It's Tuesday isn't it? (Journal Entry)

So we went to the tape shop the other day to check on the tapes. We arrived and the shop was closed – with a sign outside saying, “Closed Tuesday.”

I asked the shopkeeper next door, “Why was he closed?”
The answer was, “It’s Tuesday, isn’t it?”

Somewhat confused, but accustomed to such answers, we left. Later, Robin and I were visiting another friend and his family and I asked him why the shop would be closed on Tuesday. He said, “Tuesday’s a bad day, right?”
I said, “Um, I don’t know, is it?”
He said, “Yeah, a lot of shops are often closed on Tuesday. Also, you can’t travel on Tuesdays. My father is away right now, and normally he would come back today, but he won’t because it’s Tuesday. He will wait and come back tomorrow. Same thing goes for Saturday- we won’t travel on Saturday.”
I proceeded to ask, “Who decided this?”
He said, “It’s our culture, isn’t it? I don’t know really why or how it was decided, but that’s just what we do.”

One Chance to be Human (Journal Entry)

Precious told me a few stories today...She said, "I heard about this woman who treated her mother really badly. After a while, the mother died. Then everything was okay for some time (years). Then, that mother's soul entered into her daughter's daughter. Then that daughter killed her mother. I.E. The soul (of the grandmother) inside of the granddaughter killed her mother (the daughter of the grandmother).

If everything is in God’s plan, then that is from God.

I heard about another story when there was man who treated his wife very badly, and was with another woman also. He was very mean to his wife and just did bad things to her. Sometime later, he killed his wife.

Later, there was another husband and wife. They had a daughter, and when she was 8 years old, one day they were in that same place where the first man killed his wife. The girl started saying things like, “he beat me, and mistreated me” etc, etc- telling all about the situation of that man beating his wife- as if she was the wife. She was telling things that she couldn’t have known- except that the soul of that woman had entered into her."

Precious said, "I don’t believe the soul dies."
I said, "I also don’t believe the soul dies, but I don’t believe it stays here on earth when a person dies. It goes with God, or it goes with the enemy, Satan."
Precious said, "then that means that God has made a lot of souls. One for every single person, not only a few souls that keep going here and there, in and out of different people/animals. In reincarnation, there are 38,000- different kinds of animals/specials to come back as. Each time you could come back as something different...but the last thing, asusming you've done enough good things in your life, is a human. So, really, you only get one chance to be a human."

Catching fish...catching people? (Journal Entry)

Something interesting came up as we were workign on the calling of the first disciples story today. While we were talking about the part that says, "Like you have been catching fish, now you will be catching men..." Heather was realy puzzled and said, "Did Jesus want the disciples to kill people?" In other words, catching fish = killing fill, so if catching people is exactly the same as catching fish, then that must mean killing them too?

Needless to say, we worked on it, and she understood, and was able to adjust the phrasing to make it understandable that it was just in the way of "collecting/gathering" the fish - to illsutrate gathering people...not killing them!!

Dreaming in Kahani (Email to Friends back home)

Hey Paltan! That is, if you scattered doston can still be considered a paltan (group)! Here, there, let’s see how far apart we can get!!!!

Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve sent out an update to you all, and so here’s the latest from my side.
(two village kids and me!)
Stories…
We have been working on stories day and night- several girls have been helping us make the stories- our neighbors listen to them and provide helpful feedback. I’m encouraged that our supervisor is approving some of the stories already. It’s exciting.

I’m continuing to learn language, Kahani. It’s amazing that sometimes I dream in Kahani now. Sometimes I can’t remember which language I spoke to someone in because it seems fairly natural now! Not that I’m fluent, but I can communicate! :) My grammer might not be correct- but I have enough friends who have listened to me enough to know what I’m basically trying to say!! ;) It’s neat to hear people’s response when I say, “I really don’t know Hindi, but I can speak to you in Kahani!” Last month, Robin (The girl I’m working with) and I had a workshop for some local leaders about the story work we’re doing. We talked the whole time in Kahani- and encouraged the people there to speak Kahani too- even though they are used to holding meetings in Hindi. My Hindi has actually decreased since I’m really focusing on understanding and communicating in the local language. BUT, I can still bargain with the auto rickshaws in the capitol! :)

Today is wet, rainy, cold, dreary- though the past few weeks have had pretty warm, sunny weather. I think summer is on it’s way, but winter still lingers. It also snowed here a few weeks back. We didn’t have electricity for more than 48 hours…that was fun. Electricity goes out nearly every day- sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes for 6-7 hours. We’ve had water, but two weeks ago, our tanks were down to about 2 inches of water left- but fortunately the next day more water came, so we didn’t actually run out.

(picture - Holi festival - yeah, it's much better in this country than DE, it lasts for 5 days!)
Life here is going well in general. Days come where I miss home so much I think I’ll just leave. But remembering why I’m here, and that this work is important…helps keep me focused. At this point, I’ll probably be home around September-October- but not any fixed plans yet. It has been so great to see several of you over the past year and a half…I miss you all a lot. I’m sure it will be different to come home to a group that is now almost all nearly married, a new paltan baby, and most of you living NOT in Delaware! Ahh!! But, I’m glad we can still stay in touch…I’d love to hear what you are all up to as well…don’t feel you have to write as much- even just a few sentences letting me know how life is! :)

~ Liz

The main thing is Jesus!

Yesterday Heather and her friend ‘Gina’ listened to ALL the stories we currently have- from beginning to Pentecost! :) They have heard a few in between, but never all of them all at once. I told them it might help them to see what we’re trying to do- and how all the stories flow together…or at least we hope they do. After listening to all of them, Gina said, “Oh, I see, the main thing is Jesus.” It was neat to see that even though right now, we only have Jesus birth, death and two stoires in between, she saw him as the main character, and what all the other stories lead up to.

"Do you have more stories?" (Journal Entry)

I spent several hours at the neighbors house today where I’ve tested stories. It was an encouraging trip. Instead of asking about English classes, they asked if I had more stories. I’m not sure that means that they like the stories- but more likely since every time I’ve visited them in the past I had stories- so in some ways, they were expecting them.

We played a version of hopscotch for about an hour- that was tiring, but also a lot of fun. I did also ask them about the “Giant” word in the David and Goliath story, since Irene had a question about it. I found out that it is a word for spirit/ghost, and you wouldn’t really use it to describe a man. However, in testing, people didn’t think Goliath was a ghost or spirit- they thought he was a man. The story, after all says, “he LOOKS LIKE a jhin/ghost.” Not that he was a jhin. And this word has the connotation of being tall- so it fit.

However, I got another word to ask the girls and Irene about- it’s “khabis” – we’ll see what that actually means. The Kahani village people are pretty simple minded (and by that I don’t mean dumb!) and don’t really have words for giant, as such. They would simply say, “a tall man.” Then they might describe it, “So tall that he was taller than everyone else” or “So tall, as tall as a stack of grass.” Or something like that- they don’t have as much vocabulary as we do in English- so they define what they mean by giving additional explanations, or repeating something.

Anyway, it was a good day. In language session, I did learn today that there isn’t really a word for sympathized/comforted. I tried to present the following scenario to Gaitree and Panna.

"If Panna is sick, and Gaitree goes to Panna and says, “It’s okay, don’t worry, you’ll get better, take rest, it’s okay, etc, etc.” And I was later telling a friend, “Panna was sick, Gaitree came and did what to Panna___” - what would you say that Gaitree did. What would you call what she did."

They just continued to say, “Gaitree came and said it’s okay, don’t worry…” Panna came up with a word that means peace, and Gaitree finally agreed we could say that, “Gaitree came and gave peace” but that didn’t really seem to fit. I’m pretty sure they understood my question, but there just didn’t seem to be good word/phrase that summarized the actions.

Conversations about gods... (Journal Entry)

Gaitree: It’s a festival today.
Me: really, which one?
Gaitree: Shivjee- you know the god who was in that cultural story we were doing yesterday, that god.
Me: is it his birthday, or the day he got married, or …?
Gaitree: his birthday…I think, maybe…yeah, I think so. So many people will go to the temple today
Me: Will you go?
Gaitree: yes.
Panna: will you go? (asking me)
Me: Me? No, I won’t go.
Panna: why not?
Me: well…because…I don’t worship shivjee.
Panna: why not?
Me: --silence—trying to figure out what to say!
Gatiree: she doesn’t like shivjee (saying this the same way you say, ‘she doesn’t like green grass to eat’)
Me: I laughed, Gaitree laughed, Panna also kind-of laughed- I wasn’t sure what to say, but this kind-of seemed like a good balance between, “I don’t believe in your god,” and “I just don’t worship him.”

I then said: “Nothing will happen. If I pray to Shivjee, nothing will happen…
Panna: something will…
Me: actually, if I pray to Shivjee, only bad can happen…
Panna: no…
Gaitree: that’s the way, everyone just worships their own god, then it’s okay.

The conversation trailed off and changed to chasing moneys, or gathering wood, I can’t remember. But still, it was the first conversation I’ve had with Gaitree or Panna about my personal beliefs potentially contradicting their beliefs. It wasn’t necessarily contradicting, but I am sure Panna wasn’t expecting me to say that. It is certainly contradictory to what she would think- “if we worship shivjee, them perhaps something good will happen…” But then Gaitree’s statement seemed to diffuse it all, “everyone can just worship their own god…”

Anyway, perhaps Panna, even more than Gaitree, will ponder what I thought and wonder why bad things could happen. Will they ever see You? Can you show Yourself to them? I know You can- will you please? Before they die? Before I leave this place also?

Dialect issues... (Journal Entry)

So, I have begun the quest to figure out at least a few different dialects and which dialect is spoken by the people I know who live around me. I found one family today who speaks the same as Aunty and Uncle. And it seems that Panna also speaks the same as they do.

I asked Gaitree to listen to a recording of Anne's to see if she could tell me if she speaks the exact same dialect as her, or a little different…Gaitree understood what she said, and said there was only little differences. I tried to ask her what they were, and she gave me two examples, but they didn’t really help me. I am going to ask Anne tomorrow how she says, “I am going” – because the way Gaitree says it, and the way Uncle says it, and the way it is said in the village are all different. I am curious to see if the way Anne says it matches with any one of those or something entirely different.

I'll try and learn Anne's dialect, but that kind-of all depends on which dialect she speaks and if I can find others who speak the same as her. And, I’m guessing that it is NOT the same as our neighbor or Aunty or Uncle, or Anju or Gaitree. That wouldn’t be a surprise.

Hmm.

Another thing- in some ways, we have been here about 9 months, and we have about 15 months- and we are JUST getting started on the work….would it really only take 15 months to do all the storying work? Goodness…wow….there is a lot to do!

Cultural Notes from Storying Session (Journal Entry)

(picture - Aunty and Uncle's temple in their house)

Cultural Notes from This Morning Session: (quotes from Anne)

Me: Do you give things to your god?
Anne: Yes…
Me: What do you give?
Anne: rice, milk, flowers
Me: Why do you give things?
Anne: To keep bad things from happening.
Me: Does it happen sometimes that God likes what you give and doesn’t like what you give?
Anne: Yes…sometimes he is happy with it, sometimes he is not.
Me: How do you know?
Anne: If he is happy, then everyone will be okay, if he is mad or doesn’t like it then someone in the family may get sick, and maybe the doctor and even medicine won’t make him better- then we know that God is mad or doesn’t like the gift.
Me: If I have two jugs of milk- one is okay, but one is really good…does it matter which one you give to your god?
Anne: No, not at all- you’re just going to offer it and then take it back- he isn’t going to drink it because he’s not really there.

Hmm… “he’s not really there” – does she realize what she just said?
I feel a renewed burden for these people we live among. I feel even more today than before a real urgency to get these people these stories. I feel like how can they think these things and believe this? And then realize, they don’t know anything else…why wouldn’t they believe and follow what has been set before them for so many generations?

Oh, how hard it would be to live in a state of mind that bad things happen because God is angry, or that my offerings can make God happy…and yet- I do live like that most of the time. I do have the same mentality that if I bring good things to God, he will bless me. If I do not do good things or what He wants of me, then he may be upset. Yet, because of Jesus- God’s “happiness” doesn’t depend on me. He is happy with me and what I do- good or bad. Well, I mean, he doesn’t want me to sin and of course, I think he is “happy” when I please Him…but He sees us through Jesus and therefore sees us a perfect…

But you know what- I just realized their thinking of things doesn’t make sense to me. For example, if they give their god some milk (not the best milk, but just some milk). They said it doesn’t matter if it’s the best or not because you would just take it back anyway. So, say they give bad milk- then take it back…their god probably wouldn't like that offering since it was bad milk? Or, suppose they gave the best milk, but then something bad happened…what could they have done to avoid that? Is it just dependent on….say, the weather? I mean, is there any way to know what is pleasing to their god and what’s not?

Anne did say that you give different gifts to different gods…But, what if you were meaning to do the right thing, but accidentally gave Shiv some flowers, when he was really expecting rice? Oh man…to live having no idea if God would be pleased with me or not…to live not knowing which gift to give to which god, or if that god would only look at the gift- and not the motive of my heart. Even if I had right and pure motives, but unknowingly gave the wrong gift, or in someway displeased the god. I don’t think I could live like that- how can these people?
I guess, they just accept it…It’s something I noticed even working in the school for my student teaching- the way of education here is to accept everything you’re taught. Do not question your teacher- that would be disrespectful. Do not think for yourself, you obviously don’t know any better than these people who have gone before you and know more than you do.

I think that these barriers can only be broken if there is some major reason that causes them to wonder or really question what they believe- as long as life is going along as it should be…there would be no reason to change…Perhaps this is obvious; in any culture- if your life is “perfect” then why change it by trusting in something you don’t know much about…

Something needs to happen here- whether it is just individually, people realizing that there is no real peace in the gods they follow. Or if their lives need to have some harm come to them in spite of all the offerings they give…They need to realize what they believe in isn’t working, and will never work…and hasn’t work for those previous generations… What has to happen for them to realize that?

Wow…Father, please do your work- whatever that might be, however that might be. Through personal relationships with people, through these stories, through some dramatic intervention or some hardship, or some blessing that comes and is something beyond what their gods are capable of. Something that would show them there is something more- even if they don’t understand it all the way at first, but just something that will break them from their bondage of accepting the traditions. Something that will cause them to question what they believe, and really wonder about it- perhaps they will have to research it more to find out that it’s false. Perhaps they will start immediately looking for other ways…I’m sure it will be different for different people- but please, hurry and bring these people to you, however you desire for that to happen…

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Our session went well this morning. Our session went well- we finished the Fall, and started Cain and Abel- talked about half of it. We hope to finish talking about it next Tuesday and record it- thus we’ll have three stories….That doesn’t mean we have 3 stories completed. We still have to work on back-translations, sending them to be consultant checked, re-recording, testing them with groups of people, re-recording them if there is anything confusing in them or that needs to be changed. So there is still a lot of work to do before we can really say “we have 3 stories”- but still, it would feel good to have that done- especially since we leave on Wednesday for the village for a week and no storying stuff will really happen during that time.

Indian comic

In the Indian newspaper I glanced at the store the other day, it had a picture of a man in the car shop. He had just bought a new car. He said to the dealer:

“I’m so happy I bought a new car. Now, can I keep it here til I find a place to park it and a road to drive it on?”

That is so true! Buying a car/motorcycle and keeping it somewhere and just driving it on the street is quite challenging!!

No soap for you! (Journal Entry)

When I fasted the first time, I was outside washing something with soap and Joyti came over to me and said, “No soap- when you fast, you don’t use soap…” I wasn’t about to refrain from using soap all day, so I told her that our fasts were different. She was fasting for her god, I was fasting for my God- and my God didn’t care if I used soap or not!!! I was half joking with her. My fast is also different because I don’t eat anything whereas they eat roti and dahi- and other ‘natural’ things. They also usually eat again in the evening. I don’t eat until the next day. They weren't surprised at my fast, but were surprised I didn’t eat anything and that I fast the entire day until the next day. I’m trying to connect with the culture, and fit it, but still have some differences…I think in this one area, somehow, in someway, I’ve found a blanace...

Discrimination (journal entry)

More on the language learning side of things…Not only does the verb change according to object, but I think it changes depending on how it’s used. For example, the past tense of “cut” could be different depending on if you say, “I cut” or “I cut a tomatoe.” And, I learned that if you say, “Last night, I dreamed”- the ending on the verb “dream” depends on if what you saw in your dream was a ‘female’ thing or a ‘masculine’ thing! My goodness!

I wrote down a whole list of things today and tried to gain some kind of understanding as to when verb endings are one way as opposed to another way. That merely presented me with a whole bunch of new verb endings that I hadn’t even heard before. I’m not sure how to go about figuring it out…

Somehow today, and yesterday, I’ve felt a little “down." I'm not unhappy about being here, not frustrated with language learning or anything in particulair. I can just tell my mood is a little less thrilled than it had been. I’m not sure why, but pray that my enthusiasm would return. The thoughts of “I want to leave” have not entered my head at all. It’s not about not liking here, or the people or the food, etc…I’m not sure what it is, but hopefully, it will go away.

This morning Robin counted over 220 flies in our room…I recorded the flies with the Mp3 player…We are pretty sure the one batch had babies because at night there are a ton more sleeping on parts of the ceiling where previously there hadn’t been any flights sleeping. Plus, they seem quicker than their parents- this time you might have to hit the fly-swatter twice before getting one. We are trying to figure out what animals eat flies and figure we’ll get some pets along next time we come back to the village. We’ve also thought about mosquito nets…We re-read the section of the plagues and it said there were ‘swarms’ of flies on all the Egyptians. We figure we’re still better off than they were, but figure we’ve got at least one swarm in here with us. Anyway, we were told at our storying training that we should try to internalize the stories---I think we’ve got this once down…

Today, a woman from the lower caste came over and asked for sugar. Chachi brought some out in a tin cup for her. The woman kneeled down at Chachi’s feet, tossed some money on the ground and laid out a handkerchief on the ground. Chachi poured the sugar into the handkerchief. She half-way knelt down, the woman picked up the money and tossed it then into Chachi’s hands. I’m not sure if that is the way things are done here or if they changed things because I was watching…

And two nights ago when Joyti was here, we were both in the kitchen. Chachi came in with a bunch of sticks for the fire. I moved slightly towards the “Cooking” area of the kitchen and she said, “No, move over there, you can’t go over to that side…” Joyti looked at me and said, “I’m sitting here, and she didn’t say anything…hmm.” Typically, it’s the lower caste and kids that can’t do certain things or go in certain places….apparently we are considered lower caste, though I think because we are foreigners we are also somewhat outside the system altogether. Anyway, I’m not sure if Joyti was really surprised by her mother’s comment or if she was trying to make me feel better. I wasn't sure exactly how to feel...it was a little strange and unexpected.

"It's our culture" (Journal Entry)

(picture of flies in our chai!!!)

“And the Lord replied: ‘I will personally go with you…I will give you rest – everything will be fine for you…you are my friend’” ~ Exodus 33:14, 17b

In spite of the flies and other things that add humor to the day, the festivals and the worship that these people take part in is something that causes one to think and pray more. There was one festival when we were here two weeks ago in which they worship Ganesh- one of their gods, and repeat 108 different names for him over and over again. The family we live with spent most of the day doing this and fasting too. On the one hand, I think ‘How can these traditions ever be broken through?’ and on the other I think, “Wow, when God does break through this, I want to be here!!!”

Today’s language session went pretty well. I did the sequence pictures with Deepa- and didn’t write anything down during the entire session- it was pretty strange, for me at least! I came back and went through the recordings with Joyti. I was also able to put the recordings onto the Vocabulary Manager program that Pam set up for me. I realized that Deepa left out the 4th picture’s description (out of the 6 I did today), so I’ll have to get that one tomorrow.

Today, I also went with Diksha and Latta and their mothers to the lower caste section of the village because Diksha and Latta were getting their nose and ears pierced! It was so nice to see some of the girls that I had met in the field again. I tried not to be too nice to them for fear of what Diksha and Latta’s mothers might say, but they didn’t seem to be too rigid toward the lower caste people. There were about 20 or so that came out to watch the piercings. They all wanted me to get my nose and ears pierced too, but I didn’t give in.

The festival today resulted in Bicky, Joyti and Manoj (The other brother) all having grass in their hair for a short time. I accidentally walked in on Joyti receiving some blessing from her mother just before lunch. They were both kneeling down, Chachi was chanting something softly while placing the blades of grass on Joyti’s head, most of them sliding off. Bicky too had some around his ears and on stuck in his hair that is not cut. Something Brahmin Hindu boys/men have- a little ‘ponytail’ of hair- not much, but coming from the back of their head, about half way up from their neck). Anyway, they all had these blades of grass in their hair for a little while and slowly they fell out and that was it. I think after receiving the blessing, the kids had to go to the mandir (temple) in their home and do something, but I’m not sure. I asked Joyti what it was for, and she said it was some blessing…When I tried to ask more she said she didn’t know and finally said, “it’s our culture.”

“It’s our culture” – There is so much about this culture still to learn! We’ve hardly understood any of it- mainly just observed things we have no idea about and don’t even know how to ask about. How in the world can we craft stories that will dig deep into their “culture” so that the stories not only change their culture, but become a part of their culture?

Chacha is upstairs right now, he just blew the ‘puja’ horn (made from a shell, actually)…again, so much to figure out!

I pray now for Joyti- as she accepts these things as her culture, may she realize that culture and religion are two different things. They are often intertwined and here they seem to be nearly one thing, but they are not. God, help me to know how to pray for her. While I feel I’ve had the most interaction with her, somehow tonight I don’t know what to pray or how to pray for her.

Village Impressions... (Email Update)

Village Impressions…Taken from my journal...

1) “If they give us food, we don’t eat it” [Learning about the caste system from a 7 year old]
2) This work will take a miracle!!! [Lessons from Job!]
3) “Tum kaas cha?” (“How are you?”) [Language Sessions)
4) Little Language Helpers [The kids are my best language helpers!!!]
5) P & P

1) “If they give us food, we won’t eat it”
While they were on vacation from school, two of my regular companions in the village were fifteen-year-old “Joy” and seven-year-old “Bea.” While we were walking back from the field one day, I noticed some girls watching us and stopped to practice talking Kahani with them. We had only gotten as far as exchanging names when Joy called me away.

As I walked away I told the girls from the lower caste, “See you again!” I then turned and asked Bea ‘Are those your friends?’ She said, “No. They are harijaans. She continued, ‘If they make food, we won’t eat it, if they make chai or give us water, we won’t drink it…” I realized quickly that these kids were from the lower caste part of the village and the people we live with don’t associate much with them. I wondered what the people of the higher caste would think if I visited with these girls again and what I would communicate to the girls by not visiting them? I came away from this experience with the question of, how can stories bridge this barrier?

A few days after this trip, I was able to go again to the field and this time, I was able to talk with and take pictures with some of the kids from the lower caste. At first Bea made comments to the lower caste girls such as, “Get away from me” and “You’re dirty,” but she ended up smiling and enjoying the pictures along with those girls. While I don’t know what more will come of this caste situation, Bea’s change of attitude was an encouragement to me.
Some of the girls from the lower caste village- Bea is in the middle in the front!


2) This work will take a miracle!!!
I knew before arriving here that this work will take a miracle, but now that seems even more real! ‘God, it seems you have put me here to show me that You are more amazing than I ever thought. I’m trusting that You will provide me with the faith to trust You throughout this process! …I’m glad that you, Lord, know the future- and no matter what, You are in charge of the outcome and You are with me in this journey.’

I was encouraged as I read Job chapter 12 today…
“…For the life of every living thing is in his hand, and the breath of all humanity…But true wisdom and power are with God; counsel and understanding are his. What he destroys cannot be rebuilt. When he closes in on someone, there is no escape. If he holds back the rain, the earth becomes a desert. If he releases the waters, the flood the earth. Yes, strength and wisdom are with him…He floods the darkness with light; he brings light to the deepest gloom. He raises up nations, and he destroys them. He makes nations expand, and he abandons them…

This reminded of who God is and if He is capable of all these things, then He is surely able to tackle the caste system and reveal Himself to these people.


3) “Tum kaas cha?” (“How are you?”)
Looking back on my first language session with Dee, I remember that 40 of the 45 minutes were frustrating. Since then, she has been patient, I’ve tried to communicate in the trade language, and things have gotten better. My language sessions are different every day and so are the noises that are included in our recordings. Later, when we listen to our recordings, we hear conversations of others who stopped to add their ideas, the flies landing on the microphone, Grandmother singing(?) to Ronny (Dee’s 9 month old son), and other sounds such as neighbors calling to their friends from several houses away. I’m thankful Dee seems eager to help us learn the language in any way she can.
My language helper (Dee)


4) Little Language Helpers
I’ve read about other M’s who have received a lot of language help from children, and it really is true! The kids in the village have become some of my greatest language helpers! They love going through my pictures and testing me to see if I have learned anything!


P & P
* Praise for a great two weeks in the village.
* Praise for a language helper who has patience and that we have learned to have patience with our language sessions.
* Praise for good health while in the village, for the most part!
* Praise for my back starting to feel better - thanks to some of you who offered some good back exercises that I do every night!
* Praise for only having to eat grass once!
* Pray that we would have a good time with our supervisors who are here now!
* Pray that we would not get too ‘comfortable’ in Kahan before going back to the village next week, Feb. 1st!

Thank you partnering with me!!!

~ Elizabeth
(or Lizzie- as has become my name in the village. Actually, when they say it, it sounds like “Lijjie” since they don’t really have a “z” sound in their language!!)

Day 4 - "There is One God..."

Today, I woke up a little later- around 9am. I actually woke up at 6:30, but was sleeping off and on until 9. The sunshine doesn’t arrive on the house until about 9:30, so when I got up, the sunshine was just hitting the house. I gathered my dirty clothes, the bar of soap and the plastic brush and headed outside to wash my clothes. It took me a while because I was trying to wash my underwear, but having to hide it under other clothes anytime the father or brother would come to that side of that house! Finally the clothes got washed, and then I took a bath- for the first time in over a week! I decided to take one after I felt like there was some kind of rash on my back from not bathing. Probably time to get washed huh?

Even though I just had a bucket of water, it felt really good! (Below is a picture of another time, washing same idea - squatting and washing hair - this little girl was helping me :) )

Afterwards, Robin and I ate parathas, some of our favorite food. Then Anju came in and we talked about rent payment and payment for language stuff for Deepa. Anju first said, no one remembered what Becca paid last time…I had heard a previous conversation between Anju and Chachi and Chachi said Rs. 400/week, but she wasn’t sure. Neither of them realized I understood their conversation, since I was in the middle of eating and pretended not to be listening. I told Anju that Becca had said Rs. 400/week, which was what she thought she had paid. Anju then said, “Maybe 1000/week for both of you?” Robin and I both thought that was kind-of a lot, since we paid only 700 back in "Kahan" for our room there… We suggested 800. Anju went out and asked her aunt and uncle and came back and said, “Whatever you think is okay.” I said, “We want to do what’s right, what did they say…” She said, “I don’t know, 1000?” We said, “okay, that’s fine.” The reason being there is two of us and also a little inflation from two years ago when Becca was here. 1000 rupees is about $25.00, for both of us, per week. It is a little much for India, but since we're foreigners, and don't want to hurt the relationship, that will be okay with us. We think that instead of “per room” rent, here it must be “per person” – since us using the room doesn’t really cost them anything, it’s more the food, I guess.

We then went to Deepa’s and had our language sessions. It was still different from the two previous lessons. There were more people there this time, all interested in what we were doing and the mother and sister watched both Robin’s and mine entire language session. Deepa did a good job today- we all were confused at times, but I think she’s getting the hang of how we’re trying to learn. We’re learning that her Kahani is different from Anju’s (who we’ve learned from before), but we told her that we want to learn her Kahani. I think she’s happy about that…

When we got back, we watched Bicky and Chacha build a ‘closeline’ that Bicky had started on this morning. It’s two logs with little crevices in them, and a long, thick pipe that rests on them. Pretty ingenious! I keep thinking how much Mark would love life here- finding little things here and there to do and make. Pretty much everything is of natural stuff- from the materials they use to cut, chop and hammer, to the final outcome of whatever they’re making. Just fyi, previously, we use the wood pile or the mud roof to lay our clothes on to dry- because that’s not dirty or anything!!! Haha…
(Here is a picture of one of the village girls and her animals!)

Then I had a conversation with Chacha in Hindi. Robin was also sitting there. We talked about the town above us and his school he works at, and the temples nearby. He asked us about our work, what we’re doing and after we study language and culture, then what? I told him that part of that is learning Kahani stories…he seemed to like that idea…but still asked, “after that, then what?” The way he was asking was merely out of curiosity, he wasn’t trying to get anything out of us, just curious- as any normal person would be! (why in the world would you come out to a village to live and learn language anyway!?!?)

After our conversation we went inside to eat rice and daal. Chacha said something about how since we are guests we can’t eat with them, or they can’t eat with us (Although we have all eaten together before). He also said something about changing clothes to eat…which we have observed- he always puts on a doti- a white linin cloth thing around his waist when he eats- as part of his religion. Along with the religion topic, he said,
“God is one; there is one God…We, Hindus call him Krisha- Mohammad/Muslims call him…--what do they call him Bicky?—
Bicky said, “Allah.”
“Yes, Muslims call him Allah, and you call him Jesus.”

I explained to Robin what he said and told her it was similar to the conversation I had with Uncle before…and never really came up with a good answer. The conversation kind-of trailed off as we were eating and he was on his way outside. But either way, I think it’s interesting that he feels a need to explain that to us. After this, he did observe Robin and I as we prayed for our food.