Field Day

Well, I had some great video to post, but I think I lost it! UGH! I did get some pictures though ... so that's good. That's the case when you have a new video camera and you think you know how it works, but then realize too late that you don't.

Anyway, the video was of a "Field Day" we went to in the village a couple days ago. It was Republic Day here, when they celebrate becoming the "Republic of India". So everywhere we saw people out playing games in the grass or dirt.

We went to the field that was in the village that's about a half hour walk from our house. They had told us the day before about having special games and races.

Here's a couple pics that I took on our walk to the field as we walked through the village:





Pretty soon after we got there, a bunch of young guys lined up and raced two times around the field. One guy took off way out ahead. He kept the lead until about the last 1/4 of the last lap. Then all the sudden he fell flat. Everyone ran over to him and picked him up and ran him off the field, he was totally unconscious. My dh went to check on him, because he had met his father before and knew who he was. He 'came to' a few minutes later. But it was amazing to see how EVERYONE was trying to help him. Getting him water, food, everyone had an opinion about where he should lay or how he should be laying down, etc... etc... That was scary seeing him being raced off the field unconscious, but it turned out good. We saw him a while later and he was up eating.

After the running races, they told us that there would be swimming races next. My first thought was, where? Every pond I saw on the way had green algae a couple inches thick on top of it! So we walked over to where the swimming races were supposed to be (yes in a pond covered in algae ... so much that I thought anyone who jumped in would float!!!) and waited.

As we were waiting, some kids told us that there were crocodiles in the other pond just 25 feet away from us. So we walk over to see.

Sure enough! They weren't crocodiles we don't think, but our oldest and our resident animal expert tells us that they were Komodo Dragons.



We saw 5 of them getting in and out of the water. They were about 8-10 feet long. Thankfully they were on the other side of the pond ... I wouldn't have wanted to get any closer to them! What was crazy, though, is that they were going to have these swimming races in the pond right next to this one!!! You would never be able to convince me that there wasn't one of those (or more!) in that pond too ... no way would I jump in there, even if it was algae free!


Well, after we had looked at the animals, I started talking to a lady, Yasmin, that had come over to where we were. Turns out she has 5 kids - all boys except the youngest one is a girl. This is exactly the same as my sister! I was so happy to find some 'common ground' with her right away. I was even able to tell her in the local language that my sister has 4 boys and 1 girl too. Funny thing is that one of her boys totally reminds us of a guy that was in our youth group. It's amazing to us how people can be a completely different culture and half way around the world, but still have very similar characteristics to people we know.

After we talked for a little while, she invited us to her house for tea. I was so excited! So we went to her house.

It was simple ... concrete walls, about 3 rooms that we saw, very little lighting, nothing 'soft' (no cushions, no pillows, etc...). She had us sit on a bed ... but that's just a wooden frame with a board on top. So we sat there and then she brought us tea and snacks. I have to figure out how she makes her tea, it was sooo good. I am sure that the cup I drank out of has never been washed in hot water and probably washed in one of those ponds ... but the tea was good!

As we were sitting there, one of the boys came in and unzipped this cover that was over a TELEVISION! I was shocked. Then they opened up this box and they had some kind of game system that had Mario Bros on it and Duck Hunt!! hahahaa!!! Our kids thought that was great ... these were even games that I knew (from the 80's!!!) so I could even help them figure out what to do. The floors were practically dirt floors, I think they were concrete, but we really couldn't tell, the walls were falling apart, there weren't any 'doors', but there they had Mario Bros. Crazy!

I was able to get a great picture of Yasmin and her kids in their home:




As I was talking to Yasmin, I figured out that she was trying to figure out if we were married! See, they don't wear wedding rings like we do in America. It depends on a woman's religious background as to what symbol she wears to show that she is married, and I didn't have any of those symbols since I am not from those religious backgrounds! So I showed her my wedding band ... and explained that this is my symbol of marriage.

Right then, I realized that this could be a great 'bridge builder' into what I believe and/or why. I was mad that I couldn't articulate something at that moment to build that bridge, but I believe that I was put in that situation to realize this potential so that I can now work on learning phrases and words and be prepared next time.

After we had tea, they took us back to the pond, but still no swimming yet. So we walked back down to the field and saw that they were doing a long jump competition. They can jump!!!



Our kids got to even participate and everyone was so nice and cheered so loudly for them when they jumped.

We decided to go the long way around to get home by taking a couple auto rickshaws. Our youngest even sat in the front seat ... he loved that!!!

It's amazing how hot it's getting here already ... the Field Day was right in the middle of the day and it was H-O-T. The humidity hasn't hit yet, so that is nice. I know those that just got blasted with all that snow probably want some warmth, so we are sending it your way!

We go to this village several times a week. Yasmin will be a great person to establish a relationship with, I am excited about that. We will see what His plan is!