Bees Poop on School

Dylan has been asking to have school on our roof for several days so today I decided to oblige him.  The day was gorgeous…sun shining and clear skies…we could even see the Himalayan Mountains!  We were having a wonderful school morning when all the sudden Tony yelled at us to get up and run downstairs!  There has been a large beehive hanging on the house next door to ours full of many busy bees.  Well, today the bees decided to evacuate their hive.  They swarmed over our roof before heading off across the field.  When Tony and I went up to see if the coast was clear, I noticed a bunch of pea-size yellow dots all over the ground and our school materials.  It looked like mustard and even smelled a little like it…yes I did smell it but I didn’t taste it!

Of course, this was a perfect opportunity to turn this troubling experience into a little science discovery.  We were very intrigued to find that these little yellow dots all over the roof and our school materials were bee poop!  According to one beekeeper, it is left over or undigested pollen that is expelled by adult bees when they leave their hive.  They usually do this within about 25 meters of the hive.  We were the lucky winners today! Apparently, bee poop is very rich in protein and is used by some African farmers to fertilize their fields.  I just have one thing to say about this whole experience…EWWWW! 

Here are some pictures from our school morning and the beehive before and after we got pooped on…

Neighborhood Bike Ride

We are getting settled into our new home and trying to establish a new routine.  The kids are really enjoying their freedom and their friends! We have begun building relationships with our new neighbors and are trying to find a few individuals who can help us continue our language studies.  We are speaking Hindi much more here in Siliguri than we ever did in Delhi and it has been great for us.  We are enjoying getting to know our landlord’s family.  He has four teenage children that have taken a shine to our kids.  We play badminton with them and other neighborhood children most every evening.  A few evenings ago, Delaney and Rae-Rae had a “dance party” with the girls in their house.  They had a blast! 

This morning, our family loaded up for a bike ride through our new neighborhood.  We had a wonderful time exploring, especially through the tea gardens.  The people in Siliguri have been very welcoming to us.  We are loving our new location and especially the beautiful weather and fresher air.  Here are a few pictures we took during our bike ride…

Christmas Preparations

Normally, Tony has some lame rule (hehe) that we are not allowed to put our Christmas tree up until after his birthday…December 17! Well, apparently that rule does not apply overseas…so…we put our tree up today! Actually, the tree and all the decorations were a part of the furnishings that we purchased with the apartment…it’s a good thing since we have yet to see any Christmas trees or Christmas decorations anywhere around here.  That feels really strange to us…so does decorating our tree with the windows wide open. 

The kids and I strung popcorn too! I popped two huge bowls of popcorn but we ate much more than we got on the strings…at least two strings of popcorn made it on the tree!  We are super excited about how great our tree looks! Ours is the only Christmas tree around…hopefully that will be a great conversation starter.  

Our Thanksgiving Turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving to your family from ours!  We have so much to be thankful for…and that includes YOU!  Thank you for sharing this journey with us!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with our friends in our new location.  We even had turkey, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie!  These delicious treats are all thanks to our friends who had just returned from a visit in the States and brought a suitcase full of goodies…including a Costco turkey breast!

We are also thankful for our amazing son whose 12^th birthday we celebrated the day after Thanksgiving.  Twelve years ago, Dylan surprised us with his grand entrance into the world three weeks early - on Thanksgiving Day!  Here are a few pictures of him at his birthday celebration! 

Goodbyes are Never Easy

At our training in February, an adult TCK (Third Culture Kid) explained that after saying goodbye so many times to so many people, he found that he stopped allowing himself to grow close to people so that goodbyes weren’t hard.  We too have had to say goodbye to many people already along this journey, and it certainly is not easy.  As we walked away from our precious friend’s house last night, several of us with tears in our eyes, I reminded the kids of this important lesson from our training.  We have loved deeply here in Delhi and that is why the goodbyes are painful…similar to the pain we felt when we left family and friends in the States.  We will have many more goodbyes along this journey, but the important thing to remember is that we must not refuse to love for fear of the pain of saying goodbye.  Our time in Delhi has been such a blessing to us, and we pray that we have been a blessing to those we have met here.  We are excited for the next leg of our journey but saying goodbye again has been hard.  Below are a few pictures from our visits these last few days.  Thanks for your love and prayers as we transition yet again!

Last Day of Language School

Friday marked our last day of language school in Delhi.  We have been working really hard on language and culture acquisition for the past five and a half months.  We are confident that we made the right decision in coming to Delhi for language school for a number of reasons.  First, it forced us to be intentional and intense in our language learning without having to worry about hiring a language nurture or training him/her on how to teach us.  All we had to do was show up for class every day and let our language nurturers pour into us.  Second, it enabled us to explore many of the amazing historical sites in the area to enrich our appreciation for our new culture.  Third, it gave us an opportunity to enjoy a few of the comforts of home…like food and...well…yeah, food.  Being a huge city, Delhi has many American restaurants that we could enjoy when I needed a break from cooking…like Chili’s, TGI Friday’s and McDonalds.  Although, we will not have access to these restaurants after our move, we will still be able to get Domino’s, KFC and Subway.  Why doesn’t anyone like Mexican food around here?!?!  Seriously, we have cherished our time in Delhi, especially the relationships we have formed.  We are excited to pack once again and board a plane next weekend to continue this grand adventure in our new location.  Thank you for sharing this journey with us! We truly love and appreciate you.  Below you will find a few pictures of the things we will miss most about Delhi...

 Our precious friend & language nurturer - Gudiya

 Gudyia's mother and our dear friend - Rushannara

 The trash service...yes the bull pulling the cart is our trash service, a luxury we will no longer have

The huge crowds...everywhere we go 

The beautiful views of this enormous city

Goodbye Sam...

This week was a difficult one for our family; we had to say goodbye to Sam.  She has been with us for nearly six months, sharing every moment of this first and most difficult leg of our journey.  It is hard to describe what her presence with us for this time has meant to us.  Her love, patience, creativity, maturity, and joy has been such a blessing to our entire family and especially our kids. 

Sam was a fantastic role model and teacher for our babies! She taught Desirae all her letters, how to write her name, and even started teaching her how to read.  Sam nurtured Delaney’s creativity and helped her discover the joy in reading and learning.  She inspired Dylan to greater heights as a follower of Jesus and as a musician.  Sam brought so much joy and laughter to our home with her delightful personality and her silly antics.  She was a true servant to our entire family!  For Sam and her willingness to sacrifice so much to share this journey with us for these six months, we are so incredibly grateful.  

Chole Bhature

On Friday, we took a walk through our neighborhood with our language nurturer to share in some street food.  The food is called chole bhature and has become one of our favorite foods here.  Chole is actually a breakfast food, but it’s a little more than I can handle for my first meal of the day.  Chole is a spicy chick-pea sauce and bhature is a fried bread that puffs up like a balloon when it is cooked.  The meal also consists of sliced onions covered with a green chutney.  You eat this meal, by tearing off pieces of the bhature and using it to grab bites of the chole and chutney. 

We ate standing at a table right beside the road and next to the cooks.  When we finished we walked over to the outdoor sink to rinse our hands.  Before we left, we had to order a piece of meetha, or Indian sweets, to top off a great meal but most importantly to cool our mouths.  This was a delicious treat for our Friday shared experience.

On the way back to our classroom we stopped by one of the many historical structures in the area, called the Zafar Mahal.  This structure was built by the last Mughal Emperor as his summer palace in 1842.  You will notice the amazingly high door.  It is said that this door was built so that elephants fully decorated with a carriage on top could easily pass through.  The structure is in ruins but it is still an impressive piece of architecture. 

It is a true blessing to have a historian as a language nurturer.  Not only are we getting great instruction in Hindi but we are also learning so much about our new country and culture.