Sunday, August 7, 2011

Home again, home again, jiggity-jog!

     After our Thailand trip we arrived back at home in Delhi just nine days before school is to start at the American Embassy School.  Mister and Kid One returned together just five days later.  As our family is settling in with the five of us in one home again, we have been in to the school for schedules and supplies and to help with what we can to make the new school year go well.  We see many families we have not seen for the summer and are meeting many new faces as well.  I have read other blogs of those who have lived here in Delhi before me detailing the return to the new school year as a strange mix of reunited and land of the lost all thrown into one mix.
     Our house is that same mix at the moment.  Our family is reunited at last after the month of July in separate areas of the world.  While those that were in Thailand were away our wonderful house helper went on a vacation of her own to see her family in southern India.  While away she must have caught some kind of bug and has been sick since her return.  I asked her to stay home when she has a fever so as not to spread the illness to others.  We have checked on her by phone every day and encouraged her to seek doctor’s advice and exams to find out if she is in need of other medical attention.  So far it is just a nasty flu/cold and she has some medicine for her cough and congestion.  We are also in the land of the lost with her absence.  We have been forced to do laundry and wash dishes and all five of us have been in general picking up after ourselves.  As wonderful as it is to have the help, it has been nice to get back to our household routines with the five of us all in charge of ourselves.  It’s an odd feeling accomplishment to see the loads of laundry all done and put away, the dishes done and know that we washed and dried them ourselves.  We do not have an automatic dishwasher in our house, just the manual washers we brought.  We will admit we are spoiled to have help with these tasks on most days.  It makes the horns that honk all the time, and the feeling of being pushed where ever we go, the constant stares, the higher prices and all the other things we find ourselves complaining about that much more tolerable knowing that at home, we are spoiled and yet we are affecting the life of another human being while we are being spoiled in the process.  Again the odd mix of opposites in India, but it is our home again, home again, jiggity jog!

Note from the author; the nursery rhyme actually makes me think of my mom (and home).  I remember as a young child Mom reciting this rhyme for us kids at times.
It's a Mother Goose nursery rhyme:
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig, Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog, Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.
To market, to market, to buy a plum bun, Home again, home again, market is done.

No comments: