The Colony

Many people often ask us what it is like to live here. It’s a very hard thing to describe because everyone starts with a preconceived idea in his or her head. Some people who support us envision us in some sort of thatch-roofed hut in a small village where we have to hunt for our food. There are a few places in the world still like that, but I would have to guess it is a small percentage of the world’s population. In many countries people have traded in their straw huts for something I think is even worse: little concrete and tarpaulin hovels lined up in rows of thousands all around the developing world’s major cities (think Slumdog Millionaire). Other people though seem to envision us in a slightly poorer version of America. They are surprised to hear we have huge water, electricity, and gasoline shortages. They can’t imagine that most people don’t have refrigerators, central heating, clothes dryers, ovens, or even clean drinking water. After all, how do you live without those things? With the exception of the drinking water, amazingly, you can live quite well without all those “necessities.”

The other day we were watching the first episode of a show called “The Colony.” It was a free download on iTunes, and I can’t pass up something free. It’s a Discovery Channel show that is an experiment to see how 10 strangers manage living together in a post-apocalyptic world. They suppose a major natural disaster, terrorist attack, or epidemic disease has wiped out the vast majority of the world’s population, and now these ten volunteers are going to live in an abandoned warehouse for 10 weeks to see how they survive. They have to scavenge for food, live off the grid, and protect themselves against attacks from roving marauders (of course, on motorcycles). As we were watching the show, a surprising thought came into our heads, “Hey, this is like living in South Asia!”

So here are some similarities:

- They made the 10 volunteers arrive at the warehouse sleep deprived. Ever travel half way across the world? 20-22 hours in an airplane, another 10 hours in airports going through security checks? That’s sleep deprivation.
- They have to collect water from the polluted L.A. River to wash their clothes, cook with, and to flush their toilets. That’s pretty much how most of the world gets their water, except many of the rivers in the developing world are much more polluted than the L.A. river.
- The volunteers have to filter and boil all their drinking water. Yeah… us too. For more that just ten weeks. How about all the time?
- Since there is no electricity, the colonists gather together a bunch of car batteries and a power inverter they just happen to find laying around to run some lights in their warehouse. That is called an Uninterrupted Power Supply system or U.P.S. Many middle class families in South Asia have those for their houses. After all we do have 16 hours of no power every day in winter months. Oddly enough, we don’t have one because they are too expensive!
- On one of the first couple days of the experiment, the survivors were blessed with a heavy rain, and they scrambled around filling containers with rainwater. We fill up every bucket we have every time it rains, and just like on the show, we also put buckets under the downspouts.
- The roving motorcycle marauders attack the colony and try to steal their resources. Every week we hear about another foreigner getting their laptops stolen. So every night we have to secure our perimeter and keep all our valuables locked up. Who knows, maybe the thieves here also drive motorcycles.

All these things made us laugh. I kept thinking, “I would do really well on this show.” Then, the colonists cracked open a branded can of Spaghetti-O’s with meatballs and complained about their dinner options. Are you kidding me? Some days I think I would give my left arm for a family-sized can of Spaghetti-O’s!

Our Disappearing Neighbors

South Asians wake up early--way to early for me! Every morning the city comes to life shortly after five in the morning. By six o'clock, the little lanes around our house are alive with people fetching water, and there is a great symphony of the sounds of dishes clanging together, dirty laundry being beaten against stones, and the loudest of all dogs barking for the sake of barking. By 6:30, some kids are already on their way to school or to their extra "tuitions" (study groups) before school. All this happens everyday without fail for about nine months a year, but during the monsoon things change.

We have had a very poor monsoon this year, but on those occasional days when it rains all night through the mid morning, a drastic change happens to the morning routine. Two days ago I was standing out on our terrace at about eight o'clock (the earliest I would ever like to be out of my house) as a light rain was continuing to fall on the city. As I looked around, I noticed every house had its doors and windows tightly closed up. Our neighborhood was quiet. There were no traffic sounds. No washing, cooking, or water fetching could be seen or heard, and even the dogs mercifully had ceased their barking. Plus, our naughtiest cat decided to take the morning off for a sleep-in as well!

Now that's what I call a good morning.

Fridge Clean Out

Do you ever have those days where you just need to eat all the leftovers in your fridge? Ours tends to be either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. So, what was on the menu today?

Lunch: Cream of Chicken/Tomato Soup & Taco Salad
Dinner: Chicken Stroganoff/Leftover Pot Roast Vegetables & Pancakes

Random! We feel great knowing that the only thing left in the fridge is our lunch for tomorrow.

Be Still

A few evenings ago, I sat on our balcony some time just before sunset. As I sat there gazing at the beautiful colors painted across the sky, I began to notice other finer details in the world around me. A gentle evening breeze that swayed the trees and flushed away the heat of the day, a small dog yipping in the distance, a neighbor's pans clinking as she washed them in the sink. In that moment, all I wanted to do was be still, to be quiet and rest before our Great God. I began thinking of how often my life, our lives, are filled to the brim with junk, busyness, and noise. When was the last time we switched everything off in order to listen to Him in the stillness? If you recall, when the Lord came to Elijah, he was not in the wind, the fire, or the earthquake, but in the still silence. Perhaps all the things, they may even be inherently good things, inhibit our ability to listen. I've often wondered what the song "Take Time to Be Holy" really means. Does it mean to be more careful to be perfect? I think maybe sitting quietly before the Lord is taking time to be holy, allowing Him to mold us in His presence.

After my own reflections that evening, I wanted to challenge others to listen, to switch off the television, radio, computer, and all other distractions, and just listen. Take a quiet walk one evening or sit on your patio to think and to listen. Resist the urge to plan, organize, or do anything else but listen. Maybe we'll hear what we've been waiting for.

The “Five Second” Rule

Recently, in a conversation with a friend, I discovered that the “five second” rule is not only prevalent in our home country, but also in this part of the world. Apparently, doctors even believe in this magic rule, as a physician is the person who told my friend about the rule. I explained to the lady that we also have the same funny practice, but most people know that it has no validity, especially if they’ve seen “Food Detective” with Ted Allen on the Food Network. They tested the theory and found that it is generally only applicable to dry, hard candy.

A few days after we had this conversation, the same lady and I were chatting in my kitchen when she accidentally knocked a bag of Cheetos-ish chips onto the floor. Since the bag had already been opened, the little puffs shot everywhere across the room. This lady’s face was priceless. With excited big eyes she bounced down to the floor and exclaimed, “Quick, quick! Five seconds!” in the local language as she feverishly collected the scattered chips. Then, she rolled the bag back up and returned it to its place. I tried very hard to suppress my laughter and nearly forgot about the incident until I remembered the story a few days later. As I began telling P.J. and his mom about it, I discovered that he finished the bag of chips shortly after the incident without knowing they had once been strewn all over the floor. Yuck!

So…I guess the rule applies somewhat after all since he’s still with us.

July 4th on American Soil

Most American embassies all around the world open their doors to American expatriates every July 4th to celebrate the independence gained over 200 years ago. Yesterday we had a fantastic time with our fellow Americans celebrating that independence with barbeque, watermelon eating contests, live music, football (and yes, I mean real American football), and a lovely array of imported American goodies like Doritos and Cherry Coke.

About 500 of us gathered at the embassy's American club situated in the heart of the city. Once you step through the gates, and the very serious security, you are officially on American soil; and it feels like it. Large open fields of beautifully manicured grass, nice wide sidewalks, a proper parking lot with spaces marked off with white lines (the only one you will find in this country), and even its own grocery store full of American goods.

It was a nice break from life here. Today is the 5th, and it's back to work. Only 364 more days till the next time we step back on American soil on July 4, 2010.

On another note, Naomi has now officially lived longer outside of the U.S. than in it. She has adjusted well to her international life. Hopefully her little brain is learning two languages at the same time. She enjoys the local food and loves all the attention of the local people who don't see many little white babies. People gush over her and call her things like queen, dolly, and princess. They buy her things when we are at stores (such as apples) and love to carry her around and take pictures of her on their cell phones. We are just worried about when we come back to the U.S. and she is no longer the center of everyone's attention wherever we go; now that will be culture shock!

Harley-Davidson's V-Rod

Harley V-Rod: Now that's a manly motorcycle name. Or Honda Goldwing, or a Harley Dyna, Softtail, or Sportster. They aren't trying too hard. They are good, solid--even iconic--motorcycle names.

So why am I talking about motorcycle names? I hope to inspire the South Asian marketing and development departments of Honda and Yamaha. Driving in South Asia is extremely exciting. The roads are as narrow as sidewalks in the U.S. If there are rules, no one obeys them, and the greatest game played on the road is "how many vehicles can we fit into one lane." These are prime conditions for motorcycles, and because of this, they far outnumber cars.

So what's the problem? The newest motorcycle names coming out these days sound like great names for little girl bicycles, you know the ones with the pink tassels falling from the handlebars. So let me share some of these names with you. Honda has a few sporty new bikes out like the Glamour, the Splendor, the Passion, and the Karizma. I mean, seriously. Who wants to say "I ride a Glamour." These are all bikes marketed towards 20-30 year old men, and it works since there are thousands of these here. Yamaha isn't much better. They have the Alba (What like Jessica Alba?). They also have the Libero. Honda definitely takes the cake with the Honda Unicorn! Unicorn!?!

It sounds pretty manly to say, "Yeah, I think I am going to take the ol' V-Rod out for a ride." You sound like an eight-year-old girl to say, "I think I am going to take my Unicorn out for ride."

If you are listening to me, marketing departments, remember that if all else fails, keep it simple and follow Yamaha US's lead. Just name bikes things like the R1 and the R6; not amazing names, but at least they don't sound like you are riding off to a tea party with stuffed animals.