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Happy 60th Indian Republic Day. Seeing as today was a holiday I had no class, and was able to spend my morning leisurely chatting with my parents and watching the parade in Delhi on TV. Around 9am the Fathers took me up to the balcony, which is three stories high and has a great view of Raiganj Street. Two of the servants were already up there, and they were preparing to hoist the flag. I don’t know if I have ever heard raising a flag called hoisting, but it seems to be the common turn of phrase in India. It was actually pretty funny to watch the four grown men argue in Bengali and decide where to attached the pole, where to tie the rope, and how to hoist the flag. I stood in the back and giggled to myself. I took a picture and mentally captioned it: How many men does it change to hoist a flag, four!  Once the pole was tied up, Father Herman folded it, and they filled the folds with marigold and pink flower petals. They wrapped the rope around the balled up flower filled flag (what I later discovered to be called a floral salute, at least I think I am remembering that right) and only when the flag was at the very top did the ball unravel and the flower petals come fluttering to the ground. They all clapped and then began singing the Indian National Anthem. It was really cool to be able to experience patriotism from another countries perspective. Especially after they joined me to watch Obama be inaugurated. It seemed like an appropriate swapping of patriotic traditions.
Today I went with the family I had dinner with on Saturday to a village for a picnic/fishing adventure. Father Herman came along, and we had lots of fun joking around. The family is composed of the father, mother, daughter, Neha in 7th grade and son, Anup in 4th grade. First we toured the petroleum plant that the father works at. We met his boss and saw his office, and then toured were they fill up the petrol for kitchen uses. It was really cool seeing how it worked, and the grounds were full of very bright flowers. Then we drove the rest of the way to the village, and met a friend of the families, who also works at the petroleum plant. It was his family that was hosting our picnic/fishing adventure. Father and I had stopped at the sweet shop before we left to pick up some treats to take as presents. (And ever since Ruchi pointed out how close the sweet shop is to Caritas, I have been a frequent customer. The sweets in West Bengal are famous in India, and for good reason!) Father gave me the individually wrapped chocolate candies we bought, and told me to pass them out to the children. He said it would be more exciting if the ‘fair skinned’ girl handed them out! So I first gave them to the five children in the family, and then Neha and I walked out front of the house and gave the chocolates to a large crowd of children that was developing out front. At first the children were very noticeably frightened of me, but after I coaxed one of them to take the sweet all of the others were quick to follow. As we went back into the courtyard of the family that was hosting us, I noticed that there were quite a few small heads poking up over the wall, starring at me. 
Then it was time to fish. As we were standing outside, admiring the pond and waiting for the fishing supplies to be made (bamboo sticks with string attached), the crowd of children followed us. And about five minutes into our waiting I saw children running towards us from down the path. At first I thought there was just a few, but they just kept coming. A few more minutes into our wait and I swear there were at least 50 children standing around looking at me. They would look at me, until I smiled at them or made eye contact, and then they would turn away quickly. It was pretty cute. The day was pretty overcast, foggy and cold, so the fish were not biting at our poles. Although I quite enjoyed the fishing, regardless of not catching any fish. The village family father came out with his net, and showed us how they fish with their nets. The net was really cool, weighted down by stones in just the right areas. I will post pictures soon, but it was so cool. He would wind up and then throw and this net would fly open and a circle about 20 feet wide would ker-splat in the water. He caught around 8 fish this way, so it was more effective, efficient and not to mention really cool to watch. During this time I was also chatting with Neha about an upcoming photo competition at school and playing around with Anup. Anup and I were playing tag, chasing after one another and I had a blast acting like a 10 year old! Their family (Neha and Anup’s) is really welcoming – and I enjoyed every minute of the day spent joking around, laughing and smiling so much my cheeks hurt.
The family that was hosting us served us lunch, which was very good. They were very insistent that we took seconds, thirds, and fourths! The meal was rice in some sauce, cooked cabbage and spinach, grilled brinjol, chicken in gravy, cucumbers, fish in gravy, and a very thin crispy tortilla shaped food that I have had twice before and really enjoy. Nothing was too spicy and I enjoyed the chicken gravy mixed with the rice. Although since Indian food is spicier than American food, it turns my lips red whenever I eat something spicy. I think it must just be because my skin in sensitive, and it doesn’t hurt, it just looks like I’m a small child who found her mothers red lipstick and smeared it all over my lips. I tried out my new graciousness tactics, by expressing my enjoyment of the food in my enthusiastic eating and only saying thank you when we left. Overall it was a great picnic/fishing adventure and I took lots of documenting photos 
This evening I successfully finished another Sudoku (although its Monday and they are the easiest on Monday) while Father Herman did the Jumble. We tried to get Slumdog Millionaire to work again, but failed. Which was a bummer, but what can you do. Father Herman and I read the horoscopes in the Sunday paper, and mine was to not be influenced by any negativity around me. All day we were making jokes about him being negative and my not being influenced (particularly about the cold and dreary weather, which I continued to say would improve in minutes). Another favorite anecdote of the day is when Anup asked Father Herman how he was, and Father said, better than you. It was really random and Anup didn’t know how to respond at first, but in the end we all ended up joking. It was a much more creative answer then the usual ‘fine’. For dinner we ordered a few special foods from the market, to celebrate Republic Day. They were delicious and we also had fried brinjol for dinner, which is one of my favorites (brinjol is like eggplant, but not purple).
Tomorrow Father Puthumai arrives back in Raiganj and it will be good to have him back. Class starts up tomorrow and I will go and pick up my saree in the afternoon. I will also go to the bank and the shoe store for some basic flip flops to wear with my saree. It is a good feeling to have errands to run, it makes me feel independent, established and self-sufficient. Sending my love to all