Cyclone Nilam

At the same time Hurricane Sandy was heading for the U.S. East Coast, we were hit by the much smaller Cyclone Nilam. It made landfall south of us, in Mahabalipuram, but we had plenty of wind and rain. There was a lot of property damage but very few deaths this time, for which everyone was very grateful.

I took these photos on the ride between the school and the consulate on Halloween, before the worst of the storm hit.

Here's a tree down on an autorickshaw. No one was panicking, so I'm assuming the people inside escaped safely.

Rules of the road do not apply to Chennai bus drivers. When your lane is closed due to downed trees and overflowing drainage, simply drive the bus down the wrong side of the street. People will get out of your way. Be sure to lean on the horn.

This downed tree was blocking the main road to our house. Luckily, we could get around it through a couple of side streets. The tree had smashed our neighbors' wall.

 

Halloween 2012

Since we live far from anyone with any clue about trick-or-treating, we ex-pats naturally feel the need to completely overdo it when it comes to Halloween. This year was another mad rush to cram in as many party and treat opportunities as possible ... and it was FUN!

The consulate came through again this year and managed to find actual, carvable pumpkins. The kids always draw the designs, and then Dad has to figure out how to translate the artwork to the pumpkins. Better him than me ...

I'm much better at the gloppy part ...

Here's Samuel grinning with the finished product.

Johnny made a sinister Bobba Fett ...

... and Evie decided to be scary this year as a vampire princess. Several of our friends noted that the look suits her frighteningly well.

Here are the kids all ready to go trick-or-treating at the consulate compounds. Samuel was not a happy Yoda.

The weekend trick-or-treating ended at the Golsens' annual huge Halloween bash. (I went as one of Evie's victims. I highly recommend the vampire bite temporary tattoos. I had a couple of people stare in horror and ask what happened.) Then on the 31st the kids had Halloween parties at school and another round of trick-or-treating at the consulate offices.

Here are Evie and her classmates all decked out in their Halloween best.

She and this ghost were the spookiest kids in the class.

I love this one of Evie playing Halloween bingo. These things are serious business, you know.

I dropped in on Johnny's class party, too. Here they are after a haunted house and spooky storytelling.

Johnny and a friend posed for a frenemies photo ...

We even had spooky weather! Cyclone Nilam hit Halloween evening. It wasn't terrible, but it did cause some damage. More in the next post ...
 

Lunch break

A few days ago, Samuel saw Gopal and Joseph sitting down to their lunch. He ran to the table, grabbed his bowl and sat down to join them :)

 



 

Ayudha Puja 2012

As I said, I'm several festivals behind.

Let's start the catch-up with this year's Ayudha Puja, the day on which South Indian Hindus worship their tools. It's an effort to awaken the divine being within the tools and ask it to perform well throughout the year. This sounded absolutely nuts to me the first time I heard it explained, but I've since been doing some thinking. I believe everything was created spiritually before it was created physically, so I suppose that means everything does have a spark of divinity. While I don't think it's right to worship anything other than our Heavenly Father, I can understand how this particular practice might have developed.

The four drivers in our compound view the family cars as their tools, and so they asked that they be allowed to do the puja on the vehicles. Our gardener, Melan, participated with his gardening tools.

We had quite the celebration with all four families participating this year. Here are the cars lined up for cleaning and decoration.

Including our trusty bucket of bolts. We never did name this car ... odd. I wonder if it's because we aren't the primary drivers and so don't feel as much ownership. Hmmm.

 

Shanti used the kids' sidewalk chalk to draw kolams in front of each vehicle.

 

 



 

Here are Ramesh and Vijay smearing the tamarind paste and vermillion on our car.

 



 

 

All of the kids' vehicles (and the toy lawn mower) were included. 

 

 

 

Have I mentioned that there are lots of kids in our compound? That means lots of toys with wheels.

 

Here's Vijay circling the sacred fire over Alex's scooter.

Here are Praveen and Ramesh preparing the main offerings.

 

And I love this picture (taken by my neighbor) of Shanti lighting one of the puja lamps.



 

Pumpkins were smashed, sweets were eaten, and a good time was had by all. AND hopefully our car will continue to run until we leave.

 

The Bishop Garden crew

We got really lucky with our housing at this post (aside from the flickering electricity and snakes in the yard, but whatever). We're in a compound with four units, and the entire time we've been here the four houses have been filled with families with kids at similar ages to ours.

Here's the younger crew lined up with the almost daily ration of popsicles. The big boys (Johnny and his fellow fourth-grader Tosha) were off somewhere causing their own mischief. Here we have (from left) Alex (3), Evie (5), Hannah (4), Samuel (3), Mina and Finn (both nearing 2).

And here they are with a favorite playmate, Alex's nanny, Shanti.

 

Primary visit

So ... an update has been demanded! Actually, I've been working offline on several updates but haven't gotten around to actually posting them. I'm several trips and local festivals behind.

Before I start inundating you with Halloween and our trip to Trichy, I need to make a quick mention of Thursday evening's experience.

There's a new family in our branch that has three kids in the Primary. Cheryl, Janaki and I wanted to visit them as a Primary presidency, but we delayed until we could arrange a time when John and Janaki's husband, Gopi, could join us because of the language barrier (only the father speaks much English) and because they live in a poor neighborhood where Cheryl and I might attract unwanted attention.

The stars aligned Thursday night and we were finally able to make the visit. The family lives in a neighborhood where the streets are too narrow for anything wider than a motorcyle, so we left our car at a nearby train station and walked along a stinking canal and past several garbage heaps, turned down a side street and found their flat.

We climbed a set of tight, dark stairs and arrived at their room, smaller than Evie and Samuel's bedroom, with a sink and cooktop in one corner and open shelving, on which everything they owned was stacked neatly, against one wall. There was no furniture at all, just a small woven mat on the floor. The entire family of five -- mom and dad, a 12-year-old girl, and 10- and 8-year-old boys -- live in this one room. There's a bathroom and pump out the door and around a corner on a balcony. I'm not sure, but I believe the bathroom is shared with other tenants.

We sat cross-legged on the floor and talked about Primary and the Sacrament meeting program that the kids will be participating in. Abiya, the daughter, had some questions about feeling the Spirit, so we talked about that, too. We helped Abiya prepare her talk for the program and her brother prepare his scripture reading. We shared scriptures about the sons of Helaman and the faith they were taught by their mothers.

The mother served us coconut rice and sweet, hot milk. The Spirit was strong, and the family was eager and happy. The visit was both beautiful and difficult. I felt exactly as I had in the first days of my mission to Brazil, and during branch activities in the Congo, and at all the times when it seemed clear how simple the gospel truly is. Activity days, Faith in God, Scouting ... they're all great programs, but they're just trimmings really. On Thursday night, I saw a family working together to improve their lives through the gospel, happy to have someone there to help out a little. I hope I never forget the experience.

Better pics

Here are some better photos of the kids at the Gandhi Jayanthi assembly. I snagged them from the school web site.