one of those dreams....

so i woke up this morning happy because i had the best dream ever....i got to date jim from the office.
it started like this....i suddenly found myself in "the office" working there. i even had on a skirt type thing with high heels. Micheal Scott hit on me first. he was all awkward and weird and i kinda turned him down but not really. jim saw the whole thing and we exchanged glances.
then jim and i were working together and he asked me to a movie and dinner. and of course i said yes...and did my flirty smile.
then i looked over and pam was glaring at me!!! she was pissed. so she walked to the middle of the office and said "i have an announcement. we have a new couple at the office. kristin and jim! everyone give a round of applause!" i got real embarrassed (yeah its still a dream) i looked over at micheal scott and he said "kristin, i thought we were going to go out?" and got that wounded look on his face.
then jim put his arms around me and said "yeah, we are the newest couple" and i beamed in happiness....and then woke up.
i really didn't want to wake up.
the thing is i haven't watched the office in months. hmmm......
i love the book i just read...."the road". i love that i felt a little sick this weekend adn i took the airborne vitamins that my mom left and i feel better. i love that today i get to go to SB. i love the other book i just read "the weekenders".

men

so on friday i went with andrew, brook, jesse and upendra to buy them lungis. they are a type of indian clothing for men.
we went to the shop and sat down. the man spoke much english and was really excited to talk with us. he then began to tell us his political views (they love politics here). He was a supporter of Obama. So is andrew and jesse so there were cheers all around.
then this man started to tell us why he liked him.
first, this man was a muslim and knew that in the past obama was associated with muslims. and then he proceeded to tell us that " also, hilary is a women and obama is superior" "men are superior both in body and in mind. if man and woman have competition man will always win. of course there are some exceptions...margaret thachter, indria gandhi, but mostly men are superior to women"
and of course....we all just stared at this man in disbelief and anger...did he really just say that???? did he really just say that men are superiour both in mind and body????
i took a deep breath tried to reason with the man and then let it go. me arguing with this man woouldnt help...at one point he asked us "did what i say upset you all?"
it made me realize how far women have to come and how far we have come. it makes me so thankful for men who respect me and honor me and treat me like equals. it made me realize how i have a choice to let men be leaders in my life and speak into my life....i sumbit to men and their leadership not because they are men, but because i respect them and want to submit...its like that with whatever leadership i have to submit to....male or female. i don't think of myself as a super super strong feminist....until my choice to be or not to be is taken away, until a man asserts his power over me just because he is a man. that really makes me realize what is inside of me. it gave me an insight in to how sometimes (and most certainly not all men here) might view women. it make me realize why our ladies at SB are just so freakin amazing for being willing to fight this.
pray for that man. he was actually rather kind and charming in someways.
i love that jesse and andrew were just as shocked as we were. il ove that i feel like the older i get the more confident i feel. i love that i feel like i have treasures locked inside my heart of lessons that i have learned but have yet to teach yet. i love that God values women as equally as men. i love that there are married couples who i see have reached that fine balance with the opposite sex on respect and submission and love.

nepali cousins

so this past week was crazy!!! we got to participate in the "Healing Hands" training seminar. it was a week long (well in our case only four days due to the strike in kolkata) training event that trains people who are working with women and children who have come out of trafficking. it was really really great but also really intense. its hard to think about all that stuff, all day long, but it was really amazing.
and...it was also amazing because our neapli staff got to come down and stay with us for a week....Brook, Andrew and Jesse. so when we weren't at the conference or sari bari, we were hanging out, having amazing conversations, and laughing. they are such exceptional people.....like those people who are just so cool that i can't believe that they want to be friends with me. they are going to change the world. they love Jesus so much and care about justice so much. so.....props to the nepal staff....i already miss you guys.

i love easy cheese. i love playing boggle. i love that today i am not going to leave my house until dance class. i love that a crow is sitting outside my window staring at me. i love my "silver" earrings from america have tarnished and made yellow puss come out of my earring hold. i love that my dad and ann sent me florida gator clogs.

sometimes i really love this place

sometimes my heart swells in affection for this place. i mean...its 100 degrees here right now so most of the time my heart is not filled with so much love for Kolkata. but i have these moments. like today.
i was walking to dance and looked up. kolkata has the most amazing architecture. there is this old beautiful white apartment building that is just amazing....like more amazing then anything i see in the states. its just so old and so full of history.

then i was going to the market and met this old lady in the sweet shop. she was soooo cute. she told me that she sees me everyday and then started giggling. she asked me where i was from and i told her america....then i say the joke that never gets old and never fails to make the Bengali's laugh "what country are You from?". everyone laughed. (i can work a crowd folks)

then on the way home from the sweet shop/ slash market i saw a man acting more natural then i have seen in a long time. he was listening to music and had his left leg propped up on a cement wall. he was listening to some music and when i walked by he started hitting his butt to the beat of the music and giving the this weird "check me out" look. i laughed.
so that is why i was feeling the love today.

i love the book world without end....it makes me want to be more clever and wise. i love that i am reading a nutrition book and it reminds so much why i love science and nutrition. i love that what we eat really, truly makes a difference in ourl ives. i love that i can't wear the new stylish big sunglasses i bought because it makes my eyes sweat.

random happiness

i really love my dance class. its really full at this point...about 15 of us in this rather small room. currently we are learning a jazz routine (i really don't like it at all) and a hip-hop routine (which i love). I find dancing to be a challenge and i am having a lot of fun and find it quite humbling. i find still that what i want to look like in my mind dancing (aka shakira or janet) is not really reality yet...in fact i am happy if i can nail more then 7 dance steps in a row!!!

and my dance teacher is cool. her name in Mon Chu. she is this petite little thing who dances sooo good. she is pretty much a mini asian shakira. she is my indian dance idol. sometime i pretend i look as cool as her.

and today i got a picture of my niece...her name is olivia....isn't she cute!!!

other random happy news...our friend blessed us with some money to go and have a nice night at a hotel...so we are going for a night at the tollygunge club. A/C here we come!!!

i love that india really is such an amazing country. i love that sometimes i can really laugh at myself. i love my vanilla incense from nepal. i love putting my christmas light on, my bangladesh lamp, pouring me a class of wine and putting on my smooth mix from my itunes which consist of greats like nora jones and billy holiday. oh the goodness.

lady bird takes flilght

so i got a bike for my birthday which was on September 30th, i took me a little bit to buy some plastic so i could store it downstairs and the day that i had planned to ride it was the day i woke up with that viral fever that made it painful to move. then i was sick with that for three months. after i was getting better i again planned on take the lady bird for her first flight, and the day i did that....the tires were flat. so then it took me about a month or two to find a way to pump up my tires. then i got that done and then i found out the two plastic pieces i had saved to cover my bike got thrown away so i had to wait another day but beth happened to have a huge plastic bag in her room that was perfect for the bike....at points in the journey with my lady bird i felt like some unknown force was not letting me ride my bike!!!
but the waiting is over....my purple lady bird bike is now in full commission. i took it our on tuesday and plan to ride it again tomorrow!!! here are some pics from my b-day. oh so true....lady bird is a true friend
its a pretty sweet ride if i do say so myself.
this would be me acting natural next to the lady bird bike.
lady bird rules!!!
i love that beth and sarah got me a bike for my birthday complete with a bell and basket. i love that a bike gives me freedom. i love that today i am so tired but will get up in the morning to ride my bike for sure. i love that even though i am 31 i still need my mom's help to get my taxes done. i love that i really hate planning the details of things. i love that court is faithful in her commenting on my blog!!!

interesting people

i meet really cool people here. i met a girl who sky dives to relax and owns her own parachute (obviously she doesn't sky dive in india), a girl who is the youngest of 8 and has six half siblings and one full brother so its kinda like the brady bunch, a college kid who grew up in Taiwan and speak mandarin, a women who pulls out her own teeth, on of our friends who is marrying a bengali pastor, a young bengali pastor who fell in love with the red-light area and now wants to give his life there, a crazy women who believes that she has had a baby in her stomach for the past 20 years. and on some really fun news my sister in law is going to have a girl!!!! wahoo!!! i am going to have a niece!!!
never a dull moment here folks.
i love having freshly shaved legs. i love that i rode my bike this morning after owning it for 6 months!!! i love my freeset bag. i love having a cup of coffee with lots of milk and sugar in the morning. i love that so far april has been so pleasantly not hot. i love that my dad is a staunch republican.

again??

the day i wrote the last blog about kiran the same day she was getting down from a rickshaw and a bicycle ran over her on the leg that she has been having all the problems on.
i feel like i am on a roller coaster here a lot of the times. yesterday was on of those days where i though that things will never change. we have been working with this one lady for years now and she keeps saying she will do things and then doesn't do them and we end up wasting our time. then we feel bad for getting angry. but i am learning that i treat people like victims still. i think that this is just as de-humanizing as treating them like objects. they need to be held accountable and need people to be tough with them just like we do. i am learning that its okay to get angry with some of the ladies we know....of course its not okay to take our anger out on them in an unhealty way but they are humans, just like me. and i can make people mad and irritated on a daily basis!!! so that is a healthy insight into the fact that we are all humans. we all need people to kick our butt sometimes. in fact, God created us to be in relationships sometimes to help give us a healthy kick in the butt sometimes!!!
so, I have to remember that God is bigger than all this crap i see around me. His love is bigger than my anger, my sin and anyone elses stuff. We one day will see S and her family free from the tentacles of the sex trade.
I love that M got up at 5 am did our dishes and has fallen back asleep. i love that God took care of me when i over scheduled. i love that beth and i tried to make bengali food for our bengali friends and well....it kinda flopped. i love that know that i am older its really hard for me to over scheduled and remain a nice sweet human. i love that last night there was this amazing thunder storm so now...on April 4th we are sitting here with no fans on because its that cool!!!!

spiritual attack

ever since most of our staff has been working for us they have dealth with an increase in sickness and family troubles. but yesterday something happened that was so random that maybe it wasn't random??
beth kiran and i were walking to the gatch. on omonday afternoons we go to the nepali brothel. one of the darkest brothels in the gatch. we are friends with the owner there and have made friends with some of her girls.
as we were walking down this side road.(still 5 minutes from the gatch) out of no where a rock falls and lands on kiran's head. its a side road so its not that crowded and there was only five of us but this random rock fell from somewhere and bonked kiran in the head. of course she was totally taken off guard. however, it didn't bleed or knock her out and we went to the gatch and that brothel and had an amazing conversation with a customer. the next day her head and her face was a little swollen, but she is okay.
so pray for our staff. they are so freakin awesome and endure hardships that i am unable to understand. pray for their safetly and health.
ilove how worshiping God takes away darkness' power. i love that it has rained in the past 48 hours and the weather is still relatively cool for this time of year. i love my room right now...all the windows wide open, an amazing breeze.....its one of my favorite things about living in india.

it was one of the craziest things i have seen in a while.