Lemonade Stand

Remember when we were kids and we would make a pitcher of koolade, write on a big sign "Lemonade 25¢" and then set up a table near the best intersection for stopping vehicles, it was like a popularity contest, how many people will stop for us today?
Temperatures have been above 100 for weeks now.  Lately the temperature range has been about 103 to 116 Fahrenheit.  And truly when the temperature is that hot you notice the difference of 103 or 116.  It's HOT and then it's brutally HOT.  Breezes during temperatures like this feel as refreshing as a blast furnace would about then.  AC is the only way our family chooses to survive the heat.  From the AC house into the AC car.  Drive to the AC location and stay there until we need to brave the heat and return to the AC car to go back to our AC house.  Not much adventure in that.
This fine Saturday afternoon, it is only 12:30pm mind you, the temperature has already risen to a balmy 108 Fahrenheit and I can see our guard waving his hat in front of himself to get a slight relief  as I sit inside my AC house and the lemonade stand of my youth comes to mind. 
Kids Middle and Three are gone for the summer and we have some lemonade concentrate, their drink of choice during the summer, in the freezer.  So I made a quick pitcher of the refreshing drink, grabbed a pile of paper cups we have from our last party. Then I trodded down three flights of stairs with pitcher and cups in hand and began pouring a refreshing glass of lemonade for the guard at our gate, guards from the neighbors' gates, the driver and others that begin to flock to the "lemonade stand" inside our gate area.  The same feeling of my youth and that of our children's youth.  Pour a glass and they will come, they also begin to smile.  All those gathered are happy to take a cup for themselves, most nod with appreciation.  One woman asks for her cup to be filled "more" to the top so she can take it across the street to the construction sight (there is one on every corner, right).  I pour until my pitcher is empty and my glasses are all used up.  Perfect ratio of lemonade for the number of cups, almost as if I have done this before.
"Stay hydrated" I say as I trod back up three flights and sit inside our AC house.  It was probably more fun for me because I was able to take a break from the work inside the house. 
By the way, I did NOT charge 25¢ per glass.  Hardly a martyr by any stretch of the imagination. 
Below I have attached the weather link from BBC for your entertainment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/1261481

Shopping

I have somewhat limited myself in the shopping in Delhi up until my mom arrived for a visit.  Not that my mom is a big shopper but she does love a bargain.  While Mom was here we shopped at Cottage Emporium, ACSA vendors, Santushti, flower market, Hauz Khas Village, C-Block Market, produce market, Sarojini, Khan Market, Old Delhi spice market and most successfully at Parhar Ganj.  It was great fun for all of us.  We bought treats and trinkets for family and friends, scarves in every color of the rainbow, clothes for all sizes from baby to XXL, we bought cups and tea, spices, pottery and clothes, hankies and belts and we bought glasses for Mom.  She has not had a new pair of glasses in almost 15 years so she treated herself to two new pairs.  It was so fun to see her revel in the bargains and even get into bargaining herself.  Kid One taught Grandma that whatever price is quoted, cut it in half and go from there, unless it is fixed prices.  Unfortunately Kid One was also so busy with end of the year events, get together and required classes that she was not able to join us in most of our bargain shopping.  Kid Middle and Kid Three attended Parhar Ganj with our trip and returned with some fun bargains of their own.  We will see how well the helicopter actually works but it was worth the $20 to see the delight on the faces of both Kid Three and the man who sold it.
All the kids have said one thing they miss from the US is Target.  After we stock up on the things we need from Target this summer it will be fun to come back to India and do our bargaining for the things we can get from here, and for the most part at a much better price.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

Graduation has happened and our graduate walked across the stage with the grace and elegance we knew she would.  Her momma cried only a little wet eye and we celebrated as a family that night.  Then everyone began to leave.
It is hard to say good bye.  After graduation ends we never know when or if we will ever see some of these people again. (Negative comments could go here).  The end of the school year brings that same question of doubt to many of the children attending international schools and their parents.  Families move post and businesses relocate employees, students graduate and families move along with the current.  This is quite a ride we are on but the friends we have made along the way are painfully wonderful.
We said good bye to many friends we have made here in India and we will say good bye to more friends as we continue to live here. But it is all good.  We are meeting so many people to fill our lives with more happiness and friendship along this adventurous path.  I wouldn't trade a minute with my Delhi born Indian neighbor who showed me the way around our hood.  Or the time we spent on our roof AND the neighbor's roof celebrating Holi with neighbors and friends two years in a row.   I will miss my partner in crime with the PSA works.  I will miss all of my many, many many seven cities fellow members who are leaving this summer and I can't believe my whole small group (the three of you) left me behind in one fell swoop.  My blogger friends who have moved on to bigger and better pastures.  Keep blogging girl.  Our family will miss friends moving off to colleges all around the world.  Friends moving to Australia, UK, Thailand, Singapore, Canada, Jamaica and Mozambique only to name a few that I can think of off the top of my head.  Friends are moving all across the US relocating to California, Washington, Texas, Michigan, Illinois, New York and Virginia.  Thank you for all the memories and go make more, many more where you plant roots next in your life.  You will be missed here but surely not forgotten.  Love to you friend and safe travels where ever you go!
As for me, I will help pack up our graduate and cherish our time with her, just her, this June.  Kid Middle and Three have returned to the US with Grandma for a full summer of "party in the USA" .  We will meet up as a family for some summer visits before Kid One branches off on her own adventure to start college.
I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly...Goodbye.  Goodbye.  Goodbye!

Moving Along

We have entered the time of year when every day can bring a new statement "We are moving to..." from anyone around the school campus.  I have discovered that all three of my seven cities sisters from my small group will be moving away from Delhi after school end.  Honestly we haven't done much together as the four of us since we finished our tour but we have interacted in larger groups surrounding the common meeting point of seven cities.
I find myself more focused on the others that are leaving and trying to ignore the obvious leaver within my own house.  Kid one is preparing to move to the US this summer to begin her adventure in college.  She was accepted to enough colleges to make a decision necessary but clearly wanted the out of state but close enough to home and grandparents option.
Graduations begin this week.  Our local high school back in the US celebrated graduation yesterday.  Fifth graders cross their bridge here at AES today while eighth graders will graduate on Monday night and high school graduation for AES is Tuesday night.
My mom and "Auntie" are here for the graduation and to visit India so there are some distractions for me to focus on.  We have been seeing sights and participating in the year end activities together.  I am enjoying having my mom here to hold my hand as these good byes get harder to ignore and say.
Graduation will have a live streaming feed for those who want to be here but can't.  Link to the below sight at 7:00pm New Delhi time Tuesday May 29.
Love to all of you we miss and those we will be missing soon.
http://aes.ac.in/index.php?sec=304

A Bed of Roses

I have returned to being the single person who does the entire housework load as life in the US once was. Yes, the kids and Mister are requested to help as well but reality is time does not permit for them since they are gone from 7:30am to 4:30pm at the earliest often arriving home at 6:30pm or later on most days. I have found myself plenty to do in Delhi and it has been enjoyable doing the plenty of things but that all comes to an end when there is nobody home taking care of what needs to be done within the home for everyday living. The simple task of washing dishes is made into an all-day affair because five people eating morning and night brings a batch to wash both in the morning and at night. In the US I would require all those who ate to load their dirties into the dishwasher and we would all leave the house near the same time. In the evening we would eat and, they would load, wash cycle would take place and they were required to unload the dishes from the dishwasher. Here because an automatic dishwasher is not present in most Delhi kitchens we have the manual dishwasher and she left the country when her visa came through. That task could be shared with the other four who share this house with me but again reality is, homework and eczema type dry hands prevents the older two from participating and the intolerance of hot or even warm water from the younger hands causes me to just wash the dishes myself so we can prevent some communicable diseases that could be passed hand to mouth. I can stay home in the morning and do the dishes after our morning tears through the kitchen or I can leave with everyone else and return to a messed up kitchen and still need to prepare dinner for the family. Our kitchen is very small so stacking dishes waiting a turn in the bath can be problematic as well as the health issue of leaving dirty dishes for long periods of time with bugs and rodents willing to participate in our problems. So I stay home and drop out of the things I once participated in and enjoyed.
The saying "When it rains it pours"...I also had my group email address hacked and messed up. Ameritech which became SBC then AT&T is now Yahoo email addresses saw the suspicious activity and warned me that I had my email account compromised. I had noticed as well because I had more than 50 undeliverable emails waiting for me when I woke one Saturday morning in early April. As a remedy I changed my password, although that was a hard task given that Ameritech help is now filtered through the old SBC now AT&T to help the Yahoo email account holders. After looping through on many of the links I finally changed the password and was set to warn all possible recipients to no longer respond to “Wow, take a look what I found” type links coming from my group email address. Unfortunately when open of business in the US on Monday morning came AT&T who is handling the old SBC formerly Ameritech accounts in its infinite wisdom chose to suspend my account because the account was compromised and then the password was changed within India. So I called AT&T who I was directed to call in the “You may contact customer service at 800 ATT-2020 (800 288-2020) and speak with Technical Support if you need assistance with your password” email that I received regarding my Ameritech changed to SBC now AT&T email. I explained that I had Ameritech then SBC then AT&T services while living in the US for 12 years but when I went to move to India AT&T didn’t service anything in the area so I stopped all AT&T paid accounts (Uverse cable, land line phone and mobile phone services) and kept my Yahoo delivered email address. My unfortunate mistake is that because I am no longer a paid customer of AT&T my Technical Support can only happen at a very superficial level (IE they can answer the phone and tell me to restart my computer). They do not collect money from me any longer so they cannot help me in recovering access to this group email address, period. Literally, they stopped the chat session when I was getting help online with; that is all you have for options “period”.
So being locked out of my group email accounts now puts me out of touch with PSA and AWA and any of the NGOs I was working with as well as subscriptions, bill pays, online accounts. It also means that I am no longer inundated with all the emails but I am also out of touch. All the contacts I had through these groups are now gone. Any end of the year business is now being left in the vortex of undeliverable mail and senders are not getting the message that my email was undeliverable. Their only conclusion is that I am being unresponsive. This should be a good thing because I need a lot more time to wash the dishes and clean the AC units and replenish the water and gas and scrub the floors and make the dinners and wash the clothes but it is not good. It has made my life here in Delhi that much more lonely and sad and depressing.
As humans we often blame our problems onto others and take credit for the goods. I am human so right now I am blaming all my problems on AT&T! Tonight I insist AT&T must wash the dishes, and dry and put away. So there!

Signed,

Sad, Lonely and sick of the housework in Delhi

Our Honeymoon may be over

I have written about house staff in the past.  The hiring and firing of many a drivers was our issue for several months.  We have finally settled on one driver whom we have kept for almost a year now.  He has stayed with us not because he is everything we need in a driver and more.  Or that we are such a great family to work with and pay him loads of money and allow tons of time off (with pay of course).  Neither of the above statements are true but we do have a driver that has managed to stay employed for eleven months.  Neither of us turning cartwheels at the end of the day but both agreeing, it's a job and it's a driver, we will continue again tomorrow with the same. 
Our house staff of ONE happened upon us when we first arrived in Delhi.  As it turned out she was a friend of the house manger from the flat below ours.  She had no family domestic experience but worked in hotels and boutiques and had been training with the household below ours to refine her skills in hopes of getting a job of her own.
More out of need for an interpreter and fully respecting the work that interpreters do, I hired this gal back in December 2010 and she has been our family's personal assistant ever since.  She manages all our comings and goings.  Makes sure the kids have the water bottles in the refrigerator the night before on hot days and jacket ready for the taking on the cool days.  She cleans the house, does the laundry, washes and sweeps the floors, manages the water and gas levels in our flat and calls for replenishing when needed.  She does shopping when I ask her, and saves me a bunch of money because she does not get the "foreigner" price, plus she knows how to bargain much better than me.  She told us when we interviewed her that she would learn to work with a family if we hired her.  We told her we would learn how to live/act with an employee in the house.  For the most part it has been a dream come true.  She is honest, caring, frugal and wise.  She reads and writes both English and Hindi, she always has a charge on her phone to return my calls and is constantly coming to work on time and performing above her call of duty.
She has also been waiting for her visa to process for a three month trip out of India to see family/friends.  We knew when we hired her that this day would be coming.  She was upfront and warned us when we interviewed her.  At the time we thought it was a long way off and we could find a replacement when the time comes.  The time is here and I must say the thought of replacing such a natural part of my life in India is breaking my heart.  I need to interview people who can do the job but I know in my heart, no one person will do the job that K could do.  K rarely cooked for us but in search of our new staff we would like to look for a cook AND housekeeper.  Honestly, I really just need the fit that K brought to my family.  Making our house a home even with someone who was not of OUR family in it.  We love you K-sang and we will miss you!

Spring Break 2012

We had plans.  We changed plans.  We made other plans.  We settled on staying small and seeing more around home (here in Delhi India) for our Spring Break Destination 2012.  Both Kid three and Kid middle can be gross and enjoy a crude joke similar to other kids their age.  Kid one can be concerned for the environment and the effects we are causing to it. So when we canceled our plans to go to Sri Lanka the next logical progression for a quick step out to do something for Spring Break 2012 led us to the Sulabh International Toilet Museum.  www.sulabhtoiletmuseum.org
We learned how villages all over the world have progressed with the use of differing toilets.  We saw examples of how different toilets are made depending on the materials available in the area it is being built.  We saw examples of loos in the museum.  Here is a little bathroom humor.

After an educational (and a bit crude) trip to the toilet museum all the family took a two day trip to near by Neemrana Fort Palace.  We enjoyed our room in the palace, the view and even took an adventurous ride on the zip line.

Disclaimer: At the end of this YouTube video there is an added picture from something else YouTube.  No idea how it came to be in my link but I can't get it to go away.  Yuck, so sorry.