Solar Eclipse

We were lucky on Friday to witness an annular eclipse of the sun.  Evidently, the total eclipse was only viewable within a narrow stretch 190 mi wide.  This is a photo taken around 1:10pm through some welding glass.  Looking normally you could barely tell an eclipse was happening at all, but the shadows through the trees were all crescent shaped (like a thousand pinhole cameras), which was pretty cool!  If you're interested, you can learn more about the eclipse at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_January_15,_2010

Happy Pongal!

Yesterday was the harvest celebration of Pongal.  We walked through Kuilyapaliam, the village near where we are staying and joined the parade just as it was starting to move.  This was fun, except when the firecrackers started going off everywhere and bananas started flying.  I think bananas are thrown and meant to be caught, but some (adolescent boys I suspect) get a bit overenthusiastic, so you do have to watch out.  Simone was bonked on the head once, but seems to have come through okay.  Also, we left before the "running of the bulls", which I think was a good thing.  Happy Pongal everyone!

Mini-marathoners

Simone was upset most of the day because yesterday she was told her class would run a 2km race at a big track and field event for kids and their families this afternoon and Simone did NOT want to run.  We picked her up from school before her class went to sports, but still all went to the event, which was at a big sports field that I had never been to before.  Amazingly, after about 20 minutes there, Simone decided she would run after all (thank God we brought her running shoes "just in case") - as long as I would run with her.

So, we DID IT!   We held hands most of the time and it was kind of fun running on paths through the woods.  And yes, we both sweat - a lot - even though it was actually only a little over a mile!  Good thing the event took place in January when the temp was around 85, rather than in April when it will likely be over 100.

Simone is very proud of this accomplishment and, on the way home, was even talking about running in a 3km or 5km race later in our time here.  And I even came in first among parents running the 2k (well, okay, I also came in last - i.e. I was the only parent to run with the kids - even though everyone was encouraged to do so).  Woo hoo!

Pema's First Day at Nandanam Kindergarten

Pema was excited to start kindergarten on Monday at Nandanam.  It was a wonderful first day with children making kolams in the courtyard and a puja (blessing ceremony) for the school.  I'm getting a bit more comfortable with iMovie, so I hope you enjoy the video!

Losing Simone

We had a bit of a scare yesterday.  It was Simone's first "long" day at school, which means she went to do sports after regular classes.  She was meant to come home on the bus, but when the bus arrived at 5:30 ... no Simone!  A friend, Boomi, and I tore off on our motorbikes to the sports field, to Simone's school and a few other places trying to find her.  While we were looking, Simone showed up on the back of a motorbike driven by one of her friend's mother.

Turns out, she couldn't remember the name of the community (Aspiration) where we are living and so got off with her friend and then directed her mom to drive her to our place.

The sad thing is that Monique and I made little laminated cards for Simone and Pema with all our contact information and ... of course ... we never actually gave them to the girls once arriving.  And we call ourselves travel group leaders!

Anyway, better that it happened now, in a controlled and safe environment, so we can get our systems in order (God forbid this ever happen again).

This girls are in school now and Monique and I are off to a full day of faculty meetings in preparation for the students arriving on the 23rd.  Fun!

In community,
 - Daniel

First Visit to Pondicherry

We had our first family outing to Pondicherry yesterday.  I was a bit concerned how the girls would react as "city life" (hustle and bustle, beggars, invalids...) can be a bit intense, but they did great - even in the old market, which is pretty smelly (at least the fishy part).  It has been raining lately, which is VERY unusual in January, so we've gotten a glimpse of what life is like during the monsoons.

We went in with two friends from New York (Astrid and Elisha) and Larkspur (faculty) and Davis (Amherst staff) and met up with an old professor friend (Tim Miller) and his family, so we were 9 for lunch and 15(!) for dinner.

Next time we go, we will check out the temple (and hopefully see an elephant), the boardwalk, and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.  Maybe the girls can even show the Living Routes students around Pondy a bit (they arrive on the 23rd).

Enjoy the video (sorry, the video was not good at the Honey Dew).

Tour of our home space

Here's Simone and Pema showing us around our new home space.  Watch out for Romeo!

Puja (blessing ceremony) for new kitchen

We're staying at a friend Selvaraj's house and when we arrived, he was just finishing construction on a new kitchen for us and other guests.  On New Year's day, we did a puja (blessing ceremony) for this new space.