5. Sunday Sabbath

my favorite cup of coffee, Bible, journal, pen and a sermon podcast
at my favorite spot- the floor pillows in our living room

My Sabbath day of rest appropriately falls on a Sunday. Usually, there is no work to do, and it is my day to sleep in, spend extra time with my King, be crafty, talk to my family and rest. I enjoy my Sundays, and it helps me to be refreshed for the next week.

What day do you leave open and void of too many responsibilities? How do you spend your Sabbath?

4. Silk

Us with some silkworms

On the way to the village today for a training, we stopped off in the middle of nowhere and learned about silkworms and how silk thread is made. In this area of the country, the silk is famous. Every lady wants their hands on a silk sari made with silk from this area. I don't know the technical terms or the exact process, but this is what our new friend told us about how silk is made.

Our new friend

First, you have gazillions of silkworms, munching on mulberry leaves from the day they hatch until about 30 days later when they are full grown and fat from all the eating. They are kept in a dark shelter.





Then, you put the worms in these interesting little boards where they begin to spin the silk around their bodies until a cocoon is formed.




The farmer then either lets the worm become a silk moth (to be able to produce more eggs) then removes the silk, or he unwinds the cocoon/silk thread and takes it to the market where it is bought and then made into silk fabric.


For more legit information on the topic, click HERE

It's not everyday that you get to visit a silk farm. But, it was a fun treat and really neat to see!

3. Construction

Yes, that is bamboo serving as scaffolding.

At any given point in time, all over this city, some kind of construction is underway...shop buildings, apartments, roads, flyovers (bridges), etc. It is a common thing in one day to see many construction sites.

Construction work here takes a lot longer than it would in some other parts of the world. For example, our apartment building is still under construction (we've lived here 16 months). Many of the flats are complete and occupied, but there are several that are not. The one next door, for instance, is still being worked on, and we can here the pounding, drilling and banging from sun-up to sun-down.

Part of the reason that it takes so much longer here is that, what one machine could accomplish in one day, manual laborerss work to complete it for weeks. Machinery is expensive. Manual labor is not...and it provides jobs for the unemployed.

The laborers tend to move from job site to job site and city to city with their families. The men do the hard labor, women help by balancing a bowl full of dirt or other building materials on their heads and transport it from place to place (or they keep things tidy) and the children do odd and easy work and mostly watch and play while their parents work. The children are mostly never able to go to school because, one, they have no permanent residence to allow them to register for school and, two, they have no money to pay for uniforms and books.

Occasionally a landowner or a building company that hires the man will pay for the children to go to school and give the family a ration of food. The families often live in unfinished space in the building being constructed or in make-shift tents or sheds on the construction sites. Many temporary slums are near to large building projects. After the building is complete, the tents come down and the families move on to the next building site they can find.

2. Hindi Class

For the past several months, we've been studying Hindi. We spent the first year learning our state language and feel proficient enough to study the national language. It is so great to be able to communicate in the national and state languages, even though most everyone has some knowledge of English (again, thanks to the British rule). It kind of gives us a degree of acceptance and credibility that we may not have if we had not put the time and effort into learning. Everyone is overjoyed when they learn that we speak their mother tongues. We are often thanked, and that is very rewarding.

In this country, there are more than 1500 languages spoken! This includes dialects of state languages used by certain people groups but are still considered different enough to be qualified as someone's "mother tongue." The government recognizes 22 "official" languages (including English) with Hindi being the national language. 29 of the languages have more than a million native speakers!

One thing that amazes me is that, especially in my very diverse city, people can speak, read and write as many as six languages! I like to ask my auto drivers how many languages they speak. They usually speak some level of English and Hindi, their mother tongue and then two or three more state languages. Just imagine if we, as Americans, put more effort into learning a little bit of the languages of those that immigrate to our country! We would be so smart! ;-)

1. The Chokidar

Namaste!
नमस्ते!

Welcome to "A Day in My Life." I am so excited that you are following along.

This is one of my amazing security guards standing in front of my apartment building. My door is on the 3rd floor (American), but it's considered the 2nd floor here (it's a hand-me-down from British rule).

I think I have told you before how much I heart my security guards. They all, especially the one pictured, put a smile on my face everyday. They do their very best to guard our gate and are the most friendly people you'll ever meet!

One interesting thing about South Asia is that nearly every building has one of these guys "guarding" it. Apartment buildings, grocery stores, clothing shops, ATM centers, banks, restaurants. You name any kind of establishment, and there's bound to be a chokidar (watchman) there. At stores, they stand at the door, open it for you and take any baggage (from other shops) from you and keep it until you are ready to leave. I, myself, think this is a faboulous idea and that we should employ it in the States. Maybe cut down on petty theft?

Often these guys are no bigger than my left pinky, but I am confident that no one would be able to get through their menacing scowls. ;-)

The chokidars at our building make sure that no one goes in that shouldn't, deliver our mail, watch the traffic, drink chai and give directions to pedestrians looking for a nearby shop. They sometimes play with the building's kids out in the common area. I am sure they have a few more responsibilities, but I have no idea what they are.

So, ladies and gentleman, meet my favorite chokidar!

See you tomorrow. By the way, y'all rock.