"Good Evening, Akka!!"

It's been, One Week since you looked at me. . .

We (meaning the kids) are reading green eggs and ham, and I think there is no feasible way to explain what ham is. A semi-processed pig meat one eats at Christmas? The Christians are the only people in this country who would even think about eating a pig, so at least that is a safe topic. Otherwise, I never would have bothered copying the entire story into my notebook. I think it's working though, because the kids ask me if I like green eggs every day at lunch. We made up this rhyme:

I like to eat white eggs and rice.
I like them, they are very nice.
Do you eat them on the ice?
Do you eat them with the mice?
I do not eat them on the ice.
I do not eat them with the mice.
But I like to eat white eggs and rice.

Makes white eggs seem strange, don't you think? I wish I could get my hands on some food coloring, because how crazy would that be to surprise the kids with green eggs? Maybe some green chilis would do the trick...

In any case, English is a ridiculously hard language. I always knew that, but still. Pear, pair, pare. Random gh in the middle of everything. Dipthongs like nobody's business. We read today. He read yesterday. The chair is red.

Dr. Suess is so comforting.

Silver Bells

Somehow I still think it’s November. Possibly because the city is not decorated for Christmas, and it’s not cold. Although last night everyone certainly thought it was freezing. I suppose it was, by Indian standards—maybe as low as degrees Fahrenheit. I still functioned in short sleeves the whole night, even though I've been here long enough to adjust to the warmth. Only once the morning mist set in did I really think about a sweatshirt. Peer pressure.

I'm getting ahead of myself. Last night was the Christmas carol marathon. We left the house at 3 pm to go caroling, and went for 15 hours straight. That’s right, 32 kids and 20 adults managed to Christmas carol all night long in a bus meant for 25 people. I don’t think anyone expected how long it was going to take to go to a children’s home as well as 15 houses all over the city, but needless to say, we were out until 6 am. This is why I love India. When the idea of caroling into the “wee hours of the morning” was proposed, I thought, maybe 1 am or so. How long can these kids possibly hold out? How on earth does one go caroling when the whole city goes to bed at 10 pm? But everyone knew we were coming to sing, so they planned ahead. While we didn’t get wassail, nor could I remember to sing that Ralph Vaughn Williams arrangement, we did get tea, “biscuits” and chips all night long. Needless to say, I’m exhausted and thus sleeping all day long.

Really though, singing is the best medicine for exhaustion. As well as for just about anything else. But remind me of that when I’m in my 6th hour of Jet Lag, Ok?

Currently Listening. . .

This would be the soundtrack to India, if I got to make one, in no particular order. Not that it is necessarily what I hear in the city, or even on campus or at Tent or Ark Ministries, but rather what seems appropriate that has been gracing my laptop speakers...

1. Ragas in Minor Scales, Ravi Shankar.
*Matt whistled this for the first month we were at HCU. I know I betray our music dorkiness by writing this, but lets be honest, us music dorks need to band together. So in any case, Matt would whistle four notes only. In my head, that was the opening four notes of “Seventy Six Trombones” and I would always have the obsessive need to finish the phrase with “... lead the big parade!” He would then tell me that no, the phrase is not unfinished, because the last note of the line he was whistling was the tonic. “Excuse me, sir, in what universe is that the tonic? It is most clearly the fourth and needs to be resolved, I’m sorry for going musical theatre geek on you by bringing the Music Man into this.” And so begins yet another musical argument/discussion in which all the non-theory-oriented types tune out and laugh at us. Then I finally listened to the piece, and my friends, that last note is indeed the tonic. Not that it matters.

2. Raining at Sunset, Chris Thile
*Thile is the mandolin player of Nickel Creek gone solo. I listen to this when I run and when I sleep, and it keeps me sane. And in awe of this guy’s brilliance.

3. The Way I Am, Ingrid Michaelson
* This will always be Kat singing it.

4. Life In Technicolor/Death and all His Friends, Coldplay.
*Ok, Coldplay is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. As well as these song(s).

5. Traincar, Sandra McCracken. Gravity|Love.
* “Like a train car running off the tracks, you can run behind but you cannot get it back. And the change comes like the splitting of wood, like the plow blade turns the soil on the ground. Change comes like it should; you gotta die before you live, something’s gotta give, for you to find what comes after.”

6. This Side, Nickel Creek.
* “It’s foreign on this side, and I’ll not leave my home again, there’s no place to hide, and I’m nothing but scared…
…you dream of colors that have never been made, you imagine songs that have never been played. They will try to buy you, and your mind, but only the curious have something to find…
…Entrance is crucial and its not wtihout pain. There’s no path to follow once you’re here, climb up the slide and then you’ll slide down the stairs. It’s foreign on this side, but it feels like I’m home again. There’s no place to hide, but I don’t think I’m scared…”

7. Guardian, Sandra McCracken. Red Balloon.

8. Forgiveness, Patty Griffin. Living with Ghosts.
* “ We are swimming with the snakes at the bottom of a well
So silent and peaceful in the darkness where we fell
But we are not snakes and whats more, we never will be
If we stay swimming here forever we will never be free

I heard em ringing the bells in heaven and hell
They got a secret they’re getting ready to tell
Its falling from the skies, its calling from the grave
Open your eyes boy I think we are safe

Lets take a walk on the bridge right over this mess
Don’t need to tell me a thing baby were already confessed
And I raise my voice to the air we were blessed
Its hard to give, its hard to get, but everybody needs a little forgiveness"


9. If not for You, Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken. & - Ampersand
* I really am still a broken record. I have a ton of music that people have given me on this trip, and still, I can’t get over these two. This song probably really shouldn’t be on here, because it has nothing to do with India except that I’m listening to it, and I’m in India. “Watch Your Mouth” is also great off this album…