A home from home

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So much has happened since I last wrote an entry that it is impossible to recount it all, much as I want to share it, so I apologise if this post seems to be a mad dash through thousands of things.
Firstly I mentioned being invited to a villagers house for tea but haven't written about it. That was certainly an experience. The villager, Krishna Devi, is what you'd call a formidable woman (she is quite frankly terrifying!) She is also, however absolutely adorable and has properly taken us under her wing. The first time we went to dinner her son in law, Anil was there who, being an English teacher in India, spoke very interesting English. Being well brought up English girls we arrived with a box of sweets for our host, who protested that it was not necessary and (as translated by Anil) it was a sign of greatness on our part! This pretty much set the tone for our visit as Anil translated Krishna's comments, which themselves were really complimentary, in such a way that made them even more over the top, bless them, it did get a bit embarassing though.
Apparently in India it is customary for the guests to eat first, which made us feel quite arkward as we were sat inside her adorable little house by ourselves. Krishna kept plying us with more and more food, and trust me you don't try to say no to a woman like Krishna, to the point where Ashleigh looked like she was about to cry she was so full. The food was really nice, mostly because it wasn't rice and overcooked cauliflower which is pretty much all we get at the nunnery because they are so poor, and the Hindi-English conversations went surprisingly well.
Since then we have become reglular guests in their household and I'd go are far to say we've been adopted into the family. This weekend it was the Baisakhi festival, which celebrates the harvesting of the wheat crop. We were invited to spend to day at Krishna's where a few village women were meeting to perform religious rituals and songs. I had such a good day, the atmosphere at Krishna's and in the village was so joyful. When we arrived we found 'a few' actually meant 30 women all sat crosslegged on the floor of Krishna's bedroom singing and clapping to the beat of a bongo drum and tamborine.
Outside the whole family had come so her sons in law and grandchildren were running around enjoying the holiday. Krishna was delighted to have us there as her 'guests of honour' especially as we were wearing salwar kameez's (the amount of joy the village women got from our wearing of the traditional clothing made even the fact that the trouser part could fit several small nuns in, with room to spare, worthwhile) we sat with them and clapped as they sang the most gorgeous, but simple, songs of praise, I really loved it. When ever I looked around the room I would catch the eye of a few more women who would have the most genuine huge smiles on their faces at the sight of us sat amoung them obviously delighted by what we were witnessing.
I also particularly loved the family side of the day. It's something you always know to be true but that still hits you every now and again when you're away from your home environment, that people really are the same where ever you are in the world. At Krishna's house on saturday I could have just as easily been at a gathering of my family. The way the different family members interact; how the older male cousins take great delight in playing with the much younger ones in a way they would never admit in public, the way the husbands don't even try to protest when their wives rope them into doing to menial tasks like dishing out the food (or fanning the honoured guests, something which is guranteed to make them feel embarassed) and the banter families have which gently ribs each person in turn. It all felt so comfortable.
When we first got there we were cornered by one uncle who spoke very good English who went on at great lengths about his views on religion as his children adn wife rolled their eyes and gave us apologetic glances as if to say "he's harmless really but you're new ears for him so he can't resist." I actually came to really like that uncle, he had a great sense of humour, in many ways he reminded me of my Uncle Will as he'd say inappropriate comments really loudly, then laugh unroariously at our confused faces as we tried to work out how to react only to realise that he was teasing us. All of them seem to have adopted us and it really felt like we were just one of the family. Anil's children Akshi and Akshit are adorable and were delighted to have new people to play with. Rajni their mother was determined we should have bangles to go with our salwars so when we went up to the village square later on where the mela was taking place she bought us some without our knowledge, she is so sweet. It doesn't only feel like we've been accepted by them, the whole village seem to have. I lost count of the number of people who, through gestures and broken english expressed their delight at our dress or wanted to but us some food or a drink, I came away that day with such a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
So to sum up, I love Tilokpur and Tilokpur seems to love me too!
We've started teaching now which I'm finding really hard. Most of the nuns I'm teaching are really adorable, especially the absolute beginners. The older ones are harder to teach as they don't seem to have much of a sense of enjoyment so making the lessons fun, but not patronising as they are pretty much all older than me, and also informative is really quite a task. I did, however, come out here for a challenge, so hard as it is I'm determined to get good at it even if that only happens by the last week.
This has turned into an epically long post as I'm in danger of turning into part of the furniture at the internet cafe. So long!

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