Bargarh Home

This is our home.....

The top floors are where our family has their rooms and living areas. Downstairs has the kitchen and is where my father-in-law's twin brother and his family lives. There is also space on the bottom floor that once was the doctor office of my FIL, along with examination rooms. It is now rented out to a tutoring business for kids.

The stairs! Oh the stairs! They are steep, slick, and just asking to give out a broken neck. None so far though, so ha! They lead up from the courtyard, near the family puja room.

This is in the courtyard, just opposite of the stairs and the puja room. Bedroom doors on the bottom floor all open to this area...well, all except those that are further down the hall on the right.

Rowan taking a splash in the bath. We put a heating coil into a bucket of water and then mixed it with the cold to get a nice warm bath. We moved it out onto the porch a couple of times so the kids could bathe in the warmth of the sun.

From our bedroom window, Rowan watched the men climb bamboo poles in the alleyway, lining them with cloth in preparation for Om's thread ceremony. Oh, and PIGTAILS!

A shop on the streets of Bargarh.

Can you spot Nippon and Subu riding in a rickshaw?

The kids loved playing on the roof. It has such a great view of all the happenings below. It is also an excellent spot to watch fireworks, enjoy sunsets, or watch bats dive bomb and eat a bait ball of mosquitos. Yum!

We even got maa on the roof.

My pictures never quite capture the beauty of the Indian sunset.

Of course Rowan had to take her Snow White baby doll on an adventure.

Mosquito nets drawn up, and playing Uno on our bed. The cousins had never played or heard of the game before. They loved it so much I ended up leaving them the cards. 

And here's a random shot of my foot. You're welcome.

Babita's Birthday

We arrived in Bargarh in time to celebrate Babhi's birthday! She is the wife of the oldest of Nippon's twin bother's children. When I went to India for the first time in 2003, it was for Babita and Nigam's wedding (as well as Jublee and her husband's).

Babhi and Om

The Birthday Girl!

Left to right:

Jublee, guess, Maa, Babita, Mani, Thuni

Raipur

Hello India!

We arrived, after a long flight from Amsterdam, and layover in Delhi (with an annoyingly long and terribly managed wait in an Air India line) in Raipur, Chhattisgarh .

Views from our hotel room.

Nippon's parents met us here. It was so nice to see familiar faces!

After a nice snooze, we took a stroll to a new mall next to the hotel for lunch and shopping!

Afton and Rowan picked out their modes of transport.

We purchased some new clothes for the wedding and thread ceremony we were to attend.

Now on to Odisha to see the rest of our family!

Amsterdam

I mentioned it was cold, right?

We arrived in Amsterdam in the morning, and decided to laze about and rest up so we would have lots of energy for the next couple of days. The kids and Nippon slept, I dozed a bit but wanted to try and get my sleeping pattern adjusted quickly because I knew that I would be the glue holding this whole thing together. While they slept I bundled up and took a walk to the train station to check it out, and also wandered around looking at the different eateries and shops. 

I had purchased tickets for the Anne Frank Haus before we left on the trip, so we headed there on our first full day in Amsterdam. The kids actually really enjoyed it, and it was a humbling and eye opening experience. What a small world they lived in for two long years! I asked Afton if he wanted to pick out a postcard to send his class and out of all the tulip fields, canal houses, and wooden shoe pictures he picked the one with the bookshelf that hid the door to the secret annex. I thought that was pretty cool.

Amsterdam is the most bicycle friendly place in the world. I was tempted to rent one out and ditch the rest of them for the day. 

After visiting the Anne Frank Museum we strolled the streets, ate delicious food, and stopped at a park to play and rest our (the kids) legs.

Play time!

While we were playing at this little park the sky began to spit tiny frozen balls of rain.

Did I mention it was cold? (I'm from SoCal and AZ. It was cold.)

This is another view from our apartment, overlooking the more industrial side of Amsterdam. I loved watching the grey clouds rolling by. At the end of the day they decided to put smiles on the kids faces by dropped large, fluffy white flakes.

The boys did a lot of game playing and lazing about.

AND THEN IT STARTED TO SNOW!!!

Who cares if it's bedtime, it's snowing!

Snow!

In the morning the kids got up and built a snowman. They used blueberries for eyes and the last lychee berry for the nose.

This is a random picture of an emergency box located in a delicious restaurant where we ate bitterballen and drank dutch hot chocolate.

The next day, instead of dragging around little legs, we decided to take a canal tour. It was wonderful! And such a great way to see the city. So many leaning houses, gorgeous clock towers, Rambrandt's home, hidden jails near canal tunnels, a floating flower market, and tight squeezes through low tunnels.

Afton wasn't nearly as happy as Joram was to pose in the big wooden shoes.

Rowan aka Stay Puft Marshmallow Girl.

Watching the big flakes while the rest of us stuff our faces with strawberry and Nutella covered waffles. 

"It's quiet in Amsterdam."

This was printed on the wall in the living room of the apartment.

My friend asked me to bring back these surprise chocolate eggs. When you open it up there is a little toy inside. I bought five and only one made it all the way home unbroken. They are banned in the US because of choking hazards. Breakin' the law!

Amsterdam complete. Now let's catch that plane to India!