Wandering Browns

Being here is made so much easier by the loads of friendly people we have met. Let me expound: 1. The employees of the Residency: I know these boys are probably just doing their jobs, but I'm pretty sure their jobs don't include fighting off a toddler who wants to help clean the toilet and sweep the floors. The cleaning boys and restaurant boys are probably between the ages of 18-25, and LOVE Landon. Since Landon can open the door to our room, if he's awake, he wants to be outside of the room. The room cleaning boys help corral him, carry him, chase after him, and let him go in their office. They take pictures of him on their cell phones and let him help them sweep, mop and clean rooms. They always greet me with a smile. The restaurant workers have to clean up after Landon after each meal, and still they like him. One in particular even put on a children's show on the TV so Landon could be entertained during the meal. Some of them will watch him as he runs away from ...

It has been 21 months since I have given birth for the first time, and this blog post has been simmering in my head since then. If you are just a little curious and don’t want to read this whole thing, I will sum up: In general, I find that when it comes to labor and delivery of a baby, many women are resigned to the fact that it is going to be a gut-wrenching, horrific, unbearable, painful experience. That there is a need to fear it, and that if you don't have all the medical interventions offered, you will probably not make it through it at all. Western culture, especially in the media, has perpetuated this view of labor and delivery. First a little bit of research. It has been found that the biggest predictor of a women's experience with labor pain is her level of confidence in her ability to cope with labor . Having continuous support during labor decreases use of pain meds and increases satisfaction with the birth experience(2). The labor and delivery process is beau...

While here in India, I write my blog and read books in my free time. There is not good enough internet to watch any shows and the TV would wake up Landon. So, I have been reading a lot. I am trying to read books that take place in the country that I am living in. I have read two books so far, and both were very good non-fiction books that did not seem like non-fiction. I borrow them from my library in Elk Grove and read them on my computer. I recently read the book Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. This caught me right away because I saw the slums in Mumbai. This is non-fiction, but reads just like a novel as it follows many characters that lived in Annawadi, a slum by the Mumbai airport. Many workers flooded the city looking for work when they started working on the new Mumbai International terminal (the one I was impressed with when we first got here). They didn’t have anywhere to live, so they started squatting on the airport land. It...

Landon with his basket. I think he was excited!  Easter is not a huge holiday here in India. Although there are Christians, and a Catholic school and church in Jamnagar, there was no Easter candy or baskets or really anything that indicated that there was any major holiday going down in the Reliance mart. Most of the people here are Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Sikh, etc. Not celebrating Christ's resurrection at any rate. So, Easter was a little different for us this year.  Silk top and leggings from Reliance mart Another bandhi outfit- this one has the white dots at the bottom of the pants only, as well as the design on the shirt, which is made of linen vs. silk Enjoying his new bus coloring the egg The final result Easter morning, I did a special Easter nursery lesson with Landon prior to Austin getting home. We sang Easter songs and learned about how Jesus was resurrected. We waited for Austin to get home for awhile, went to breakfast, stole a har...

This post is for my sister, Claire, who loves to take close up pictures of flowers wherever we go. Last Sunday, Landon and I took a nature walk through the villas of the fancy part of Reliance Greens. First, we saw a whole bunch of peacocks, and Landon thinks their noises sound like cats, so he starts to meow. He also can say "peacock!" it sounds likes "gagock!" Then I got down to business and took pictures of the flowers. These are just some of my favorites/ones that I have not seen before in the U.S.: These are like the white tropical flowers that I have seen made out of foam on hair clips, except these are pink and white. They are all over the parks and out front of the recreation center. Here is t he front of the Residency  where we are staying Here is the inside of the lobby of the residency- pretty nice! This flower is so interesting- the spines are REALLY poky, and then these delicate little round pink flowers on top So m...

When Austin told me that he met the resident elephant, and that it was across the highway at the refinery, I was saddened. I wanted to see the elephant! So, imagine my surprise when Landon and I were walking back from the store the other day and there it was! Elephant with a bell around its neck walking down the street being led by a handler. We crossed the street to go back to the guesthouse, and the elephant passed within a few feet of us. I stopped walking so the elephant wouldn't think we were charging it or anything. I think I was more excited than Landon. Hi elephant! Don't charge me please! Sorry for interrupting your dinner! The big evidence! Side view it was talking to the trainer guy, obviously Just then a plan formulated in my head. We were about 5 minutes walk from the guesthouse. I would go grab our good camera, and Landon and I would go on an elephant hunt! We would track the elephant and take pictures. I headed towards the zoo because I thought t...

We decided to try for one excursion every week, now that Austin has 2 nights off in a row. Tuesday, we set out with Austin's co-worker Curt to go see the Marine National Park. Our driver took us there, it was about 40 minutes away. Online it was advertised that we could see dolphins, sea turtles, octopi, among other creatures. It is the only place in the world where you can walk around and see coral. We didn't see dolphins or turtles or octopi, but I'm hoping for next week for the turtles when we go to the beach! This is what it looked like, as far as the eye could see, until it was just open ocean Blue Coral My cute boys looking at a crab... I love their faces! Coral on a rock The Brown family! Landon wandering the sands sculpted by the tide Landon loved dad's shoulders! Dad and Landon hold a crab!  So the guide would flip over rocks, find stuff, tell us the name, let us hold them and take pictures, and move on. Landon got to to...