an indian moment.

When you have been here for a while, you start to notice these moments. They are unique to the sub-continent and if you are in good spirits they make you laugh. If you are having a bad day they can tip you over the edge. They are called 'Indian moments'. 

The other morning, after a night of relentless head scratching, I begged mum to check my hair, yet again, for creepy crawlies. So we were sitting outside the hut, in the sun, and she was diligently searching my scalp. And then some of the older boys wandered up, for whatever reason, saw what we were doing, and stood and watched. They said nothing. Just stared for five minutes or so until they got bored. Then they left. Mum and I just looked at each other in acknowledgement of this Indian moment. 

We went shopping the other day. Just because. When you live in the jungle anrd spend every day covered in dirt (and recently oil, thanks to an ill-conceived idea to rust  proof a fence) it is sometimes nice to be around things that are clean and new. So we went shopping. 

Traditional Indian clothes stores tend to avoid coat hangers, so to browse you must lean over the counter and point to what you want to look at and then the assistant will pull it out. You have a quick look, realise it isn't really you and then the scene begins all over again. This makes shopping for a top quite an investment of your time, but it is certainly an interactive activity. It also means that in most clothes shops the counters are piled high with colourful rejects. 

We went into one of these shops. I found a scarf, mum found some leggings and just as we were going to pay, she spotted something bright pink sticking out from the fabric mountain on the counter. They were cotton pants, exactly what she was looking for. She pulled them out and decided she would like them, they would go perfectly with a tunic that had not yet been paired (wearing a dress with no pants or leggings underneath is simply unheard of in rural India). She took them to the counter with our other choices, ready to leave happy and satisfied, and then this happened...

"Oh no madam, not those pants".

"Oh yes, I would like these please. Just these three."

"No madam. You can't buy those pants."

"I can't buy these pants?"

"Correct."

"Why? This is a clothes shop and I have selected these clothes and I now wish to pay for them."

(I suspect some of her responses may have been lost on the three men behind the counter, but they certainly amused us).

"No madam. They are part of a set. You cannot buy them alone."

"Right. I don't want a top, but where is it? I'll have a look anyway."

The two underlings then spent a good fifteen minutes hunting for the matching top. They rummaged through cupboards, scanned all the shelves and sifted through the fabric mountains. At one point they pulled out a new dress, with bright green pants and suggested mum might prefer those. She did not. We were all in fits of laughter by now, commentating on their fruitless search as they doggedly pursued it. They realised she wanted pink pants and pulled out numerous other pants of different shades and fabric and tried to convince us they were the same. 

After this had gone on for some time I thought we may be there all day if nobody said anything and I asked if, in fact, there even was a top that went with these pants.

I was met with laughter and renewed searching. 

"I don't actually want the top guys. If there is no top why can I not simply buy the pants?"

"No, no, no. It is part of a set you see."

"Uhhhhh huh. But you haven't got the set, the pants are all alone and why. Simply why."

"Ahhh, they are our last pair of cotton pants this colour. We have no more."

Finally we understood (sort of). The pants had no top but they were the last of their breed in store. So if someone happened to come in and want a top that these pants would match, the clerks would be in quite the pickle.

"Ok fine. That doesn't make sense but fine. We will just take these two."

And as we were paying, one of the underlings held up the offending pair of pink cotton pants and said "stitch?"

This set us off. We were in hysterics. We had just spent well over half an hour discussing the sale of these pants, which was 'not possible' as they were the last pair and now they were telling us they could stitch us some...

They did not understand why this was funny. We paid, thanked the men, and left the shop laughing incredulously over our Indian moment. 

You could go mad in this country. So sometimes it is wise just to sit and stare at the skies. Thankfully, they are often magnificent.

in the indian jungle, still.

We are in the Indian jungle still, only a different Indian jungle from before. We have spent so much time in Indian jungles lately that the other night, when Germany kicked the goal and the boys at Our Home set off celebratory fireworks, I woke up at 3am and thought 'oh yeah, that's just the crackers to scare away elephants'. True jungle girl.

So yes. We are back at Our Home (this was our visit last year) and back spending time with some amazing children. And learning how to do some new things- like build an outside shower (see below). I would have shown you a picture of the finished thing but as I may have mentioned, jungle internet is about as fast as it is a jelly bean. After 45 minutes of waiting for the picture to load I decided that you will have to use your imaginations...so imagine this brilliant bamboo floor enclosed in bamboo mat walls and no roof, banana plants on a terrace behind (a terrace we de-rocked last year!) and a view of the many greens of the jungle in front. Our shower. It is especially good when nobody walks past unexpectedly while you are bathing, the wall being just that little bit low. 

Right now I am sitting, gazing at that sea of green and listening to the rustle of bamboo. It is rest time, the children are dozing or finding ways to entertain themselves and it is so peaceful I can hardly comprehend the busyness with which you are met in Kalpetta (nearest town and baaaad place). How can it be, when here all we hear is the jungle, occasionally pierced with the yells of the boys playing soccer or the call to prayer echoing around us? It is though, and here are some pictures to prove it...

Kalpetta, where truck drivers have no foresight and movie posters are too good to be true. And in case that wasn't enough, the other day when we were battling its mean streets, we found a plastic birthday candle shaped like a lotus flower that plays 'Happy Birthday" when lit. No, I'm not joking, and yes, we did buy it. And then we went back to the jungle, where building sites look like this:

and the sky looks like this:

We love the jungle. Later I am going to make juggling balls out of balloons and rice with the boys and teach the girls to origami cranes (after I have practiced myself, so they will all be so impressed with what a paper wizard I am). And then I'm going to learn how to make egg puffs, the best boiled egg and pastry combination that ever there was. Perhaps I'll even pass on the recipe.

p.s. in case you want to check it out and don't already know, this is what Our Home is all about. And a very big thankyou to everyone who supported us on our weekend fundraiser this week. You are all brilliant.