Two weeks...and a Red Balloon

Deep apologies for the silence I seem to have sunk into over the past two weeks. For a long while, I was simply floating around in the air with my plans, waiting for some idea of my future to appear. All a result of limited internet connection, for the most part.

So, to update.

Oh, was that Thanksgiving? I forgot. Although I did have a lovely couple of chats with my family at their Thanksgiving gatherings.

Hyderabad is fine, I am fine, despite the recent attacks in Mumbai. Still, pray for India. Pray for Pakistan. The threat of bombings is never gone, nor is the persecution of Christians in the state of Orissa (also far from Hyderabad). Also, if you aren't up on the goings on in Jos, Nigeria via Rene Marshall or anyone else, pray for Nigeria as well.

Last two weeks, I spent some time outside of the city on the TENT Ministries' Carmel campus, which does holistic-type ministry training. Basically, that means crash-course Bible training plus micro-enterprise, animal husbandry, health issues, communications, and anthropology. Altogether a great experience, as I got to tag along with the women's courses for a week before they all graduated, and by the end I had to remind myself that I'd only been there a week and I wasn't graduating along with them. Uncle Vijayam kept asking who the Kashmiri was--meaning me. I kind of tickle all the Indians that I meet now with my Indian dresses and ability to handle spicy food. I still can't seem to hold a normal social interaction, but at least I can dress and feed myself. Once the girls left, I spent a slightly exhausting week doing absolutely nothing. I don't think I've ever been so tired from doing nothing, but I had almost zero English communication available, so every little task had to get beaten into the ground to get the point across. I talk with my hands like a good Italian, but unfortunately life is normally more complicated than that.

Now I'm at Ark Family Ministries in Secunderabad for two weeks, helping at their residential school for HIV-affected-and-infected children. The stigma here with regard to HIV/AIDS is still really huge, and most of these kids who are infected via their parents can't get into regular schools. It's all English medium, so they say here in India, and I'll be helping in the classroom with English mostly. Really just a ploy to expose them to my American accent and force them to speak in English, given that I still only know about 4 words in Telugu.

There is currently a highly energetic kitten jetting around this room.

The Finals Boat has arrived

Dun, da dun dun.

Strange as it seems, I am deep in the midst of my finals, and actually studying in a semi-normal manner for the first time since midterms. Homework? What foreign substance is this? My brain seems a little reluctant to accept any information, or let it out in reverse. Quite difficult to concentrate when, let's be honest, shopping for Christmas presents is much more fun. I think there is a strange connection in my head between Christmas and finals, as I switched on Christmas music today from some odd inspiration and literally cried in happiness.

[Little unimportant side-note that nonetheless makes me unnaturally happy: spring classes! Seminar on the Qur'an, Religion 400 class for my major, Music History II--Classical to Modern, and Anthropology of Human Rights. Not only did I get every class I could dream of wanting or needing, but they all fit into a perfect little schedule with no class on Monday OR Friday. I may die of overwork, if I don't die of happiness.]

This is Halloween?

Apologies for the gigantic lateness of this post, given that next week is Thanksgiving. However, I thought that perhaps this might have been one of my favourite Halloweens of all time. Surprising, no? I think I found the secret...

Indians do not celebrate Halloween, although personally I think it's right up their alley as holidays go. Scratch that. Indians just like holidays. In any case, us Americans were determined to get a little spooky cheer on, so we went shopping and found the only pumpkin in the supermarket, pulled together a few costumes, and got as much candy as we could afford.

Then we went Trick-or-Treating.

"But, Indians do not celebrate Halloween! How does Trick or Treating work?"

Like this: Take a bag of candy. Run around the student canteen yelling "Happy Halloween!" and give everyone candy, instructing them to say "Trick or Treat!" before you hand over the sweets. Then run through the halls of the Men's International Hostel banging on doors and repeat until the toffees run out. This, my friends, is the secret to Halloween: play in reverse. Jack Skellington would have been proud. Maybe.

Anu, Minakshi and Sumedha, who amazingly got into the spirit and dressed up! We were so proud.

Barf and Apples

Also known as, برف اور سيپ

Things to remember:

1. Barf is not just a soap* from Kazakhstan; it also happens to mean snow in Urdu.
   
2. "Mela" does not mean apple in Urdu. I think I actually argued with my peer tutor several times on this point before realizing that "mela" means apple in Italian.

*said soap may possibly be called that because barf means snow in whatever root language. Please, would someone who speaks either Russian or Kasakh please confirm?