Hi all,
We hit an all time low point this week. I think I mentioned in our email last week that Claire had been sick. Well she got worse over the weekend. We had her in to see the doctor 4 times in 6 days. She wasn’t eating or drinking and was very lethargic, Monday night we decided if she wasn’t better Tuesday morning that we were going to put her in the hospital for hydration. Thank God she was better Tuesday morning and has been getting better every day since. Today she is at 98%. We were really worried and Clay and I started feeling really guilty for moving here, thinking that if we weren’t here she would be ok. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but of course we were trying to find something to blame, a natural reaction.

Other than that, I don’t have much to share from this week; we were really consumed with Claire’s well being.

Claire’s New Word:
Peeze (Please) She will ask for something 3 times, if we say no 3 times, then she breaks out the “peeze” she really knows how to work it.

Clay reminded me that it’s only 228 hours until Husker Football starts! I bet we are the only people in Hyderabad up at 4:00am watching the game on the internetJ

Hopefully I will have a more positive email for next week!

JLE

Royal Red Robin Burger.

I was involved in a high speed chase!!! Well, an "as fast as a autorikshaw will go" chase.

Monday I got in an auto that already had 3 passengers (plus the driver). So I sat up front with the driver ("4 in all" my eye). We went a mile or 2 and one person got out. I moved into the back. Went another mile, on person got our 2 people got in. (every time someone gets on off they give the driver 5 or 6 rupees (about 10 cents). So finally we have 6 people in total, 3 in the back, 2 up front with the driver.

We are chugging up a hill and the auto is straining a bit. Another auto passes us on the left and then swerves right into our left side. Autos kind of bounce off each other all the time so that is not normally a big deal but my driver freaked out. He is screaming and cussing and cursing (I think he was cursing, it was in Telugu, so I am not sure), and then starts chasing the 'bad guy'.

We are keeping up but not making any ground over the next couple hundred yards and the driver slows down (a little) and kicks the 2 people in the front seat with him out in the street. I guess they were weighing us down, or in the driver's way or something. We were off again, going to catch the bad guy.

Finally catch up to the other auto at Jubilee Checkpost (my stop). The driver pulls up in front of the bad guy, pinning him against the curb, starts screaming again. He jumps out and starts bumping chests with the other driver and spilling all sorts of passionate discourse.

I bail out of the auto on the wrong side (because the left side is against the other auto), and am faced with an ethical dilemma- pay or not? The driver does not care about my 6 rupees at all, he is worked up about the other driver.

I decide to wait it out, watch the rest of scuffle which resulted in no money changing hands, just 2 angry auto drivers.

I give the driver a 10 rupee note, he has 'no change', (which is a lie, because I say him collect at least 20 rupees in coin on the trip). No big deal, I figure that the 8 cent tip was worth the entertainment.

Grabbed another auto and headed to the office.

Good morning.

OK, partial list of Claire's words.

These are from cards that have pictures of the actual animals:Spider, Bird, Cow (often just 'moo'), Otter, Squirrel, Tiger, Dolphin, Elephant, Turtle (Sea turtles and tortoises both get the designation).

These are from cards that have pictures of toys:Chicken, Banana, Rooster (usually called a doodle(same word as for noodles)), Cat (often just meow), Cow, Flower, Lamb (often Baa), Owl, Dog (usually 'woof'), Bear, Apple, Elephant, Frog, Fish, Clock.

Words you hear her use in normal conversation, and ones that I have heard in the last hour while she was eating dinner:Monkey (they say 'EE EE'-and are seen everywhere, so much so that it has become a normal greeting, she points at people and says 'MONKEY, MONKEY, EE EE EE' -- trust me not embarrassing at all.), Doodle (which is noodle and the sound that a rooster makes), Cheese, Milk, Juice, Water, Jelly Toast, Diaper, Potty, PooPoo, Backpack, Bhargha, Shoe, Toes, Belly Button, Mouth, Ears, Walk, Socks, Horse, Lion, Cookie, Cracker, Cheetah, Nice, Good Girl, Book, Bath, No (saying this a lot right now because she does not feel well), Bug (this is all bugs and hair barrettes), Giraffe, Ouch, Bike, Chair, Animal, Rhinoceros (pronounced as Rinus), Zebra, Off, On, Up, Out (she has been using these fairly well lately), Hot, Cold, Hat, Helmet, Bike, Auto, Bus, Car, Downstairs, Dress, Cloths, Bottle, Movie, LoLo, Mama, Purse, Dada, Ash, Ma Ga (Grandma), Chicken, Orange, Mango, Ice Cream (pronounced I Cone), Wash, Clock, Watch, Glasses, Turd, Walrus, Seal, Soap, Brush, Eat, Bat (the flying kind), All done, Again, More, Yak, Ibis (the bird), Frog, Train, Butterfly, Fish, Ball, Baby, Two (which has a hand signal to go along with it), Dice, Alligator, Airplane, Reindeer, Avocado, Balloon, Bubble, Dirt, Water, Bee, Bear, Duck, Boat, Snake, Pen, Moon, Egg, Pool, Mouse, Flamingo, Grasshopper (mainly just 'hopper), George Washington (this one needs a bit of work- I say 'George'-she says 'George'-I say 'Washington'-she says 'washing'-I say 'George Washington'-She says 'Moses'--yeah I don't get it either), Jesus, Kangaroo, Key, Mouse, Frog, Whale, Donkey, Hi, Bye, Butterfly, Stairs, Hippopotamus.

I know that this is not the whole list, but all that I can think of right now.

Hello family and friends, lots to share this week! 8/19/05

All in all Saturday was a pretty lazy day. We went out for lunch with the family of a co-worker. It was an awesome restaurant called "4 Seasons" we gorged ourselves on Lebanese food. I'm still day dreaming about it. Saturday night we rented a movie, Mr & Mrs Smith. I don't know if I have mentioned this in any of my emails home yet, but all of the movies that we have rented so far are pirated copies. It's quite obvious when you can hear the audience laughing while they taped it in the theater with a camcorder. Most of the movies are understandable and ok to see, but we have rented a couple where we were constantly stopping the movie to check with each other on what we thought just happened. We even turn on the English subtitles occasionally, but they are so off most of the time that it takes away from the movie. We are going to start taking note of the “translations” they are so funny, one I can remember right now was the word “vintage” was translated to “Virginia” you can see how that could distort the meaning.

Sunday we went to Golconda Fort, we had a great time climbing all of the stairs, but more fun coming back down. Ashley took some great pics, check out the website. We also had our picture taken by 3 or 4 groups of Indian visitors. Maybe we will show up in a picture frame on a mantel somewhere in India. Of course, they are mostly interested in Claire, but she was strapped to Clay’s back, so they had no choice but to include Clay in the picture.
Sunday night Clay and I went to the wedding reception for the wedding we attended the week before. It was quite nice, great food! Basically, you walk in and one of the groom's family members is there to great you, then they ask you to sit down in the rows of chairs. The bride and groom are sitting on a stage at the front of the room in two really big chairs. Kind of looks like they come out of Alice and Wonderland, very extravagant. Families, friends go up one by one and give a gift while being video taped, then they pose for the videographer for a moment, then a picture. I learned that typically if you are invited to a wedding from the bride's side you bring a gift to the wedding. If you are invited from the groom's side, you bring a gift to the reception. This isn't mandatory, just a rule of thumb. Needless to say, we did it wrong, we brought our gift to the wedding. Oh well, we can just give our "confused foreigner" shoulder shrug and move on.

Monday was India's Independence Day. I couldn't really see a lot going on, but we aren't in the heart of the city, so I'm sure we missed out. I did notice that the gas stations were decorated with red, orange, and green Christmas lights (I'm sure they don't call them Christmas lights here:). We went out for lunch then went to a movie (the new Herbie movie) in a theatre. It was a less than desirable experience, for many reasons. One, it was not very clean, Two, Claire needed a nap so Claire and I left at intermission. We won't be going back there. They have a really great IMAX movie theater here that we want to try, I'm sure it will be much better.

Interesting work experience:
I hired a guy this week and before he could get back to me on which day he would start, he had to check with his parents to find the auspicious day and an auspicious time. He also asked HR to give him his offer letter at another auspicious time. A wee bit different then how we do things back home!

The Ehlers household was in bad shape this week. Clay and I both came down with the flu Tuesday and Wednesday, Claire became sick on Thursday and is still today. Ashley is just now showing some signs.

Today is Raksha Bandhan day. It means “Protect” and “Bond.” This is a special day for brothers and sisters. Sisters give brothers a special bracelet adorned with decorations bonding them to their brothers and brothers give a gift to their sisters showing that they will protect them.
This morning before we left for work, the nanny of the apartment above us came over and gave Clay and me both bracelets, put kum kum on our heads (the red powder) and gave us sweets (we found out later that we were supposed to reciprocate with a gift, we’ll have to fix that tonight). This was our first exposure to the special day, when we arrived at work, 2 other girl co-workers gave Clay Rakhi’s. One of the guys we work with got a special Rakhi from a friend through his girlfriend that kind of reminded me of a furrbee (that stuffed animal that is a big fuzz ball with ears and eyes). She couldn’t give it to him herself since she is his girlfriend, that would be wrong.

We just heard from our friends Pat and Lora Janike that they will be visiting us in Hyderabad in October! We are so excited, they are currently living in Bangkok working as teachers. Can’t wait to see you both!

We’ll write more next week.
Check out the new pictures, note-there is one new album, there are also new pictures in the “India July I” album of our trip to Chennai, scroll to the bottom. Good pics of Claire on the beach and on her first horse ride. www.clubphoto.com search by claytman@excite.com

If you have the dream that you are being bitten over and over by a hundred mosquitoes in your bedroom---you are not dreaming. Wake up. Turn on the light and get your fly swatter.

I just updated the the photos for the last half of July and the begining of Aug. Sorry for the delay, but go check them out now.

www.clubphoto.com
and search with my personal email address ( claytman@excite.com ).
cse

Hello Friends and Family, Friday the 12th.

Quote from Clay this Tuesday, “This has been a long week.” Mostly because of work, but here’s our home front update:

Last Sunday we attended the wedding of a co-worker’s brother. It was quite a nice experience, very colorful and a lot of music. Before the ceremony the family served breakfast to everyone. The ceremony started at 8:52, people arrived throughout the next hour or so and drifted in and out of the audience for the next 1 and a half hours. There was constant commotion, people all over the place and a stage in the front of the room adorned with bright flowers where the actual ceremony took place. The groom was up there by himself for the first 45 minutes or so with the priest going through some rituals. Then the bride walked up with her family, many of them. She had a beautiful outfit on and was carrying a coconut. We didn’t know anyone else there, so there was no one to explain what was going on. I’m guessing the coconut was an offering to the grooms family. The groom’s family held a sheet in front of the groom who was sitting on the floor with his back to the audience. The bride walked up to the stage and sat facing the groom behind the sheet. They passed several things under the sheet back and forth between the bride and groom. We couldn’t see very well, so I don’t have more detail than that. After the ceremony was over the families poured a colorful rice mixture on the bride and groom. The bride and groom poured the rice on to each other’s heads as well. Then the male guests went up to the stage offered gifts and poured rice on the couple. Once the males were done, the female guests did the same. After the ceremony they served lunch for everyone. We should have pictures up on the website this weekend.
Of course, we left because Claire needed a nap. She was all over the place over stimulated with the commotion. Oh yeah, she tripped and busted her lip open during the ceremony. Seems like a common occurrence. Anyway, our driver had parked our car and fell asleep in it, while he was asleep about 20 motorcycles parked us in. Since we left before everyone else, we were trapped. So what did our driver do? He picked up each bike and moved them out of the way. Good solution!

We are headed to the reception for this wedding this coming Sunday night, should be fun!

Tuesday morning we had spoke with Clay’s family online through software called Ivisit. We’ve been doing this since we got here, but this week was special, both sets of grandparents joined the call! What a surprise. Claire pointed at both of her great grandpa’s and said “monkey.” Made us laugh.

Claire Updates:
No more bottles! She kicked the habit this last week. It wasn’t too bad, she did pretty well. We tricked her into drinking milk out of a sippy cup by spiking it with mango juice. As Clay noted, “she doesn’t know that’s gross yet.”

She is really into throwing things away right now. She throws her diapers into the dust bin (what we call garbage cans here) and then claps in glee. It’s quite entertaining.

When you ask her what an alligator says, she claps her hands together and says, “chomp chomp”

She can tell the difference between a lion, tiger, cheetah, and leopard. Genious!

Both of these things happened before mom left, but I forgot to write about them:
-The other night we were all driving in the car and I said to Clay, “Should we give her some M-I-L-K” and she said, “milk, milk, milk.” Is it possible she understood that, no way?
-Then, I was saying something to my mom about doing something at 3:30, and Claire said, “clock, clock, clock.”

New words:
Dastairs (downstairs)
Jelly Toast
Hopper (Grasshopper)
Jeedeez (Jesus)
Dirt
Rock

Miss you all!

Sincerely,Julianna Ehlers

I am daydreaming about a tuna and cheddar sandwich from Doozies.

Thinking about the Parthenon (the Greek restaurant in Lincoln), mmm Gyro.

OK, good bit of culture here...
My grandma sent me a letter a couple weeks ago asking "What is the deal with the dot on the women's heads?" I thought I would go straight to an Indian woman and ask, here is the letter I got back:

Hi Clay,
Please find some information gathered about 'dot on forehead'. Iapologise for the delay.

An Indian woman can be clearly identified by the colourful markingcalled the bindi is placed almost in the center of her forehead rightabove the meeting point of the eyebrows.A majority of the femalepopulation-whether young or old, modern or traditional wears eitherthe traditional blood red bindi or coloured ones to match theiroutfits. The bindi stands out markedly outside India as an alien culture.

Even in India it is only the Hindus who follow this practice ofapplying kumkum (vermilion) or wearing the bindi which plays a verysignificant role in their lives. The Christians in India do not wearthe bindi though the church nowadays does encourage them to retaintheir Indian identity by taking on Indian names and dressing like anIndian. The Muslim women however have not adopted this Hindu custombecause they believe that their fate is written on their forheads andputting on a bindi would amount to marking their fate.Bindis show evidence of having existed in the country since the 4thcentury. It was transformed from a decorative addition to becoming asymbol of a woman's wedded state during the era of Mahabhrata whichwas the time India introduced several regressive steps relegating theHindu woman to a secondary status. The Hindu girls and women must weara bindi, as a bare forehead is a sign widowhood. Even in modern Indiathe Hindu widow unquestioningly accepts this practice and does notwear a bindi unless it's small insignificant dot of black declaringher loss.

Traditionally, married women only work the kumkum powder which wasused to apply a round bindi with the tip of the middle finger. Alwaysred in colour kumkum was made at home from haldi, turmeric and alum.The red colour of the sindoor and kumkum was determined by the colourof blood. Animal sacrifice was a common practice and the blood o thesacrifice was smeared on the forehead of the Goddess Devi and thedevotees. Fortunately, the more gory blood was replaced by the moreacceptable kumkum powder. The Goddesses from the Hindu pantheon arenow offered kumkum which is revered and worn by both men and woman.The kumkum plays a very auspicious role in India. It is offered to amarried woman every time she visits your home as well as on specialoccasions like Sankranti and navratri to the longevity of theirhusband's lies. The kumkum is also smeared on to the edges of amarriage invitation card and placed before the idol of worship beforethe invitations are sent out. In north India, as part of the weddingrites, is the ritual of applying sindoor on the bride's forehead andon the top of her head, where she parts her hair in south India theday the bride steps into her husband's home for the first time, ananimal is sacrificed and the fresh blood is applied to her forehead.This practice exists amongst the non-brahmins.

Hope this provides enough information. Please lemme know if you needany other information i will respond with out delay.Have a pleasant weekend.

Best Regards,Anupama.


~~~~~cse

Just an update on me (Clay). I am absolutely over the funk that I was in at the time of my last post. Life is good and a busy schedule keeps you sharp.

cse

Dear Friends and Family,

We didn’t make it to the Film Studios last weekend, but we did make it to the zoo. What a great place! They had a white tiger, elephant rides, safari tours, and also all of the regular zoo animals. We didn’t have time for the elephant ride or safari tour this time, so we will be going back soon. Claire loved it! Especially the monkeys and horses (the horse was actually a donkey). She’s really into monkeys and horses right now. Grandma Joyce and Aunt Ashley bought her a stuffed monkey and horse yesterday. She loves them and keeps giving them lots of kisses.

Sunday night we had all of Clay’s help desk team over to our house for a little UNO action. I think they were quite impressed with the level of complexity in this particular card gameJ Mom made 2 dishes, one was a pasta with cream base and the other was rice with tomato base. I think the rice was a bigger hit for the general population here, just because they don’t eat a lot of cheesy things, but of course my favorite was the pasta. They devoured them both. Thanks mom!

Monday night we went to dinner at Anupama’s house, a member of Clay’s helpdesk. She is the same girl that taught us how to make gulab jammuns. It was a wonderful time. We had great conversation and wonderful food. Anupama actually gifted me a sari that she had hand embroidered herself. It’s orange with black embroidery. I can’t wait to learn how to wear it! She also gave Claire some bangles and mom a beautiful marble statue of the Taj Mahal. This family is in the process of looking for a husband for one of their daughters (not Anupama), so I’m learning about all of the complexities of that. There’s websites and all sorts of cool places to place adds, converse, and share pictures before meeting people. It’s also interesting to learn about all of what they look for in a spouse, family, language, caste, religion, profession, etc.

Ashley arrived safe and sound late Tuesday night and has spent the last couple of days recovering from the long journey and getting used to the time change. Mom gave her a 2 day crash course of everything she learned over the last 2 months. Mom left last night, so there’s lot’s of change going on in our house right now. I think Claire is a little confused.

We were invited to another wedding, this one is this Sunday and the reception is the following Sunday. We are so excited! It’s the wedding of a co-worker’s brother.

I saw a couple of cows in the street on the way to work today and it reminded me that I forgot to add a comment on my email after we got back from Chennai. When we were visiting the crocodile bank a cow gored mom. No major injuries, just a bruise. Mom thought it was interesting that the cow let Clay, Claire, and I go by without so much as a glance, but when she walked by the cow went after her. Actually the rest of us didn’t even see it happen! I told mom that it must have been her yellow outfit that attracted the cow, who knows.

Hyderabad Info:
I learned this week that Hyderabad was called the “Land of the Lakes” at one time it had 256 lakes. Interesting.

New word
Achacha- Ok

New Claire stuff:
New word- Nice
New gesture- The shoulder shrug/I don’t know move. It’s quite funny, we’ll try to catch it on camera and post it to the site.

Miss you all!

Sincerely,Julianna Ehlers

Life is getting busier. Office, home, everything. I am sure that much of it will clear up, but right now life is getting full.


Ashley arrived last night at 11:55, and was done with customs and immigration in less than 2 hours. It was good to see she made it, looked healthy but tired.

Joyce is down to her last couple of days, but seems to have really figured out how to live here. Her main goal at this point is to get packed and teach Ash everything that she knows.

OK, almost 10:30, need to get on a conference call.