A SLICE OF LIFE IN A SMALL VILLAGE

Yesterday, our group arrived at this couple’s home and began helping me cut up vegetables. The woman would catch my eye and hold up her hand for enough carrots. She shook her head for the peas not to go in yet. Then indicated silently when the peas were added to the pot. She began the clean-up while the this typical Indian dish was cooked.

It surprised me that the husband directed the cooking action. Theo is adding spices. Pam is stirring. Notice the husband has leather shoes.

Ranvir told us that every household that cooks for itself has one of these treasures. Curry, cumin, turmeric, coriander, cardamon, cumin seed, and mustard seed. Sometimes ground cloves, ground cinnamon and basil seed.

Families cook outside in a home-made adobe stove. In the pan goes mustard oil first. The vegetables are carrots, cauliflower, eggplant, red onion, potatoes, peppers and peas. Stir fried first, a bit of water later to steam until done.

The wife cooked the naan on that same stove with a special pan of some kind. Her recipe is millet and water. We all tasted the food by scooping up the vegetables with a  piece of naan. Yummy.

The father gave us a tour of his property where he grows most of the food for this extended household. He has guava trees and another tree from which you use the twigs to brush your teeth. I’ve already forgotten the name of it.  I carried a branch around with me for two days to see what it was like. It has an alum feel and the broken end of a small branch acts like toothpicks and floss. (Indian people use regular toothbrushes.)

Using well water,  one daughter-in-law  hand washes clothes.  Each married son has his own house and an out-door bathroom with a flush toilet flowing into a common septic system. The toilets and septic system a benefit of Grand Circle.   Even though he isn’t as poor as most in this area, Grand Circle want people to adopt better hygiene. If Grand Circle hadn’t stepped in, they would simply use the ground and bury their waste. He sets a modern example for his kids, grandchildren and neighbors around him. Another form of education.

The kids have ample room to run around and play in a clean area. It is typical of older children to help with younger children in Indian families.

Someone made a rustic jungle gym.  Strong poles are tied together for the kids to swing and climb upon.

A group picture before we leave. Carol and Kathy hold up samples of the wife’s colorful clothing.

The family bids us goodbye.
They have a cow for milk.

From their long driveway, we see a beautiful girl with a baby. Ranvir speculates that she is probably 15 or 16 years old. Typical age for poor, uneducated girls to marry.

Our next visit in the village is a Women’s Cooperative where we will eat lunch. This woman, Joy, a dietician decided to help one family, and never left India.

These women are from a warrior tribe. Their husbands hunted tigers and leopards and sold the skins illegally. During a government crackdown, they were arrested and imprisoned. With their husbands in jail, these wives had no skills to make a living except prostitution. How would they survive?

At the Cooperative, they learn new skills. This gentleman shows me a block printed bed cover.
We’ve seen how it is done. A student carefully practices on a small square.

Some learn to sew. I buy three pillow covers and a lovely embroidered purse. Prices are a bit higher here than on the street, but still a bargain.

Men help the women, they keep track of the money, some  sew and/or maintain the machines and buildings. They also have a flush toilet on the premises.

Illeka is my lunch mate and she teaches me arabic  names of food we are eating and I give her the English words. Illeka is talkative and can  speak  somewhat garbled English and French.

Kathy has her picture taken with the women she bought things from.  Illeka indicated she wanted her picture taken with us.

But we misunderstood her. She wanted her picture taken with me with something I bought that she made. She showed me her craft and I obliged by buying this little hat hair pin. She was really sweet and charming.
Tomorrow, we take a long train ride to Bharatpur.

BOUNCE FROM OREGON TO MURPHYS.

It has been long between blogs. I find when I'm busy, I'm really an activist at heart and am inspired to rant about the current incomprehensible political situation, which Jim dislikes.  I have not been traveling!  So I rant. Jim reminded me this morning it has been a year to the day (yesterday) since I left the motorhome and took up the business of building a new house and all that transpires both expected and unexpected.

While in Oregon, I got news of the awful Butte Fire from that distance, chagrined that my friend Deborah Mullen,  a co-worker at the Calaveras Enterprise, was burned out. A devastating experience.
Today, after clearing through pounds of mail, I gathered clothing, shoes, tables, chairs, jackets, and stuff you think people will need in the aftermath of a complete loss of everything of a normal household. Deborah posted a picture on FB  of herself and Husband Steve; "We have each other," she said. Always one to look on the bright side.

After connecting with several recovery, resource sights, it became very clear that the stuff I gathered was not what is needed right now. It is more on the order, of paper plates, paper towels, face soap, q-tips, wash cloths,  canned foods, powdered milk, peanut butter, fresh vegetables, flashlights, lanterns, batteries, ice chests, water carriers and so on. So, tomorrow, I'll assemble a different set of household goods,and make my way to Mountain Ranch, then Valley Springs where daughter-in-law Laurie is holding much of my important paperwork taken at my request from my house during the voluntary evacuation order. I'll start carrying my camera again, if I can find it.

My last day in Oregon, I went to a bridge repair meeting and met some neighbors from the private road we share, many of whom,  I'd never met previously.
I also invited 12 people to a wine and nibble about 4 p.m. Saturday,  before my expected leave on Sunday morning. I thought some of the neighbors might be curious about what my place looked like after watching the slow progress from the outside over eight months of building it.

Hmmm. Four people showed up, three from one family. All but  four answered with some enthusiasm, suggesting they'd be glad to come.
I thoroughly enjoyed those that came.  I'm not a novice at entertaining guests, but I've never been so royally stood up in my life, and it makes me chuckle that I've had that experience at this time in my life. If I were a young bride, I'd have been hurt. Not one person bothered to tell me they could not or would not come. I thought it was strange but those that came,  more than made up for those that did not.
It has been fun furnishing a new house, with nearly all second-hand items and attempting to keep it neat and not over clutter it with stuff as I am wont to do.  I'll eventually get pictures hung and curtains up and take photos; my goal to hopefully find this page a bit more often.

ciao-Mary

TRANSITIONING LIFESTYLES.

Normally, if I'm a member of an organization, I like to contribute  by attending meetings, taking on a job and helping out. Because of my traveling lifestyle, I make it to two or three meetings a year. I enjoy that Len, a club stalwart, is always there to play music while others chat and visit. He learned to play accordion as a child and transferred that to piano and organ. He played When The Saints Come Marching In for me.


Club members are a fun bunch and my dinner partner, Earl Randall, worked in Judge Connit's court, Alameda County,  and knew practically everyone in the Sheriff's Department that I knew, including having met my husband and his best friend Jack Baugh. It is such a small world. The Elks Club Dinner was Wednesday night.


Last night, Suzy and Ron Hayes, invited Karen and I to have dinner with them before I leave today. I could not ask for better neighbors and I treasure them.


Ron and I share similar philosophies of life and we like to rail against our ineffective politicians as in fire them all and start over. I always tease Suzy that I'm going to marry him when she's done with him.


Karen and I usually have one dinner together. I try to see all of my friends when I get home. I managed pretty well this time despite unexpected issues to take care of.  Karen often cooks dinner and brings me a plate to share. She took me out for tacos at Sidewinder, but as close as we are, living in the same house, we didn't manage a sit down dinner together until we got to Suzys.

Today, I leave for Incline Village to have a belated Christmas with my family since not everyone could make it to Calaveras County in December. We've rented a condo and almost everyone skis. Ahh! The card games and cooking together, the loud banter, just seeing everyone under one roof is very precious to me.  Then, transitioning to my rambling life with Jim and leaving the busy chaos of home behind for a while. I'm grateful to have such plenteous choices and two distinct lifestyles.

LOOKING BACK.

2013 is gone and I'm looking back.  I had brunch for my good neighbors Ron and Suzy Hayes on New Year's Eve morning. You just can't beat good neighbors who help me consistently with any and everything should I need it.


And, family members, Bill and Karen came along with neighbor Patty Gulyas. It was fun and I didn't get around to blogging it, so I'm looking back.


I celebrated New Year's Eve at neighbor Jan's. Veronica blows a horn and hoists a glass.


Mikey had to stay in the house during the party because we had a lion scare. It was seen wandering behind my house and it is easy to follow if you stick your head out the window and listen to the pattern of barking dogs in the neighborhood. Karen locked her cats inside for the night.


Atilla and Patty did the same with their dogs before coming over. Atilla brought a platter of homemade sausages. Some pork, some venison. The food in this neighborhood is always good even if my pictures are lousy. Using a flash would have helped. I never turn it on. Not too bright. (Pun intended.)

Today, I'm interviewing a former Deputy Sheriff Becky Miller for the Archive. And I keep playing with the idea that I can STILL send Christmas cards. Who am I kidding? I need to get back to the motor home so I can rest. Sometimes life is just too busy.  Friends and family?  I never say no, one reason I return home every couple of months. The best things in life, as we all know.

SEXY NEIGHBOR CATS.

At Dinner, last night, with neighbors, the pictures of my friends turned out faded and mushy. This camera troubles me because my habit is to always take pictures without flash whenever I can. I’ve determined it does not do as well in low light conditions as the previous camera of the same  make and model?  When I used the flash on the cats, the pictures turned out  fine.

Suzy has bengals and one stole Jan’s keys off the counter and the cats examined them thoroughly, no doubt looking for a robotic mouse.

Then Shane decided to fish an ice-cube out of Jan’s glass.

She came close, but didn’t get it.  Honestly, we did have a great deal of party conversation before we became fascinated with the antics of the cats, including talk about our “famous” meteorite. It was quite a sensational event in our little corner of the world. A good article about the size and type and rarity of this meteorite was sent to me and can be read at this address:
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/APNewsBreak-Fireball-remnants-likely-in-Calif-3509651.php

Ron made a gigantic, man-sized meatloaf.  The picture didn’t turn out either, but it tasted good. I think he is planning to eat meatloaf for the next two weeks or maybe feed it to the horses.
I’m counting the days before I head back to the Motor Home and the life of a perpetual tourist.

WINTERIZING WITH FRIEND JOE.

Before the rain came, I hired an indispensable neighbor, Joe, to help me get ready for winter. He cleaned my gutters, cleaned and wrapped my swamp coolers and washed outside windows. All in half a day.  I took out one particularly long cord that I use for the leaf blower and untangled it, apologizing for the mess the cord was in. My son always manages to fold a cord easily and neatly so that it never tangles, I told him, but once I undo it, it never goes back in a neat circle. Before Joe left for the day, he called me outside to look at my cord.

Joe undid some of the cord and showed me how it is done.  I took this picture as a reminder.
Yesterday, Jim scanned about 130 photos for me from my youngest daughter’s memory book and I spent a greater portion of the day putting them through Piccasa editing for captions and damage repair. Old color photos fade miserably.  Digitized, they retain their best qualities.

CONNECTIONS

My neighbor, Jan Stewart, invited Jim and I over for a second Thanksgiving Dinner with her family. Jan is my friend and neighbor.

Her son, Brian, went to grammar and high school with my youngest daughter.

 

Brian's wife, Debbie Pendergrast and my daughter were best of friends and have children close in age.

Jan's oldest grandson, cammeron, is now married with a child of his own and he lives on the road above me and is also my neighbor.

His mother is Jan's oldest daughter shown here with her first grandbaby. That makes Jan a great grandmother. It sneaks up on you. Suddenly we are the matriarch's of our families and it only gets better and better. When I was growing up, grandmothers and great grandmothers didn't look like these two women, youthful and full of fun. May it ever stay that way.

I like the connections and roots of friends, family and neighbors. But, as Jim prepares to leave, I know that you don't lose those connections by becoming a gypsy and ramblin' about the countryside as we did most of 2009 and 2010. You just gain friendships and connections as you go. How grateful I am to have met and got to know Jim's son and family, cousins, Donna and Bob Parker, the Di Paola family, Diane and Bob Comollo, Jackie and Ray Nichol and their daughter Rebecca, Simone and Pat Purcell. Friends, Dolly Giordano and Arthur, Bill and Loretta Gallagher, Jim and Ginnie Palumbo, Sue and Art Lambart, Ted and Sandy Walden, Leo and Fran Perth, Ted and Judy Price, Al Penta, Beverly Malland, Randy Vining, Bob Gambol, Horst and Margo Schnieder, Barbara De La Fuente, Helga Geday, Jan and Larry Seaberg, Debra Vinsel, Kerri Kaufman, Donna Huffer, Bob Parker...I'm probably forgetting someone. Each has become a connection and gives life that same solidity as the roots of home.

Now I have new names to give to my plants. My wandering jew I'll call Randy...