It has been ages since I have had so much fun with the Ten Commandments

I was studying Exodus 20 with this Muslim guy, when he came across the second commandment. To writ:

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God..."

He was really excited to read this, and called a bunch of his friends in to hear it also.

Muslims think that Christians worship idols. What with Catholic and other statuary and crucifixes and images on stained glass, they may have a point. It soothed him so much to realize that idols are actually forbidden in Christianity.

I am not so sure he caught the whole explanation I gave as to why many Christians do have images of God in their homes and meetinghouses, but it was nice to see him excited about the Bible.

I guess my own spiritual ancestors got in trouble for breaking up statuary in Catholic places, so what to do?

At Least He was the Guest Speaker

Visited a new Fellowship yesterday. The Sunday School was great and worship was a delight; but I was less than impressed with the Speaker.

I call him “the Speaker” and not “the Preacher”, because there was no actual preaching involved.

He started with a PowerPoint presentation with lots of well shot images and graphs. This was followed by a number of inspirational quotes and helpful aphorisms. He would connect these with thought provoking questions followed by long, serious pauses. He talked a bit about current events in the popular press, and it was fairly clear he spent a fair amount a time watching CNN. He tossed in a couple of more professional pictures on the screen, along with a couple of challenging video clips, and then closed with prayer.

The one time he mentioned the Bible, the verse was misquoted and taken out of context.

You can’t preach without the Bible, and you cannot call yourself a Preacher if you do not use the Bible.

Sunday morning should be reserved for the Bible, and a qualified man to exposit what it is saying to us in our times. A typical sermon should require many hours of Bible Study.

Granted, I get on a soapbox for lots of things, but getting up on Sunday morning and not using the Bible is one of the ways that really gets me miffed.

Anyways, I did enjoy everything else, and should be grateful for how God blesses us in so many ways.

Working My Way Systematically through The Christian Hymnery Really Seemed Like the Most Logical Thing to Do...

On most days in April in Varanasi, we get electicity for about 12 to 15 hours. So the people of Varanasi do just what you would do if you had electricity cuts for so many hours. Namely, they make Inverters for their homes, which are a series of huge batteries that can keep your fans and lights running when there is no electricity, and then recharge when the electricity returns. It is a system that works reasonably well.

However, yesterday, a huge transformer near our house blew up, leaving a small part of our neighborhood -- including the home of yours truly -- completely without electricity. But of course, our Inverter still worked for the time being. So our lights and fans still worked. For a time.

I first realized what had happened about 2AM (you really shouldn't need to ask why I would be up at 2AM), so I turned off everything except the fan where we were sleeping, in hopes of saving the Inverter.

This worked for quite awhile. All through the day, we limited our Inverter usage to one fan, so as to save the batteries. It worked for awhile, but eventually, without electricity to recharge its batteries, the Inverter began to die.

There is no more agonizing thing than sitting and watching the fan go slower and slower and slower, till finally it just dies. No electricity, no Inverter, and it is 115 degrees. What to do?

Anything requiring movement resulted in copious sweating, so that even writing couldn't happen. So eventually I pulled down a hymnal, and just sat and sang, hymn after hymn. As you can see, it really was the Logical Thing to do. :)

The girls all had their requests: Nora Grace likes "Arise My Soul, Arise" and "Oh Have You Not Heard of That Beautiful Stream", Miriam likes any Hymn that includes the word "Children" in it's title or somewhere in its words (Christopher Dock's "O Little Children, Gather" is probably her current fav). Sam attempted to dance to "Gott ist die Liebe" and "So nimm denn meine Hande".

And eventually the electricty was restored, and we went back to work. Everybody and everything is getting recharged.

Question: When making Kool-Aid, why is it important that we add the sugar first, BEFORE we add the Kool-Aid powder?

Answer: Well, the sugar usually has various non-sugar things in it. So we add the sugar first, so that we can filter out the non-sugar stuff that floats to the top, and then we add the Kool Aid powder and mix. :)

Breakfast Conversation

Having young children means that often we don't get to do much talking. There is too much talking going on already. The conversation at breakfast this morning went something like this...

Nora Grace: Daddy, we are made from dust. Miriam did you know that we are made of dust?

Miriam: Daddy, can you help me get some milk? Daddy are we made of dust?

Sam: JOOSE!! JOOSE!!

Nora Grace (now singing): Oh, yes... we are made of dust... we are made of dust... and to dust we shall we return.

Sam: MORE MORE MORE MORE!!!!

Nora Grace: I like Wheat Flakes. Daddy, am I your Wheat Flakes Girl? (giggles).

Miriam (angry): I LIKE WHEAT FLAKES TOO, I AM DADDY'S WHEAT FLAKES GIRL. Daddy, it's dusty. Are we made from dust?

Sam: JOOSE!! JOOSE!!

Nora Grace: Daddy, are wheat flakes made from dust like we are made from dust? Sam is made from dust.

Miriam: Sam is NOT made from dust, Sam is made from puppy dog tails.

Sam: MORE!! MORE!!

(Sam then throws up)

Amy: Hmmm. I wonder if Sam is not feeling well.

Sam: JOOSE!! MORE!! JOOSE!! MORE!!

Nora Grace: Sam is too made from dust, isn't he Daddy? Is throw up made from dust?

(Editors note: this portion of conversation took less than 30 seconds, and continued in this vein for 30 minutes straight.)

Brand Placement to a whole new level.

In the US, when a new movie comes out, they sell all kinds of cheap plastic stuff at fast food places, to advertise the movie.

Jodhaa Akbar is a recent Indian movie (quite a good one, I am told) starring some of the biggest names in Bollywood. It is the timeless historical story of a Muslim Emporer who marries a Hindu Princess -- for political reasons -- and then they find themselves falling in love. As with most Bollywood fair, it is three hours long and involves a fair amount of dancing.

The movie is fameous for many things in India, one of which is the incredible jewelery that the Princess wears, all of it is real.

So now in India, at the jewelery shops, you can buy Jodhaa Akbar themed jewelry, from "The Jodhaa Akbar Collection".

Guess is beats a cheap plastic toy from China.

Usual Week

So what is usual? Well, maybe there isn't one. :)

Clinic for me was the usual mishmash of illnesses, fevers, psychological problems, teaching of "Junior Doctors" and so on. Nobody too sick or scary this week. One kid with a fever of 104, of unclear origin, which of course can lead to much speculation as to the source.

Nora Grace reads amazingly well. She is already reading her Bible without too much problem (and I mean a real the English Standard Version, not some paraphrased children's version). But math is such a struggle for her. She still struggles with even basic addition and subtraction, though does seem to be making slow progress.

I talked about the Bible with some folks, and prayed for a lot more. I studied a bit more in Matthew and the Psalms in Urdu. I read some Urdu poems and went to a seminar about Urdu Novels. I attended a function celebrating a Free Eye Camp that I helped with.

I taught some Geography and Computer Skills to Nora Grace, took Miriam out on some errands one day, which totally made her week.

Hmmmm, I am rambling. It is a bit hot, though not too bad for April. I will, LW, lead worship tomorrow. I have a staph infection on my face that looks pretty ugly, but I think is finally starting to clear up.

These aren't April Fools, Just All the News that's Fit to Print

Enclosed are some newspaper clippings from this mornings' paper. Enjoy. :)

One talks about a "Pulse Polio Campaign", where various Health Care Personnel attempt to immunized all children of a certain age for polio on one particular day (We still have hundreds of cases of polio near us each year). Unfortunately, the villages took the team hostage, hoping to have some demands met (unclear what the demands are).

Another talks of a group of housewives who "Thrash" some criminals who had stolen the ladies gold chains, but interestingly the thrashing takes place inside the Police department.

And my personal favorite, the news that the "majority of women in the US are now opting to become surrogate mothers." To all those delightful women out their who took the time and effort to have their own children, perhaps you didn't know that actually most women in the US pay someone else to have their children for them. Ah, capitilism.

And yes, Lowell still cannot spell.

PS: these are NOT April Fools stories, these are typical stories I read in the paper every morning.

Holi 2008

Holi is a Hindu Festival of undetermined significance (well, if you ask five people, you get five answers) where they throw colored water and colored paste on each other. We did not actually partake this year, as we live in a neighborhood where no one plays, but I thought I would post a few photos. So below is a seven year old photo of my wife, plus some friends, plus one I found on the internet.

My Aunt Lydia is really good at Photo Manipulation

Last August, my Dad climbed Pikes Peak in Colorado, with my two sisters. This my Dad's sister got ahold of the photos.

And yes, I do have a canister of Raleigh's Medicated Ointment here with us in Varanasi, for emergencies.

Maybe I am getting ill...

I keep my phone on "vibrate" mode (in addition to ringing) because I often I cannot hear it ring when I am outside. And I store my phone in my front pocket.

Three times on my way home yesterday, I thought I was recieving a phone call, and picked my phone out of my pocket. Each time, I was wrong. In stead of the "vibrate" mode, it was just my stomach churning.

I wonder what that means for the future?

Confluence of Holiness

This weekend marks a lot of celebrations for a lot of communities in India.

As the Muslims follow the Lunar Calendar, the Hindus use a variety of astrological means for determining their holidays, and the Christians use the moon to tell when Easter is coming... all this adds up to all three of them having a holiday on Friday. Hasn't happened all at once in quite awhile.

So the Christians celebrated Good Friday on Friday (Easter is pretty much unknown to Hindus and Muslims, but Good Friday is known because it is a Bank and Government holiday). It also happened to be Mohammed's birthday. (The more "Protestant" types of Muslims don't celebrate this, but the more "Catholic" types of Muslims -- who are the majority-- celebrate with much fervour.) And then the Hindu festival (the unfortunately named) Holi is on Friday and Saturday. As the Hindu Holi festival is a bad time to be out on the streets, we took Friday and Saturday as "stay at home" days, and enjoyed the family together.

It's Friday... but Sunday's a'comin'...

Way to Use Your Head, Son

Nora Grace has had a loose tooth for about four months now. It is one of her front ones -- the other front one having fell out some months ago. Although we have encouraged her to wiggle it, it has stubbornly stayed in or she has stubbornly refused to wiggle or some combination of the above.

Until today.

Sam was in a wrestling mood (when is Sam not in a wrestling mood?) and tackled Nora Grace. With clever use of his head, he smacked himself into her mouth, thereby dislodging said tooth once and for all. As expected, there was blood everywhere.

Way to use your head, Sam, you did a good job.

So how many rupees does one get for a tooth under the pillow?

Prime Minister in Town

Varanasi has not had a visit from a sitting Prime Minister in over 20 years, so I guess it was time. But my oh my does it mess up traffic.
We only have half a dozen roads wider than ten feet for our two million people, so if one of those gets shut down, the whole city grinds to a halt.
The PM will be visiting a major temple in the center of the city, and to get there will need to drive on most of the main roads in the city. So all of those roads will be shut down for most of the day today.
There are probably 10,000 armed men of various sorts on the road today, mostly acting as traffic cops. As the typical "man on the street" in Varanasi pays no attention to Traffic Cops, when something important actually happens (such as today), the only way to get those "men on the streets" attention is to deploy large numbers of heavily armed men with very large sticks to beat and berate people into staying off the road.
So I am sitting in a chai shop, waiting for a lull so I can dash around to the next appointment I have.

Family Commotion

We often have a Family Devotions after supper, where we read a passage of scripture, sing a song or two, and pray.

We had not had a Family Devotions for several days, having been visiting, or otherwise detained. So the other night, when we finally had a quiet night at home, Nora Grace asked, "Can we have Family Commotion?"

Which we did.

Weather Change

I am always amazed at how quickly the temperature changes here. When it goes from hot season to cold season, or vice versa, there is very little "in-between" weather, just one or the other.

Two weeks ago we were wearing long johns, and couldn't get the house above 62 degrees. Today it was 100 degrees outside, and we can't get the house below 75. So we are packing up our winter clothes, and pulling out the short sleeved stuff.

Flag March

It being another Hindu festival (Shivratri, the details escape me), there is again some tension in the city, so there are troops all over the place. They all appear to be bored, so presumably that is a good thing.

They held a "Flag March" today. A Flag March is when they all get in their best uniforms, shine up their weapons real well, and walk or drive through any "problem neighborhoods" to just to show any potential malcontents that they are a real force to be reckoned with.

Problem being that the "problem neighborhoods" are the ones I go through every day. So I was stuck in traffic jams for close to two hours today. Good thing I brought my crossword puzzle and Teach Yourself Urdu book.

That's My Boy!!

Here is Sam, catching up on the latest International Headlines and Financial news from The Economist.

Between Nora Graces' asking about the obituary, to Miriam's contently sitting and listening while I read the Editorials aloud, to this, ..... makes me proud to be a father.

My New All Time Favorite Photo of Miriam

Auntie Anita took this one last month at the "Fish Museum".

another Sleepover

This is Nora Grace and Miriam's friend, (the aptly named) Gabi. Gabi is from Brazil, and moved into our apartment complex a few months ago, much to the delight of our daughters. Most of the kids in our complex are boys, which Nora Grace and Miriam have mixed feelings about playing with, so Gabi is a good friend.

Sadly, she had to leave suddenly to return to Brazil, as her Grandmother is quite ill, hence our daughters are a bit mopey at the moment.

Busy, Depressed or Both

Hello GentleReaders,
It has been a long, long time since I wrote anything on here. I need to catch up some.

We are doing well. Usually when I don't say much, it is because I am too busy, or am feeling down, and this past couple of weeks it has been a little bit of both. Been quite busy, which is good. But some close friends are returning to the States and so that is a bit of a bummer.

what to do? I am supposed to be preaching on Philippians chapter one this Sunday, so need to get to work on that.

Payment in Thyme

I usually do not charge for a followup visit for an ill patient. So if someone needs a lot of followup visits for a particular acute illness, it can start to make the numbers look a bit odd.

Had a German gal in a month ago with a pretty bad case of Typhoid Fever, who needed several followup visits over the past month, for which I did not charge.

So on her last visit yesterday, she brought in a jar of dried Thyme from her mother's garden in Germany as a "thank you" gift.

Tastes great in Tomato soup!

One often has to figure out creative ways to tell just how ill someone is. With this particular patient, it was somewhat easy, as she volunteered the information (at the height of her illness), "I usually clean my house from top to bottom everyday, and I haven't been able to clean my house for a week". (That is a clue as to how ill she is).

She is back to cleaning her house every day.

Sam got a Hammer for Christmas

The aforementioned Uncle Ian and Auntie Courtney gave my 15 month old son a hammer for Christmas, thereby proving the old adage, "When you have a hammer in your hand, many things begin to look like nails".

We don't allow open swinging of the hammer at his sisters respective heads, however.

Miriam at Christmas

Here is a photo of Miriam on Christmas Day with her new doll, which she is quite fond of. THANK YOU Ian and Courtney!!

Catch up Photos...

My photos on this blog tend to run a few weeks late. Keeping in the theme of things, here is a photo of Nora Grace and her good friend (sahali) Zoya, who have both lost their front teeth at the same time. The photo is circa Christmas 2007.

Thailand Comings and Goings...

We had a delightful and restful time in Thailand, thanks to the Amazing Masts.

They have two little girls also. Thus, the "screetchiness factor" (as Lileks calls it) got a bit high at times, but what to do.

We got nine injections between us, and Miriam was quite impressed that Daddy did not cry for his injections. Several Dentists visits also, as well as an othodox OB visit for Amy.

"Auntie" Anita took the girls to the "Fish Museum", (aka Aquarium), and we all went swimming one day.

We ate a large variety of animals that are not available in Our Fair City, including but not limited to, cow, fish, shrimp, and pig.

Between all that and two days of meetings with Dan, a good time was had by all.

Sam slept through the night from his first night there, but has on return returned to the pattern of waking up crying a few times throughout the night. Hmmmm, what TO do?

I am back at work.

On Being Known, Whether I Want to be or Not...

We came into Varanasi the other day, coming through Customs in the usual lines of tourists coming from around the world. I assumed I looked like everybody else. Amy and the kids had grabbed a seat nearby while I stood in the long lines.

One of the tourists in the other line asked the Customs Official in front of her, "Whose are those lovely children?"

Without looking up from his forms, the Customs Official simply said, "Doctor Sahab has three children, they are his," while giving a nod of his head in my direction.

Hmmm, they know who I am in Customs? I hope that is good news and not bad. :)

A Sort of Ethical Issue for a Mennonite Man

Choice Books is a group that sells books across the USA. They set up simple displays in Truck Stops, Supermarkets and other places of business. They sell mostly Christian and Inspirational literature, but also include "Local Color" titles, a few cookbooks, and a few about the Amish and Mennonites (who are also the people who run Choice Books).

They have displays in almost 10,000 locations across America, and sell millions of titles per year.

Recently, one of the guys who works for them received an invitation to set up a display in one of America's largest Army bases.

"Huh," he thought, as he looked at the email, "Wasn't my Amish grandfather imprisoned there for refusing to bear arms in World War I?"

What to do? Does the Army Base even know that we are Concientious Objectors? (Turns out they did :) )

So now they are selling dozens of books each week at the Base.

Whadayouknow?

PS: We are staying with the Masts in Thailand, having meetings and getting all the kids in for shots and medical care, besides eating a little pig, cow and fish on the side. Sam has, with minimal bloodshed, successfully learned to crawl up and down stairs, and our girls are having a blast playing with the Mast girls.

Lowell's Answer to any possible World wide Recession that may or may not happen

I am not sure what the state of the world's economy, but I do now know a solution to any possible slowdown in productivity.

Brazilian coffee.

We have new neighbors who are from Brazil, and they gave Amy a bag of coffee beans from their fair land last week.

Whoo, boy. Export that stuff to the world, and we will all be working a mile a minute.

I am getting so much done this week!

Course, I gotta get a bunch done, as there are a bunch of things I have to finish up before we head to Thailand for a visa run next week.

Staying Busy

I think most of us around the world are saying something similar. December Holidays are over, and it is time to settle down to the real world and get some work done.

We have nothing to exciting to report here. I am working at the various clinics, studying the Bible in Urdu, studying Urdu, and parenting. Most of the winter's colds and flu's seem to be over. I preached on Matthew 5 on Sunday, title was: "Christ and the Law".

Oh, we are pregnant. That being the royal "we", of course. Not sure if many know that yet or not. Probably will not be an official announcement. "We" are due the end of June sometime. Suggestions for names? (Perhaps we have already used up the good ones? :) )

Uh oh

I think my hard drive has died on our home computer (I am writing from an internet cafe).

I have most of the stuff backed up, except about 250 emails. Hmmmmm. Not sure how to fix this. Will keep you posted as the adventure continues.

We did have some excellent meat yesterday at a friends house, including some of the forbidden kind.... wow was that good.

The Urdu word for "Journey" is pronounced "Suffer"

Sometimes you come across these funny little things about language. I have no idea if there is an actual linguistic connection or not, I just think it is amusing.

I was reminded of this as our landlord was packing up to visit his brother in Bihar. He has about 150 miles to drive, and expects it to take 10 or more hours (Bihar is a failed state within India fameous for its utter lack of infrastructure).

Sam gets a hair cut from "Uncle" Amos

"Uncle" Amos (actually Sam's cousin twice removed) has five boys of his own, and early on decided that he could save a LOT of money if he would just give his own boys haircuts.

So he is well experienced with giving haircuts to wiggeling, squirming, opinionated toddlers.

Sam looks great.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone out there in computer-land.

The Incarnation of the Infinitely Beautiful Son of God was celebrated in our household with a pleasant day indoors, in the company of cousin Amos and his wife Rowena, along with Dirgham their youngest son.

We had a breakfast casserole of eggs/bread/milk/cheese/homemade water buffalo sausage and cinnamon rolls, which was enjoyed with gusto. Then we answered a gazillion phone calls from various well wishers, and proceeded to open presents. The girls were very happy. Dirgham seemed to like his box of Capt'n Crunch.

Then Amos, Rowena, Amy and I sang for about 3 to 4 hours. That was very fun.

GIrls went down for naps, and the rest of us cleaned the house, cleaned ourselves, and started prepping for supper.

Supper was a Water Buffalo pot roast, baked chicken, baked corn, green beans, homemade (and hot out of the oven) rolls with Strawberry Jam and homemade Lemon Curd, Turkey gravy (from a packet, but it was great), chestnut and dried cranberry stuffing, cranberry sauce and homemade dill pickels. Ooooh, was it good. More desserts than you can shake a stick at, not that you would want to.

A good time was had by all.

Amos is my paternal grandfathers brothers son. If you desire more information about my relatives, let me know. His wife is also related to me, I believe.

A notable lack of goats these days

Bukr Eid is over, and we have filled ourselves with many kilos of goat meat, along with a fair amount of Water Buffalo.

Friday was Bukr Eid, when Muslims world wide celebrate the substitution of a Ram for Abraham's son, when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son.

Muslim culture's around the world emphasize different animals, and in our fair city the ever curious Goat is the most popular animal to sacrifice. Water Buffalo are also popular, and there are even a couple of Camels sacrificed locally (the meat tastes sweet, I am told, though I have never had any). No cows are slaughtered here, out of respect for the Hindus.

SOme of the meat of the sacrificed animal is given to the poor, some is given to friends (we have quite a few pounds in our fridge right now), and much of it is eaten in the few days following the sacrifice. So as we made our rounds to visit so many people, we got fed a lot of meat.

And on the streets, which a few days ago seemed to have so many goats clustered around, there are few to be seen.

The Waiters then gave all the Miscreants a Sound Thrashing

I was digging through some old music I had laying around, and I came across a songbook left from our good friends the Freemans. (We won't say how old it is).

Tucked in among the music was this little newspaper clipping, describing a shootout at a local restaurant a few years ago.

What makes the clipping all the more memorable, is that the Freemans were in the restaurant at the time of the shooting, and had bullets hit the wall over the table where they were sitting.

My recollection of the story is thus: the Freemans' food had only just come to their table, and the gunmen were blocking the only exit. So the Freemans, in their emminantly practicle state-of-mind, took their plates underneath their table and proceeded to eat their supper huddled on the floor down there.

After all, what else was their to do?

Jillian, I shall expect comments. :)

Home School in the Study

One room our apartment is designated "the Study", and is more of an all purpose room: laundry/study/spare bed/sewing/extra storage...

And now it is also the Home School room.

Miriam evidently found the days proceedings rather un-engaging, and decided to take a brief nap on the floor.

Beauty is Important to me

I like beauty.
So one of the ways I can start my day with a little more beauty (beyond my lovely wife and three kids with bed-head) is to have a cup for my tea that has beauty integrated into it.

Here are some of my favorite teacups. That would be vanGogh in front, and from the British Museum on the right.

Now if only I would have the same appreciation for spelling.

A Week of Illness, Injustice Imposed on One-Year-Olds, and Cooler Weather

We are doing well overall, but some illness has been circling in the house (well, the city also, but that's usual for this time of year).

Amy had "Delhi Belly" on Monday and into Tuesday, when Lowell also started it, and then Miriam started on Thursday. Everyone is slowing improving, but we are still pretty much only eating toast and oatmeal. Sam and Nora Grace escaped that, but Sam has an amazingly snotty nose (pardon the graphic word there).

Nora Grace virtually never gets sick. She is amazing. She got a bad cold once in her life so far.

Sam is a bit upset with his Mom and Dad at the moment. We have all these brutal and unjust rules in this house, that are grossly unfair to one-year-olds. "Can't play in the toilet bowl," "Can't play with knives," "Can't throw things out the window and watch them fall," "For that matter, he can't crawl out the window either," "No permission to eat either dirt or cow dung," and so on and so on.

We are obviously going way overboard on the rules around this place. He lets us know in no-uncertain-terms that he is unhappy with the current legislation.

Anyways, winter season is here, and outside the overnight lows are down into the 50's. Still in the 80's during the day, but it feels kindof good after a damp and cool morning.

Miriam, now three years old, with a friend on thanksgiving day

Shanti is one of Miriam's closest friends (along with Benjamin, Tarin, Braeden, Gabby, and Priyanka, who respectively hale from most of the worlds known continents). They have conversations together that no one else understands, but they seem to be happy. :)

Who did the bombings?

Well, we may never know for sure. Three guys on bicycles wiht suitcases on the back.

BUt the current most popular rumor with some grain of truth in it is this...

A few weeks ago, a bunch of young muslim guys were arrested, on charges of terrorism. The lawyers at the courthouse refused to represent them (that is their job, to represent people in court), and indeed, beat them up a bit. (Not a good sign when the lawyer assigned to represent you beats you up).

It is extremely likely that most of the young guys arrested are completely innocent, as the local authorities are not renowned for their detective work, have a long history of planting evidence, and have several reasons to be holding grudges against the accused.

But it is also extremely unlikely that the accused will get a fair trial, or even make it to trial, at this point.

So when the bombs went off, and seemed to be targeting Lawyers, and a few hours later an unsigned anonymous letter saying the bombs were because the lawyers were refusing to uphold the law, much speculation centered on the possibility of a local banned group.

Of note, India has had dozens of such bombings in the years we have been here, and their has never been any one who has taken credit for them. They have targeted Hindu Temples, Muslim Mosques, Tourist areas, non-TOurist areas, historical sites, etc. There seems to be no particular pattern.

So we may never know who planted the bombs.

Either way, everyone is on strike today, so it is a bit quiet outside.

We are safe

About 3 hours ago, (1.30PM local time) today, Friday, 23 November 2007, a series of three bombs went off in three cities in eastern Uttar Pradesh, our fair state.

One of the bombs went off at the High Court building, about a mile west of our apartment. Several people died, and more debris is being removed as they look for more wounded, and look for clues.

We are safe. We currently don't know anyone personally who was killed or injured.

We pray.

Lawyers go berserk in city

This headline is actually a little older, but I thought you all might enjoy it. I get newspapers in three languages these days, and it also interesting to see how the story varies between papers.

Sleeping without a fan

Last night, for the first time here since last March, we slept without the fan on.

The overnight low (outside) got down to 58 for the first time in a long time (still up to upper 80's during the day).

We had a sheet to cover up with, but it was almost weird without the fan going like a turboprop over our heads. Hopefully, it will stay off till March again.

Christmas from the perspective of a 12 year old Muslim boy in Varanasi

My tutor's son was asked to write a short paragraph on any topic of his choice for a recent English exam. He wrote on Christmas. Following is the unedited version:


"Christmas is the most important festival of christian on this day houses are dacorated on this day santaclose come and give gifts to the children they exchange gifts and christmas tree dacorated on this day jissus christ born."

My Usual Beggrs are Temporarily Seeking More Verdant Pastures...

Varanasi has plenty of beggars. In the fine tradition of the infameous saying, they tend to congregate "Where the Money Is." So we do not actually have many beggars in our neighborhood (lower to middle class Muslim). But you can find plenty of them at Tourist Sites, Temples and Mosques.

As I get close to my Tutor's house, there is a prominant mosque, where there are usually three or four beggars sitting. It is usually the same group, and I usually hand out a few rupees to each of them once a week. They are my "Regulars". My Tutor thinks I earn extra points with God for doing this. We shall see.

Anyways, the Hindu Holiday "Diwali" is coming up in a couple of days, and the streets and temples of Varanasi are thronging with folks from across India to partake in the Festivities (celebrates the victory of Light over Darkness).

So my usual set of beggars that congregate outside of the mosque I pass every day, are now gone. They have gone down to one of the Hindu Temples, as many devout Hindus will be giving out coinage as they go to and from the Temples.

No worries. They will be back. I am sure I will see them again next week, after Diwali is over.

Family Photo

Took this photo a couple of weeks ago at Eid. Need to get the "red-eye" out.

Not Really Being a Slacker

Well, I haven't written anything on here in quite awhile. I HAVE been busy, nothing too exciting, just the usual life-in-Varanasi stuff.

I will be sleeping on a train Friday night (going to Delhi for a supply run), spend the day Saturday in Delhi getting stuff for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then returning on the train again Saturday night. I usually sleep well on the train.

Interior of a typical Home in Varanasi

Ok, this photo may not seem like much to look at, but it is typical of a Varanasi home, so I thought I would post it.

Most homes have a central "Ungun" or large empty space that goes from the ground up to the outside. This helps cool the home in the hot season, plus ventalation. Then the various levels are built around the Ungun, with a walk-way/stairs around it, and then independent rooms off of that walkway.

Not sure how well that shows up here, but that is the intent. :)

Sam's First Birthday

Sam had his first birthday on October 13th (yes, I am a bit late in reporting that.

He seemed to enjoy his party, and in good one-year-old fashion, was much more interested in the box and wrapping paper then the actual gift he got.

He got a plastic truck. Seems to like it better than the dolls his sisters thrust upon him.

Train Station

The following is from a beautiful friend of ours, Gloria Carlson, who wrote these reflections on observing folks in a Train Station:


An orthopedist’s worst nightmare. People limp by constantly, one after another, their feet misshapen, dragging. An arm or hand curled up towards the elbow and wrist. A man staggers by on one foot and one bandaged stump.


A social worker’s worst nightmare. So many needy people…beggars constantly in your face. Ch