Friends and school reserach

Namaste!

Do you know what this is?





It' was good I had plenty of things to organize the last month in England before my move to India as it's always sad to leave friends behind. But the move also get me more friends.

I have to send a huge THANK YOU to all my friends in England that made my stay in Farnham so nice, interesting and fun. I met so many interesting people and we talked about children, life, husbands, work or not work, enjoying life, pleasant life, culture, teachers, schools, boarding schools, cars , wine, England, Scottland, Wales, Sweden, books, bikes, golf and lot's of others very important things . You all made me and my family very happy and we really enjoyed you brought us into your life although it was only for three years.

A nice apron done by my good friend Mona Craven. Thank you! I loved the surprise dinner at a wonderful British pub in Compton. I thought it was ONLY me and Sarah Andersen. You really fouled me! Thank you for being great friends!
Also thank you to my Swedish group that had an Asia party for me in Lotta's new house and to my brave Swedish pupil Fran that gave me a beatiful picture of Farnham!
I hope Ingeli is continuing with the Swedish lessons for her wonderful daughters.

Nothing is ever achieved without enthusiasm!
Ralfh Waldo Emerson

Someone definitely turned up the heat here in Delhi! It's 43 degrees and people say it's 6-7 more degrees than it should be this time of year.

Two of Carl's class mates in grade four did a research on why the students should play first and eat afterwards instead of the practise at the school of first eating and then playing outdoors. The presented the research for the headmaster and the elementary leadership team. I think this is a brilliant way of learning children to be able to make a difference. It's good to be aware that you can change things and in what way you ought to do that. I really like the American school so far. Carl seems to enjoy his new school and have made new friends. We were looking in the book he got from his school friends in Barfield, filled with photos and small notes ,one night and he is missing his friends as well as his mother.

I was invited to a coffee morning with Swedish women yesterday and had a lovely time. Everybody are so nice and wants to show me around Delhi. It's such a nice feeling.

The first picture shows an electrical insect smacker!

In the traffic

Namaste!

I can't believe I haven't seen any accidents yet though I have been in the traffic for nearly five weeks. I guess the cars are not driving as fast as the do in UK and Sweden but anyway I wouldn't be standing in the middle of this traffic. Can you see the blue shelter in this picture? Someone is living there with the family and they usually works in the street.

An auto rickshaw or three-wheeler or a tuk-tuk is a motor vehicle and a mode of transport for private use and as a vehicle for hire.
On the back of this tuk-tuk it says CNG. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is a fossil fuel substitute for gasoline (petrol). CNG is starting to be used in tuk-tuks and pickup trucks in India.

Here comes the garbage man. Believe it or not but he is on a bike and it's 42 degrees!

There are lot's of things you can take on a bike but......

Now I am going to the aes (american embassy school) to a moving sale. Let's see if I found some bargains!!

Monkeys

Namaste!



We had our first visit of two monkeys yesterday. They were sitting in a tree outside our house. Carl ran after the video camera. He was behind the window filming when suddenly one of the monkey jumped at the window. You could guess the film became a huge success! I don't like them being around the house because they can attack you. When they were living around the Government building they brought lemurs to get rid of them.
Our landlord told us they are around for two, three days and then they move to the next house.Our servants that are living on the top floor told us the monkeys are sleeping on our roof.

Carl saw his first cockroach in school last week.He told me all girls screamed and shouted "Cockroach!". In our house the have done several things to prevent the cockroach to enter the house. I am sure they are around but I am happy I haven't have seen anyone yet.

When I go to our closest market "Basant Lok" there are always cows walking around trying to find food except yesterday. I had my camera and wanted to take pictures!!
Cows are a sacred animal and you can't kill or harm them. The cows looks like they don't have a nice life. All of them are starving and looks very very thin. The reason why cows received this status is uncertain.

The vast majority of Indians are vegetarians, as Hindus do not eat meat. The cow is also an important part in India's daily life as a milk producer. I can see them eating plastic bags and other debris but that make them good sanitation workers. I wonder about the quality of the milk that the produce?!

The vegetarian lifestyle in India is maybe a matter of not having enough to feed all this inhabitants with meat that requires more energy and water.

The most common dishes with milk is in all cases, chai tea, yogurt and lassi. Lassi is a drink made from yogurt and water and flavored only with either sugar or salt, or with seasonal fruit. My children loves lassi! We eat a lot of yogurt to keep the stomach in a good mood. Carl has no problem to eat yogurt here as our cook is making mango, melon, bananas and other nice fruits with the yogurt. Yummy!!
Lassi
Refreshing drink on a hot summer day
Serving 4
5,5 dl cup plain yoghurt
3 cup milk
10 ice cubes
1 / 2 teaspoon salt or 8 tablespoons granulated sugar

Living and buying furnitures in Delhi

Namaste!


This is pictures from our trip today trying to find some furniture. We found lot's of funny things!


Shame it was too big for Carl's room!!

Some lions or a horse in the kitchen maybe?

Not any suitable sofas here??

Maybe for the guestroom?

Namaste!

I've got a new camera and I am really happy! I am looking forward to take lot's of pictures of incredible India. Despite it's 42 C and I had experience my first "bad stomach" I still like living in New Delhi. Our land lord, new friends from school and a Swedish group are helping us to get settled here. Here at last are some pictures from our beatiful house.

This is our garden on second floor!

Our wonderful house in Vasant Vihar. Our security guard is on duty as you can see! We are living on first and second floors. Our landlord is a former Ambassador and is living with his wife on the ground and lower groung floors. They are very nice and helpful.
It has been quiet in this letterbox during this week, and that is because of the closure of most airports in Europe, bacause the ash clouds from Iceland!

It was fun on BBC when they were trying to read the name of the vulcano.

Carl is sitting at our new diningtable. These chairs are the only one we have in the house so far.

It's not easy to buy furnitures here. The quality of the furniture is not as good as we expected. The shops are all over Delhi and it takes an awful lot of our time on the weekends to look at different shops. When we finally decide on a piece of furniture, it takes several weeks until they deliver. After the delivery of the goods, someone is coming to open the wrapping and assembly it. When this (above) table came I had 8 men in my house. Another crew came with the boxes from England at the same time ( of course) and with the landlord coming to help me out we were 13 . We are lucky that we have plenty of space!

Traffic

Namaste!

Traffic is chaotic in New Delhi and can be hair-raising!

You have to share the road with surprising variety of living things:

pedestrians
bulls
geese
goats
dogs
cows
elephants ( two in New Delhi)

You also see:
cycles (overloaded so much you won't believe what you look at)
rick shaws (tuk-tuk)(three wheeled scooters)
children and adults selling all kind of things
motorbikes( with two or three persons)

Buses and trucks (most brightly decorated and in poor state of repair) are kings of the roads, arrogant and dangerous.

You are driving on the left side but all of a sudden someone is coming on the wrong side and nobody seems to bother!!

If you get some problem with your vehicle you fix it where you are. So far I haven't seen any tow trucks.

People are driving towards red in intersections and often putting out a hand from the window!!!! Do they think that that will help in case of an accident??


On the back of the cars you often find a sign telling:
HORN PLEASE!
The traffic is regulated by horn. Drivers are expected to horn when they are passing, when they are turning, when they are backing up and things being horned at are expected to move.

There are lot's of motorbikes and you can see the whole family on the bike. The driver have a helmet but it doesn't seem to be as useful for the women and children behind the driver on the bike.

Lights flashed at you mean: "Get out of the way". In England it meant "Do come out from that road". I love driving but considering all these thing and that as a women the law in India consider them the faulty part, unless they have a strong witness support, I will be happy sitting in the back seat and look at India.

My driver Jaipal is fluent in Hindu and that is useful in case of an accident. As a foreigner you have little chance of victory in altercations regarding traffic.

After three weeks in the traffic I am getting us to it.

The most difficult thing about being in the traffic it's the children.In intersections they are running around and selling flowers or balloons. They often live with their families nearby the intersections in a shelter made of boxes or tarpaulins. It's difficult to see and understand how on earth you can live like that?!
Again you get use to it. But I will always feel sorry for them. As a hindu you think they have done something in previous life that's why they ended up as beggars. We have decided in our family not to give them anything. These children should be in school. By giving them money they will never go to school.Parents send their children to beg because they get more money than adults. From the 1 of April 2010 all children in India is having the right to attend school.

Our family will find other ways of helping some children and families in India.

There are 1.2 billion people living in India ( they are counting everybody in India now!)and we can't save them all but by living in India we can make a difference for a few of them.

I have bougth a new camera and soon there will be some pictures here!

Servants

When will I get used with people working for me in my home?

Now we have a couple working for us in our house and living in a servant quarters. Upper class Indian homes and apartments usually come with separated lodgings for staff, locally called "servant quarters". They have their own entrance so it doesn't really feel like they live here.

Swamy is our cook. It's just to order what you like to have and he buys food and make delicous meals with nice desserts.Carl loved his vegetables made with a soya sauce. I will became fat in India!
As soon as he come from the market where he buys all the food he starts to clean all the fruits and vegetables with water and removes dirt. Then he soaks everything with a solution called "Fruit and Veggis cleaners". Yesterday he baked us some garlic naan. No more ready made food in this household. We can't drink tap water. I am looking forward to Malmön's water this summer!
The cook will:
shops for food
cleans and prepare it
keeps the kitchen clean
washes dishes and utensils
cleans appliances
sets the table
polishes the silver
serves drinks
runs errands
answers the door
head of staff

His wife Salomeena is my housekeeper. She is sweeping and washing all the marble floors every day! It's so dirty and my feet are always black!! It's so hot outside and it's dust all over the place.
The housekeeper will:
Sweep and washes floors
Cleans bathrooms
Sweeps the stairs, balconies and roof
Cleans domestics' quarters
Removes the garbage
Lanuders and irons clothes, cleaning and servicing it
Put the clothes into the cabinets

In my household there also is a gardener(mali) every day, an out door sweeper that sweeps the driveway and one stair every day, two security guards (chowkidar) that performs in front of the house, checks on who comes in, raises alarm of case of threat, opens and closes gates, fend off vendors and any other person unwelcome to us and I have a driver. He is always waiting for me and takes Carl to and from school. He cleans the car.
All staff exept from securiaty guards are having Sunday off.

Belive me it's very nice but also very strange. After talking with a new friend she told me about how lucky these peole are to work for me. They don't need to sleep on the street ( I have seen many!) and the are treated very well. I am thinking about all hard working Swedish women (and sometimes men) that do a lot in the household . It's hard work. Here in India I never see anyone stressed. My housekeeper is having a lot to do but she is walking slowly and taking her time.

I remember some years ago listened an interviwe with Stina Dabrowski(one of my favourites) about wether she had someone working in the household for her or not. She rapidly answered:
"Of course I have! Both me and my husbands travels a lot in work and we need someone to help us in the household. Sweden is one of the few countries where it's not appropiate to have help in your house. Women in Sweden are working very very hard!

Tonight I am going to a bookclub at Lotta. She is soon leaving Delhi after 2,5 years. She told me:
I am the big winner in this move having all these people helping me out with kids and household. I wouldn't mind staying another year.

My South African friend Mona Craven has also given me some good advice:
Have fun ordering your maid around and think of me – I would have no problem!

Well after thinking about what my husband and friends are telling me I will get quickly accustomed with all my help. It's just to enjoy and still be thankful.

Thanks for having this opportunity in life!

Celebration and homelearning

Namaste!

I have been celebrated many things in my life. Birthdays, anniversaries, Fridays, school holidays, meeting people, leaving people, exams, weddings, sunsets and sunrises but I have never ever celebrated learning although I am a teacher.A week ago Carl started aes (american embassy school) and all parents are invited to attend "Celebration of Learning".The children will have individual presentations and some group presentations of their learning since Spring Break. I am looking forward to this celebration!

In school they are making an exciting transition from homework to home learning.As a parent I will guide how my child's time is spent after leaving school .

Key Findings on Homework and Play

•Reading has the single greatest impact on student achievement.
•Brain-based research has shown that unstructured, imaginative, child-centered play and physical activity enhance student performance and lead to better behavioral choices.
•Students often sacrifice time for authentic reading in order to complete their homework.
•There is no conclusive evidence that homework increases standardized test scores or improves academic achievement.(aes website)

I also believe that family time is important.I value and honor the time that we as a family spend with our children beyond the school day. I want to make choices that fit with my family values and needs.

Homelearning doesn't mean that the children don't do any work at all home. Carl has to read 11 books at home and in school before the end of this term. As a parent I don't need to remember to fill in a book to tell the teacher that we have read this book. Carl is having a paper to fill in at school. If I was a teacher in this school I could concentrate to help children with parents that doesn't support their children in their learning. It will be interesting to follow this exciting way of dealing with homelearning.

The next best thing to be wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.
C S Lewis

First week

Namaste!

First week in our new home! Fantastic! We live on the first and second floors in a house. Our landland (a former ambassador) is living on the ground floor and in the basement. Belive it or not but we have a garden on the second floor. Every bedroom have en suit.

Lot't of hard work shopping everything to our new home. You buy one day and then they deliver to your home and some days after they will put it together. It doesn't make it easier when the temperature is 40 C.

My driver is very nice and takes good care about me and Carl.

We are having some servant for a trial and fingers crossed they are very good. Dinner is soon served! We are having chinese food tonight. Anybody want to join?