The End...

In spite of the fact that a great deal happened to us in India between the beginning of April and the time we left at the end of May, this will be our last post. Our daughter, Molly, was born shortly after our arrival in Chicago and has taken up most of our free time. To see the latest pictures and read the latest news about Molly, you can check out our new blog. We'll try updating it as soon as possible! Thanks for reading all of our exploits in India!

Dave and Beth

India's Got Talent

The big event this past weekend was the annual staff talent show. Last year, we had the show in the fall, but this year it was moved to the spring. Rather than jumping right into the talent this year, we started with a fashion show. We decided to sit this part out because we're just not that fashionable. There were some great examples of Indian, African, Tibetan, and other clothes from our wonderful colleagues.

The actual talent section of the program was full of the usual songs, skits, and dances. There are definitely some talented folks on the staff here.

There are also some ridiculous members of staff. Dave and three other male co-workers decided to do a dance to the song Maniac from the movie Flashdance. They were all decked out in tights, leg-warmers, and cut-off sweatshirts. The dance even included the iconic scene of water being dumped on stretching dancers. It was great fun, even if the students ended up having nightmares that night.

The final event of the show was an all-staff Bollywood dance number. Dave had changed out of his tights by then and we wowed the crowd with our great dance moves.

The night was fun and a bit embarrassing. Thankfully, Dave won't be able to do an encore performance of his dance next year.

Dave and Beth

T-Shirts

We are occasionally astounded by the messages we see on t-shirts here in India. It seems that clothing companies like to take random English words that they think sound cool and place them in a random order on the shirt. Yesterday, we caught a glimpse of one of our advisees wearing what looked like an interesting one.

On close examination, his shirt proved to be completely incomprehensible.

Yet another thing to be missed when we leave India in the next few weeks.

Dave and Beth

More Monkey Business

Yesterday afternoon, we came home from church and were pleasantly surprised to see a family of langur monkeys just below our terrace. As usual, these monkeys were a delight to watch.

We also saw that they had a baby monkey that was smaller than any we'd seen. It was hard to get a good picture of him because he was still pretty unsteady on his feet.

His family also got him up in the trees to help him get his legs there.

We'll be a bit sad that these guys won't be swinging from the trees in Chicago.

Dave and Beth

Flag Hill Afternoon

Beth went on a little walk to Flag Hill this afternoon. She wanted to get one good hike in before the baby got too big to carry up the hill.

We thought it might be nice to share some of the flora and fauna that she saw on her walk.

The rhodedendrons were blooming beautifully all along the hillside and Beth even got to see some Indian life occuring as this woman carried some fire wood home.

It turned out to be a very successful trip up the hill.

Dave and Beth

Retreat Number 4

Every year, Woodstock has a retreat for all its students. In the middle school, we have one retreat for grades 7 and 8 and one for grades 5 and 6. This past weekend, we did our last Woodstock retreat. We were down at the Torchbearers conference center in Dehradun. It was a great chance for both students and staff to get away for a bit. There were, of course, a few sessions of learning for the students. The focus this weekend was the life of Joseph.

The students also enjoyed some chances for non-school food.

A lot of our free time was spent playing games and Dave took the opportunity to hone is cricket skills with the boys.

It was a great restful weekend for the kids and they learned a little bit about God in the process.

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

Baby Shower

This was not a baby shower for us, but Beth was very involved in organizing and planning this one for our new friend Dechen. For most of the men involved, this was the first baby shower that they'd attended. Some of them were more ready than others for the games.

One of the highlights of the day was the unveiling of the quilt that a group of women made for Dechen. It was not quite finished, but you can see Beth's square second from the top on the far right side.

As with any party, most people wanted to spend time with the guest of honor. Dechen was happily passed around while we all celebrated her new life.

It was a great chance to think ahead to our own big changes coming up in the next few months.

Dave and Beth

CAREing in Middle School

As the advisors of the CARE (Community Service And Restoration of the Environment) program in the middle school, it is our job to get kids interested in this important part of their curriculum. Ever student needs to take part in at least one CARE activity per semester and this weekend, we had a morning of making useful stuff out of re-used materials. We had students making journals out of old paper:

Some were making cloth bags out of old t-shirts:

Some were making friendship bracelets out of old string and beads out of old paper:

And some were making hanging candle-holders out of old spaghetti jars:

It was a very successful morning and we're even thinking of selling some of these items at an upcoming middle school event. If we do happen to make any money, we'll donate it to some worthy community service causes.

Dave and Beth

Post?

Anyone that used to read our blog (mostly immediate family members) has probably long-since given up after more than two months of silence. Now that things have settle down (slightly) we thought we'd try to get the blog up-to-date before moving back to Chicago and being swamped by new responsibilities. As usual when this happens, we'll date things according to the time when they actually happened. Enjoy.

Dave and Beth

Happy Losar!

For those that may not be aware, not only was yesterday Valentine's Day, but it was also Losar. This is the lunar New Year as celebrated in Tibet and is the biggest holiday of the year for our Tibetan students. Beth and several other teachers decided to wear their traditional Tibetan chubas to celebrate the occasion.

Ordinarily, these dresses are worn without an apron by women who aren't married. There was one other married woman besides Beth in the picture above, but she must have forgotten to put her apron on.

Dave was able to get in on the Tibetan dress action yesterday, too. One of our students brought a new shirt back from Nepal that actually fit Dave. We looked very sharp in our new Tibetan digs.

Unfortunately, this will probably be the last time that Beth wears her chuba in India. Her clothes are starting to get a bit tighter lately, and it won't be long before the baby makes it impossible to squeeze on.

Dave and Beth

Langurs on the Terrace

One nice thing about relaxing for the last couple weeks has been the ability to see all the great things around us. We were sitting at home and heard something big on the roof. When we went to check it out, we saw a big family of langurs (these are the nicer of our two monkey species) having a party on our terrace.

We had a great time watching them play around on the patio furniture and anything they could swing around on.

After all the relaxing of the last couple of weeks, it will be difficult to jump back into the swing of school and the new semester.

Dave and Beth

Bear Hill

In our quest to take it easy during the month of January, we decided to take a leisurely walk up to Bear Hill.

Like most of the hills around here, it gave us some great views of the snow-capped Himalayas in the distance. We also got to see some little critters running around here and there.

The best part of the walk, though, was the abundant supply of pine cones.

The only supply of heat in our house is our wood stove. Pine cones are a great way to get the fire going. Hopefully, this supply will last us until the end of the winter and we'll be able to stay warm.

Dave and Beth

Snow Day

Living in the Himalayas, one would think that we'd get snow fairly regularly. Last year we only had one day of snow. Our first snow this year was about the same--more of a light dusting.

The flowers were still able to peak out in spite of the cold covering.

Beth tried to relive some of her childhood memories of catching snow on her tongue.

The snow didn't last very long, but it was a nice surprise while it was here.

Dave and Beth