monsoon madness and a message for gramma

Today at dinner Iaimon said, "I've lived in Delhi for 18 years and there has never been this much rain." Our cousins in BC might laugh in the face of a few weeks of rain, but Delhi is, like, a desert usually. Plains of Rajastan to the north and all that. I've mentioned before how it gets so dry I do stuff like sniff the cupboards to get even the tiniest whiff of damp in the hot season, yes? Well, it has been unbelievably rainy this monsoon season. And the thing is, much like a person who immigrates from a tropical country to Canada thinks, "Who needs socks? And why should I spend good money on insulation made of poisonous fluff?" folks in Delhi do not have long-term dampness plans. As such, the current innundation has resulted in major floods, mass sogginess, and sprouting mold all over the place, along with a heeeeyooooge Dengue outbreak.

Luckily, our house is relatively dry. Despite the front lawn being rice-field-ified on a daily basis, the soil drains out the water nicely. At school, I haven't been so lucky. I had a big hole in my ceiling and a bunch of water damage when I got back, which the turned into an even bigger hole that dumped a whack of concrete and rubble onto my Lego bricks after a bad thundershower. In my drama rooom, one wall has been soaked since early August and despite 3 re-paintings, halogen lights, and a dehumidifier keeps re-sprouting fresh mold blooms. No one's used to the moisture problems so the real solution is to just wait for drier weather. Waiting... waiting... waiting... Oh, and also, we're supposed to go to Rishikesh in two weeks but get this: the rock on the Ganges that we normally jump off of at a 3 metre height into the river is SUBMERGED. So, money is on the trip getting cancelled. Interesting how both times that Emma was supposed to go on the trip, it has been NOT HELD.

In the weekly round-up, Phet got back fro Lithuania on Sunday with a duffle bag full of gifts, mostly of the smoked sausage variety. What a wonderful man and father and husband! I also got three extraordinary loaves of heavy eastern european bread, and Ji got a full on wooden bow and arrow set. I'll post pics of that shortly. Seung Yi has been on one of her naughty benders and spent much of the weekend either being B-A-D or getting in trouble, or crying because she had been bad and got in trouble. The badness apex was when she knocked over a chair in anger. Gadzooks. Ji is ok but is kind of going through a phase of being a pain in the butt. He is doing some kind of early teenager thing that I am hoping we are going to beat out of him in the next few weeks. Cause I really don't need a teenager yet. Work is good, rehearsals for our play, It's A Pirate's Life for Me (read the script here), continue to go well. Patricia and I went out and bought 100$ worth of pirate swag and jewels to outfit 60 kids this week. Next week: the fabric shop for costumes!

[Delhi-20-September-2010]