Birthday Party with an Indian Flair

This weekend we celebrated Maggie's birthday!  Maggie is a 5 year old girl from Nevada (USA) staying at our hotel.  Her parents went all out...it was fun hearing about the planning process throughout the week.  They said that instead of gifts, they preferred that people make a donation that they would use for charity.  They selected a school for the blind located not far from here.  Since their is so much corruption in India, they don't want to hand over the money, so they plan to buy supplies/equipment/etc that the school needs.  Combination birthday party/fundraiser...great idea!  Of course Maggie still ended up with presents =).


This coconut man was not sure what Linda wanted, when she asked him to come to the party.  She said...Let's make it simple...how many coconuts do you sell in a day?  100.  Okay, then I will buy 100 from you on Saturday.  Bring the cart & all!  He must have thought...Crazy American.

 

Benjamin's first Tatoo.


 


After one glance at this dirty, moldy, bounce house...

the hosts said...get that disgusting thing out of here.

The parents all had a nervous look on their faces as this man-powered ferris wheel was rolled in.  But this was a huge hit among the kids!  We just had to overlook the rust. 

Benjamin & his friend Michaela on the FerrisWheel





Clean bounce house appeared later during the party.

Sorry about the layout of this blog entry...I've been fighting with it all week and finally decided to just post it the way it is.  Sometimes putting pictures on a blog post can really get complicated.  Ugh!

Food

Food stories:

PhD = Pizza Hut Delivery

At breakfast, I asked Benjamin "What kind of eggs would you like?"  His answer "Green." 
I guess we've read this story a few to many times.

One of Rene's favorite meals to cook is Chicken with Lemon in the @$$.  I'm sure that is not the official name, but that is what we call it.  On Friday, Rene asked Domnic to pick up a whole chicken.  Don't worry...Domnic knew that we wanted a chicken that had already been killed, plucked, head/feet removed, etc.  Domnic did buy the chicken directly from one of the markets that does the killing, plucking, head/feet removal on the spot.  On Saturday morning, Rene pulled the chicken out to prepare it...it looked just like what we buy in our grocery stores, but the difference is...the meat we buy in Germany/US has no smell to it.  Rene said this smelled like a chicken.  I chose not to smell it, as I was afraid that if I did smell it, I may not eat it later.  That evening, we ate the most delicious & flavorful chicken we've ever eaten.  WOW!!  What a difference!!  If you think about it...that chicken was probably several days fresher than any that we buy in the western world...and with the amount of flavor, we started wondering if the chicken in India is organic!?!?  Farmers in such a poor country may not be able to afford to buy feed with hormones & other "non-organic" stuff.  Who knows.  All I know is that I hope Rene makes it again soon...although I am still not sure I want to smell it.

In the News...

This weeks newspaper had a couple of things that I thought I would share.

Pune has 40,000 street dogs, the capacity to spade/neuter 20 dogs a day.  This is where it gets funny...This city of 5+ million people (many unemployeed) has 1 trained dog catcher, but get this...4 dog catching vans!  Not sure how 1 man is supposed to use 4 vans...and make any kind of dent in the homeless dog population...especially when one dog on our street gave birth to 6 puppies this week.

A photo similar to this one was in the paper today.  It is from a police recruitment event.  One of the requirements to be a police officer is that your chest is 79 cm unexpanded and at least a 5 cm difference upon chest expansion.  Huh?


A...did you know? 
Did you know that in India it is illegal to find out the sex of your baby before it is born?  I know several expat women that are pregnant.  They are all looking forward to the Christmas Holiday to travel to their home countries to find out if they are having a boy or a girl.  The reason you are not allowed to find out the sex of the baby is a result of many discontinued pregnancies when people learn that they are having a girl.  Of course, everything is possible with bribery money...and that is part of the reason that there is still a girl-boy ratio issue. 

Fruit Soaking Ceremony

All the Christians in the building think the hotel invented a new ceremony...but hey! we aren't complaining.  We like to have fun things to do to keep us entertained.  On Saturday, the hotel guests were invited to a Fruit Soaking Ceremony to kick off the upcoming festive holiday season.
We gathered on the restaurant terrace.  We dumped bags full of dried fruit & nuts onto a big working surface.  Some cinnamon & ginger powder were also added.  Then the chefs started handing us bottles of liquor to pour on it...and more bottles of liquor...and more bottles of liquor.  You could get drunk from the smell coming off of the table.  Then, we mixed and mixed with our hands. Now, the liquor soaked fruit & nuts have been put away to soak until the holdiay baking season begins!  It was a fun social event with our fellow neighbors.

That's Benjamin's friend Zac & my friend Janelda next to us.  They are from South Africa

The boys that prepare our delicious breakfast each morning!

Diwali Camp

Last week was still a holiday week for many of the kindergartens in India, however one kindergarten held a Diwali Camp open to anyone.  This gave us a chance to try out this kindergarten and for me to look at a few others that were open last week. 
Benjamin's friend Zac goes to this kindergarten regularly.  So, on 3 mornings last week, we hoped in a rickshaw with Zac and his mom Janelda.  It was so cute seeing the 2 little boys excited to see each other, excited to ride in a rickshaw together, and excited about going to "camp."  On 2 of the days, the boys came home with art projects: a caterpillar made out of an egg carton & a decorated paper fan.  On Friday, the "camp" went to the Sheraton hotel to visit the bakery.  Zac & Benjamin are both kids that don't give any details when asked "what did you do today?" or "what did you see?"  The only answer I got out of Benjamin was "cookies" and I saw the evidence of chocolate on his shorts.  The important thing is that they had fun!
This kindergarten was very nice, but I have enrolled Benjamin in a different kindergarten.  The new kindergarten is a Montessori...I like the Montessori concept for small kids and that the schools location is a bit more convenient.  Today is a holiday for many schools in India, so Benjamin will start tomorrow.  I'll keep you posted on his Kindergarten fun!

Ahhhh...a bit of nature

On Thursday, we took a drive into the Western Ghats.  This is the mountain range that runs along the western side of India - it is between our city of Pune and the coastal plains.  We specifically drove through an area called Mulshi Dam, which has a large beautiful lake surrounded by mountains and drove further into Tamhini Ghat.

Looking down into a canyon in Tamhini Ghat.  During Monsoon Season, this area is filled with hundreds of waterfalls.  The falls have already dried up...in fact, in a few months, the greenery will be gone too - nothing but brown.

When we arrived at this lookout, there was some major movement of the bushes below.  Dominic said it may have been monkeys...we looked hard, but did not see them.

The mountains seemed to be a cross of what you may find in southwest U.S. and with some greenery mixed in that reminded us of the Alps.  Of course, the palm trees on top of the ridges seemed odd.

Rice fields at the edge of the Mulshi Dam Lake

Rice fields, sugar cane fields, etc.  I only wish the photo reflected the color contrast of these fields...it was beautiful.

Beautiful farmland.

Workers carrying the rice stalks after the rice had already been removed from it.  The straw is used to feed animals & to pack produce, like apples

This group was singing & chanting the story of their successful crop season as they trek to the temple to give thanks.  Look at the cool instrument on the gusy shoulder.