New baby means an excuse to see a hospital!

On the same day that we visited the slum school, we also went with Sister Dunn to the Holy Family Hospital in Delhi to visit a woman from our branch of the Church who had just had a baby. (Missionaries in Delhi don't have cars, and it was quite a ways away, so it worked out for us to take her.) Christelle couldn't come in because they would not allow Niek (who is 3) to go in. We were not there in visiting hours, either, but there were 3 of us white ladies, and we just marched right in.
Someday I will blog about the crappy voodoo medicine they practice here - it is unbelievable the garbage advice people are given - you can't fathom that a DOCTOR would say such ludicrous stuff! But not today.
This is Theresa Fernando and her new son. She had been thoroughly prepared by the Dunns (he is a doctor!) but it was still scary for her since NO ONE is allowed in with you - no mom, no husband, no sister. Notice the furnishings right out of the 50s - metal beds, etc. And I wish the photos of the baby's diapers would have turned out better - these diapers are basically a triangle of single layer flannel (and not soft or fluffy at all) with strings on the wide side and a loop in the front. You put the baby on the triangle, pull the strings to the front, go thru the loop and tie. (You can see in this photo it took two of us to figure it out!) And if he actually does anything, it is a waste, since one layer of old flannel doesn't absorb anything! (I know this because I got wet whilst holding him!) And it barely keeps the other stuff off the blankets. Crazy. My baby gift to her was some velcro diapers, more than one layer thick! And I have never seen more of them to buy since then. You rarely see a baby with a diaper or pants on - al fresco is the way to go here, and since babies are almost always at home with a maid or Grandma, and all the floors are marble and it is warm all the time... who needs Huggies? If you do buy diapers, they come in ridiculously tiny packages (like, 10. what is that, a one day supply??) and they are ridiculously expensive.
Look at the hair on that kid! Cute, eh?

We visit a "slum school" with Sister Dunn

We went to visit a "slum school" with Sister Dunn, the LDS Humanitarian Services missionary in our area (with her husband). She had worked with these kids for well over a year, and they loved her. We went because the Young Women of our branch were working on a project (alphabet decorations for classrooms) and we wanted to see the school and meet the principal before Sister Dunn left India (which happened a few weeks later).
There is not much glass in the windows, no working A/C, no maps, no charts, no library. The kids are cheerful, clean, and neat in their uniforms. The principal seemed to have it going on, and doing great with her limited resources. These kids go to school year-round - not for classes, necessarily - she told us they have school in the summer months basically to give the kids somewhere to go. They mostly do art projects and crafts during that time, not core classes.
Sister Dunn had taught music to them. They sang with her one last time and she cried. It was very sweet to see the way they responded to her.
One of the fundamental things wrong with this country, in my opinion, is the lack of emphasis on education for everyone. There is no law requiring or providing education for everyone up to a certain age. (Even if there was, so few births are registered officially, who would know how many kids are out there that should be in school, and how can you force them to go when their family needs them to work? It is a broken system.) Many kids are working by 9 or 10 years of age, and even if they go to school, many attend Hindi medium school not English, which limits them somewhat. Teachers are paid little, the facilites are appalling, books, paper and pencils are in very short supply. In many schools, there is two shifts of kids - one morning and one afternoon - to get the most out of the school buildings. Many families send only their sons to school, just one more way they demonstrate how girls are of less value here. The newspaper started an initiative called "Teach India" some months ago, and they match volunteers with schools, to teach 2 hours a week. It has really caught on, with nearly 50,000 people signing up to teach across the country. It is a brilliant idea, and it certainly can't hurt, where the government system is such a joke. One of the guys at Randy's factory is teaching kids every Friday. Right now, there is a waiting list - of volunteers!

Alex's Birthday - oh no! another TEENAGER!!

Can you believe it, we are now the parents of TWO teenagers!!?? yuck. Alex's birthday was kind of fun - the Taylor twins snuck in and decorated her room when she was at school, then later we went to the mall to the ceramic painting place.

Sam painted a car, Alex a bunny dish thing, Harmony a clock, and Cumorah an egg plate to hold earrings. I painted a square dish to hold jewelry. We had fun! Who doesn't like the ceramics place?!

Isaac and Miranda came later, so they painted some fish magnets.






At home, we had a cake from the French bakery, and presents.

Alex's presents were a Disney Mix-Max (much to Sam's dismay - "what is the point of being 14 if SHE gets one when she is only 13!?"), a beaded mirror (in purple, her favorite colour), some books, chocolate from Christelle, a purse from Lori (who had just left), and stuffed things from the Taylors.

After a week or so we collected our ceramic things and had a group photo!

Happy birthday, Alex!

Flat Stanley made the trip to India

(look close - you can see Stanley with Alex) Flat Stanley (for those of you without young kids) is a character in a book who is squished flat when a bulletin board falls on him. Altho some bad stuff happens, he discovers some good things about being flat (sliding under doors is one!) including fitting into an envelope to travel around the world. Kids all over read this book and then do school projects where you send your Stanley somewhere to friends or relatives for an adventure and he comes back to you with information and stories about his trip. (I am pretty sure Sam did this in 2nd or 3rd grade). Anyway, a friend of Elmer's at work (in Las Vegas) asked if they could send Stanley to us for an adventure. It was very good timing, since Lori was coming and we were going to the Taj Mahal (I mean, really, how many times does Stanley see a Wonder of the World?). When she arrived, we (mostly Lori) decked out Stanley in authentic Indian clothes and off we went. At the end, we sent him home to Spokane with Lori then he went home to Las Vegas in the mail. It was fun for us too, except we had to carry him around and try not to wrinkle him!We took Stanley to Sarojini Nagar market, for shopping. And then we bought some fried potatoes (yumm) but being so thin, he hasn't got much appetite so I ate his. The guys at the food stand thought we were weird, but they still held him up for a photo!
This is another famous site in Agra, Itimadud-Daula, but we didn't go in. We jsut had a photo-op.We went to the Red Fort in Agra (not to be confused with the Red Fort in Delhi) which is HUGE and is on the other side of the river from the Taj Mahal. If you are high up you can see it across the river. We went there first, so that was our first look at the Taj.Gotta love these giant gates and entrances. Alex was pretty-much Stanley's guide and taxi.While we were there and wandering around, we came across this group of monkeys. Stanley got a nice view of them.Stanley and the other kids wandered around the Red Fort, climbing all the hidden staircases and poking their heads out of crazy little doors 20 feet up in the wall, like this one.With Lori and the girls. This is a part of the Fort even though it is not red.Randy and Isaac show how authentic Stanley's clothes are. Lori did a great job. I really like the turban! We sent Stanley home with some postcards, elephant keychains, photos and hopefully some memories of a good time.

Isaac's Birthday - the double digits!

Isaac turned 10!! and celebrated by putting clothespins in his hair. ???

He wanted angel food cake with strawberries, and I did my best to make it from scratch without the right pan, but they didn't look so hot. Oh well, we ate it anyway!

His presents included Heelies (the shoes with wheels in the heels)(which he had wanted forever, but these were too small and there is nowhere here to use them, so he sent them back to the US!) and a book series about a boy-spy from Mom and Dad, a math-magic book from Sam, Oreos from Miranda, and a wooden snake from Alex. She bought the snake at the market for him and it was pretty cool. Then she saw a cooler one in Agra. Rats! but he loved it, so who cares. The wooden thing in the middle of the photos is a tiny carved chess set. The Racko game is from Lori, who was here for his birthday.