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!!