Indian Travel

Sometimes, it's best just to sleep while the taxi is taking you to your destination. If you do, then you miss frightening scenes like this.

Thankfully, there was enough room for the giant truck to get by without killing us.

Dave and Beth

Science is Real

The big news in middle school here yesterday was the science fair. Every year, the sixth and seventh grade students at Woodstock practice the scientific method and try their best to test hypotheses to reach a conclusion. This was Beth's first year teaching the process here, but you should be able to see by the quality of these presentations how great she did.

The Woodstock community also did a great job of supporting the students by coming out and asking the students questions about their work. A lot of time was put into these posters, so it was nice for the other teachers to come and show some interest.

As with any good science fair, one group had an exciting analysis of mold. The big test of the day was to see if anyone could stand putting their nose in the bags below.

Beth's colleagues from the science department came through and judged the use of the scientific method in all the experiments and chose winners in several different categories.

The fair was a great success and Beth did a fantastic job.

Dave and Beth

Rockin' Around

With Christmas fast approaching, we've done a bit of decorating around the house to make it feel more festive. We've got some great Christmas candles and we've rocked around the Christmas tree (even if it is only a foot and a half tall).

We've also strung a couple of rooms in the house with some great paper stars that are popular here in India. The one closest to the camera has a great pop-out image of a very Caucasian-looking holy family.

Finally, we've put up Christmas lights. These are, in actual fact, Diwali lights, but they get the job done. We try not to look directly at them for fear of inducing a seizure because of the crazy lighting pattern.

It's definitely not the same as being in the Chicago or Michigan for Christmas, but it is alright. We're definitely looking forward to seeing some family a couple days after Christmas.

Dave and Beth

Leprosy in India

We wanted to make a final note on the things we did over our activity week at the beginning of November. One afternoon, we took the students to the KKM Leprosy Colony. Many of the students entered KKM imagining people stricken with a terrible disease with limbs falling off, but we were assured that everyone there had been treated and there was no chance of catching anything from them. The colony is simply a place for these former leprosy patients to avoid any stigma associated with the disease and earn an income by weaving beautiful fabrics by hand.

We were able to witness the entire process of making cloth from start to finish. First the wool was cleaned and prepared for spinning.

Some of the women we saw were using traditional hand techniques to spin the wool, while others used more modern-looking machines.


We didn't see any dying being done, but they had all the colors of the rainbow ready to be put on the loom. These beautiful yarns were then put onto spindles so that they could be made into equally beautiful fabrics.

Once placed on the looms, the residents of the colony quickly worked their magic and produced great pieces of cloth that they were then able to sell in the adjacent shop.

We thought a little video would be appropriate to show just how deftly the weavers worked on their fabric.

It was a great experience for us and the students. Beth had visited the KKM shop before, but had never actually seen the spinning and weaving taking place. We left with several pieces of cloth more and a few rupees less than we'd arrived with, but it was well worth it.

Dave and Beth

Baby, It's Cold Outside...and Inside

It does get a little chilly here in the Himalayan foothills, but it is nowhere near as cold as Michigan or Chicago in the winter. The problem with the weather here is that there is no central heating in any of the buildings. So a 50° day would not be a big deal in the states, but it feels really cold when the house is only a few degrees warmer.

We do have a wood stove in one room of our house, but we try to conserve the wood that we have by building fires only when absolutely necessary. Usually, we just pile on a few more layers of clothing. It's been a few weeks since this picture was taken and both the indoor and outdoor temperatures are often lower than this now.

Dave and Beth

Polio Drops

A couple times in the last couple of weeks, we have come home to find odd writing in chalk on the wall of our house. We've been stretching our brains to the limit trying to figure out the meaning, and were only enlightened yesterday afternoon. Apparently it is part of an effort to keep polio from spreading to the youth of India. The polio drop ladies go from house to house giving medicine to children. They mark the wall outside the door to keep track of where they've been and what homes have children. They also set up a little station at the top of the hill the other day. You can see the silhouette of a child taking his or her polio drops on the banner below.

Dave and Beth

Missing Michael

It would seem that India is greiving the loss of Michael Jackson more than the rest of the world. When we logged on to the internet this morning, we were greeted with a memorial to the King of Pop on Google celebrating his birthday.

The American version of the website did not have anything of this sort, so it must be the case that Indians miss Michael more.

Dave and Beth

Keeping Busy

Since moving to India, we've seen a surprising number of new movies. We don't spend money to go to the theater because most of those movies are in Hindi. We also don't buy many new releases of American movies, because there are very few places to do so. Instead we buy bootleg movies from guys on the street. It may seem a bit lawless on our part, but there really are few other options. A couple weekends ago, we bought the new Harry Potter movie on DVD in the bazaar.

As you can see, this also included the first five Harry Potter movies on the same disc. The quality is not spectacular, but how else would we be able to buy a movie two and a half weeks after its world premier. Our plan is to leave these in India when we move back to the states so that we can avoid any moral dilemmas, but it's fun to have them while we're here.

Dave and Beth

Little Jimmy

Technology has certainly made it much easier to be here in India. We've been able to use Skype for our weekly calls home all year. The video calls have also been most welcome now that we have a new little nephew to keep tabs on. Dave was able to call California this morning and have a chat with Mike and Jimmy. These are a couple snapshots that will hold us over until we get to meet him in person in a couple weeks.

It would definitely be much, much harder to be here if it weren't for these little luxuries.

Dave and Beth

So Busy

Dave has been very busy for the last few days. This hasn't been a result of grades coming due or last minute tests to write. Instead, he's been watching cricket! The other night, he put on his India jersey and sat down to watch a match.

These matches are being played in England, so it usually involves staying up late to see the results. It's no wonder that he has been so tired lately.

Dave and Beth