Jensen's Birthday and More

Wow! It's hard to believe I have a 9 year old! The day before his birthday, we took a snack in to Jensen's class. Here he is with his teacher, wearing their special birthday hat while everyone sang for him.


Since his birthday fell on a weekend, we were able to party all day. We had the Miller gang over for brunch and had a great time. Then Jensen went to a birthday party for one of his classmates while I decorated his cake and made pizzas for his evening party. Jensen and Austin were caught in a major rainstorm on their way home, which totally thrilled Jensen. It reminded me so much of the day he was born. It was raining so hard that there was a foot of water around the hospital and I had to jump from the van to the steps. It rained most of that day and when he was finally born, the Bengalis said we should name him Badol which means rainy, cloudy sky. So in the middle of the present day storm, Badol looked at his dad with big excited eyes and said, "This is Badol!" He went on to say that this was his best birthday yet. I am so thankful that God has given him to our family.


On a "not so fun" note, we've had all kinds of illness going on around here. Austin has been sick for over a week now, the last few days of which he stayed in bed most of the time and felt really awful. He made another trip to the dr. who said the lab work didn't show anything and that it's probably giardia. The meds haven't helped so far but we hope they will soon. He was tired of laying around so he went to the office, even though he's still really weak. Jensen had impetigo and passed it on to Pruitt so they have both been on antibiotics. Pruitt is quite proud of the fact that he can now swallow pills! I keep watching Riley and have been rubbing any suspicious spots with Savlon. I've been keeping him home from school, just in case. He has a horrible cough too and couldn't stop coughing last night. Finally I sat in the bathroom with him and we breathed in steam for a while and I rubbed Unkers (like vix) on his chest and back and prayed for us all! He finally was able to go to sleep and didn't cough much more after that which meant I could sleep too. Thank God! And this morning his cough is lessening and sounding better. Pruitt, who went to bed at 5:30 pm with a migraine, woke early this morning and felt great - though hungry! So he and Jensen ate breakfast on the living room floor at 6 a. m. - and then ate another breakfast later when the others got up!

In the middle of it all, I have been blessed by kindness. My father-in-law made trips to the pharmacy and market for me. He also took the boys out for a few hours to play soccer in a nearby field while I took a much needed nap. A neighbor brought a tray over, loaded with Iftar goodies and asked that we join them on Eid. I've experienced the love and support of friends and am so grateful.

Before any of this started, I had a dream in which I was holding one of my sons and these 2 huge snakes were trying to attack us. In my dream I kept calling out to Jesus and the snakes, while they tried again and again to reach us, they could not. I woke up, wondering what it all meant. I am a firm believer that God gives us dreams as gifts to guide us and comfort us. Perhaps not every dream has a deep meaning to it, but I'm convinced that some of them do. Anyway, that is a whole discussion of its own. What rested in the back of my mind since then is that realization that no matter what happens, God is with us and its going to be okay.

Going Crazy!

I wish I had a photo of what life is like right now, but even a photo would not do justice to the cacaphony of noise and the swelling tide of humanity. So this will have to do. You'll just have to imagine a city of 12 million, opening the floodgates to let another million in, and nearly all of them flocking to the markets to do Eid shopping or to beg from the shoppers. I have heard that during Ramadan, an extra million show up to beg, as people are supposed to be more generous to the poor during this month. Not that I've counted them, but from the little I've ventured out lately, I would say there is a definate increase. From our flat, I can hear nearly constant cries from beggars on the street, invoking the name of Allah, hoping for someone to share with them. I didn't know what to think when Riley started walking around the house chanting, "Allah, Allah". Then there are the hawkers (all of these are normal, by the way, just about twice as many as normal), walking or pedalling through the streets, calling out their wares. Vegetables, bananas, onions, Hilsha fish, big Hilsha fish, Nokshi Kanthas ( quitled bed covers), knife sharpeners, plastic containers, chickens, paper recyclers who want your paper scraps - you name it.

We were out with friends yesterday morning and wanted to grab some lunch before coming home. After sitting in traffic jams and trying to keep the rain off of us, we finally got to our desired place, only to find they were closed because of Ramadan. They wanted us to eat in their fast food section, which was next door. So we started walking in and were met with a cloud of air freshener, being liberally sprayed all over the room. I apologize to anyone reading this who likes air freshener spray, but I hate it! Since Austin shares my feelings, we turned around and walked out. So it was on down the road again to another place. While we were waiting for the food, we decided to stay at home next weekend and as much as possible in between! There is no place like home, even though someone upstairs keeps throwing garbage down and it has been landing in the tree outside of my kitchen verandah and someone from the next floor down thought it was us. Then they complained about the children being loud - I have no idea why. LOL! There is still no place like home.

Happy Kids

Okay, I just couldn't stop posting pics until I did these. Riley still says his favorite part of the trip was the goats. I think this one is the one they named "Shady".


I guess not all of Jensen's new friends are 2 legged!


Pruitt had a great time too. Somehow we didn't capture him with the goats...

A Few More Shots - Nepal

I was almost as excited about all the pots of flowers and the moss covered bricks as I was about the mountain views! I managed to find a bit of time to sit outside and read while most of the others were hiking and the children were playing with the goats.


Here is view from the restaurant over the mountain.


A Bhuddist Stuppa with prayer flags.

Faces of Nepal

Nepal!

We had a fabulous time in Nepal! We stayed at a small guest house in Dhulikhel, and had some amazing views of the Himalayas. It was just so lovely to be out of the city and surrounded by so much beauty.


Here we are, outside of the guest house where we stayed. The boys had so much fun running around, playing with goats, chopping corn cobs and climbing mountains.


A couple of times we hiked up 1000 steps - no kidding - to a great restaurant. The kids played in a field nearby while we drank coffee and ordered Mo Mos.


We spent a couple of hours in Bhaktapur, a historical city near Kathmandu. Amazing architecture was everywhere! We did some hasty shopping before heading to the airport again.

It is impossible to post pictures of everything we saw and enjoyed. I'll try to get a few more shots posted...

Family, Food and Fairness

We had another really good week, in spite of the fact that traffic has worsened. In fact, the boys had an after school program one afternoon and were a couple hours late in getting home. They were in good spirits though. Jensen was all excited about learning to play cricket and Pruitt was pleased to show us the first "magic" he learned in Beginners Magic. Riley did a special letter to his grandparents this week and here he is showing it to Grandma Miller.


We finally got around to having Dad's 60th birthday party last night. What a blessing it is to have family here and to all be healthy again! Our celebration was topped off with blackberry cobbler, a rare treat over here!

Amidst so many blessings, I have again been reminded of those who suffer beyond what I can even imagine. Yesterday I read the July/August edition of a Common Place (a magazine put out by MCC) and was blown away by some statistics and stories. Rising food costs have hurt many people in many places. According to the USDA, there was a 4% increase in food costs in the US in 2007. While I know that 4% was huge for many people and don't want to down play the affects it had in the US, I was a bit shocked when I realized how small that was compared to the 40% increase of maize in Kenya and rice in Bangladesh. It was even more shocking to read that in parts of Ethiopia, the price of maize has risen 84%. How can people survive? I often hear my boys saying things like, "But Mom, that's not fair." And I tell them that life isn't fair. More than ever I am convinced that life isn't fair, but in the sense that I got the good end of the deal. I could be watching my children starve to death instead of simply helping them work out their battles with each other. I just can't stop opening my mouth and telling anyone who will listen that we are all in this together. Every choice we make does affect someone somewhere. It takes about 1776 pounds of grain to produce 222 lbs of meat, which is the average meat consumption/person in the US. We can eat less meat. It's not hard and I'm discovering more and more amazing vegetarian dishes! We can buy locally grown products or grow our own ( yeah, I know, those blackberries were not locally grown - but it was a very special occasion and lifestyle issues are different from the occasional splurge. Though I must confess that I will probably move to South America before I give up coffee! But then there is always fair trade, which really does help farmers globally...) It's been an enjoyable challenge for me to learn how to make my own brown sugar, for instance, instead of paying $5/bag for some imported stuff. I've been trying to make granola bars with locally available ingredients and they still need some work. I guess what I'm trying to say is that changing the way we live and eat isn't always easy. It takes a little effort. If you can hop in your car and buzz on down the road to a loaded supermarket and buy all this amazing stuff, it's probably going to be harder for you than it is for me. Some things I don't even have to think about because I don't have as many options and I am so close to where so much is locally grown and we can enjoy fresh produce year round. But wherever we are, we have choices to make and if enough people make small but wise changes perhaps life will become a little more fair for one of our neighbors out there somewhere.

If you'd like to learn more about rising food costs and what you can do, visit mcc.org/food

The Beginning of Ramadan

Today is the first day of Ramadan. I was awakened sometime in the dark hours of early morning by the sound of a loudspeaker going through the streets, telling people to wake up and eat before sunrise. Later, I picked up my mother-in-law and we walked to the grocery store, dodging cars, CNGs and motor cycles that were driving on the sidewalk. I am not kidding. I've had to dodge cycles before but never cars! It was crazy! If the sidewalks were that bad, you can imagine what the roads were like! In some places we had to make our way onto the street, as the sidewalk was completely covered with construction materials. We got to the store safely and, for some reason, it had a sleepy feel to it. Despite the fact that it was past opening time, the shutters were only partially opened but we ducked under and started shopping. I was surprised to see how sparse the produce selection was, and even more surprised to see the rice/flour/sugar aisle half empty. There was not a single piece of meat in the meat section, not a bag of milk in the coolers. ( Milk is sold in litre or half litre bags here.) I knew certain items would be harder to find this month but didn't expect such sparseness on the first day! We got what we could and bounced home on a rickshaw, in the rain, with our bundles balanced on our laps and at our feet. Now I'm about ready to head to another store and, hopefully, will have a bit more luck this time!