These first two weeks of our homestay have really shown me just how our Father provides. I am so thankful for this family and their children and how much they love the Father and us! They have been so very gracious in helping us learn the language and allowing us to learn how their home works with so many children. While we are very much a part of their daily routine, the family also provided us with a separate apartment of sorts in the basement of their home, so we could get some rest. We are up at 5:30 each day and go to bed around 9 or 10 each night. The food, while a bit spicy for my taste, is delicious. There is this blissful creation called dahi (yogurt curd) that I pour all over my rice and beans and paneer (cheese) to make it a bit less spicy. Rice, beans, and cheese may not sound spicy, but you don’t even know. It really isn’t as spicy as the rest of the country, so I have absolutely nothing to be complaining about.
I just started lessons with my language teacher today and I will continue for the entire month. She is a very kind girl, a few years older than myself, and she lives about a half hour walk away, so I get to get my exercise walking there. Speaking of ages, we had this very long detailed discussion with the two women in our family about ages and how people here count age and how we count age. They count years running and we count completed, so I am actually 22 by their standards and about to turn 23. Ha ha! (sorry mom, you can’t count me as 23 yet!) Our dinner conversations are very entertaining. All the kids are in bed by 5 and we have dinner around 7 or 8, so it’s nice and quite around the house. One day, I learned the word for please, which is mehair banee, and the word for water, which is pani. At dinner, I wanted the water so I said, “Mehair banee, pani?” They all started laughing. Our homestay older brother (he’s 18, but very much older than the rest of the kids), explained to us that if I said that to anyone else, they would think I was calling them “pani” instead of asking for it. Then they all started speaking in Urdu and somehow it got turned around to them joking about being afraid of Caprice and bowing down to her. NO CLUE how that happened, but it was hilarious!
Monday, we learned how to make chappati. It is a yummy type of bread that they eat with various foods here. Normally, our meals consist of rice, not bread, but they decided to teach us how to make it that night. Our homestay brother used to make it (I think) at a restaurant, but he said his mom taught him how to make chappati, so he was going to teach us. They teased us at first because we couldn’t make it perfectly round like he could and they said it was all right if our chappati took the shape of India or any other country. Ha ha! We finally got the hang of it when there were only like two chappati left to make. It was a very good dinner. Our homestay brother made the rest of it and he did a good job.
We also have bonded a lot with our homestay sister. She is 20 and is the biological sister of our homestay brother, even though he calls her his little sister, just to annoy her. I like to make bracelets out of cross stitching thread and I thought that would be a nice outlet when I needed something to do here. We usually watch TV in the evenings after dinner, but it’s all in Hindi, so I don’t understand much. One night I decided to take one of the bracelets I was working on and she was very interested, so Sunday, I brought my whole bag of thread and we sat and learned how to make it that afternoon while the kids were sleeping and the parents were out at the market. (oh yeah, Sunday was a short break from hartal, so the traffic was crazy and the lines at the petrol stations were insanely long, but we have enough food to last us a long time now!) Anyway, we had fun making them together while watching Roman Holiday. Ha ha, not a very cultural movie, but they don’t have any Hindi movies and I adore Audrey Hepburn! (Gregory Peck isn’t too shabby himself) (that’s for you dear Natosha!) Later this week, we took our sister down into our apartment and we listened to hindi music and looked at pictures of my family and Caprice’s family. She loved to hear our stories, or at least hear our stories as we tried to explain them in Urdu. She doesn’t speak very much English, but she speaks a lot more English than we speak Urdu. We were able to hear how she came to know the Father. She was born into a H.ndu family, but after they moved here and her father’s business was closed, there family hit very rough times. Her father turned to the Son in that time. His whole family basically disowned them and refused to help them financially or in any other way. It took her four years after that to finally decide that she wanted to follow, too. It was a very encouraging story and very different than many other believers in this part of the country.
Later this week, we decided to make our family spaghetti. The children really didn’t like it and I felt bad when their mom made them eat it. The adults in our family liked it, I think, but they poured what they call pickle in the sauce. It’s a spicy chili paste mixed with pickles, not my favorite. They only made me try it once. J ha ha! While we were making the spaghetti, we were all in the kitchen. Our homestay brother was talking to our mom and as usual, I was listening in, trying to pick up a few words here and there. I kept hearing “kiss me, kiss me!” and I was very confused. I started laughing and asked him what that meant. He speaks the most English out of all of the people in our home and he knew exactly why I was laughing, so he kept saying it. I couldn’t stop laughing after that and blushed horribly. Finally they explained that it is more like kiss may, not kiss me and it means “which one”. I decided that saying that would eventually stop being funny, but for now, it is still pretty hilarious!
Later that afternoon, the four of us ladies went on a rather long walk, part way up the mountain and then back through our part of the town. On our walk by the river, these two men were walking behind us. Then they passed us slowly and then walked in front of us very slowly, speaking in Urdu. All I caught was them asking if we were from around there. I didn’t respond and just threw a sardonic look right past them. Our homestay mom jumped right in though and started yelling at them, “What! Have you never seen a woman before!?” Afterward, she told us what she said, and we all busted up laughing, because after she had said that, the men quickly walked away. It is very funny when she scolds full grown men because she is so tiny, but very forceful. I decided I should learn that phrase, so I can use it when necessary. “Kiya! Ap kabi lardkeeko nehi dakah?”
I am notorious for being a slow eater here. I’ve decided that my mouth is just very small and its difficult to get as much rice in there as everyone else can. I eat about half of what our homestay dad and brother eat, but they always beat me by at least 10 minutes. The other night, I happened to notice that I was almost finished and our homestay brother had more food on his plate than I did. I was quite pleased and started trying to eat a bit faster because naturally, my obnoxiously competitive nature kicked in. When our homestay mom offered him more food, he said no, but I grabbed his plate and made her put more on. He realized what I was doing and laughed. He grabbed his plate back and started eating super fast. I took his water away and put it at the other end of the table cloth. I ALMOST beat him, but he stole one of the little one’s water that was right next to him and the little boy started sobbing. It was so funny! He got his water back as soon as our homestay brother had won. I was really sad, but I decided that someday I’ll be able to eat at a normal pace.
Anyway, I feel very blessed and taken care of here. The Father is so good. Please continue to lift up the relationships I have with people here. The people in this part of the country must be longing for peace. You may have heard about all of India going on a strike? Well that is how this part of the country is all the time. Right now we are in the midst of a nearly 10 day hartal, so it is difficult to find any markets open near where we live. Please just pr.y that they would realize the freedom they desire will never be enough. They need the freedom that only comes through the Son. I pr.y that my relationships are meaningful and share the perfect Love that I’ve experienced. It is difficult to meet people on the streets or even in the market, because I have to be so careful about how much I say, especially about our homestay family. Please pr.ay that I will be wise and discerning about who I talk to and what I say. Thank you all for your love and pr.yers. J
