Joy in the Small Things

Some things are tough here. Going grocery shopping takes a couple hours because we have to walk about 30 minutes there, get our groceries, and walk about 30 minutes back with all the bags in our backpacks. By the time we get home-our backs are drenched in sweat and we just want to collapse! The power is often off, mosquitoes are abundant, and I’m bored of rice!

                However, I have to remember to have joy in the small things that add up. So here is a list that I’ve been composing in my head of some of my small joys:

                -Zapping mosquitoes with the electric racket: I love to go out to the clothesline and start tapping the clothes. Clouds of mosquitoes swarm off of them and I have a field day zapping them. The zapper is constantly sparking and you can actually smell all the fried mosquitoes. I probably killed over 30 this morning!

                -Lighting the burner on the first try: Our striker is not very effective and so sometimes it takes 10 or 15 tries to light the stove. It’s so nice when it just lights the first time.

                -Finding the power on: We have scheduled ‘load-sharing’ where they switch off our power. Its off from 8-10am and 2-4pm…and many other times too. But its nice to come home and find it on.

                -Peanut butter: Definitely nice to have on apples especially since there isn’t much protein in a rice diet.

                -Roti night. Every lunch we have rice in the school Mess (cafeteria) and some nights they give us containers of food for dinner. It’s almost always rice. But once a week it is rotis (like chapattis)

                -Seeing beautiful saris: I don’t think I’l ever get bored of seeing the beautiful saris of the women here. They are all different and each is so vibrant and rich.

                -A successful crossing of the street: Sometimes you just nail it. You see a break in the motorcycles, cross halfway and stand in the middle of the road until there is another break. And you just feel so accomplished.

                -Spending a small amount of money on a week’s worth of groceries: I spend between $4-$6 dollars a week on tons of fruits and vegetables.

Of course the list goes on, but these are just a few of the small joys of living in India.