DelhiLullaby: Nursing, Ono & Pongal

You may have noticed a theme in my blog posts. They often include food. Admittedly, I take a lot of pictures of food in India. Pictures of the food that Andy creates for us daily could be an entire blog, but today I will only share one!

This is the atta flour fluffy pancake Andy's been making for us nearly everyday. I top mine with strawberry jam, lots of yogurt, and squeeze the lemon on top of all that! Andy was away for five days at a conference in Mumbai, so I actually had to make one for myself. I'm happy to report that I successfully created one similar to his.

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Some friends invited us over to celebrate Pongal, a South Indian holiday celebrating the harvest festival. They described it as the Indian thanksgiving, and as you can imagine, there's a lot for me to learn about this holiday. I will start with the food our friends made.

Andy, Savi, Samantha, Sri. Since Samantha was the only child in attendance, she received a lot of attention. This is how a majority of the afternoon was spent.

Suma, Samantha and Savi. Savi brought out a bin a watches for Samantha to play with, and you can see they were quite popular.

Although not as popular as the mirrored Rajasthani skirt she wore.

And she fell asleep for a good 45 min after all of the playing.

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Samantha sporting the new hat Diana made for her this week. She's no longer a one hat wardrobe girl!

And here's another beautiful hat Dianna made a week later! I love the purple and blue.

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As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been volunteering with CanSupport, a palliative care organization in New Delhi. This week, in preparation for the Walk for Life, which raises money and awareness about cancer, palliative care, and health prevention, Samantha and I ventured to their offices for a volunteer meeting filled with Indians and expats. I thought I'd share a few photos from their office. In the volunteer email they said, "it IS a proper office- not in the juggi (slum) next door..."

CanSupport sign outside their office in R.K. Puram, New Delhi.

CanSupport's founder, Harmala Gupta, and my nurse mentor here in New Delhi, Catherine Bali. Catherine is one of those people who is like a firecracker of energy, always giggling, connecting people and getting involved. Catherine took me under her wing as soon as I arrived and was instrumental in helping me get the job as a substitute nurse at the American Embassy School Health Center. On my first day at the school, she called to see how it went, twice. She grew up in India and all around South Asia, as her parents were in the foreign service, then married an Indian man, so she also has a few tips to share about India. I told her (in the words of my grandmother) that I felt like I'd "hit the jackpot" when I met her months back.

Photos from the CanSupport office wall.

Mala serving chai at the meeting.

Samantha and I also attended a three day Palliative Care conference sponsored by CanSupport with over 170 nurses and doctors from northern India.

Participants filing in on the first day of the conference.

I think 165 of the 170 attendees held Samantha. She was a good sport about it all.

Catherine and Samantha.

Tea breaks always included a mini samosa.

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This is the now nightly practice of crawling on the dinner table. It makes a much better surface than the cold marble floors or blanket-clad bed.

Chatturanga anyone? I couldn't help but see the yogi in her at this moment. Check out those feet!

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Another day this week my friend Julie came to the Defence Colony for a neighborhood tour before we went to a Yoko Ono exhibit that's occurring as part of the International Art Fair.

Julie in the archway of our local Gurdwara.

Next stop on our tour was the ever popular Sagar restaurant in the Defence Colony Market. Idli anyone?

Inside of Sagar. And it was packed downstairs too!

After lunch, we drove south to the industrial/arts area of Oklah, New Delhi to the Yoko Ono Exhibit Our Beautiful Daughters. I have attended other Ono exhibits and always appreciated the interactive elements to her exhibitions.

This is a video Julie took of me participating in Ono's call to "scream against the wind, against the wall, against the sky." Warning, it's a strange sound!

Julie loves her phone as much as I do. This is on the terrace of the show where the wishing trees and microphone for a scream live.

Interior of exhibit shows coffins of nude women with corresponding shawls on the walls. The soundscape is of Indian street.

A view to the outside of the gallery is the mix of cars, motorcycles and even the big trucks building the roads right outside the gallery.

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Samantha at her weekly playgroup. The group rotates to a different playmate's house each week. This week it was in South Delhi at a farmhouse with monkeys everywhere. In her hand she has a maraca. She loves anything that makes sound...hmmmm, I wonder who she gets that from?

These are the three girls who entertained Samantha on the long metro ride home from Chattarpur farms. They played her Hindi film songs on their phones, let her shake their pencil boxes, and talked to her, helping to keep her happy for 45 minutes. I was so thankful!