Finding the Funny

Happy September 1, from these bathing beauties.

My #1 mom goal this year is to go until mid-term break without a single stain on James' school shirts. But it requires a lot of time and Shout stain removal, which they don't sell here in India, so could someone please send me some more Shout?

A bit of our pantry, just in case you're interested to see the Indian labels

Happy September 1, 2010, people. September. It’s the time of year here, here being India, that we have chances of sun. It’s wonderful. Vitamin D peeking its little head out. I was able to put three loads of wash on the line. None of it really dried fully, but dried to damp and then a little finish-finish in the dryer. I know, I know, you love it when I talk about my laundry. Two weeks in a row. I hope I am not seeing a pattern here.

The poinsettia tree. Who knew that it was not just a small plant at Christmas?

Does anybody know if this is lemon basil? It smells a little lemony, a little basily.

Anyway, I feel a bit lighter this week folks. Last week, a bit down. Let’s blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah - You gotta blame it on somethin’. Finding the funny in my days again. For example, at dinner tonight, the kids were talking about secret passageways around the world - to Ireland, to England, to Horseland. And then I mistakenly told them about the Chunnel. That being sort of, kind of, a secret passageway. Boy, I should have never opened the big can of Chunnel. Because for the next 30 minutes, the kids all tried to figure out how they built the Chunnel. Let’s just say it was a bit mind numbing.

Last night, I actually went out after dark. It’s a very rare experience here. First of all, I hate walking in the dark. I am afraid that I will kick a rat. Not like they’re running wildly all over, but I do hear them whilst I walk to and fro. Secondly, I hate driving in the dark. Street lights are few and far between. The narrow roads seem narrower. The near misses of hitting other cars seem more frightening. And there are lots of nighttime walkers that one day I feel as if I am going to give them a little bump while driving. But there was a meeting of the minds that was calling to me and I braved the night and just did it. Hooray.

So the meeting of the minds was about a conference that my friend Bec is initiating, along with her sister Debbie. Bec and her husband Glen are the ones that really held our hands 24/7 as we tried to sort through living here. Bec also, besides holding my hand, can really convince you of almost anything. I swear she could convince you that it would be okay to buy someone’s dirty underwear. Okay, I am digressing. Anyway, Bec has a huge heart for Indian women - Indian teenage girls specifically. So she, along with several others women, are trying to pull of a conference for teenage girls in Ooty come late October. They have invited about 400 girls from eight boarding schools in the area. Girls in India often get the raw end of the deal. There are few, if any, conferences for teenage girls in India. Here is a little snippet from the brochure, “The mission of ‘Sisters’ is to enable teenage girls to face the challenges of growing into womanhood with confidence and maturity. ‘Sisters’ empowers these girls to contribute their gifts and talents to help one another and to provide solutions to the failings of the status quo.” So, I hope to keep you all in the know of how the conference planning goes.

The meeting of the minds.

In other India news, three more brothel keepers were convicted to time in prison, which makes six total in FF’s four years. Two more girls were also rescued from brothels in Pune, both on the same raid two weeks ago. At the same time, our operatives have located a number of other girls who have not been rescued because they’ve either been moved or the police aren’t cooperating. One of these girls gave us amazing information about her trafficker, including a photo. We’re all praying that soon these girls will be rescued and that this trafficker will also be found and convicted.

So, I do need to give a shout out...to us. Us being Jayson and Tarrah Palm. You have got to love when you can give a shout out to yourself. Anyway, we celebrate our ninth anniversary tomorrow. We will celebrate it with our four darling children and the Freedom Firm volunteers and single staff. Pretty hot stuff, eh?

Happy Anniversary to us. Don't you love that I totally told you all it is our anniversary?

I wish you a wonderful start to your September and bid you farewell for now.