Mango Season

It's mango season here in India, which is great. Mango's are grown all over India and they are wonderful! We bought our first mangos and decided to make a smoothie. Not everything I would usually put in a smoothie (or anything for that matter) is readily available here, so you use what you have and hope it's good. 

I was super excited to use my new blender! We'd had it a couple of days. We didn't want to go too cheap on the blender knowing they can burn up or break pretty easy. However, ours was more ghetto than we thought. The knob broke right off. I couldn't turn the black piece that held the knob, so I asked Neal what he suggested. The fork was the best solution. Although it bent the fork, it worked.

Yum, Yum! 

It made a lot more than we expected. As you can see, Neal's cup was huge! 

Elijah Loving Some Apples

Elijah has been quite fickle about eating actual food. He tends to like something for a very short time and then throws his head back and refuses to eat it. I've tried to feed him things a few days in a row hoping the response will be different, but not much had changed. 

However, we found something that he really liked!

We cut a few slices of an apple and put it in his food net thing (not sure what it's called) and he went to town eating it. At first he looked and examined it on every side, like usual, and then he put it in his mouth. Once he discovered he could chew on it and some juice would come out he didn't want to stop. He started biting hard and then sucking to get the max amount of goodness. 

We Got a Cooler!

After a few nights of heat, mosquitos, and very little sleep we finally got a swamp cooler. Our friends let us borrow their old cooler, but it wasn't tall enough for our window. So, Neal had a stand made for it to sit on. Through this experience Neal has made some more friends. The shop where the stand was made is on the corner of our road, so every time we pass by Neal always talks to the guys who helped him. 

The stand was to be delivered at a certain day and time...it didn't come. Then it was to be delivered the next day...it still didn't come. This is the case with many things here. Instead of waiting for things being abnormal, it's the norm. 

We have been able to sleep so much better with a cooler room! Praise the Lord! We've actually wanted to sleep with the sheet over us and I (Kristen) have actually wanted to wear pajama pants...so wonderful! It's the little things we are so thankful for!

Problems Turned into Good

During the day Neal and I heard a loud banging and shattering noise coming from the kitchen. With looks of horror we ventured to see what had happened. The dish rack above the sink with all the fresh clean dishes had fallen and the dishes were everywhere. The rack was hung on one small hook that obviously couldn't hold so much weight. All my new mugs were shattered all over the floor. Thank goodness the other dishes are stainless steel, which is what everyone uses here, so they didn't break. 

This seemed like a big enough problem, but the worst part was the kitchen faucet. When the rack fell it must have hit the faucet causing it to break off. After a very short time water started spraying everywhere. Neal frantically went out looking for help. The wife next door brought a bamboo cork to put in it until it was fixed. 

The mess.

Neal then went out and asked every person he could on the street for a plumber (using the broken pipe as an example). Unfortunately most people do not work on Fridays, so it was hard to get help. He also forgot his wallet and had to pay for things later. But he returned pretty quickly with a plumber who was more than happy to fix all of our problems.

The video shows the faucet being replaced. The reason I took this video was because of the humor I found in the water not being turned off while things were being fixed...so funny to me! Watch how it sprays whenever the hand is moved.

After the faucet was fixed Neal explained what happened with the dish rack and the small hook it was hanging from. Apparently this guy was a jack of all trades. He grabbed the rack, held it to the wall and asked for a pen to mark where the screws needed to go. Then he got his chisel and hammer and began making the holes. Soon thereafter we had a well secured dish rack and a guaranteed help for days to come. He came back to install the curtain rods and fixed the lock on the door.

Neal "supervising" the work. He didn't even want a machine drill when offered!

Tools... they use string instead of synthetic tape.

Completion! This is where the rack fell from... and the nozzle broke below.

Not to mention that the famil we live with  was prompted to come and see the problem and chatted  with us. We talked about how we wanted to buy furniture and a fridge, which Kristen had talked to the wife about early. The father then agreed to go out that very day and drive Neal to a distant market to look at these types of items. What a blessing in disguise!                                              

Mosquito City!

We heard that the city was known for it's mosquitos, and we found out just how true that was very quickly! Our flat only has screens and no glass over the windows in our bedroom and kitchen. There were a few holes in the screen, but Neal and our friend patched them. Little did we know that the mosquitos here are extremely small and can fly right through the holes of the screen. 

The first night was bad with little sleep due to killing the mosquitos and the heat (we have nothing to cool us down but the ceiling fan and it's been 100+ during the day and in the 90s at night), but the second night was AWEFUL! We got eaten up like crazy! We slept a total of maybe 3 hours the whole night. Elijah's bed has a mosquito net over it, but our mosquito net for our bed was still in our suitcases at our friends house. We thought we brought everything we needed when we moved, but we were wrong. 

Just on one arm alone we counted about 30 bites!

Here's a picture of my arm (Kristen's) and Neal's arm. The bites are small red dots, which look like the chicken pox. 

The geckos are our great friends! They like to hang out on our windows and in our room and eat mosquitos all day...so we welcome them!

The next day our friend brought over his mosquito net for us to borrow. We set it up on our bed and feel like we're camping every night now. Elijah sleeps with us in our tent so that he can feel the fan, which only blows downward, and that way we don't have to get out to feed him in the middle of the night. The net makes all the difference!

Our First Flat in 'Kite City'

We officially moved to 'Kite City' Saturday, April 14! We were very excited to finally move from Delhi to here, although we liked Delhi very much. We stayed with some friends the first couple of days. Then we moved into our temporary flat, which is connected to the house of a sweet Indian family. We will live here until we find our more permanent place in a month or so. 

This video shows our new home as if you were walking to it from the street. It's a little long, but it captures our place really good.

Our first night the family was so sweet to bring over a little food for us to eat. We were very appreciative! When they showed up at the door they had the whole family (excluding the dad since he was at work) plus two of the wives sisters.

The meal was a sweet almond soup, paneer with onions and peppers, and roti bread.  

Kite City!

Our first visit to the city...

It was a bumpy ride, filled with stretches of good road and all kinds of unusual behaviors....

like the oversized ox-drawn carriage, better known as the "be-hez guardi"or "ox car".

the trash rickshaw... and finally my personal favorite...

the super cheapest way to ride, with as many people on a rickshaw as possible. I counted around twenty people on a vehicle made for about 3 or 4... going about 5kph... which is like 2mph.

How long do these people hang on before deciding to exchange places due to cramps? I could not even find how many were actually inside. 

What happens if you get pulled over? Does the driver pay ticket himself or do they just pool all the money? 

Okay enough, I just know this is more like what to expect outside of the capital.

Here is the train going to our city.

This is the market, much less people, much fewer smells, and much fewer motorized vehicles trying to run us over.

We also met many nice people, including a family that we will live next door to.

And then we retuned home... more sights.