Street Sweeper

I don't think I've ever put a picture of a street sweeper on the blog. From what I understand street sweepers are of a certain caste that can only sweep streets (no other jobs) and unfortunately are seen as the lowest caste. I have only seen female sweepers. Street sweeping is done manually, with a stick broom, even on highways. It is a back-breaking task (although I'm sure their backs are very strong and used to the slumped position, after years on the job). As you can see in the picture, brooms in India are not ergonomically friendly:) Even brooms used in the home are made in this design (except out of dried grass) causing the person sweeping to stoop over. I've never seen a push broom. As anyone who has swept knows that the job of sweeping is never ending...these ladies have job security in any economy.

OFFICIALLY

This week:
We are OFFICIALLY BUCKET BATHERS! Week 1 of conserving water at bath time. The great thing about a bucket bath is it also makes me thankful for hot water. Many people have to take COLD bucket baths. I don't know that I'm that conservative yet to not heat the water:)
Kai is OFFICIALLY diaper-free!!!!! Minus bed time, but that doesn't count to me:) He's had 3 days of outings and has come home dry every time! Praise the Lord!! Up until now I wasn't ruling out that he might be 5 before this happened:) Today we went to the "big" toy store in Bangalore to pick out a "big" toy to motivate him to do #2 on the toilet. 5 times = big toy. He went in his underwear after we got home:DI am OFFICIALLY closer to 40 than I am 30. I hit 36 on Thursday:) I had an amazing day with Brian and the boys. They made me feel like a queen. I'm feeling the weight of my blessings this year, knowing that many of the people around me do not get to celebrate their birthdays--they have to go to work and do the same hard labor they do every other day of the year. And many probably don't know the exact date they were born. Ironically, even with this sober appreciation, I had the most indulgent birthday to date:) My sweet husband took the day off. I had an amazing cake from my dear friend Sini and I ate as much as I wanted:) Had Subway for lunch (a rare occurrence for me here), a pedicure and head massage at a spa that I love and celebrated my third year at Hard Rock Cafe! To top it off my hubby and boys showered me with gifts, balloons, party hats and I didn't have to cook all day! Woohoo! I am so blessed and I am so thankful to be alive and healthy with a wonderful family to share life with. Who cares about getting old, right?!:D

Lessons

Although living in India would be a lifelong of learning for a foreigner, it seems that it comes in waves for me. After the first year of culture shock is under the belt you feel pretty comfortable, know your way around, know where to find a light bulb, know how to somewhat fake an Indian (mixed with Southern U.S.) accent to try to speak to someone on the phone (I haven't had much success with that one) but still surrounding you everyday is a culture, full of traditions and history, that is layers and layers deep...like peeling a never ending onion. The past few weeks have felt like I'm new here all over again. Here are some of the the lessons...

I'm LEARNING about communication and a few ways that "business" works here as a volunteer coordinator to revamp our apartment complex's playground. I'm realizing how little I come out of my "cave" (our flat) because I have not nearly learned the "art" of communicating here even after 2.5 years. In the past week of speaking with management and committee officers I have stayed confused, I've had to ask the same questions atleast 3 times to find out the answer I'm looking for and I'm finding you don't just cut to the bottom line, there are alot of "mazes" and "back alleys" you must go down until you arrive on the same page as the person you are trying to communicate with. These are clear cultural differences that I had no idea existed until now. Good things to learn, but at the same time frustrating. Like Brian told me about his work environment, he has the reputation in the office for being blunt and speaking straightforward...I call it being American:D

I'm LEARNING about water. Simple right? Don't drink the water...that's what I've known in India up until now. Ofcourse I've seen my neighbors in the village behind us carrying the water jugs on their heads back to their homes from the community well (they don't have indoor plumbing, millions here don't). I've seen men and children bathing in the pond behind our complex. My favorite non-profit is Living Water, a Christian organization that sends teams around the world to drill wells for clean water in communities while spreading the gospel as they do it. But not until our apartment complex ran into the challenge of their 6th bore well drying up, and having to pay for 20 water trucks a day to supply water, and seeing the emails exchanged between neighbors on our yahoo group about water conservation, did I realize how wasteful I am, how ignorant I am about resources and how blessed I am. Like my American friend Lisa (who also lives in Bangalore) said about her recent trip back to the States, "I was awed to bathe in drinking water". Americans use gallons and gallons of clean, treated DRINKING WATER every day to bathe, wash their clothes, run over there fruit before eating it, water the lawn, let the whole family each have their own separate 15 minute showers, all without blinking, without thought. It's amazing to me--we have so many resources that we never even think about being thankful for. I didn't know what a "bucket bath" was til I moved here. Most people in my complex take bucket baths (filling up a bucket, turning off the water and using only that water to lather up and rinse off) and these are people who work for companies like IBM, GE, HP, Intel..they are not poor. They just know what it means to conserve. I have so much to learn people!!

I have more that I am LEARNING but this is growing long so I'll finish with this. I learned something I already knew. I pay way more than my Indian neighbors for our house help:) It's called "white tax" which means paying double for everything as a foreigner. I knew I was paying double b/c my neighbor and I share the same housekeeper and I asked her how much she paid her. But I found out that actually I'm paying 8 times more than my friend, also a neighbor. She has a "live-in" housekeeper which means 24 hours of available service. I pay the same amount for 2.5 hours:D But as an American I know that what I pay our housekeeper for a month (6 days a week) is what I would pay a maid for 2 hours of work for one day in the U.S.!! It's all relative right? And to me it's worth every rupee I pay to have the amazing help I do!