What Goes Around

This is my second year of teaching Micah at home. I would be the first to tell you that I am not a great teacher. Today is one of those days that makes me feel sorry for his lack of education. I'm doing the work of teaching, but it seems like I am also doing the school work for him. He still doesn't know how to find the answers in the text very well, and I lose patience and tell him too much. Well, at least one of us is getting edurcated.

NEW DELHI: Two women, including a call-centre employee from Bangalore, were rescued by Delhi Police from GB Road in central Delhi late on Tuesday night. A visitor to the brothel had informed police about the plight of the two girls who were forced into prostitution two months ago. The victims, aged 20 and 25, have been sent to Nari Niketan after their statements were recorded. Police also arrested the brothel owner, Sharda (28). According to police, the 20-year-old call centre employee met an auto driver, Babu Lal, in Bangalore. He lured her to come to Delhi on the pretext of a better call centre job two months ago. Lal then sold her off to Sharda. The other victim, a mother of two, was also brought by Lal on the pretext of getting a job and sold off at the same brothel one month ago. The two women recently told one of their clients about their plight and asked him to inform the cops. "A raid was conducted and the two women were rescued,'' said a senior police officer. A ...

Today I rode the bus by myself!!! I didn't think I could do it, but I did. To get to the right bus, I have to cross the busy street. I now understand why Indians don't look when they cross the street. It is too scary. I saw my chance to cross the 4+ lanes of traffic and went for it. About half way across, the cars seemed to be coming faster, so I just looked ahead and ran. I didn't want to look at the cars. I seriously thought, "I may get hit by a car." But I didn't. Then I had to cross the next side. But there was a good size gap and I made it. I walked to the bus stand and waited for a bus with a familiar number to stop. None of the buses were stopping though. I guess that if you want on you have to wave the bus down. So I finally waved my hand and a bus stopped. So the bus I got on was one of the new buses. It is a nice, clean bus. I made my way to the front of the bus and stood by the driver. I asked if it was going to the neighborhood I w...

My weeks of doing the P90X seem to be longer than an actual week. Maybe more like the week that God created the world. Was it really 6 days???? So anyway, not to get side-tracked on that controversy when I have my own controversy to deal with. What if I don't do 6 days in a row of the P90X? Is it still week 6? How long do I have to do week six? No matter what week I am on, I can tell you that I am beginning to see results. Both Steve and I are very thrilled with the changes we see. Steve, being a guy, seems to have a flatter stomach faster than I do. But I am building muscle and have more stamina. I'm still not ready for my "after" pictures, but I feel confident that by 90 days (or the end of my weeks) that I will be proud to show the difference. I bet you can't wait.

Yesterday, Steve and I went on a city bus. I have only been on a handful of buses here, so it is always a bit scary for me. I watch buses all the time and it seems they don't always stop completely for people to get on and off. They also look very crowded, with bodies hanging off the outside of a bus. So my fears are that I will have to jump off a moving bus or that I won't be able to get to the exit when my stop comes. Well this ride was good. Steve and I got on a completely stopped bus. We had to stand near the front because it was so crowded. I was standing against the wheel-well and Steve was my shield. People around us were polite, not squishing into us. No one touched me. No shoving. Some people tried to make sure we knew where our stop was by asking us where we were going and letting us know when it was the next one. When we came to our stop, the bus driver came to a complete stop and waited for us to get off before he started zooming off again. Actually, h...

Imagine that you have a precious 10 year old daughter. She loves to dance in the rain, play on a swing, sing songs in the car. She brightens your day. Now imagine that she is missing. She never came home from school one day. You waited for her with a snack, but she didn't come. Imagine your panic. You call the school, you call all her friends. Your mind thinks the worst. You pray. You call the police who take forever in coming. What would you do? Now imagine that she has been missing for two weeks. The police come to talk to you at your house where you have been waiting by the phone for any good word. The police tell you that they think they know where your daughter is. They have a source that thinks they saw her in a brothel in another town. Imagine your horror at hearing this. Your precious, innocent little daughter is being forced to do horrible things with men. The police then tell you that it will be another couple of days before they can arrange for a rescue ...

When we moved into our new house, I found a bedspread in our storage that belonged to someone who left India and left their stuff with us. So I put it on the bed and loved it. I also had some curtains that kind of matched. So for once, I had a bedroom that looked a little stylish. Cute. Steve really likes to have a certain feel to his bedspreads. He goes through a lot of bedspreads because they aren't the right weight. Well apparently this new bedspread does not pass the Steve test. So he got out our old bedspread. I refuse to use the old one because it is not pretty. So now he sleeps under his and I sleep under mine. Last night when he got his bedspread out it kind of made me sad. I was enjoying the look of the room with the new one. I think that comfort should come before style so I shouldn't be sad. I totally dress for comfort and not style, so why can't I let Steve have a bedspread that is comfortable. In the end I thought that it will take away a lot of the...

It is interesting (to me anyway) how a person ends up at certain destinations in their thoughts. I'm sure that everyone takes a train of thought to their destination. I often like to know how their thoughts went from one point to another. With my sister, we often tell each other how the train journey went. Sometimes I think I end up at the funny farm. But it is only for a visit. Like today for instance. I woke up thinking about what I was going to do during the day. Pretty normal thought. So I got on the train of "what will I do today." I thought, "I would like to work out." That was all the fuel my train needed to go. This is how the train went. "I will do the Kenpo X workout. That one is hard. I will drink a protein shake afterwards. Satoshi needs protein. My shake is made of soy. I wonder if the tofu people make soy milk. I wonder how much protein is in soy. Peanut butter is a good source of protein. Hiroko could make a peanut butter ...

I have gas. Not the kind that makes noise out of your body, but the kind that we cook on in the kitchen. We finally got our gas hooked up yesterday. So I woke up this morning ready to make chai but I can't find my chai strainer thingy. A sad thing about having gas is that now we don't have the excuse to not cook. We have eaten with our friends for every meal for the last ten days. We have had some great food. Japanese Curry, Eggplant Parmesan, Spaghetti, Indian food, and on and on it goes. Now we are going to be on our own. I envision cereal, fried eggs, and maybe some toast for each meal. I can't even invite our friends over for that. Maybe I should just secretly unhook the gas and pretend it isn't working.

It is the rainy season here in India and it is living up to it. It is raining now and we are hoping to go to church. The problem with the rain here is that it floods the roads for about an hour. So if the rain doesn't stop, we run the risk of getting stuck on the road somewhere, or having it take an hour to drive to church. I am thankful for the rain. It really cools down the temperature.