Ta Ta!

I don't have too much to report- which is good and bad. I am finally settling into a routine here. Over the past month (yes, I have been here a whole month!), I have been bouncing from place to place doing all sorts of things and now that madness is calming. Every morning, I wake up at nine and go to the O at 9:30 (times vary according to the driver's personal schedule), hang out with the infants and big kids, mostly, until 2:30 when we eat lunch. Around 2, I usually put the baby I am holding into his/her scarf or into a sister's hands and head to the kitchen to watch them cook the delicious South Indian dishes they serve to us every day. The kitchen is a concrete shack with a thatched roof. It's all open, so there are flies everywhere, but I have gotten over that. The stove is a pile of bricks that Ranjith balances a metal bowl over. Underneath are burning logs. On this stove he (or the oldest boy) makes all sorts of delish chutneys, dosai, idli, stews, and rice. I learned yesterday that the South Indian dietary staple is rice and the North Indian diet includes more wheat. Everything here is made with rice or rice flour. It is possible (unlike in the U.S.) to have many many options without eating a speck of wheat! So, at 2:30 we are enjoying an awesome lunch served on a banana leaf. This is the traditional way to eat an Indian meal and I learned that it provides health benefits (?). I think it is just easy- there are tons of banana trees with TONS of leaves. It is more ecological and economical than paper plates and very fun. Although I question the washing method: at a restaurant or anywhere where the meal is served on a banana leaf, it is customary to sprinkle water over it with the right hand then rub it all over the leaf. This is for washing it, but all the dirt that was on the leaf is now on the eating hand! Just don't question it...

The other day, one of the babies was playing with my toes (not so hygenic, I know, but what at the orphanage is?) so I moved it closer to her and Mala, the sister in charge of the infants, gasped and said, "no sister!" I pulled my foot away and she put her hands above her head and said, "baby is God" and nothing more. I guess that sums up the Indian view of the baby. Although it provides to logical explanation as to why they are neglected and left to sleep in their own poo for extended periods of time.

The weather is hot, hot, hot! I had a funny conversation with one of the older girls who said her favorite month is November because it is cool. As it turns out, November isn't much different from September, according to Ranjith. Cool? Far from it.
I signed up for a two-day workshop on Pranic healing this weekend. It is yoga that involves opening energy passageways called chakras so I can control energy flow into my body and heal others by doing so. It sounds odd, I know, but one of the other girls did it and loved it. Plus, it is about time I did some yoga. I am in the heartland of it all! Enjoy the Fall!