Sit, Come, Stay

There are a lot of topics that I could write about at some length. I'll start with a summary of my bad day yesterday, then I'll talk about the title of this post--the tendency of people here to boss me around (in the most loving way possible)--and then I'll give a list of possible future topics. If some of them sound particularly interesting to you, let me know. If not, I'll choose at random and hope you find it interesting.

Yesterday was my first not-good day. I woke up feeling lonely, tired, and unenthusiastic. I went to Satish's house in the morning and got scolded for having accidentally switched something off the day before. I got to work and Vinay ji told me to trust people less, to not leave valuables anywhere if I'm not right there, to avoid telling people I'm Jewish ("They don't need to know,"), and so on. I didn't have much work to do, I had somehow gotten over a dozen mosquito bites the day before, and they were mostly concentrated on my elbows, so I was itching like mad, and I still didn't have internet at home, eggs or vegetables to cook with, or a cell phone. Oh, and I also got scolded for still having Anand's cell phone (the battery is dead now, so I had asked for the charger so I could continue carrying it [I haven't actually been using it, but it's good to know it's there] until I got my own phone).

So yesterday I got to the office and pretty immediately was told to go get a phone. The driver who had brought me to the office would take me. He doesn't speak English, but Rahul told him what I needed, and off we went. We ended up back at Satish's house. No one who was there spoke English, so I couldn't ask what I was doing there. Apparently Rahul's wife, Dolly, was getting ready to go to work, so she was going to help me get a phone on her way.

This is where things get much better.

We found me a phone, Dolly showed me the salon that she owns, I went back to work, ate lunch, and had pretty much nothing to do. I downloaded a design program onto a desktop computer here and set about trying to learn to use it.

Eventually Alok asked me if I wanted a ride home, and I eagerly accepted. He asked if I needed anything, so he helped me find eggs and vegetables and then took me home. After I'd been home an hour or so, organizing things, finally studying a little Hindi, fixing my mosquito net a little more, Rita (John-the-landlord's wife) came up to ask me how I was doing and if I would like dinner. I asked if she would teach me how to make what she was making, which turned out to be chicken butter masala. Mmmmmmm.

So here's the recipe, as far as I could get it:
Start with onions. Lots of onions. Saute them until they start to brown.
Add chicken. In this case, chicken is hacked into pieces seemingly at random.
Add turmeric, cumin, chili powder, and some unidentifiable lump of spice.
Grate a tomato, discarding the peel, and add.
Add about a half cup of garlic/ginger paste.
Add some milk, cream, and butter. Serve with chapatti (round naan-like bread). Eat with hands.

Today has been better (and I didn't even make yesterday sound that bad!). I didn't have much work to do, and Anand is in town again, so he asked me if I wanted to go on a site visit with him. Duh!

We drove about a half hour out of the city and into the bush (do they call it that here?) to visit some Remedial Coaching Centers, which are like after-school tutoring programs. We saw a 10th-grade science class balancing chemical equations, a 9th grade English class whose teacher's English was impossible to understand through his accent, and a 10th grade math class learning trig.

 This English teacher is too cool for school. And his English sounds very much like his Hindi.

 The car we took, and the view from the RCC.

 Students

 The RCC

 Math class

 NBJK office in the foothills. This is their garden (it will be more fruitful in a month, when the rains start)

 New NBJK office building. We went up to the roof...

 Lovely view from the roof

 More view

More NBJK office

It's one thing in the U.S. to be in high school and to ask your teacher, "When am I ever going to use this in real life?" It's another, I think, to watch a class full of impoverished village children who have never even been to a city talking about what happens when you combine magnesium oxide and hydrogen. I kept catching myself thinking, "When are they ever going to use this in real life?" I guess that's the point, though. If they don't learn it, they are barred from having the kind of life where they could ever need to use the information. If they learn it, they at least have a chance at getting out and forging their own paths. Makes me even less sympathetic towards most American children, thinking about that.

I actually have more work do to in the next couple of days, and I'm in better spirits than I had been for a few days, so I'm looking forward to completing my second week here. That prospect had not been appealing yesterday.

The title of today's post comes from the words that I tend to hear most often here. "Erica, come." "Erica, sit." "Erica, stay." To me, it sounds like I'm being treated like a dog, but it feels like I'm being taken care of. "Erica, come," means, "Here, let me show you where to go," or "Let me give you a ride home." "Erica, sit," means,"I'd like to chat with you for a while, and I want you to be comfortable." "Erica, stay," means, "I am going to take care of this for you right away. I will be back in a moment, so wait here and be comfortable." I always smile to myself when people boss me around here, because I really enjoy having other people ready and willing to help me out when I'm not sure what to do.

Here are potential future blogging topics for you to choose from. Please comment with your thoughts:

Mosquitoes
Driving
Electricity
Furniture
Getting around
Dust
Laundry
Animals
Clothing
Food