I Guess Monkeys Get Sick Too!

So far this week has been taken up with a lot more staff meetings and orientation. Although on Monday we went to the bazaar again after school and I picked up my new pants from the tailor. They are super comfy! Then Megan and I went to see if the fabric man had some new rag quilts (Emily had clued us in that he might be getting a big shipment). He didn’t have any of that particular kind, but we did get some other rugs and towels and new shower curtains!
Last night we were invited over to Jeanne’s house for dinner- her ayah had made chicken curry and vegetables and rice and dahl. The chicken tasted great! However, on my way over to her house I ran into our ayah (socombri- I don’t know how to spell her name) and her husband, Delip – who can speak some English. The day before Megan had talked to Delip about having Socombri possibly come 5 days a week and do some cooking for us. Last night they had come to talk to us about that situation and after several minutes we came up with a system that a blue dot on a piece of paper meant that we would like our ayah to cook for us that day and a red dot meant that she didn’t need to. Later that night after eating at Jeanne’s, Megan and I realized that we didn’t have any markers or way to tell Socombri that we did not need her to cook the next day (and she really wouldn’t have been able to, because we didn’t have enough ingredients for her to make anything). This morning, Megan decided to be very creative to formulate a blue dot. I guess that when Socombri had washed one of Megan’s new blue kurtas that it had dripped some blue ink on the floor. It had already dried, but Megan got some water to wet the ink and then slapped a piece of paper over it to create a very large, misshapen blue circle… Anyway, it must have worked, because it didn’t look like our ayah tried to cook anything for us!
Also yesterday- but earlier in the afternoon- I think a monkey was throwing up outside my office/studio door. I was in my office sorting through music, when I heard this nasty coughing/barfing noise. Sure enough as I looked out my window, a monkey was walking (which is strange because they usually run and chase around) on the sidewalk. Every few steps he would stop and make that sick noise… I didn’t see any chunks, but there might have been some sort of liquid left over- I didn’t really look too closely.