The day started for us at 7am, when the girls went downstairs wrapped in loads of fabric, looking like we'd gotten tangled in the bedsheets, and screaming "help!" to the nurses. They quickly bundled us into one of the exam rooms, and spent an hour and a half turning us into decently dressed human beings. I've included pictures in this entry (I finally found an internet cafe that will let ME touch the CD drive) so...
From left to right: John, Dr. Roy, Natasha (his daughter), Nathan (her twin brother), Kyla and Lisette.
You can see how they came out. My sari recieved the highest praise, mostly because it was dark colored and it made me look fair. Kyla's was gold and light blue, which set off her tan (good for us, bad for India) and Lisette's was popular because she had baught it at "Pothy's", the huge posh store where anyone who is anyone buys their saris. John also got his lungi (or, as he put it, towel) at Pothy's. We had gone on a shopping trip the night before, which was less exciting to me than the fact that, right outside the store, was a street festival celebrating the marriage of Shive and...someone (a goddess, unclear who).
After we got dressed, we went with Dr. Roy (and Dr. Vani, his wife, and Dr. Gigi, his sister, and Dr. Antony, his brohter, and Dr. Banu, his wife) to their aunts house for a Diwali breakfast. It was so much fun, a mixture of the 4th of July and Thanksgiving with little kids running everywhere, tons of food (you had to eat the sweets first!), the men watching cricket in the TV room, and TONs and Tons of fireworks. They had sparkers, flower pots, crackers, and everything else that we weren't allowed to play with and didn't want to come in contact with while pinned into 9 yards of cotton. The family laughed at us, especially because John was just as nervous as we were. He lost many cool man points (though, he has noticibly more cool points than the rest us of to start with, so). They were otherwise so kind, though, treating us like favorite daughters, telling us how lovely we looked, letting us hold their kids. Dr. Vani's mother had a converstaion with us about how much we could learn from each other, Indians about individuality and Westerners about the importance of community and family. She seemed like a lovely lady, and I think nice things about her since she let her Hindu daughter marry a Christian in a love marriage. She obviously doated on her grandbabies, who were just about the cutest things I've ever seen. We had to wrestle Kyla to stop her from packing up Nathan and taking him back to Canada!
After breakfast, and crackers, the four of us got onto a bus to go to our second invitation, from Dr. Latha, one of Dr. Gigi's assistants. Kyla and I knew her as "the soft-spoken one", who speaks very good English, but always talks so quietly you can hardly hear her. She lives in Tuticorin, on the sea about an hour away. Taking the bus in a sari was quite a challange, but we made it and were picked up by her son and grandson, just 3 years old and totally adorible! They took us to Dr. Latha's house, where she fed us a huge meal (including meat) or different gravies and rice. After breakfast, we were ok. After lunch, we were stuffed! Then, after some chat with the family, we went to ANOTHER house where we watched more cricket (and I tried and failed to point out the superirity of baseball) and were fed again. This time apples, sweets (condensed milk candy which is delishious) and rice briyani (a mix of rice and veggies in curry). It was wonderful, but we were seriously about to burst out of our blouses. We went outside to set off more crackers. I got a great video of Kyla and Lisette running full speed down the street away from a Chinese firecracker, and then went to the beach!
It was really lovely, just sunset, and there were many familes out enjoying the holiday by playing in the water or just walking down the sand. I was too afraid for my sari to do more than dip my toes in, but Dr. Latha's kids had a good swim. Atfter swimming, we went to the first house the family owned, a narrow townhouse near the bus station, to, you guessed it, have dinner. They were making dosa's, thick rice pancakes, and they let Kyla and I help make them (it's much harder than it looks). I stepped outside for a moment to watch the crackers, and was blown away. The crackers had mostly gone, and in their place people were enjoying full-on, Comisky Park style fireworks. It was incredible, watching them be shot off roofs and then explode just over your head. Even more amazing was to think that this was happening on every street, in every city, in this entire country. Dr. Latha found me standing outside, and brought me, and the rest of us, up to the roof of the house, where we sat for an hour watching the fireworks and chatting. It was so nice, relaxed and welcoming from family members we had never met before that day (John and Lisette hadn't even met Dr. Latha before). As we were leaving, we tried to thank her for the wonderful time she had shown us. She stopped us, saying "No, you gave us the chance".
We took the late bus back, watching the fireworks explode over the city as we left, and took the sleepy walk back to the hospital. I was so happy, stuffed, and grateful to the people who had shown us such an amazing time. I get angry and frustrated by some things here, but never the friendliness and kindness of the people.
Speaking of grateful: Thank you Mom! You got me sunblock! Thank you Freddie! I got five cards from you in one day! Thank you Dad! You saved my bacon with Georgetown!
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