The town in the clouds

                It’s a foggy Saturday morning here in Dharamsala and the power has been out in the whole town for three hours now. Luckily I charged my laptop yesterday! I’m a little bummed that I can’t have my daily mocha latte at Café Du Ban and read emails from all the lovely people at home. But, the lack of power has given the town a slowed down vibe to it. I was out on the streets earlier and it was quieter than I’ve experienced so far. The fog often clings to this town and throughout the day I get the feeling that Dharamsala is a town in the clouds. This morning especially, the clouds seemed to drift through the streets with me and it was peaceful. Now I’m in my bed vowing to have a relaxing Saturday since I don’t have any of my projects today. I honestly cannot remember the last time I simply relaxed.

                Hopefully this post doesn’t reveal my extreme fatigue via typos or incoherent sentences. Apparently, Dharamsala wanted to keep me awake last night. Ellie and I were feeling a little restless and went out for beer. When we came home it was ten and we were both exhausted. We were sitting up chatting in our beds when I saw a mouse run across the room and take cover under the table next to my bed. Though I’ve never seen this happen, I kept picturing that the mouse was going to crawl up my curtains and jump in to my bed while I slept. So, I was awake all night listening for the mouse to scurry my way. However, I never heard the mouse. What I heard was cats fighting. Loudly. All night. When I finally fell asleep I woke up to someone throwing up in the house connected to ours. We can hear everything that they do in the bathroom because though separate houses, the bathrooms are connected and there is a huge cut out where the wall meets the ceiling.

                After a sleepless night, I ate some eggs and biscuits that our cook must have made right before the power went off and I rushed to get a mocha only to find that our house isn’t the only place without electricity, it’s the whole town. Oh well, I’m too excited to move into the room and bathroom downstairs today to let sleepiness and a lack of power get me down. I’m very glad I learned how to pee in a squat toilet, I think that skill will get me far in life. But, I’m glad that I will barely have to do that anymore as my new bathroom has a “western toilet!”

                Yesterday was pretty mild. I had a nice morning with the kids in lower Dharamsala. They loved the memory game that I brought with me. I brought my camera and they were ecstatic to get their picture taken. I was actually surprised at the excitement these photos elicited. One boy came up to me and said “you take picture and print it and frame it and we paste on the wall!?” I told him that was a wonderful idea and that I would do what I need to in order to get that photo printed. I haven’t seen anywhere here that develops photos so someone from home might need to develop it and mail it in a frame.

                After my morning at the childcare center, Ellen, Ellie, and I went to an Indian kitchen for lunch. Oh wow, it was good. We had paneer tikka masala and malai kofta. Paneer is an indian cottage cheese that holds its texture very well and is cubed and served in different sauces. Malai kofta is some sort of food ball situation. Haha, every time I have it here it tastes different. My best guess is that it’s packed cashews, cornmeal, lots of cardamom, and other crazy spices which are fried in balls and served in bowls of sauce. It has almost a sweet taste to it and tastes fabulous over rice. During lunch Dhondulp called my cell phone and said that he had to cancel our session because someone died and he had to pray. I’ll be able to find out more Monday, I hope it wasn’t someone close to him who died. So, I spent a lot of time researching and planning games and activities to do with my kids next week.

                When Ellie was done her teaching session, we went to Seed Café which is my new favorite spot. The view is incredible. It’s situated on the edge of the mountain and has giant windows that make up three of the four walls from floor to ceiling. While I’m using their wifi I often find myself distacted by the view. Mountains dotted with architecturally exotic houses, clouds drifting by and even coming in the windows, lots of lush green….  The tables sit low to the ground and are surrounded by pillows. You take your shoes off at the door. Oh how I love to be barefoot and Dharamsala provides me with so many places that I can ditch my constricting footwear! The rain that came while we were at Seed provided me with a whole new meaning for the word “deafening.” The sky just seemed to open up and want to suddenly rid itself of every drop of moisture. It came down in such thick sheets that suddenly there was nothing to be seen beyond the windows of the café. The water pounded furiously on the tin roof and Ellie and I just kept looking at each other because the noise was so loud that we weren’t even going to try to talk over it.

                After about an hour, the clouds dispersed and we were able to get home without getting wet. We found ourselves home just in time for another dinner of rice and veggies. I went upstairs and scarfed down some peanut butter…