I can't remember if I've already talked about this, so sorry if I'm telling you twice that at craft class on Saturday, we started making a mural of life in Khardah. It isn't all that representative of Khardah, but its turning out pretty well and the kids love doing it. It has a market, a football field, a house, a shop, and a train station on it.
Sealdah has been quite busy but not too hectic recently. Lots of kids; we're finally back up to pre-Durga Puja numbers. I'm learning how to say some of the colors in Bengali from handing out crayons for coloring. Lal is red, Kalo is black, nul is blue. I knew yellow but now I forget...
On Monday, Ellenoor and Anna and I went into Kolkata. We had coffee at a little coffee shop that felt almost like being in the US except unlike at Starbucks, where they do everything in fastforward, at Barista, everything is painstakingly slow. It was nice though. After coffee we went to New Market. Anna bought some really nice marble, wood, and metal statues, and Ellenoor bought a beautiful shawl and a scarf. (Not that it's anywhere near cold here, but she'll put them to good use when she returns to Holland) I always have fun when we go to New Market. I just like shopping. All I bought, however, was cheese. Real cheddar cheese. The only "cheese" to be found in Khardah is disgustingly processed. Think American cheese but worse.
The kids asked us to bring these badminton rackets that we had at the flat to the field on Monday. Ellenoor played badminton with them, but I am horribly unskilled at all sports involving rackets, bats, and other tools of the extension-of-the-hand variety, so I brought a frisbee and played with that. It was quite fun. I absolutely love frisbee, so of couse I had a blast. Today we played all three: football, badminton, and frisbee. I swear the field looked like there was some kind of family reunion at a public park: lots of children brandishing all sorts of new, cheap plastic sports equipment. The kids have been increasingly aggressive with eachother recently. They chase, hit, kick and wrestle with eachother. Ellenoor and I are constantly telling them to stop fighting. Its not that they're truly angry, but they aren't quite "just playing", either. One of them could really get hurt, because they're quite rough with each other. Today I finally got fed up with it. I told them that if one of them hit another again, we wouldn't play tomorrow. Of course the madness continued. I let it go on for a little while, continuing to threaten. Then I'd had enough and I cancelled our plans of playing tomorrow. The kids were a little taken aback, and I think they were nervous that I was truly angry. I wasn't, I was just a little annoyed. Those kids need to respect my and Ellenoor's authority, and more importantly, they need to calm down and stop being so aggressive with eachother. They were instantly apologetic, and they swarmed around me, hugging me and begging to play tomorrow. I told them no, we'd play again on Thursday. Then they tried to tell me that none of them can play on Thursday. "Monday, then," I said. "No Monday" "Then I guess we won't play anymore. Playing finished" "You and Ellenoor Auntie will play all alone" Empty threats. They'll all be at the field, same as always, when we come bearing balls and rackets on Thursday. Some of them told they won't be at school tomorrow, clearly because they wanted to get back at me for not playing. I guarantee every one who said they won't be there will be.
Ellenoor and I have been continuing our sari lessons with Bobby. Today we used a silk sari, which is quite a bit more difficult to wrap than a cotton one, because its so slippery. Bobby arranged for a man to come to her house later this week so I can choose some material for a salwar. On Saturday we're going to order a sari. So soon I'll be all decked in Indian garb!
Photos are coming, I promise...

~m