Gayathri's Village

Recently we got to see Gayathri's, our cook's, village all the way out by the Kolar Gold Fields. She lives with us full time because her village is too far to go home each night.  I knew she had a long commute but her commute is even longer than our two hour drive was.  In the early dark hours of the morning she has to take a rickshaw through the countryside to reach the train station.  Then after an hour and half on the train she takes a bus the rest of the way to our neighborhood.  She arrives around 7:30 on Monday morning and doesn't leave for home again until Saturday afternoon.  After doing the drive myself to her village I now really appreciate the time it takes her to reach our home on Monday.

Gayathri was really nervous about having us over but I could tell she was also very excited.  I gave her plenty of opportunities to back out if she felt overwhelmed but she insisted that she wanted to make this happen.  I offered to bring a dish or drinks but she refused a single bit of help. 

I prepped the kids a couple days in advance about what to say and what not to say.  And we practiced together thinking of loving things to say that would make her feel special.  Sometimes kids don't have filters so I didn't want them to accidentally hurt anyone's feelings by making little comments about her village or home.  I knew it would be different than what the kids had seen before and I knew this would be a great opportunity for them to see the way the villagers live, but I had no idea what her place would really be like.  I knew they wouldn't have running water and they wouldn't have a convenient toilet.  Other than that I had no clue what to expect.

After a little over an hour and half drive through beautiful countryside we finally passed through a small town. We renedvoused with a guy on motorycle who instructed our driver to follow him the rest of the way to Gayathri's house.  I didn't know it would be another 15 minutes through even more country.  On these roads, a two hour drive easily feels like a three hour drive.  Field after field of nothing but green, one lane country roads that were so curvy and bumpy, and plenty of cows and sheep to avoid along the way.

A little after noon we finally turned off the main road and pulled into a little village that was nestled quietly in the middle of rice paddies and cow pastures.  We pulled up infront of a small row of cement huts.  They were painted bright colors and had blue doors, and orange clay tile roofs.  Can you imagine the color splash as women in bright colored saris came out of their homes to inspect the visitors?  One of the woman had drawn "WELCOME" in bright chalk colors on the stones in front of the doorway. 

We felt very welcomed and loved.  Her family showed us what it meant to be hospitable. 

Mother, Sister, neice, and Gayatrhi

The girls love Gayathri, and they instantly took to her family.  I love the bright green walls in this bedroom/living room.

Girls are enjoying Gayathri's neice.  

 

This is the cutie being loved on by my girls.  The kitchen has one small window but the bright color on the wall made the place feel happy.  Gayathri fed us a delicious meal of traditional biryani and raita. I didn't think it was possible, but her biryani tasted even better here then it did when she made it for us back in our home.  After lunch Gayathri took us for a tour around her village.



Owen was quite a scene in the village with that curly blonde hair, that mixed with his vivacious personality made him the center of attention.  He fell in love with this chick and was so disappointed that he couldn't bring one home.  The older chickens are actually tethered by a thin rope tied to their leg.  There aren't any chicken coops around and I suppose that keeps them close to home. 

We walked behind the homes and green fields spread out in front of us as far as we could see. It was so peacful and you could literally smell the green.  If green had a smell that would be it. I filled my lungs with fresh air and dreamily asked Gayathri what the stars were like at night.  This was such a nice respite from the dirty, grimy, noisy streets of Bangalore.

Village life is very quiet but everyone knows everyone's business, and it seemed that everyone was somehow related to each other in one way or another.  The local school has two teachers and no one who stays here gets above a fifth grade education.  Every person who stays in this village works the fields and helps with one of the many crops.  This was the first time I saw where peanuts came from.  I knew they came from a bushy plant but I didn't know they were a root of that plant.  Gayathri pulled some directly out of the dirt for us to see what they looked like when they were ready.  The sweet potatos and corn were all planted together with other plants with no rhyme or reason.  Just all mixed together.   They've been doing this for centuries so it must work.  I saw rice paddies being worked for the first time.  That was pretty cool to watch.

We watched the oxen tread over and over the same little area of rice paddy, making sharp turns in thick mud.  The guy called out commands, raised his arm as if to strike the oxen with his stick, but he never once used his stick. How long does it take to train oxen to obey a command?  This was the first time I've ever seen a rice paddy being tilled and planted. The women in the background were planting small segments of rice plants into the muddy water.  Their saris were pulled up over their knees and they were singing songs as they worked.  

This woman started singing and dancing Bollywood style for us when she saw she had an audience.  We were cracking up over her little antics.  Then she came up out of the mud and started telling jokes that Gayathri translated for us.  Life is hard for these folks but this lady still keeps her sense of humor.


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The village is in the background and Owen was being followed by this small group of boys.  Everyone was intriuqed by that blond curly hair. 



 

Days before we came I anticipated feeling like I would have to fix something.  But to my surprise, I actually didn't feel that way at all. They treated us like honored guests.  They showed us a quiet, and peacful life, I almost envied it (except for the no plumbing part). Kids were full of smiles and giggles.  No doubt they work hard and life is hard, and they are poor.  But they are happy.  They have so little but have so much. I left feeling like they "fixed" me for a bit.  I wasn't sure what we could give them but they were quick to give us smiles and make us feel welcome.

Living the Expat Life

One of the benefits to living in an expat community like Palm Meadows is getting to meet people from all over the globe.  No matter what country or culture we come from, Sweden, Norway, Canada, France, Germany, or U.S., we seem to all have one big thing in common that brings us together, we have moved far from home and we are now foreigners.  We have bonded over the similar foreigner experiences we have, we share directions, frustrations, laughs, then a beer, and soon all borders begin to fade.  We are now just friends. 

Getting to know the other cultures has been great fun, and a great experience for the kids.  Our immediate neighbors to our left are Swiss, and across the street they are German. The Swedish family have a young boy, Hannes, who couldn't speak much English when we got here, but our boys found ways around the language barrier and shared toy cars, making crashings sounds together.  Soon Hannes was speaking confidently in English. 

The twins became fast friends with the little German girls, Lucia (3) and Sophie (6).  Soon my girls began to talk like them with a German-English accent.  They soon started telling me what German words are for day to day things.  The kids went to summer camp together, rode scooters together through the streets, and took daily trips to the pool and playground.   It's definately been a great summer for them. 

As fun as it's been, I now understand one of the downsides to expat living, your neighbors come and go.  Two weeks ago we had to say good-bye to our neighbors from Sweden.  And in two days our friends from Germany head back home.  They've been living in Bangalore for three years and for their youngest daughter, Lucia, India is home.  My girls will miss them so much but especially their oldest, Sophie.  We've already made plans to Skype with them and we'll definately stop by for a visit if we fly back through Frankfurt.  ( Christina, if you read this, I want you to know that I've enjoyed getting to know you and have enjoyed having you as a neighbor. )

Two things living like expats has taught me, first, all kids are the same no matter what country or culture you are from. Second, no matter the differences, we all love a good laugh.

1st Visit to the Indian Hospital

I was really hoping to avoid this situation, but we had our first visit to an Indian hospital. Keely is so accident prone and all three previous ER visits in the U.S. were because of her.  This time she was racing friends along the street on her scooter and flipped over the handlebars, landing hard on her shoulder and head.  I was more concerned about her head and didn't think much of the small scrape on her shoulder. But a few days later a big bruise began to show up on her shoulder and then I noticed unusual swelling along her collar bone. Keely didn't complain about much pain and had good movement of her arm but I've never had a broken bone before and I got suspicious.  I asked around for a good hospital and a few of our local Indian friends recommended TeleRad RxDx which was not far from here.

Our friend, Roopa, loaned us her car and came with us to show her support. Steve got behind the wheel and drove us that night.  I was a nervous wreck in the backseat, closing my eyes half the time.  I'm a terrible backseat driver.  I must say, he actually did a great job considering everything is reverse, the steering wheel is on the right side, the stick is on the left, the cars drive on the left side of the road, also it was dark, and pedestrians, bicycles, and the occasional dog will dart out in front of a car at any moment.  There are unmarked speed bumps all over Bangalore which is supposed to keep traffic at a reasonable speed, but they become a road hazard to unsuspecting drivers.  BUT, Steve got us there in one piece.

Poor Keely, she was so afraid to go to an Indian hospital. However, I think her twin, Addien, was even more afraid for her sister.  She was very quiet, holding my hand in the backseat and whispered that her heart was "beeping" ("beating") so hard for Keely.  Roopa reassured us we'd be well taken care of. 

My first impression put me at ease right away.  When we arrived at 9 p.m. the place seemed relatively quite and quite modern.  I found my way to reception easily and was given a form to complete asking for the patient's name and age.  That's it for paperwork, no legal disclaimers, no HIPPA forms, nothing.

The cost was unbelievable.  We paid less than $10 to see a dr.  After talking with us he ordered the x-ray, and get this, we paid an additional $2 for the x-ray.  TWO DOLLARS! I was almost giddy.  We took the x-ray film back to the dr. who then confirmed my suspicion, Keely broke her collar bone.  Next stop was two doors down with the orthopedic specialist.  That was an additional $10.  He also looked at the film and confirmed it was broken, wrote a prescription for the swelling and an arm sling.  He said it should remold itself perfectly without a problem since she's so young.  We went to the hospital pharmacy and paid maybe $.25 for the medicine and less than $2 for the sling.  So all in all, we paid the same as about one co-pay for Keely's broken arm. 

It wasn't a bad experience at all and Keely so innocently announced to everyone, "I'm not afraid of Indian Doctors anymore".   Which is a relief since I'm nearly sure it won't be our last visit.