Things I have forgotten to mention

We were nearly crushed by a bus today. Alright, so that’s not something I have forgotten to write about, but it was scary! Marc and I were on our way in a good ‘ol motor rickshaw to meet up with Dave and Anna at the Bakery, and we have the slowest one on the road. It’s puttsing along at about 20 km/hr and the bus right beside us decides it wants to be in our lane. No one has side mirrors, it’s every man for himself. Our driver tried to gun it to get passed, but this tin can we’re in has no guts whatsoever, the bus is about three inches from our left side, and the two foot curb is also inches away as usual. I thought we were going to die. At the last second he slams on the brakes and the bus clears our front end by a few millimeters, sending my heart into my throat and down again, all the while racing at approximately 400 km/hr. Our driver goes on as if nothing has happened.

Alright, on to other things that have somehow slipped my mind or been skipped due to the entry getting to lengthy.

We had the opportunity to go to a Divali Maila a few weeks ago, and took it, just to see what the fuss was about. And to grab some good shopping opportunities as well :). A Maila, pronounced may-la, is akin to a fair, but fewer rides, more stalls selling tons of crap, and really bad food. Oh, and no cotton candy which bummed us out. Anyway, these rides consisted of a large ferris wheel, a Viking boat type thing that swings back and forth, a hang-glider one and a bunch of kiddie rides. The Viking boat looked frightening. Not because of how it was built, so much as how people were allowed to ride it. Let’s just say there were no safety regulations, harnesses, anything. People were standing on the ends, edges, and backs of seats, holding onto the crossbeams. Very frightening. So we went on the ferris wheel! Better idea? Apparently not. We sat in baskets with a safety bar on one of the two sides, not strapped in, nothing. And it went FAST. The lady who was in our basket with her three year old daughter on her lap, freaked right out and started crying and trying to hide in my lap. Better yet, we were last in line to get on, and were made to wait on the platform, mmmm six inches from the wheel careening past us at 100 miles an hour. No joke. I was freaked. Fun times!

If you recall there was a previous post about playing with the street kids last week. One of the games we played was the token “Duck-Duck-Goose”. We can’t go wrong with that right? Haha, wrong! One of the kids manages to get Marc up, and he’s going around and around and around the circle taping kids on the head, obviously assessing as he goes who hasn’t had a chance, and who looks as though they may like one. Out of 20 kids in our circle, he “gooses” the one little girl with only one leg. You couldn’t tell when she was kneeling! She proceeds to hop up, and chase him down. And might I say, for a little thing with only one leg, man could she move!! She nearly caught him too. It was truly amazing. She was the sweetest thing as well. Really good sport, and the cutest smile. We had a good laugh at Marc’s decisiveness, and discretion in his choice of rival.

We went to see a very silly Bollywood movie a few nights ago called Om Shanti Om. It was mostly in Hindi except a few choice phrases which they put in English. And there really is no rhyme or reason as to what they chose to put in English either. Example, “first flight out” and most of the profanity. Odd, and three hours long with an intermission. A fairly typical Bollywood flick! You can most likely google it or type in the title on you tube and see previews.

I have to go, it’s late, and Anna fell asleep on the couch :). So sweet!