Dhobi The doorbell rang this morning and a very shy, humble young man in his 20s introduced himself as Vineet. Vineet is our dhobi.
Every Monday and Thursday morning, we leave our laundry outside our door. Vineet takes and washes, irons, and folds the laundry and returns it to us by the end of the day.
Kirsi, Aidan, and I are having him do our laundry. Dana is doing her own. This service costs us $70 CDN/month.
For all of the sweating that we’re going to do here, we feel it’s worth it.
Sujata This afternoon, we met Sujata, who will be our maid. We had phoned her months ago while still living in Canada and arranged to hire her when we arrived in New Delhi.
She seems very nice and the family took to her immediately. She has worked for AES staff before so she knows the ins and outs of campus life.
Her main duties will be cooking and cleaning. She took cooking classes in Vietnamese, Thai, and Mediterranean cooking. She, of course, can cook Indian food as well. We gave her some rupees yesterday and she will buy all of the cleaning supplies (broom, mop, etc.) and “liquids”.
It’s going to be a busy year at school so having Sujata and Vineet help us at home will help to bring balance to our lives.
Kirsi and Aidan… …have been troopers. We’re all battling jet lag but they just keep on trucking. They love it here so far and both have said that it is better than they imagined it would be. They can’t wait for school to start and are making friends already.
They were able to spend lunch and go on the campus tour with us. After that, they spent time with the other new hires’ children in a room staffed by school EAs. They were just able to play, have fun, and get to know each other.
During one session, all of the children were outside running around having fun when a quick, monsoon rain hit. We look outside and everyone is under cover of the deluge except Aidan who is standing in the open getting soaked…and smiling.
Monkey Attack After all of the sessions were done, I gave the kids the key to the apartment so they could go and rest while we took care of some business at school.
They were greeted by three monkeys who were blocking their path. A guard came along with a stick and started whacking at the monkeys. He finally chased them away so the kids could go back to their apartments.
Both Kirsi and Aidan are a little freaked out by our furry neighbours now.
School Food Starting at 11:00, we had the best lunch ever at school. I talked to Viveet, the head of food services at the school and he said that everything is made from scratch. He oversees a staff of 60 who provide food for all of the students and staff.
We can even order food from him for ourselves. One staff member had him make supper for he and his family for their first month because it is so clean, healthy, tasty, and affordable.
It is not uncommon for parents of students to order large quantities of food (rice, meat dishes, breads) and pick it up at the end of the school day when they pick up their children.
If we wanted food, all we would have to do is email him what we want the day before and it will be waiting for us after school is done.
Both Kirsi and Aidan will have lunches at school this year. They’ll accommodate Kirsi’s gluten sensitivity.
The rest of our day revolved around quick introductions of all staff, a campus tour, and getting our school issued laptops. Dana got an iPad as well. MaBook Airs, y’all! Nice!!
I was able to meet the tech team and immediately liked each and every one of them. They are very qualified people. I had met one of them when I had visited for a basketball tournament during our time in Sri Lanka and he is still working there.
Jet Lag I was supposed to stay awake until 8 or 9 to help combat jet lag but I fell asleep a little after 6 and awoke at 12. Now it’s 2:23 AM so I’m going to hit Publish and try to sleep a little.
Thanks for all of the comments on Facebook. I’ll try to respond to them all but apologize if I don’t get to them all as it’s a little busy.
Hope all of our friends and family around the world are doing GREAT!
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