An Indian 4th of July

Someone recently asked me what I did last year for the 4^th of July.  I honestly couldn’t remember.  I think I let the day pass while I was in the village without even noticing.  My concept of time and day there were blurred (most probably because I couldn’t think straight from the heat!) and I don’t remember even thinking about it there.   

There are a bunch of Americans up here, so we felt it fit to have a 4^th of July celebration.  There are only a handful of us; the other people we hang out with are Canadian, French, Italian, Austrian, Indian, Pakistani, and Dutch, but we invited them anyways.  We planned it the day before and everyone was assigned to bring something.  The host, Naseem, went to the bazaar in the morning to get mutton, where he watched them kill, skin, and prepare it for him.  He got home and made it into burgers, which we planned to roast with vegetables on the fire pit in his front yard.   There are a few vegetarians, so we made some veggie burgers as well, with cheese, potato, and spices. 

It rained a bit in the afternoon, but by evening time was clear.  However, the rain dampened all the sticks we had planned to use, so our idea of a blazing fire turned into a much harder task.  We were able to get something going, but it certainly wasn’t enough for us to safely cook the meat.  We ended up using a tawa on the stove, a pan used to make chappatis, to cook the burgers on.  It worked pretty efficiently, and we were able to crank out at least 20 mutton burgers.  We had gotten locally/homemade cheese and bread from the bazaar so the burgers were great with all the fixings.  I had Naseem keep my burger on the tawa extra long because I was nervous of consuming undercooked meat (even though it was so fresh) but it was pretty good and I have felt fine all day!  We put ghee (clarified butter) in the husks of the corn and let it sit on the fire for over an hour and they still weren’t fully cooked; of course I ate it anyways. 

We sat outside in the fog of the clouds for a few hours talking about what we would all be doing in the states if we were home, and watching as mosquito hawks stupidly flew into the candles on the table.  Oh, the things that amuse us in the mountains… Overall it was a great 4^th and I was surprised when I got home to see fireworks going off across the mountain.  Today in class one of my teachers said her husband is American, and there were a lot of others in the area setting off fireworks.  Another teacher had no idea what was going on and laughed as she told the story of the night before and how she thought it was gunshots.   

Classes are still going well, overwhelming, but well.  I have them all straight in a row this week and one new guy teacher that I didn’t have last week.  I am in class straight from 1:30 to 5.  It’s not too bad because I get them all done with in the afternoon, but it’s tough to not have a break in between them this week.  My homework load is building up and getting more difficult because I am getting into higher chapters that I have not learned or reviewed since I was last studying Hindi at American Institute for Indian Studies (AIIS) in Jaipur.  It’s amazing how much I had forgotten when I wasn’t truly speaking it at school, just being tutored.  I find that my reading and writing skills are much better than my speaking and grammar.  I still lack the confidence to engage freely in conversation, so I have asked my teachers to work with me on that as well.  We start each class with a ten-minute conversation.  I have made many local friends in the area, and the local shopkeeper has been talking to me as well.  Everyone in the area knows of the language school and likes to converse with us in Hindi, so that helps too.