Marisa is also around seven years old and came to Bangla Hope when she was almost two. Marisa's mother died in childbirth and the father left and went to India, leaving the baby with an auntie. She had been taking care of Marisa but couldn't any longer because she was planning on getting married. Thus, the auntie signed Marisa over to Bangla Hope.
Marisa is another one of those fun-loving, trouble-making, wonderful kids. She has a sassy little attitude and sometimes throws a fit when she doesn't get her way--what kids don't really? But she is such a beautiful little girl. She picks up songs and dances so quickly, paying attention to the small details that really make it into a good performance. She is definitely one of the more graceful little girls here. I think that she could grow up to be an actress or something in the entertainment business--I just hope the diva attitude doesn't go to her head!
Today was class. Again. "Go, go, go. Go, Dick, go. Go, go, go, Help, help." That's a whole story. I kid you not. But my kids are learning to read so I must be patient and realize that the small things are BIG things at this stage in the learning game. We also did English math today--how many different ways are there of explaining that 3 + 4 will ALWAYS equal 7? I've used counting beans, fingers, toes, lines... lol Kids...After class though, I headed downstairs to get a drink of water from the kitchen. The kids were just starting to eat their lunch so I took a look to see what they were eating. It looked like some kind of potatoe and tomatoe mash.. Not too appetizing looking but I was feeling hungry so I grabbed a bowl from the cabinet and was served up a small mixture of curry and rice. Oh my goodness. It was SO good. I have no idea what it was, but it was freaking delicious! I sat down with the big girls and ate with them on the floor. I finished off my portion quite quickly so they all kept trying to dump some of their food into my bowl. Silly kids. I would have taken it but I know that they needed to eat it... soooo good!
[Side note: I've been taste-testing some of the curries that are made for the caregivers each night lately. It just looks so good that I can't resist, plus they are usually more than willing to let me try on account of seeing my face afterwards. They don't hold back on the chili's with those curries. My goodness. Even Papri, the grade one teacher, can't handle the spice sometimes. Anyways, I've been eating some and I think I'm getting used to the spice! Some still knocks me on my butt but last night I had a pretty good size portion of alloo tacoree (potatoe curry) and lived to write this blog. Yay for Jehanna's tastebuds!]
Anyways, after I was finished stealing the children's food, I saw some of the cooking ladies out back so I thought I'd say hi. I ended up spending over two hours out there with them. I love those women so much. The main three cooks are from the village and barely speak English, but they are so sweet just in their mannerisms. This last Sabbath, I went out before church started and sat on the ground and help them cut up potatoes. My goodness, they are so fast on those things! And they slice them into such small pieces.. My pieces were big and they were laughing at me but we all still had fun.
So today, I grated carrots for salad, sliced tomatoes and onions, and peeled garlic. When I say peeled garlic, I mean my hands are going to smell like garlic for the next 80yrs. I'm pretty sure we peeled about 15bulbs. They use so much garlic here it's incredible. Surprisingly enough though, the food's flavour is not taken over by the garlic because there are so many other yummy spices added in. In Bangladesh, a kilogram of garlic is 120tk (just under $2USD). Isn't that incredible? I just thought it was a cool experience because it reminded me of peeling garlic for my mom when she cooks--granted she doesn't use as much garlic as these people do!
Patule, Shati's helper girl, made up a chutney out of this sour plum while we were working. Basically, it's the plum, salt, chili, and... I don't know what else is in there. All I know is that it's crazy sour and Banni tricked me into eating it once. I spit it out into the flower bed lol. We all had a laugh today because I was telling Patule that the reason she wasn't smiling was because she was eating that nasty stuff. Tume cabo, hasho nah(you eat, no smile) and ami cabi nah, coup boro hasho (I no eat, very big smile). lol I pointed to all the people that were eating it and compared their faces to the people that weren't eating it... Ahh I guess you just had to be there. It was coup moja monushe (very funny).
good day in the neighbourhood, 20days til I see Dad :)
ami tomake bhalobashi
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