For everyone that wants to learn about cricket (admit it you have a little interest) I have the best one stop shop to get the game's essence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket List of downsides to cricket:

-Takes patience, fast games take hours, slow games run days (5 days).

-You sometimes (ok, often) end games in a tie. Yes, it is unamerican.

-When you are the one white guy you will surely get stumped out on the first bowl.

-They stop to enjoy tea in the middle of the game.

-When you get out on your first bowl, you are done for the day and do not get a second chance.

-If you drink while watching you will usually overindulge by the time one team is done batting.

-It takes up all the Sports Center time on ESPN, even during football season.

-They have rules that say things like "...if it is within the spirit of the game..."

Upside:

+It is better than football (that is unamerican for "soccer"). Let me tell you this is a bigger one than all the negatives together.

+You think that Baseball has stats and records--you seen nothing, baby.

+There are as many ways to win as there are teams (you can be big, you can be fast, you can be smart, you can be conservative, you can be aggressive, you can spike the other teams tea...)

+Pads.

+Highlights.

+They have rules that say things like "...if it is within the spirit of the game..." It is truly a game played and watched by gentlemen (and women), and frequently watched by drunks.

I am incredibly glad that I have been exposed to the game and will be up for showing all you how it works when we get home.

Just noticed that it is 82 degrees in Lincoln and 82 degrees in Hyderabad at the same time. No big deal, but it is nice to know we are working toward the same point (albeit from different directions).

48 new pics up on the club photo site ( www.clubphoto.com ) search by my personal email address ( claytman@excite.com ).

Lots of pics of coworkers, Claire, and the early monsoons. I will work on captions today, but you can see them now.

Clay

There’s not a whole lot new on this side of the world. It seems like the heat is beginning to break, the last few mornings have been pleasant. We’ll see if it lasts.

Our friend Elaine got here late Thursday night. She will be with us until June 14^th, mom and Elaine will be traveling back to the US together. They have a lot of traveling planned over the next couple of weeks, mostly in the northeast part of India.

Clay got another flat tire on his scooter this week, luckily he was prepared from his last experience and it wasn’t nearly as painful.

Claire was running full speed ahead on the side walk this morning and crashed the left side of her face along the cement. She’s fine, just looks a little worse for the wear.

Clay’s news:

Clay is officially a non-degree seeking graduate student at UNL. That’s right, can you believe it! He’s going back to school- 7 years in, 7 years out; it’s time to get back in. He will be taking classes this summer and next fall while he works on his graduate school application to hopefully start the Ed Psych QQME (Qualitative and Quantitative Mathematical Equations) masters program next spring.

Claire’s Corner:

Monday night we were putting Claire to bed and just before we closed the door she said, “Bye bye, phir melinge!” (That’s “take care” in Hindi)

Earlier the same day she was saying, “grandma, donde está mommydaddy?” (She often refers to mom and dad as one person, it’s not mommy and daddy, it’s mommydaddy.)

OK, I’m going to tell this story knowing that I’m opening up a window judgment into our parenting skills. We have a “Potty for M&M’s” program running in our house right now. So every time Claire does #1 or #2 in the potty chair she gets 2 M&M’s. OK, so just as the program works, on Wednesday Claire did #1, told grandma and she received her award. About 30 minutes later, grandma was on the phone with a friend and Claire came into her room holding the potty chair full of “potty” about 1 inch high. Grandma’s thinking, there’s no way she could have gone that much again, so soon. So she walks out to the family room, where the potty chair resides, and notices that there is an open bottle of water on the coffee table, emptied just enough to fill the potty chair 1 inch high with water . That’s right folks; Claire tried to trick the system. It seems as though she poured water from the bottle into the potty chair and claimed it as “hers” to receive the prize of 2 M&M’s. Tricky little sucker, we are in trouble. Luckily grandma’s quick, no M&M reward for that one.

Sincerely,
Julianna Ehlers

Wow I’m really becoming a slacker, sorry again for the late email.

The weekend before last was nice and low key. It was kicked off with a birthday party at the KFC in Secunderabad. Lots of fun, Claire only got trampled once by some older girls, but got right back up not missing a beat. The rest of the weekend was relaxing, we got together with some friends and had a nice brunch at the Taj Krishna for Mother’s Day. The best Mother’s Day present was Clay changing Claire’s poop pants while I enjoyed my mealJ I also got several Hindi CD’s that I had wanted…and I just found my favorite Telugu song—Cheliya Cheliya! I love the tune, but didn’t know the name so I’ve been humming it to different people so that they could tell me what the name of it was. No one could comprehend my humming to tell me what song it was (those of you who have heard me hum can understand why). Anyway, I finally made it through to someone. I keep listening to it over and over even though I have no idea what it says.

Mom had a great trip to Ahmedabad, she returned last Sunday night. Lots of good interview footage on the politics in India. She took a traveling break this last weekend and stayed home with the Ehlers clan. Claire was sure excited to see her when she got back.

We returned to work last Monday with a nice welcome back present of no A/C in the office (only 107 degrees that day)…just another manic Monday. No a/c in the office again on Tuesday, 89 degrees in the office, I broke down and brought our big floor standing fan from our house to the office. I was melting, couldn't take it anymore. Still no a/c Wednesday and Thursday. Friday…Eureka! Ah the coolness. Uh oh…this Monday, no a/c again, so the cycle continues.

Wednesday night we went to a restaurant in town called Fusion 9, one of only couple of restaurants here where we can get decent beef. Claire sang the ABC’s song in the microphone over the loud speaker 3 times so the whole restaurant could hear it. She received a room full of applause.

Friday night we went to a surprise 50^th birthday party for a friend’s husband at the Taj Krishna, it was really nice. Saturday morning we went out to ICRISAT for a BBQ that Fosters (the beer company) was sponsoring. Saturday night we went to Little Italy for my family birthday dinner. It was great food, and the best present was that Claire was extremely well behaved and ate like a little piggy, which never happens when we go out for dinner. She is usually more interested in running around causing havoc, is it possible that she’s moving out of the “terrible two’s” stage already? I think not.

Saturday night I took my employees out for my birthday. This is an Indian tradition, when you have a birthday you give presents to your friends, unlike in the US where people give presents to the person celebrating a birthday. Bindu, our housekeeper, had her 21^st birthday last Wednesday, she brought us sweets. Several times over the last few months kids with birthday’s at Claire’s school have brought gifts for all of the kids in the class. It’s kind of like Santa Claus coming at various times of the year!

Sunday we had some friends over to swim, then had lunch at ChicKing, the kids had a blast in the ball pit. Clay and Claire went for a short scooter ride in the afternoon.

Meanwhile we are just trying to plan our packing to figure out how to get everything home. A few weeks ago mom and I visited a village school that is looking for books and toys for the children, so we will be donating a lot of Claire’s things to them. Then we just need to find homes for some of our bigger things that we aren’t taking home. Thankfully we’ve had several volunteers from work who are coming to India over the next month who are willing to bring empty suitcases this way and take full suitcases back for us.

Conversations with Claire:

Claire-"I want some candy"

Mom-"Mommy doesn't have any candy"

Claire-"Grandma have candy"

Claire-“Grandma I needing tic tac ‘pease’.”

Grandma-“Ok, here you go”

Claire-“Oh, ‘tank’ you grandma! I ‘lub’ the tic tacs!”

When mom told Claire that it was my birthday on Friday, she said, “Oh…Claire birthday party!” I think she’s got the birthday thing figured out.

Sincerely,
Julianna Ehlers

84.6 degrees. Think I might take off my pants.

81 degrees at my desk, and it is only 10 am. I am rethinking the black pants and long sleeved shirt.

106 out there.

Sorry about the missing email last week, the day got away from us. Not too shabby that this is the first week we missed in 11 months. I hope you have all enjoyed our updates throughout the year as much as we have enjoyed sharing our experiences with you. 38 days until we are back home.

Mom and Clay arrived back to Hyderabad safely a week ago Monday. Clay via a really bumpy “sleeper” bus early Monday morning and mom got back Tuesday night. Our friend Brady from Nebraska showed mom around the entire state of Kerala, including Chochin where she indulged in her antique buying habit (she found a 100 year old masala tray to compliment the 100 year old dowry box she already purchased in Hyderabad). She also attended a wedding in Trivandrum, she wore her new sari and reports no problems at all. Clay enjoyed the beach life once again.

Mom left again last Friday for a quick trip to Vizag through Monday afternoon. She had a fabulous time and received excellent hospitality from a friend of a friend type situation. She is headed to Ahmedabad today to do some interviewing about politics in India for her class.

The weekend before last Claire and I went swimming at ICRISAT Saturday morning, took a nap in the afternoon and went to the prayer group I mentioned in last week’s email. Apparently the family that invited us sponsors this prayer event each year. There were about 30-40 people there and they set up a stage and had a keyboard, drums, microphones, speakers all set up and sang hyms in Telugu for about an hour, the priest came and gave a message for about 25 minutes (in Telugu), then the food came out. It was very nice, but very hot. Sunday we veged in the air conditioning. Only made one trip outside to go to the grocery store.

We need to get some pictures of Clay on the scooter, it’s quite a site and let me tell you, we attract more staring than normal when we are both riding on it. I don’t blame them, I would stare too. While we were sitting in traffic the other day, I actually saw a lady in the back seat of the car next to us turn her head away from us and laugh so we wouldn’t see her laughing at us. You know when Chris Farley does his “Fat man in a little suit” song and dance in the movie Tommy Boy? That’s us, except it’s “Fat Americans on a little scooter.” When we are both on it we bottom that baby out going over speed bumps.

This last weekend we had some friends over to swim on Saturday and it was so much fun that they came over again on Sunday. They have 3 girls, Maya-8years, Meghana-6years, and Mishi-3years. The girls and Claire just have a blast together. Sunday Claire and Mishi spent hours playing with the mop, brooms, laundry baskets, etc. and boy was it fun. Claire was invited to the birthday party for Meghana tonight at KFC in Secunderabad, we’ve never been there should be fun. Other than that we didn’t do too much last weekend, watched a couple of movies and sat next to the a/c unit…which brings me to my next topic.

Weather update week before last:

Monday-107

Tuesday-107

Wednesday-104

Thursday-104

Friday-104

Weather update this last week:

Monday-107

Tuesday-109

Wednesday-109

Thursday-109

Friday-107

Clay keeps reminding me that it does occasionally reach these temperatures in Lincoln, so I should be used to it. I think the key word here is “occasionally.” Everyone here keeps asking us if we are “dealing” with the heat or “tolerating” the heat. Our answer is we are just taking it one day at a time.

Here’s a story from Clay’s recent flat tire experience:

On Tuesday Joyce was out of town, so I was riding my scooter home in the middle of the day (about 1 pm) so that Jules could go to work and I could hang with the bear. I decided to take a different route home, just for a bit of variety. I was in an area called Yusufgooda and got a flat tire. No spare. No idea how get the tire aired back up. This is where my adventure begins.

I stopped at a local retail shop (where they were selling kids cloths that would have fit in really well on “Saturday Night Fever”) to get some help, and this is the conversation I had with the shop person:

“I have a flat tire.”

“A what?”

“I have no air in the tire for my scooter.”

“Scooter?”

“I have a hole in my tube.”

“heh?”

“I have a puncture”

“OHHHH, a puncture, leave the bike here and get the man, it is OK, he will come here.”

So I set off to get “the man”, having no idea where a man might be available. As I walked (did I mention that I was wearing jeans and it was 107 degrees, not a cloud in sight?) I was starting to worry about how to find a man, but I recalled that when I first got to India I could not find a shoeshine to save my life, until I learned that the shoeshine man hangs sandals on the wall behind his spot on the curb. So I was looking for a man sitting on a curb with tires or tubes hanging behind him. I stopped at a Pan shop (they sell pan (which is a kind of mouth fresheners of sorts) and cigarettes (called ‘fags’ thanks to the British) and breathe mints) and asked where I can get a puncture fixed. He pointed me down the road.

Walked a couple hundred yards and Eureka I see a stack of motorcycle tires across the street. So I cross the street to the tires, and low and behold there was a man!!! I do some charades and do some grunting and the man admits that the tires are not his, he is standing guard for the man while the man “kahana” --- one of my 10 Hindi words (eat). Ok, so that man won’t work…

More walking, bicycle shop, no luck, the men I am finding either do not do scooters, or do not want to walk (it is hot). One guy said, “Little more down the hill on the left” and points to the right side of the road. So I keep my eyes open on both sides of the road.

More walking, stop at another Pan shop. They say (and point) to the right…things are looking good now. More walking, find the stack of tires---but no man. I look around see all the tools, the pump, bunch of tires, no man. Start walking again and then hear someone clapping and shouting—It is the man!!! I get him talked into walking up to the scooter (first he wanted the scooter brought to him). We walk back (very slowly) to the scooter.

A little banging, wrenching, and (what I can only assume was) cussing he had the wheel and tire off. Time to walk back to the ‘workshop’. I walk with him for a while, but lose him when I stop at a general store for a bottle of water (I thought since I was walking 10 times faster than he, that I had time to stop, I guess I underestimated the speed at which the guy at the general store would give me my change). I walk down to the workshop, but no man, and no wheel. Hmmmmmm. Wait a couple min, and decide to go back to the bike, maybe he outsourced to another shop.

20 min at the scoter, sitting on some black granite steps in the blazing sun, and he shows up with the dead tube and no tire. “Tube bad, need new”

“How much”

“85 local, 100 original”

“Do you have either available”

Huh?

“What do you have in stock?”

“None here only.”

“Where can I get one?”

“Tire shop”

“Where is the tire shop?”

“Here only.” And he walks around the corner. I follow and about 15 meters from where I was sitting we arrive at the auto parts store. (I do not know how I missed it the first time, and I think they could have fixed all my troubles an hour earlier). Exchange 105 rupees for a new Honda tube and the fixer man hops on his bicycle and is gone.

20 min wait.

Return of the tire tube and wheel—looking good and wiped clean. Back on the scooter in about 5 min.

50 rupees to the fixer and I take off (after kick starting because the starter is not working now (nor the horn)).

OK, so that is a long story, here are the take home lessons:

-Stick to roads you know or you get flats.

-Do not travel at lunch times.

-Stacks of tires are a good clue to a fixer guy, but you can look for hanging auto parts too.

-Bicycle repairmen cannot help with scooters and evidently have troubles with left and right.

-The words: air, hole, tire, tube, scooter, flat --- all do you no good. The proper term is “Puncture”.

-Bad things happen when your wife has a deadline, it is 107 degrees and you are ignorant.

Now we are all experts about punctures in India. If only I was an expert in reading fuel gages I would have not run out of petrol the next day.

Sincerely,
Julianna Ehlers