Sometimes....it's not all gravy, baby.

So I had a cultural misunderstanding this past weekend....I was at my host-bro's(he's more like an uncle) house because there was a party for his sons 21st birthday. My host bro invited me to come swimming with everyone, which of course 'everyone' was only the men because the women are always so shy. But they know that I'm not shy to swim and so it's always been fine that I play in the pool with them. That night though, all the men had been drinking a bit as it was a party, but no one was hammered so I figured it would be ok. My host bro was fully dressed too...so when I went to the pool all the men were at one side...some of them were in their underwear (but that's just how some of the ppl swim here). I went ahead and got in; however, the whole time I felt awkward. So I stayed on the side that was farthest from the men and closest to the house but there were still a bunch of people around. So my host sister called me out of the water and when I got out my host mom called me naughty for swimming with the boys, and slapped me on the shoulder. I wanted to cry. I showered and then went to bed. I felt super embarrassed too. It was really frustrating and its times like that when I get really frustrated that I can't read the situation fully. Ultimately,  I knew I shouldn't have gotten in the water, but at the time I just wasn't sure and just kind of went with it. That's how I get by here: by just adapting and 'going with it'. But I don't think I could explain that here. Anyways, I was able to explain myself the next day and it was ok. Plus there was tons of leftover birthday cake so it was all good and I still enjoyed visiting with all the women regardless!

Chandani's gone global....

One fine morning while at the office, a man comes by to drop off the 2011 phone books. I died of laughter/embarrassment when I found a little something at the top of column 2 on pg.122 from that phone book. Take a peek my friends.

 Random success in the office: A while back I had heard of  National Toothbrushing Day that was being supported by the Ministry of Health. I got a hold of the forms and faxed them, along with a letter explaining what it was,  to all the schools that were affiliated with my organisation. I never heard anything back from it and assumed that nothing had come of it. A few months later we received the yearbook from one of our schools...in the events section, I saw this and practically jumped for joy!