Bill and Judy ride again!

Happy Christmas, everyone.

Hope you are having a lovely day.  I wonder what the weather is like? Still I can imagine that tucking up cozy and warm with delicious things and people you love, makes for a good Christmas afternoon!

This has been a lovely week of surprises for us, mainly involving delicious Indian food, (true Asha style!!) Shalini and Azad (they are the wonderful people who work tirelessly for Asha  in Ekta Vihar) organised a lovely home cooked lunch for us as a Christmas treat last Tuesday.  I then went off to the bus laden with guitar and 23 angels and 23santas to make with my Tuesday class, only to find the bus full of women from the two nearby slums, aged from 90-40ish - beautiful women - faces lined with every experience life has thrown at them.  It was an amazing sight and one I would have loved to photograph for you but it just wasn't right to intrude with a camera.  They were there to collect blankets - (Asha have had a massive 'blanket drive' - people have been bringing and sending blankets and donating money for blankets and then they are distributed to the 60 slums and those most in need.) Anyway, back to the bus - we had to wait for Soni to arrive, so as I had my guitar we sang songs together.  They loved joining in with clapping and some action songs quickly taught, and then the ladies sang a Hindi song together. It was lovely!  We still had a few minutes to fill so I pulled out the Christmas bingo (its been a real winner with the kids) and taught the women to play - they just loved it and kept screaming BINGO and falling about laughing - it was a little crazy but we all had a good laugh.  I was quite relieved to see Soni come up the steps of the bus and then we gave out the blankets.

Its really very cold now, especially in the evenings and early mornings - I can't imagine how miserable the slum homes must be at the moment! (Actually at any time!).

Ken had a very short lesson that day as well as we were both invited to the Asha staff tea which also involved singing carols, a short message from Freddie Martin and then all sorts of food ranging from samosas to cardamon rice pudding and Christmas cake - all delicious and different.

Thank you to all the staff at the 'new offices' for lunch on Wednesday (you see, I told you there is a lot of eating that takes place in Asha!).

The angels and santas were well received by my Wednesday group - they even managed to make crowns!

This morning we went to the Central Delhi Bible Fellowship Church with 4 of Ken's students.  It was a really lively service - great songs and message.  We were so pleased they came - the first time in a Christian service for 3 of them.

After the service, a very fast tuk-tuk ride took us to Lodi Gardens where we had arranged to meet any of our students who wanted to spend Christmas Day with us.

We said we'd be there with a bring and share picnic from 12 noon - 25 turned up! We were so pleased as we know that Christmas Day is not always a special occasion for them. The weather was amazing, thank goodness - recently the sun has tried to break through the pollution, without success, but today it was beautiful, warm and sunny - perfect to be out picnicking.  We played a friendly rugby game (although they are very competitive) and another crazy Indian game that sounded like "cuppa tea" but no tea in sight, sadly, and lots of running!

Lodi Gardens are very historic with 15th century tombs belonging to the Lodi family - none of our students had ever been there and were so impressed and had such a lovely day.  Being here with these guys continues to be a most enjoyable and humbling experience.

Kishan and Ajay came by bike - we just had to have a go!!! So, here's our  'Judy and Bill look alike' moment! (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel...)

Now we're home and need to pamper our colds and coughs and hopefully get over them quickly as we are off to Goa on Sunday morning and Molly and Elliot will be meeting us there for a few days holiday together.

We are really ready for a good rest.

Sending you lots of love and best wishes for the New Year.

Heather and Ken xx

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Our Christmas Letter

Subtitle - ‘Its all about me’ (Ken probably thinks its always all about me!)

Christmas is really all about Him, Jesus.  Some slogans say, “Put Christ back into Christmas”.  Jesus is often lost amongst all the shopping, planning, parties, food, drink and frantic rush that seems to happen even if you are the most well prepared person – those last few days always bring a slight panic that all is not ‘ready’ and more must be done!! What is it all about?  Why get into this frenzy? Why do we allow ourselves to be drawn into the commercialization of Christmas? 

This year we haven't got a Christmas tree, so we decorated our door!

 We wanted to share a few key moments of this last year – and it has been perhaps a very key year for me (Heather) particularly – so perhaps the subtitle is ok, (this once!).

2015 began with us making a firm decision to apply to Asha to work as volunteers, teaching English to the slum children and students. Our visa would allow us to stay in India for 6 months.  Asha agreed to have us and further plans began.

I celebrated a ‘significant’ birthday in June with a very lovely surprise party in Morden Park.   

I now was able to begin my official retirement and so resigned from my two part-time teaching jobs in July.

July brought all family members together from Switzerland, France, Ireland, Italy, to celebrate Simon and Katie’s wedding.  It was a beautiful day.  Strawberry Hill College was a stunning setting and everyone had a wonderful and memorable time.

Ken continued to have students from abroad to teach and home/stay until July and then we set our sights on preparing the house to be ‘let’, gather all we needed for our teaching time here in Delhi, and try to think of everything that needed doing before we flew here in September.

Now we are here, perhaps you have been following our work and play in our weekly blogs – all Delhi news is there!

All the family are well.  Molly is in Manchester, but not for long as she and Elliot are flying to Goa on 27^th and meeting us there for a few days holiday together.

Simon and Katie have just moved into their first house in Twickenham.

Sophie is living in our home in Morden with two lovely tenants – they are all getting on well.

Matt and Stacey are in Cambridge and possibly planning to come out to Delhi in the New Year and see a bit of our life here.

Living in Delhi and walking into the Ekta Vihar slum everyday is certainly a ‘wake up call’ to us, to value all we have, to look at what is really important, to see how these intensely close communities share and live by incredible values and to take very seriously how we can share our gifts, talents, joy and love with all whom we meet. 

Putting Christ back into Christmas, finding a simple expression of the love, peace, joy, and freedom He came to bring and seeing the children acting out their nativity plays and singing with every breath they have with smiles and gratitude, was very humbling today but certainly the things we will be pondering on this Christmas day.

Asha promotes 10 values in their teaching with the women and children.  They are written on the candy canes on our Christmas card.  We hope you will pick one to think about this Christmas. 

      (Generosity, Compassion, Gratitude, Simplicity, Optimism, Empowerment, Nonviolence, Justice,   Dignity, Joy)

 Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year

Heather and Ken xx

Missing Waitrose?

Hi.

Ken is writing and Heather is butting in in brackets ( ).

We thought we would just tell you a little about our local shops, i.e. the ones we can walk to for the basics. For other things we go by auto rickshaw to Modern Bazaar in Vasant Vihar or Big Bazaar in Vasant Square Mall.

Below is a photo of the shops immediately opposite our flat: believe it or not this small area has two little general stores, a chemist, a hairdresser, a stationers, an electrical shop, a veg stall, a bank and a tailor! (Opening times are a little bizarre so have to just go and hope they are open).

  
 There's a little, old man across the road who sells veg from his stall, (I am getting to know him well - he loves to persuade me to buy all kinds of veg and fruit whether I want it or not - I am a bit too soft and always succumb!!) but for a larger variety of fruit and veg (and for water) we walk a few yards up the road to this stall, run by a dad and his two sons. The younger of the two boys is called Indra. (Indra's face lights up when we come as he loves to carry whatever we buy back to our flat - its usually a box of 12 water bottles, on his head, and two carrier bags of veg- he wont let us carry anything, neither will his dad who sends Indra off with our shopping. We always give him a tip so he makes sure his brother doesn't come too!  Indra and his brother are there from very early morning till late evening having been to market at 3am - he is 9 and his brother, 16 - no schooling for them! They are learning the family business!) 

The dad is very friendly and always feeds us with bananas and guava while we're shopping, which is very welcome at the end of the afternoon of teaching - ( he is so generous and also very knowledgeable about what needs peeling, deseeding before cooking, and enjoys giving me some cooking tips -very helpful as there are some extraordinary veg here - all spiky and and almost plastic looking - I bought some having been told what to do with them - going to have a go tomorrow.)

Further up the road is the Liquor Shop, which is a very popular shop when it's just had a delivery. (Traffic jams are intense and usually cars triple park along the road whilst they queue for their whiskey etc.) Ken has been a few times to buy some Kingfisher beer, which is also welcome after a long day.
The Liquor Shop is part of another group of shops,where you can buy some of the basics, including Coca Cola, stationery, light bulbs and (we discovered today) Christmas decorations (they were really Diwali decorations which had been put deep, deep into a cupboard obviously not expecting anyone to ask whether they had any 'bling' for decorating at Christmas time.  Anyway, I think he was delighted to flog us the rest of his stock - he said we were getting a 'good price' but actually I suspect we were just doing him big a favour. Now I'm looking forward to decorating our balconies, (we have 3) and also our front door - its good to let everyone know we celebrate Christmas),

These are a couple of the little shops.  (Its actually really nice to have a 'simple'  approach to shopping.  Shopping for the day, not the week as I used to do at home.  Also eating according to the season is such a pleasure - its pees and beans, cauliflowers, cabbages  and really delicious new potatoes that have just come on to the stall this month. Sadly my favourite, Singhara ( water chestnuts) have just finished so I will have to wait till the weather warms up - its now too cold for them so I am told!)

(We have just met an Asha volunteer, Carly, from England, who arrived in Delhi last Saturday and will be with Asha until the 18th Dec.  She has come to take drama workshops in one of the Asha slums.  It is so nice to have her here and get to know her.  She came for supper last night and we talked and talked about all her plans to travel as well as the work we are doing and how we could support her as she settles in.  I think that talking with Carly helped us realise that we are 'at home' here now and able to help someone else settle in. We are making progress!!

We are looking  forward to the weekend. Ken's off on Sunday with two of his students to see the Indian National Museum and Planetarium, but having had a very heavy cold and almost flu symptoms during the last two weeks, I shall cosy up with a book and rest.(Perhaps I should pick up a bottle of the Whiskey from down the road tomorrow as we pass it could be just what I need- !!)  Next week I know is going to be very busy with Nativity plays and parties so need to be on top form!! )

Happy shopping!!

Ken and Heather

Jaipur

Last Saturday we finished our teaching early, at lunchtime - it's still exam time for Ken's college students - and wanted to get home as soon as possible to get ready for the following week before packing for our trip to Jaipur in Rajasthan. So, we hailed an auto-rickshaw, agreed the fare and off we went. However, our driver was a little odd. He started talking to himself - fine, we can live with that. Then when we confirmed, yet again, our address, D1 VK, he made up a little song, "D1, D1, D1". Not that imaginative, but novel for a driver. He also kept looking back and touching his CNG tank (auto-rickshaws run on gas, not petrol). It appeared that he was very low on CNG, so we then had to take a detour to the nearest CNG station. There was a long queue and when our man was served he indicated he wanted us to pay! We gave him our agreed fare, but made it clear that was it.   It took us about an hour to get home with our poor, singing driver. We actually gave him a tip, because it had been a terrible journey - and he had given us an unusual drive home.

5 am Sunday morning. The alarm goes! Up we get to be ready for Freddy Martin. He was driving us to Jaipur for the weekend. We left at 6 am and there was incredibly thick fog for the first hour or so of our journey, which didn't seem too bad or that long really (it's a 4 hour trip in light traffic). Thanks Freddie for brilliant driving and the unusual breakfast stop!

We visited:

- the Amer (or Amber) Fort, near Jaipur, where we had a elephant ride up to the Fort - Heather loved it, although she spent most of it arguing with someone trying to sell her a quilt cover. I wasn't so keen on the ride - but that's another story. Something to do with being very close to a sheer drop and the fear of death!

 The three of us captured in the mirror.

 

- Jal Mahal.

- Nahargarh Fort at sunset, with views over Jaipur. The Fort is at the top of a high hill. Great views. A bit scary!

 - the City Palace. Marvellous.

- Janter Manter (Sawai Jai Singh's Observatory). Fascinating is the word. 

- Hawa Mahal (only from the outside). The Palace of winds.

It was an amazing weekend and great to be with Freddy as he knows Jaipur so well. We enjoyed wonderful local guides as well as Freddy's knowledge of the best jewel shops and his favourite sweet shop!! Sweet and savoury kachoris! 

On Wednesday it was the birthday of one of my students, so Tuesday evening we went to the Supreme Cake Shop in R K Puram Sector 8 to buy a cake. No problem getting there, but we just couldn't get an auto-rickshaw to take us home. They were all full. However, a kind lady stopped her car and asked where we were going. When we told her she said she had a flat in the same area and would take us there. A very kind woman.

By the way the next day my lesson was a birthday party. We did no work at all. The cake was very good, and we all drank too much fizzy drink.  My students were very noisy, but you can't have a quiet party when you're dancing, singing, acting and telling jokes in Hindi (I wasn't telling the jokes - just trying to understand them). 

Truthfully, we are looking forward to the end of the working week tomorrow, as we are both feeling very tired and a little under the weather (as many Diliwallas are). We are going to take it easy this weekend and chill out.