Angel in Disguise ~~~

How do I even begin? I write this post with a lot of excitement! I think I'll just go in sequential order ...

It all started when we met a girl here from Texas. She is with a different company, but we definitely had kindred spirits and spent the last few days getting to know her more before she left for another part of the country. She's been here for a year and half, so she was able to help us and share some things she's figured out with us ... That is huge!

One thing that she is really good at is the public transportation system here. She knows how get just about anywhere in an auto rickshaw, bus, or on the metro. The other night, she was telling us how to take auto rickshaws to this place I was going to go to the next day. I was excited to have my little adventure and figure it out. It was going to take 3 auto rickshaw rides to get there.

I started out but I only ended up figuring out the first leg. When I went to where I was supposed to go to get the next auto rickshaw, I realized I was in the wrong place. I tried to ask where to get an auto, but the explanations weren't making sense with what our friend had told me ... so I saw a cab and jumped in. HA!

On the way back, I thought I would try again. Well that time I made it all the way home in auto rickshaw's ... but only 2 of them were the way our friend had told me to go.

I get near our house and decide to tell the driver to stop in front of this store so I can get some milk. When I get out he tells me 22 rupees ... WHAT? It should be 5 rupees. So I ask him why and he doesn't respond. I am thinking this is a situation where I am being taken advantaged of b/c I am the foreigner, so I stand my ground. I give him 10 rupees ... which is more than enough ... and start to walk away, but then the owner of the store that I was going to comes out. He could tell that I was having a problem, so he comes out and helps me. He proceeds to yell at the auto rickshaw driver and I can only pick up a couple words that he is saying ... but then he turns to me and tells me to give him the 22 rupees ... HA! I thought all the yelling was in my favor, guess not. So I did, b/c I was done dealing with it (and literally the difference of the 12 rupees is about twenty-four cents). I go into the store and ask the owner why it was so much and he says "petro strike." Then I realize. Yesterday there was a big strike and the "people that deliver the diesel and petro (gasoline) were on strike" (whatever that means!) so everyone was charging way more to make sure they had enough to cover their fuel costs if the strike continued. Thankfully the strike is over today. Crazy!

So anyway, I get home after the store and talk to our friend and told her that I only took 2 auto rickshaws and made it home, but I was thinking that wouldn't happen all the time. So my husband, me and our friend went out last night so she could 'show us the ropes.' What fun!!!

Turns out, the place to catch the auto rickshaw that messed me up going the first time isn't there any more!!! So it wasn't me ... it literally just isn't there. So we'll figure that out later.

We decided to go a little farther and ride the subway system that they have here. We have heard about this, but never knew where to get on it or where it goes. Now we do. YAY!

When we get to the subway station, she says to us, "Do you like street food?"

Now, you have to understand what street food is. There are stands (think dilapidated little kid lemonade stand ... really) everywhere!!!! Guys make this food and people eat it right there on the street ... we think of it as their McDonalds or their drive thru. HA! Most stands have an few inches of dirt all over it and flies swarming around it. So when she said this us, we kinda looked at eachother, but knew that we had talked about wishing we knew if we could eat any of it ... so we said "sure!"

She took us to this first stand that has Chats (said with a short a sound, like chaat). Here's a pic of the stand and the food:








The bowl that is in the pic above is made out of a leaf! So cool!

So now that we had our street food, which was good, we went on the subway all the way across town.

We did all of this last night b/c we knew that she would be leaving today ... so since she was leaving she needed to empty her flat of a few things ... including ....

AN OVEN!!!!!

Yes ... we now have a 'real' oven. Ok, so it totally reminds me of the oven we had in our apartment that we lived in when we were first married and we lived in married housing on the university campus, but that's ok! It's. An. Oven. !!!!!!!!

I even made muffins today ... wow. First muffins we have had in months. I am so shocked to say that we now have an oven and it was free, can't get any better than that.

Here's a picture of it:



We feel like she is an angel in disguise sent to us. We are so appreciative of her help and are so grateful that she was Sent to us, we know this for sure. AND we didn't even get sick from the street food ... amazing!

Things like this happen because there are many people lifting us up and requesting favor for us ... saying thank you doesn't seem like enough, but THANK YOU!!!!