hey hey

tuesday

an entire village gathered today to watch Ariel and Angelle swing dance and play clap games. somewhere in there they had multiple old old ooooold women in bright sarees joining the jive. it was glorious. the awkward teenage boys and I pretended we were too cool and taught each other break-dance moves by the ambulance.

wednesday

today we danced in some dirt with some beautiful children whlie swapping timeless traditions. they sang sweetly aged songs in a mystical Indian village tongue. We showed them the good ol' hokey pokey.

 one of our neighbors in our beloved neighborhood

RAINBOW NAGAR