What a Class!!!

What a Class!!!
Some Cuties!

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I hope that you will enjoy the site, as I take you on a journey with me to the ends of the earth.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Lots of Happenings

So much has gone on in the last several days that it is hard to keep it all straight. The day after the wedding, I had my fourth grade girls come over for a tea party. They had never been to a tea party yet, tea is to Bengali as coffee is to American. Wait now that I think about it I feel like I have just repeated myself. Have I talked about this party already? Well if I have too bad :) So I went to the store on my own and got peanut butter and jelly and bread for sandwiches. I made that and cheese sandwiches. I cut the crust off and everything! Then I cut them into little triangles. I also had chanuchur (spicy tail mix) and biscuits (cookies) as well as Bangla cha. They all were dressed really nicely. We played Uno while we waited for all the girls to come. All but a few did come. I was told later by my principal that the girl who got chicken pox in my class was crying because she couldnt attend my party and that she wouldnt get to say good bye to me :) Isnt that super sweet. So anyway, we had food and tea and it was amazing. We played pictionary, signs, and then went outside and played freeze tag. The girls were super funny. It was a very good day!
Last night I went over the the KG (kindergarten) teacher's house. her daughter is in my class and she begged her mom to have me over. During class she kept coming up to me and saying how excited she was that I was coming over. After school I walked over to the house (it was super close). I arrived around 3:30pm. Jenny (the daughter) showed me her computer that she was playing on. We then did her science homework together. Then her mom brought me Bangla Cha, bannana's and cookies with chocolate on it. OOO it was super good! Then we watched some YouTube videos. After that her mom and I were chatting. It was amazing how much her mother opened up to me. We discussed our childhood pasts. Jenny had told her about my adoption and her mother is ways can relate and so we had a really good discussion. I felt honored that she would treat me like family in that way. After that, Jenny taught me some Bengali dances. Oh my work it was fun. She tied bells around my ankles so that when I danced, I made noise. I felt really cool!! I might have looked stupid but were to friends having fun. I then taught Jenny how to do the Charleston, the waltz, some tango, and salsa dancing. She was a hoot to watch any try to do that Charleston. She thought the tango was really funny. We did the cheek to cheek thing. Oh man :) Then we played Mono-polly (Monopoly). She wooped me. I kept getting in Jail and she would grab all the properties that should could get her hands on. (I think I gave her too much money :) Im sure of it) After much playing, we decided to watch a movie Little Mermaid 2. Her mother said that it was time to eat. So we paused the movie to get some food. He mom piled on the rice. I took a little bit of each thing. Then Jenny said that I must eat more because that is what a good woman does (they eat and get fat) So Jenny's mom took my plate from me and piled more food on. There was chicken, veggies, eggs, beef and fried pumpkin. I literally had the largest bowl of food that I have ever eaten in my life. We went to sit down and I dug in (eating with my hand of course). I got 3/4ths the way through and the mom took my plate and asked if I wanted more. I said a little more rice to finish my egg. She came back with another full plate of food. Oh I was hurting by this time (I was sooooo full but it tasted sooooo good) So I ate about half the second plate and I slowed down really fast. Then her mother finally said, that I ate with a lot of energy and so I didnt have to finish my plate. I graciously gave her back the left over. She thought that I was silly for not eating at least another plate of food lol. Then she gave me ice cream that was really good! I was the honored guest and I felt like a queen. She is probably the best cook here! I loved it sooo much... I had so much curry that my nail turned yellow from eating lol. After ice cream, I went home and arrived at 8:30pm. I spent 5 hours with the family and it was amazing. It was what I really had wanted to do. I love just sitting in the house and being surrounded by this wonderful family who loves the Lord and served me and treated me like one of them. I wish I could have done this more, but I am thankful for the chance that God gave me! I pray that He would continue to bless them. 3 days to go...
I had to teach on the spot today because Miss J was stuck in a traffic jam coming back from the 5th grade field trip. Lol I had 5 minutes to look over prepositions before I taught the lesson. It went well for such a short notice. Oh boy I love being flexible! I love being a teacher

Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Wedding

I was invited to a wedding this last weekend. I was very excited to attend because I havent attended one yet. I woke up really early on friday morning to get ready. The wedding was to take place after church. I was very excited to wear my Sari. I had been waiting for an opprotunity to wear one and here it was! I woke up 2 hours before it was time to leave for the church. I got everything put into place and now I was working on the pleets near my chest. This took the longest to complete. It took so long that I had to give up and just wear a Salwar-Chamise. There was no one to help me to put it on and I didnt want a fiasco with the Sari. I was glad that I didnt wear it because we ended up walking to the church and it would have been a pain to walk so far in a Sari. I was sweating like a pig when I arrived and there were only fans, no air conditioners. It was so hot! I had no clue what was going on during the survice because I dont speak their language. :) But after and hour and a half of singing and preaching, church was over and we all filed outside. They surved a snack to the congregation. I was so glad that they fed us something small because my tummy was rumbling and we would not eat for quite some time later. The wedding was supposed to start at 11 and it was 15 till. But, the wedding didnt start until almost noon. Typical lol! So we chated for a while until the wedding began. There werent any decorations (which is not usual, this marriage was for a poorer family). The bride was decorated nicely with a Sari, a vail, Henna all over her feet and hands with gold paint outlining the Henna, then she had gold paint over her eyebrows. There was a sermon and exchanging the rings. The bride never once looked up. She was very timid. This was an arranged wedding. They only had met briefly before when the parents were evaluating the other. I cant imagine what was going through either of their heads. I would be thinking, what am I getting myself into? I cant imagine getting married to someone I dont know and then have to live with family members becuase it is customary. Anyway, the only time she looked at him was to put a lai of flowers over his head and he to her as well. The flowers were orange, red, and yellow. They were beautiful. Of course it clashed with the bride (who wore red, gold, and green) because the more colors the better... lol... After the wedding we headed back to my building where the reception was held. There was a huge tent that was very colorful. The bride and groom were set in the front of the house. People who wanted to congratulate them would feed the bride and groom sweets. Literally feed them :) it was cool. Then we were hearded to go eat. The feast consisted of rice, two type of chicken, boiled eggs and veggie curry with shrimp! It was nice and spicy! They literally fed about a 100 or more people. They had huge pots over a makeshift fire outside. It was awesome! It was so hot and I needed to rest. I decided with a full belly to take a nap. The wedding was fun and lots of good food! The people hear said that the wedding was way more simple than usual. But since they didnt have a lot of money, they focused on feeding people. Feeding people is the most important thing to do. It is an honor to serve people!

I have 4 days left and I will be home soon! Keep us all in your prayers please and I will see you soon!