Dinner Guests and Random pics

Last night we had Brian’s co-worker and family over for dinner. It is a cultural tradition here for guests to come bearing gifts for the host family. Each time we’ve had an Indian family over for dinner they have lavished us with gifts. It’s very humbling. They brought each boy a toy, Brian and me a gift and lots of Indian snacks/treats. They also brought their wedding album, traveling pictures, their children’s report cards and a letter from Veera’s orphanage to share with us. It was great getting to know them better. Veera (Brian’s co-worker and father of the family) grew up in a Christian orphanage. They cared for him and gave him a good education. He was the first person to graduate from his village! After school Veera went back to his village and married Esther, his first cousin (this is common in rural villages to marry close relatives). Once Veera converted from Hinduism to Christianity his whole village (all his relatives) rejected him and will still not speak to him or accept his family. He just smiles when he talks about this but I’m sure he has been through so much pain knowing that he can’t speak to his loved ones. Even his relatives that live in Bangalore don’t associate with him b/c his village has forbidden them to do so. This is what a Christian convert potentially faces here. Veera seems to have a lot of joy and peace about his decision.
His wife speaks only her native language, Tamil (and I only speak my native language, English) so we didn’t get to talk much which was sad. His children Abraham, 9, and Angel, 8 speak English and go to a very good school which you can tell makes him very proud. He has told Brian that most of his salary goes to providing them this education.
So, I made shrimp pasta which they were kind enough to eat without making funny faces. I know Indians don’t really care for the food I cook b/c it’s pretty bland to them:) They are gracious though. I think they liked the dessert—ice cream pie with oreo crust—who doesn’t like sugar plus sugar?:)