Moving and Stuff

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday was the most tiring day I have had here yet. With waking up early and then the mountain climb and then moving, the activity never stopped. The movers helped with all the big things, but we carried everything else. We made dozens of trips by foot carrying large bundles of things wrapped and tied up in sheets. Going through all of their things you could tell that they used to have money. Kumari had piles and piles of high quality and finely made saris, but each was faded and obviously worn. Once we got everything to the new house that needed to be there we started unpacking. By this time it was pretty late, and I wasn’t that much help unpacking because Kumari needed to know exactly where everything was going. She ended up doing it mostly herself while Xavier looked on grimly, unable to help.

That night everyone migrated back to the old house and we ate dinner. It was a quiet night, and being the last day of the weekend I was a little sad that I wasn’t able to spend more of it with the kids. We all went to bed early; no one had rested at all that day. Kumari and Xavier, however, didn’t get any sleep. The medicine he is on has nausea as one of its side effects and the doctor prescribed another drug to counteract this nausea. Despite this second drug, Xavier could not sleep at all. He felt like he had diarrhea, needed to throw up, and that his bladder was about to explode with urine. Not once did he vomit, have a bowel movement, or urinate despite these feelings. When I woke up this morning, a tired looking Kumari was chasing a wet, naked, and screaming Prince around the house. After the weekend he refused to return to school. Xavier is the only one Prince will really listen to, but Xavier was unable to get the energy to be stern with Baboolu, and thus he stayed home. Xavier finally felt a little better and fell asleep around 9:30.

With everything settled down, Kumari and I sat and talked, something we haven’t really done in a few days. We talked a lot about Priya. Yesterday Priya and Vamil, the friend that went climbing with us, came to the house alone to eat. Priya’s grandmother was here too and got very angry with Priya, and Priya ended up making her cry. Kumari explained to me that Priya was a very free girl in comparison to most in India, and especially in a town like Tiru. Kumari asked if I had seen the girl next door. I admitted that I had not, and she explained that girls weren’t supposed to be out and about like Priya; they aren’t supposed to be seen. If a girl’s girlfriend come to visit, then the girl leaves the house and they talk on the porch for two or maybe three minutes, and then the girl must return inside. Her friends never enter the house, and she is never supposed to be visited by men. Priya has never been visited by a girl; the four or five friends of hers that I have met have all been boys. They always come inside, and they are always punching each other and having friendly fights. It is all innocent. Kumari went to a western school where it was okay to be friends with the opposite sex, and Priya spent her young childhood in Mumbai, a big city where the cultural rules are a little more relaxed. Kumari was always okay with Priya having friends that were boys, but now people in the town are talking about it and the family is worried that they won’t be able to find a good husband for her because no family will want their son to be associated with her. It is so different from America where guys and girls are free to mingle and be friendly. Priya, though, thinks the Indian rules are outdated and refuses to bide by them. In addition, Vamil, one of her closest friends, come from the lowest class. In her grandmother’s eyes, this added insult to injury, which is why they fought. Priya hopes some day to study in a university in Europe, where she will be able to do what she wants.

When Xavier woke up an hour later he had a fever and threw up. Kumari decided to take him back to the doctor to see what can be done, and I am left here with Prince and Durga, who also didn’t go to school. Hopefully I will hear from Kumari soon.

Peace,
Robby