Wash Day

Wash Day

Whew!  Today was wash-day and I am thoroughly whooped!

Let me just say, I have a new found respect for my Amish relatives who go to even more work to hand work their wash machines.  

Step 1: Haul water from the spicket to the wash basin

1 Basin = 4 Buckets = 2 Trips Upstairs

Step 2:  Fill Wash Basin (Water + Detergent: Jasmine & Rose mmmh)

Step 3: Put 1st Load of Laundry in and turn on the spinner

Thank-you Jesus it spins by electricity 

Step 4: Fill Rinse Basin

= Make 2 more trips to the spicket for water

Step 5: Spin the water out of the washed clothes

(This is electric too!) 

Step 6: Put the spinned clothes in the rinse water and spin again!

Step 7: Take rinsed clothes out and put in spinner again to ring the last water out

Step 8:  Hang Clothes Out

mmh clean clothes in the sunshine!

Step 9: Empty Water from Basins

= 4 Trips to the lawn to dump buckets of water

REPEAT

for as many loads as you have

:)

Ha ha!  This is a really great workout and quite pleasant on a sunny day! :)

It's quite a lot more work than my machine at home though, 

even the 50cents I had to pay at Teen Mania ;)

Happy Wash Day!

Valentines Day: Dinner on the Lawn

Valentines Day Festivities

Today was Valentines Day!

and I absolutely Celebrated my HEART OUT! J

I LOVE Celebrating….whenever I get the excuse I celebrate, I do!  In fact sometimes I even celebrate for no reason at all!

Festivities

Paper Garland

 

I just recently developed a LOVE for Paper GarLAND!  J I founds some cool ideas on Etsy and with a stapler, some string, a pair of scissors and paper and SPENT ALL evening making these creations the night before

Dinner on the lawn

L-R: Ty, Freidel, David, Annette, Sheena (in hood :), Bronte

I posted on the little white board outside of our room a countdown for Valentines Day - and the Faser’s wrote a note saying "Tell us when the PARTY is, we want to JOIN!" So I couldn’t let them down!  We planned dinner on the lawn - EVERYONE INVITED!  Annette brought salad and potatoes, and we provided our own meat.  

I went ALL OUT setting the table with all the china of course, even little Tea Cups for HOT CHOCOLATE.  Picked flowers from the GARDEN.  The POPPY’s I have been waiting and pining to pick just for today.

We stayed and enjoyed dinner until the sun went down and the CANDLES stayed alit.  

Chocolates

Sunita & I

Us girls provided dessert.  We CHOSE these little round chocolate cake balls from the local bakery - Our favorite: Virtue Bakes.  ONE for Each.

Served w/ HOT CHOCOLATE

Sweet Little Things

 Miss Bronte wouldn’t think of having Valentines Day without Australian CADBURY Chocolate!  J  HA HA!! 

 Poppy’s - There is just something SACRED and GORGEOUS about these simple flowers on their long curly stems! (My first appreciation of them started at the oil paintings Charlotte made of them). I decided this year they are MEANT FOR Valentine’s Day! 

* I had so much fun! *

 :)

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

The Three of Us

And two became three.........

Shyla . Sheena . Bronte

Bronte (said brontee :)... Joined us the first week of February.  It has been even more wonderful to have three.  And who knew I would have such beautiful, like-hearted women to share this year with!  Sheena will be here for 4 months and Bronte 3.

Bronte

 

Love that nose of hers!  She's precious isn't she :)  Bronte is Australian. She has also lived in the states with her family for 9 years.  She just spent a few months in Rwanda prior to coming here. 

She is unique and sweet - loves planning and designing as much a I do - and quite   inspires  me.

Sheena

Ha ha - Love that wild.  I couldn’t find pic of just Sheena smiling - which is telling. Sheena’s a blast.  This little miss is from Ireland.

She is serious about real issues, cares for people and God’s work, and she knows how to have fun!  So glad to still have someone in my life to have dance parties with.

"Beauty gains sustenance when it has the joy of being shared."

 -me

 Bronte & I love that Ooty is full 

of vintage 'granny' sweaters!

The girls are always dressing us up with the jewlery they make...."you like?"  :)

(I'm sure you're dying to see picture of the girls in the aftercare center - unfortunately I cannot post those),

Doing Business in an Indian World

So I wondered what it would be like working in an office in India. 

I love Event Planning

I'm great at Administration......

But what about when you're planning a meal in a country with foreign food

or your planning an staff retreat where you're not quite sure how the transportation works

And what if you're planning in a country where you can't really be SURE about anything really....???

It has been fine so far - fun really!

I have had quite a few experiences when I have said, "I'm in India - Noo worries!."

Wait a little longer - no problem

Come back tomorrow - Sure!

This is the way we do it here - Then I will too!

This week I had an experience that I was a bit frustrated about though....

I'll Share:

So I am on a mission to make copies for some financial work that I am doing at the office. 

The personal printer in the office will not be suitable for the # of copies I need.  So I am told that I need to go to a Xerox machine town.  

This is what town looks like!  The Xerox shot was on the top floor of a building like this.

So - In my mind, I thought, I will go find one of the many Xerox signs in town - stand in front of a machine, do my things, and pay.  No, no - There is always service for everything in India - seeing that everyone needs a job! :) So I give my stack of 50 papers to the friendly couple behind the counter in this tiny square of a shop, and explain to them that I need 10 sets of it copied.  So they begin to copy one page at a time on the scanner - and I stopped them saying, "Can't you just put them in the top and copy them automatically really quick,"  it was apparent they had the capability to do that with their machine. "No - no, that just won't be efficient."  Ok - So I say (to myself) - "No worries I'm in India - I'll wait."

50 Papers.......one by one.....

This is going to take awhile - So I leave and tell Susai (my driver) that he can go and come back for me. 

Now the friendly Xerox couple are feeling a bit pressured.... so both of them started copying at the same time on 2 different printers - I thought, oh my goodness this is chaos.....I said..."coffee? Is there coffee around here."  They pointed me across the street so I escaped for a bit and went back. 

Then Susai came and said that one of the Freedom Firm girls is sick and needs to go to the hospital so I paid for the copies and said we'd pick them up later (because you can do that in India). :)

I left thinking of how much I always enjoy all these little experiences in the end and had another one to add to my reservoir. :)

The Next day Susai brought me the copies all neatly separated in 10 envelopes - And I thought, "How nice."  

Until.....

I realized the sets were all out of order.

Ok....seriously.

(I would have to go through 50 sheets of each one and put them in order.  It was 5:00 - so I sighed, left the office, I will sort them on Monday).

  So, doing business is different in India. :)  It is a funny little thing if you can choose to be patient and go with the flow.  This is very important in different countries.  There is a time and place to bring modern ideas and improvement, as there is a time and place to say, "Whatever" and to get frustrated. :)

I love these cloth flags!

A Woman

Do you know what I mean by the joy of having the loveliness of another woman in your life?  I long for this always.  I think more than the average woman -I really enjoy the company of other woman, and femininity in general.  Always - since I can remember I was playing with dolls as if I was a mother, and sitting and listening to my mom and all her friends, and cared for by so many woman as if I were their daughter.  

I am so thankful for this - and I know it must be a part of the thread of who God made me to be.  In every season of my life it seems the Lord provides an older woman for me to connect with.  

Let me tell you about Annette,

Annette Faser - Is the Mother/ Wife of the family that takes care of the guest house that I am staying at here in India for the duration of my time (The Farley Guest House).  

As I have told you about Farley, and what a resting place it is; Annette and the Faser family are a big part of that.

When I walked into the house - Annette greeted me with a loud! high pitched German hello!  Loud and expressive she is, but not a rude bone in her body.  She is one of the most joyful, full of life women; and in such a unique way.  I am a million times thankful for her!!  How she should be celebrated as she celebrates and prefers everyone, I mean everyone, she encounters!  

She is just as considerate towards her 5 children (Ages 7-16).  It is beautiful - how her husband David and her do a wonderful job raising their children on the mission field; and of course they are just children all the same- laughing, crying, getting into fights, playing all day, etc. Ha ha! I love this!

Today was her birthday - and she invited many of her friends to come and share a cup of tea with her and a piece of homemade cake.  She invited me and the 2 other volunteer girls for tea and cake as well. What a woman!  And indeed she did take time to sit down with us and share her birthday!  What a pleasure!

We gave her these flowers for her birthday today - Bright and beautiful  - Perfect!

I really am encouraged to have Annette in my life this year - and am so thankful to the Lord for placing me right here in her home.  How strategic!

I just wanted to share this - because I know how much it blesses my heart to have a woman to share life with, and to express how thankful I am to the Lord for blessing me so in this season.  

Two women, sharing together, have the ability to nurture, celebrate, love, and really Breathe Life - into each other.  We hold the ability to breathe life into the soul, enabling each other to be who we are created to be at the core, to have the energy to possess the fullness joy, to not to be afraid, but face our greatest fears, and to know the Lord and all the fullness of his character.  Men have so many igniting qualities - but these I think are particularly gifted to woman.

Know that you can be this woman - and if you need a woman like this; pray for her!

May we all learn to give grace to one another - and therefore fulfill the second greatest commandment - 

"Love your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27 

Friends - Friend (Dog) & Food

Everyday here, I have wonderful little happenings.  Everything is a new and intersting experience.  I can't help but want to share them.  I write them down in a little day planner someone gave me every night. But here on my blog I will share them as often as I can.  In my newsletter will be more important updates (my job, etc). 

I have been here 2 Weeks now!

This weeks Interesting Happenings:

Friends

This is Sheena.  She is the other volunteer that just arrived.  We have made fast companions. We are set to explore all that Ooty has to offer, we have enjoyed shopping at little shops together, walking to and from work together, etc.  She is a great girl!

She is from Ireland. :)  Ha ha - we can understand each other in a lot of ways, but she still says some words that I've never heard :) (runners, spot, wee, jumper).  She is also 22! :)

Friend (Dog)

And this is my new friend, Wooly!  Ha ha ....I have earned my friendship with the Fraser's Dog at Farley!  Last Sunday I threw a blanket on the lawn and started reading, all of a sudden Wooly came over and laid on the blanket with me - I was so happy inside - determined to make this dog my friend.  I love dogs!

   

Food

I am making connections with people here that I am so thankful for.  I see how God puts people in my path that relate to what I need am called to do.  So I am so thankful to the Lord for providing a family in the house I live in, people with horses, an Indian couple that teach at a missionary school who love hospitality, etc, etc.  And with all of these things come opportunities, and community.

So tonight the couple that love hospitality invited me over with a group of people, the men had a trustee meeting, while the wife taught the woman how to make some traditional Indian food!  I wish I had pictures!

It was wonderful.  She had a cutting board for each of us and we all piled in the kitchen each provided an apron and made 10 different vegetable dishes, 1 chicken dish!  It was phenomenal - I thought I was a good cook at home - but it is so silly how lost I feel in the kitchen here. There are so many vegetables and spices that I have never seen before! :)  Common Spices (curry, red chile power! (the hot stuff!), cumin, tumeric, cardimom, coriander, saffron, fenugreek.  Common Vegetables: Okra, bittergourd, eggplant, cucumber, chile, potato, zucchini, tomato, onion.   

I want to experience everything that I can here - That is a huge part of learning about a new culture.  I am so excited to be here long enough to form relationships, get submerged into a different culture, and participate in it.  

It is beautiful to have this experience!  I encourage you to do it too!!

Love, 

Shy

Farley

To my Blog Family, 

I want to show you my new Home...This is India!

Sitting in Mumbai during my 8hr layover.  Got myself a famous cup of Indian Jo and  reread Psalm 91 (the  Psalm I feel the Lord gave to me during this year). Read it if you care to!

 Ooty

Ooty, the town I'm in - was a 3hr drive from the airport - UP the Mt.  I was surprised by the absolute beauty of the Mt's and the cool fresh air.  It was a rough ride though in an Indian taxi on Indian roads! :)

Farley

This is the Guest House that I live in.  

It has been a house for missionary's as far back as Amy Carmichael (who stayed here)!

This is my room upstairs.  It is quite beautiful!

You can tell by the staircase that this is an old place.  It actually is more of a British design. 

More of my room

The view outside the back door of my room

The lawn of the house - It is a beautiful place in the mountains with  many flowers and lots of gardening.

This is the main living area downstairs

There are shelves of old books in every room!


As you can see, it is beautiful here!  I was breath-taken and overjoyed increasingly starting with the drive up the mountain.  This large missionary house is more than a haven, it is extraordinary - like the blessing of God in nature itself. I am so thankful for God's provision, and that he has allowed me a place to stay that is tranquil and beautiful.

I feel the quietness in my soul that this is going to be a very quiet season with the Lord.  Time to spend reading the word, and praying, just reading in general, and quieting my soul.  Oh, what an important thing to do.

Please pray for the fruit that the Lord could reap in this time.

There is a German missionary family of 7 here to take care of the place and they are an absolute delight!  I will write and post pictures of them soon.

I will also update you about work at the Freedom Firm soon as well.

Love,
Shy