Mashed Potatoes and Mac&Cheese Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving started out like a normal day. I woke up and ate some oatmeal. It was 80some degrees outside. It didn't feel much like fall. But then at staff worship our good friend Vara announced to everyone that it was a special holiday in America and the principal added something about us relaxing, so basically they gave us the day off! We had planned to make something similar to Thanksgiving dinner for a few families here and show them a little bit of our American food, so we spent the morning cleaning our house and preparing for the evening. We invited our neighbors Ramana and Chandu, our friends Vara and Prim with baby Nancy, and Rajeev. All of them seemed excited for this and we had been keeping the meal a secret. Midmorning, the principal called our cell phone from 100 yards across campus to tell us to come to his house. So we did and they prayed for us on our special holiday and even served us some carrot cake!

Vara was excited about the array of dishes!

Lunch time came around and ended up having three different curries to try that were brought to us, one of them was even pumpkin curry! How appropriate. :) They were all delicious as usual and we were feeling pretty pampered. But then we got down to business preparing our thanksgiving dinner. Our goal was to feed them as much food as they do to us and make sure we served them just a little bit more even after they were stuffed! We just prayed that they would like the food. On the menu was mashed potatoes and gravy, mac and cheese from the box, a green bean dish, a vegetable mixture of cauliflower, onions and carrots made in the oven, raw cucumber and beats, and some fresh pineapple to top it off! We began the cooking frenzy in the afternoon with lots of green bean snapping and veggie chopping. Sidney ran around campus locating enough chairs, pots, spoons, and plates for our group of nine. Before we knew it, our 7 o'clock dinner time had rolled around! Of course the power decided to flicker off and on every few minutes (it always seems to do this when we need it the most), so I had to improvise a little, but by 7:10 we were ready to go with the table set and all the dishes of food in place. The only thing we were missing was our guests! Then we remembered that we are in India. So they arrived right on time at 7:30 and we got started.

Our Thanksgiving candle lit table haha!

This photo speaks for itself! (Vara and Pramilla, baby Nancy) 

Neighbors - Chandu (left) & Ramana (right) My sister and brother.

Apple Cider! (Rajeev on the right)

Who says you need pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving?

This meal was priceless! They loved the food, especially the green beans, even though they weren't doused in chili powder! The best part of the meal was watching them eat with their spoons and forks. Ramana would lift up his plate close to his mouth and had both elbows sticking out. We even introduced them to ketchup and they were putting it on their mac and cheese and everything. I am proud to say that the first Thanksgiving meal I have prepared without my mother or grandma giving me step by step instructions turned out great. Trevor, Sid, and I had great team work in this effort and it paid off! After we ate, we introduced the tradition of going around the table and sharing what you are thankful for. It basically turned into everyone sharing how thankful they were for each other. They each told us how glad they were that they could meet us and get to know us as their brothers and sister and would never forget this time we shared together. They wanted to make sure that we never forgot them. I don't know if my heart has ever felt so satisfied after a Thanksgiving meal. Not only was my stomach full, but my heart happy watching our Indian families clean their plates of American food.

We finished off the evening by serving little tea cups of apple cider we got from an SM office package and some dessert. Trevor made some custard and I baked a carrot cake and even topped it with icing! They loved it, but they were sooo full. It felt good to fill their stomachs instead of the other way around. Although this Thanksgiving was far from home and my family, I was surrounded by love and new friends and now have a memory to always be thankful for.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRKS MOTHER!

Quick story! Yesterday morning I sat on the computer waiting desperately for Bruce Christenson to skype me for my mom’s surprise 50^th birthday party so that I could say hello to her and everyone there. It was morning for me, and Saturday evening for them. The power goes out during the day here, but there’s never any telling what time it will go off in the morning. Unfortunately the power went out only a few minutes before my mom arrived and I couldn’t talk to them, so I was a little bummed! But I moved on.

We usually eat dinner at our little adopted family’s house, Vara and Prim and baby Nancy, here on campus every night, but today we were invited to our friends Raju and Vani’s house (the family with the baby boy named by Kati W. and Hillary M) for dinner on their wedding anniversary day. But Vara and Prim told us to come over after we were done because they had a surprise! After we were stuffed full of chapatti and rice and all the other 10 courses of food they feed us, we rolled ourselves into an auto rickshaw and arrived back at school safely. We sat and watched as Prim tried to wake baby Nancy up from her complete dead sleep, she made the cutest faces as her limbs flopped around like noodles, and then Vara comes in and says, “so we have this cake to eat! It’s the birthday of the friend of my friend…. So we need you to eat it.” He then opens this box and shows us a cake that says ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRKS MOTHER!’ 

I was so surprised and thrilled! We celebrated my mom's birthday because I am family, and so she is family too of course! I fed each person a bite of cake from my hand in tradition (for my mama) and then everyone else fed each other, this part reminds me of a wedding hehe. It was fun. They even had one of the awesome exploding candles that are famous for birthdays here. These candles are great because they sing happy birthday until the battery runs out (unless you break them). ;) How can a family with a 2 year old little girl, who have so little, be so caring and generous? I am learning so much from these people, and becoming too attached! They are truly amazing. 

Nancy feeding her Nana!

Happy Birthday mom from your Indian family!

Psychological motivation!

I need one for my wall...

Involvement and Inconvenience

Is it awful to absolutely dread teaching a class of fourth graders that is only 40 minutes long but feels like 2 hours? I really wish I could enjoy it, but when the kids can’t keep their mouths shut for literally more than 30 seconds, I get so frustrated!!! It turns me into that mean teacher who is always in a bad mood and gives you lectures about how hard life is going to be for you later if you can’t be quiet or listen to what your teacher has to say for more than a minute. I don’t want to be the mean teacher, I want to be the fun sister from Walla Walla University that “came and taught us English and played with us.” But I find myself dreading class more and more and being that grouchy teacher who doesn't let you do anything fun. I don’t feel like they are learning anything because they can’t focus and they don’t follow along in their books. Most of them just stare at me and like I’m from some other planet, waiting for me to tell them they can go outside and play games or teach them a song. Maybe it’s good for me to see how hard it is to teach someone who doesn’t want to learn. I promise I’ll be an information thirsty student when I come home!! Sorry for the rant, but I had to get that off my chest.

“The good Samaritan defined the meaning of love. Love doesn’t look away. And it doesn’t walk away. It involves itself. It inconveniences itself. It indebts itself.” 

So I read a devotion from a super good book called 'Moments with the Savior' by Ken Gire this morning. It was titled “An Instructive Moment about Love” that told the story of the good Samaritan in a much more detailed way that gave me a pretty straight forward reminder of something I tend to forget. Love involves itself. Love inconveniences itself. I was complaining to myself about teaching, and then I read this and remembered that I’m not here to do what I want exactly and I shouldn't feel like I deserve to teach the older students who are much easier to handle. I am going to be inconvenienced if I am going to do anything effective. And if I want to show these kids anything, or teach them anything, I have to love them.  It may feel like I am not doing anything worthwhile during those agonizing 40 minutes that I try to keep them quiet while we get through one short story, but that’s what I have to do! I have to involve myself and inconvenience myself and have patience, not just walk away feeling flustered. I am telling myself that as long as at least one kid learns something (and I can think of that one, I even can picture where he sits, because he’s the only one who calls out any answers ha!), the time I spent, however frustrating, was beneficial. I just have to let it go. The kids who are going to learn, will learn. 

Outside of the classroom it’s good to remember that love inconvenience’s itself too. Sometimes I forget this and I only do nice things that I feel like doing for other people at the time, not the things that might take a little extra work or generosity. Or I complain about my situation, that I am paying for things that I shouldn't have to because I'm a "rich American" or I'm having my business poked into by someone who I don't feel deserves to know where I am every single evening at dinner time. I have to remember, I came here and stepped into a different world and here things are done differently. I am taken care of beyond what I could hope for. Some inconvenience can certainly be dealt with, especially when I am sharing the love I want to share! I think I’ll write this on a sticky note and put it under my bunk so I see it whenever I wake up. Love inconveniences itself!!! And I won't forget it. 

Love is the secret ingredient

Some things I don't want to forget about this place:

• Five small boys from the village across the road, running down a dirt path barefoot to get in front of us where they wait until we pass and then yell "GAS! GAS! GAS!!!" trying to tell us to run (because we usually do, but today we happened to just be walking). Gas makes the cars go, same idea! 
• Being told that a certain food is for "body cooling" and the remedy for an upset stomach is to rub some oil on it!
• Little two year old Nancy calling me 'acca' (elder sister).
• Our brother Ramana telling us about his native place, how it is SUPER and coconuts are free!
• Hearing one of the 8th class boys, Ranjith, scream at the top of his lungs like a girl when I goal kick a soccer ball haha!

Last night I made banana bread with our dying, mushy bananas...my moms recipe...and I even put in a few of the chocolate chips she sent me. The only ingredient I substituted was the water buffalo milk instead of sour cream (usually I try not to think about it when I see those water buffaloes tromping down the road, pooping everywhere. Cows are just as gross). I also didn't have vanilla, who needs vanilla anyway? I thought my bread was a gonner when the outside kept getting darker and darker and the inside was still gooey as ever. Finally I gave up, not wanting to have to chop through a rock hard crust, and took it out, admitting defeat to that silly round oven. But what do you know, after it sat in the pan and cooled, the inside magically got done (mostly done, still soft and delicious!). And the outside wasn't even crispy! It was a really great surprise. Must have been the water buffalo milk. 

I just finished reading the book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller and he talks a lot about how our human nature is selfish and our goal as Christians should be to love others. He also talks about our social lives and how our souls need to interact with other people in order to be healthy. Otherwise it’s like setting your soul down on a couch and not exercising it. Sometimes when I am introvert Brooke, I go into a security bubble and don’t like to spend a lot of time socializing with a lot of people. This can be recharging, but it also can go on for too long and then I just get miserable! It’s good to be reminded to exercise my soul. We need that, to talk and share with each other, meet new people, step out on a limb or else we won’t learn anything new about life or people or the way things work. If I didn’t have people to interact with here, I wouldn’t be able to learn how to get along with them either. So I guess today I can be thankful for interaction, because this will probably help me in some future situation where roommates are involved.. ha! I can be thankful for the bad interactions and the good ones. When I go next door to Chandu and Ramana’s to socialize while they sit on the floor eating their rice and dal, it feels so much like a family and I love it! Even when our brother Ramana tries to over feed me, teasing me every time I see him about how he has to take care of his sister so her boyfriend will be happy, it makes me laugh and I think that’s pretty good soul exercise! Every spirituality book I’ve read lately somehow always comes back to love. If we could be less selfish and love each other, so many of life’s issues would no longer exist. If we don’t interact with people, we can’t exactly learn to love them. So step one, interact. Step two, be less selfish. Step, three, love people… and as a result, people are going to love you back! It’s like a giant loving circle that makes a perfectly happy ending. I wish it were always easy to love every one, but I guess that’s where the learning comes in and the more you try, the easier it will get!

Caught me!!

Thankfulness = Joy!

Today I will be thankful. I have many things I can be thankful for and it would be wrong of me to just ignore them and pretend they aren’t there. I decided I need to try and express something I am thankful for every time I write! Some good advice from someone who I really look up to helped me remember that thankfulness brings joy.

The past week has been pretty full of good things. Last week, when I was at my lowest, it just happened to be Diwali, the Hindu holiday known as the Festival of Lights, where they set off tons of fire crackers and all of India lights up at night! This definitely boosted my spirits. We didn’t have school that day since many of the kids here are Hindu. This seems strange that they would be at an Adventist school, but they believe in our God too, they just add him to the list of their gods. We ended up going into Vempalli and seeing our new good friends who gave us a meal and let us watch their neighbors set off fire crackers in the drizzling rain that wouldn’t let up. Some of those fire crackers are unbelievably loud, like a bomb going off in the room next to you. When we returned to the school, we only got to our room for a second before we heard more fire crackers going off and boys yelling. We headed over to the boys hostel to see what the commotion was and found a couple hundred boys outside lighting every type of fire cracker you can think of in all directions, and jumping on or dancing under the sparks!  I thought boys in America would go a little crazy with fireworks, but they are nothing compared to these guys! I’ve never seen so many little boys with matchboxes and fireworks in hand ready to show us more. I had sparklers shoved into one hand while another boy drug me around by the other hand to show me different fire crackers being set off, all within a small distance of each other. This experience felt so good! We bonded with the boys and let loose a little bit and instead of just being their white English teachers, we were their buddies. 

This weekend, three sponsors from America came to visit the school. They sponsor a number of kids here and were part of the originally building and start up of this school so they usually come back every year and visit for at least a little while. One of the sponsors, Sue, was like a mom to us this weekend! She made a point to get to know us a little and shared some useful information about surviving in India. It was so nice to have her here for the weekend. On Sunday we went to Kadapa to buy some food and such to get us through the next couple months and we were treated to the Cuddapah Café for lunch. This place was a blessing in itself ha! The food was so good, the closest thing to western food I’ve had since we’ve been here. They even had pizza and a veggie burger (both with an Indian twist of course). We even got to finish off the meal with some ice cream… We felt so spoiled. All I know is that I will be so grateful for all the conveniences I have at home. Such as a place like Walmart that has everything in one store. You can make one trip through the place and have everything you need in 10 or 15 minutes! Although it can be fun to look at each shop that specializes in only one item, it does mean you have to plan on a couple hours to find everything you need. Having Sue here as our "mama" definitely gave me some comfort that I've missed! 

You know what is funny? I’ve never been that in to pumpkin carving at home, I usually don’t have much artistic talent or the patience to get through it. But carving a pumpkin in India (or at least we think they are a close relative to the pumpkin…) was pretty refreshing!  The vegetable we found is kind of ugly and green and looks like it could be a very unripe pumpkin, but supposedly it doesn’t ever turn orange here either, so who knows. It was fun and everyone loved to stop and check out at our three pumpkins that stood out on our balcony railing with candles glowing inside. Honestly it looked like we carved some watermelons ha!

I think God has been doing a lot to fill my time and energy with things that make this place more than just a hard location to live far away from home. We’ve had some spice added to our lives in the last week and he knows I need it!

The Bible has always been kind of a big, ominous mystery book to me, but I happened to stumble into James once, and the first chapter really hits home. I have tried to use it as a counselor at MiVoden, especially because a lot of my girls come from broken families. The very first chapter talks about faith and endurance and how our troubles are opportunities for great joy and when our faith is tested, our endurance has a chance to grow. It’s funny to look back at now, because when I read this chapter for the first time, I didn’t really feel like my endurance was growing at all in my troubles, but I used it anyway to try and encourage the girls in my cabin. Now that I look back, I think the act of sharing was part of my growing endurance even though it felt strange and maybe a little fake on my part at first. The more I shared, the easier it was to explain what I believe and it made me feel like I had a little more understanding in my own heart for the hard things that have happened.

And now I’m here in India! Sometimes I feel very lonely, but I keep telling myself, troubles are a chance for faith and endurance to grow, and that is one of the reasons I am here. So I have to be thankful for those times, because they are shaping me into who I am and being thankful makes you happy!