Fergie Family Fun!: Bhoht Jantu- That Means Many Animals!

We are in our new home! We moved into our flat on October 12th, and have been working like little ants scurrying about to make it a home... tora tora, which means little by little! Speaking of ants, good grief there are lots of bugs here. And by here, I mean inside our flat (and outside, too, of course!). I have literally found a different kind of bug every day. My mom says that it is 'toughening me up.' ...okay... There are also TONS of animals here. It seems that there are some parts of the city where different animals tend to congregate, but our area of town is home to pretty much all of them! Within a 3 minute walking distance, we see these animals on a very regular basis: dogs, cows, goats, squirrels, water buffalo, wild hogs, butterflies, parrots, donkeys, chickens, and of course monkeys. So. Many. Monkeys. Our flat is on the trail that the monkeys take every day from wherever they start their day to wherever they end their day, so we can (and do) sit at our window and watch the monkeys for very long periods of time each day. Corinth loves watching them! :-) We also have a mongoose that lives in a thicket/trash area outside our window. And, last week was a Hindu festival, and during those few days, they were giving camel rides around our neighborhood. So, pretty much we live in a zoo.
We both (and I'm sure Corinth feels the same) feel like we ARE the zoo almost always when we go out. We are always talked to by strangers, Corinth's cheeks are always pinched, and someone almost always comes up to us and tries to take Corinth from us without asking so they can take a picture with her. You'd think it would be flattering, but I now feel very sorry for movie stars all over the world. Every time I go out, I feel like Julia Roberts. (Yes, I know I look nothing like her, she's just the movie star that always pops into my head!)
It is going to take a long time to get used to living here, but there are so many things that will always remain strange. You can pray for us that we would be at peace and find joy in simple things every day. Also, you can pray that we would learn Hindi quickly so that we can converse more with people than just "Hello. How are you? What is your name?" We have been doing language class with our tutors every weekday, and so far that is going well. Also, big shout out to Rosetta Stone- it's awesome!
Thank you for praying for us, for responding to our updates, and for your messages on Facebook and Viber. Hearing from you guys is encouragement that we really need, so if you ever even think about us, send us a message, even if it's just to say hi or to tell us what you had for dinner. We love you and want to be in your lives still, and vice versa! I'll leave you with a few pictures of our last few weeks, with a promise to get more pictures of our neighborhood and the environment in which we live! Love you!