A sense of "Welcome Anytime"

Hey! How was your trip back? Everything and everyone okay? I hope so!

....All is well here- had a great day yesterday, hung out with the neighbors and practice lots of language. I had learned some stuff the previous day with sports (football (i.e. soccer), chess, cricket)…and there were two boys at the neighbors house (perhaps 12, 13 yrs old)….so I asked them my questions (do you like football? Do you know how to play football? How do you play football?). They loved trying to figure out how to say the answers back in Kahani. Their mothers were both there (one was knitting, one was sewing a blouse for a sari). I got some more sentences about sports and how to play them!!! It was fun!

I then went to Aunty and Uncle’s and hung out there, just for about 30 minutes because it was getting late. You know, I always wished that I had neighbors or a place where it was like that- I could just go and hang out, come and go pretty much whenever I wanted to, and feel totally “At home” there. I really feel that way at Aunty and Uncle’s- I can ask for food, or deny food…(for the most part)…I can sit wherever, sit however….it’s like home for me. I love interacting with them- telling them about my day, about the jokes I learned, etc…and it’s great because I can mix all the Kahani I know, with all the Hindi I know, and they can understand it! Haha…

Anyway, that is one thing that is sad about our culture- there isn’t a sense of “welcome anytime” at all. I hope that if I were to live in America for an extended period of time, I would try and incorporate that more. I'm not sure how, but would want to try to. Perhaps that is something that just wouldn’t be possible and I shouldn't try to bring this culture’s traditions into my own…but still…hmm….

We go to a retreat this weekend...

Have a great day!

~ Elizabeth