This post is a bit more for the folks interested in the science and details behind the what and why of our insulation decisions for our foundation. In the spirit of keeping things short and sweet, I plan to cover the following:
Purpose of foundation insulation
Discuss why we chose Expanded Polystyrene (EPS)
Let’s jump right in…
Purpose of foundation insulation
There is a lot of science behind the energy transference between surfaces that are in contact, namely dirt and concrete. When concrete is placed directly on dirt, there is both moisture and thermal exchange taking place. There is a large debate in the building science community around how much insulation in needed due to complex thermal calculations, weather conditions and soil types, but the thermal models from the Passive House Institute helped us settle on 8 inches. The amount of insulation helps keep the inside building temperature more stable, thus reducing the cold floor feeling, which makes my wife happy. There is insulation around the footers and stem wall as well. This all works together to prevent / limit thermal transfer between these materials. One of the key concepts of a Passive House is to eliminate “thermal bridges”, which can be thought of as solid materials that transfer thermal energy between touching surfaces. So, we have eliminated the thermal bridging between the slab and ground, the ground and footer/stem wall, and the slab and stem wall. Below is a diagram showing the slab design.
There aren’t many insulation types that are well suited for ground contact. The primary types for below grade insulation are expanded polystyrene (EPS) and extruded polystyrene (XPS). Key reasons for choosing EPS over XPS:
Consistent R-values over time
Reduced moisture absorption with higher drying potential
Lower cost by 10% – 30%
Finding a local EPS supplier was a bit more challenging as XPS is more readily available, but we settled on Insulation Company of America, https://insulationcorp.com/. They custom cut our molded U-shaped footer insulation , which made pouring the footer much easier.
The stem wall is the portion that transfers the house wall weight down to the footers and eventually to the ground. Our stem wall isn’t very large as the footers are only 32 inches deep to get under the frost line. The footers are 8 inches thick, thus the stem wall is 24 inches high. All that could likely be summed up with a nice picture.
Stem wall
It’s hard to see in that picture, but the lower 2 blocks are standard 8 x 8 inch, while the top block is 8 x 4 inched. This is to accommodate a 2 inches of insulation between the slab and the stem wall while still allowing for a 2 inch overlap from the slab to the lower stem wall for load transfer (not needed as the primary load is supported by the foam, but it’s another example of a good “belt and suspenders” approach). I’ll get into more in depth details on the wall structure and insulation in a future post.
The digging continues with the footers. These are 24” wide and are poured into an EPS footer mold that both insulates them from the ground , preventing thermal bridging, as well as creates a mold for the concrete to be poured into. With the cost of lumber, this was a slick idea to have the foam shaped and permitted rapid install of the footers.
Doesn’t that just look beautiful!
The footers are now all completed and on to the stem wall. Here is aerial footage of the completed footers.
This is a question we get asked often. While I do enjoy explaining it to others, I often times find myself rambling. So I thought I would try to be a bit more concise here with references for those interested in reading more about it.
Passive House (in common language) A home designed to meet the highest levels of efficiency through the elimination of energy waste.
The technical Passive House Principals can be found on the Passive House Institutes page (PHIUS). The design principals do not dictate what materials a home uses, nor alternative energy sources. When I explain it, I usually start by says “It’s a normal house, with lots of insulation.” If folks are more interested, I dive deeper into the other keys areas of environmental management (in order of priority):
Water
Air
Vapor
Thermal
The “Perfect Wall” as described by Joe Lstiburekin a great Youtube playlist walking through some of the building science behind a Passive House.
Here is a picture from the PHIUS site which visually describes a Passive House fairly well (minus the subsoil heat exchanger).
There are many changes occurring on this project, so to help keep me motivated, I’m going to try and provide more frequent updates, but try to keep them shorter.
So, to kick things off on the project, we had electric and data lines run from our shipping containers in the front yard to the build site, ~475ft away. This power will provide electricity to the construction site during build to avoid the need for generators. The power is being provided by our whole house battery array that is setup in our shipping containers.
This post is dedicated to graphing the data logged by the Electrodacus SBMS0, so if that interests you, please continue.
I’ve had some feedback from others after the first post 1 and wanted a bit more automation myself, so what I have done to help out with getting data logging up and running more quickly was develop a simple python script to install and configure all pieces on the Raspberry Pi.
I’ve only had the chance to test this out on a single new Raspberry Pi and these were the manual steps needed to get things going:
Get Raspbian Lite installed on a microSD card (I found it needs >2Gb for everything, I think 4Gb would be fine), other versions should also work. I use the Raspberry Pi Imager https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/
Line 1-2: Creates an SBMS folder for storing config files and scripts
Line 3: Gets the install code from my GitHub repo
Line 4: Runs the install code that installs: Pi updates, InfluxDB, Grafana, Python script as a service for SBMS0 data parsing. This step takes a while due to all of the Raspberry Pi updates.
The next step is to create a dashboard! The script should remind you what URL you need to hit to log in, but it should be https://<Pi IP address>:3000. The default username and password for Grafana at the time of this post is admin/admin. I wasn’t able to find a quick way to get the dashboard imported, but the dashboard is meant to be custom for your needs anyway. I have posted a version of mine with some examples to help folks get going and it’s really easy to Import a dashboard in Grafana and simple paste the JSON content from my example dashboard here: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Burtond/Electrodacus/master/SBMS-Grafana%20Dashboard.json
Steps for dashboard import:
Hover over Dashboards icon on right, select Manage
Select Import
Copy the text from the above URL and paste it into the “Import via panel json”
Select Load
At this point you should have a dashboard with a number of metrics, but it will only populate if you have data coming from SBMS0 plugged into the SBMS via USB. You will also need UART enabled (USART Data Log = 1). I left the baud rate and Log interval at their default. More details on the manual: https://electrodacus.com/SBMS0/SBMS0.pdf
While this is indeed my first post about the work we have been doing with solar, there have been a number of experiments with all sorts of learning. I do hope to get to posting about the past learning, but I knew if I never started somewhere it just wouldn’t happen. Please note that this particular post is more on the technical side (boring for some, fun for nerds like me).
The focus of this post will be the solar battery management system (BMS) testing that I have done with building a custom 24V battery using 8 x 3.2V Lithium Iron Phosphate (Lifepo4) cells. The cells were purchased from https://www.electriccarpartscompany.com/ and the BMS from http://www.electrodacus.com/ (loving the BMS by the way). The purpose of this testing was to prove in small scale what we plan to do in large scale with our entire home (that will be a different post). The plan was to build a battery bank capable of doing the following:
Charge from solar, but be protected from over charging
Consume battery power in the form of AC 120V, but be protected from over discharging
You can read more about the Solar BMS (SBMS) from the builders site, but it’s enough to know that this BMS was part of a kickstarter and from what I can tell is not as well known, but that’s not for lack of features. I have also purchases the DSSR20 modules from the same site as an alternative to using a traditional charge controller (MPPT).
Let’s get into the brief design, then I’ll conclude with how I am monitoring things. Here is how I have things wired:
Please note that I do NOT have the inverter connected to the SBMS0 for shutdown during low voltage, this was due to a mistake that I made in the purchase of an inverter that doesn’t have that capability, but that didn’t stop my other testing. Things to note:
Solar panels are in series due to their smaller size and lower voltage (small scale testing remember)
Two shunts are for measuring both current flow to/from the battery as well as the power coming from PV
So, the fun part of this project was using the manual for the SBMS0 to extract the rich data provided via the USB serial connection described in detail in the manual: https://electrodacus.com/SBMS0/SBMS0.pdf. The SBMS0 has local logging capability and a very simple web interface that can be accessed with the WiFI module, but only if the device hosting the web page connects locally to the broadcast Wifi connection on the SBMS0. If that sounds complicated, it sort of is. My goal was to gain access to all of the available information from my home network. So, the project began 🙂
I won’t bore you with the details of the different iterations of what I did, but let’s get right to where I ended up (and am very happy with). Components used for the final solution:
Raspberry Pi 3 B+, this has wifi
Installed with Raspbian Lite
Custom Python script, used the code base from a fellow SBMS0 automation guru David A. Mellis / Tom Igoe found on the community site…I heavily modified the python code to use the serial connection and NOT parse HTML. I also added all of the logic to put the data into an InfluxDB to provide the data source for all my graphs. Here is the link to that code I wrote.
InfluxDB, used a simple guide here to install and configure on my Pi
Influx python library also needed: sudo apt-get install python-influxdb
Grafana, awesome graphing tool installed on the Pi using guide found here
Here are the steps I took to get things going:
Installed software above
Created a database in InfluxDB
> influx
# CREATE DATABASE SBMS
Made up a measurement name and instance name for better graphing in Grafana
These fields are used in the python script
Ran the python script interactively (through a simple putty session)
This allowed me to troubleshoot things and see if a messed up the script, but once things were smooth, I created a service to run the python script using the following commands:
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/SBMS-Logger.service
Simple service configuration file, mine is located here
sudo systemctl enable SBMS-Logger.service
sudo systemctl start SBMS-Logger.service
Open Grafana at https://<Your-Pi-IP>:3000
Add your InfluxDB as a datasource, this was very simple since the DB was local and for me it was already in the list
Start making graphs with your data. This wasn’t fast for me as it took my a bit of learning the interface, but within 5 min I had my first dashboard with two graphs.
I played around with things for a week or so and made a number of code updates with Grafana alerts and all sorts of fun things, but they were all personal preferences. I even went ahead and added my Samsung SmartThings data to Grafana and have all sorts of cool stuff now. Anyway, I hope this helps someone out who might be looking at a solution for graphing data on the cheap, especially with an AWESOME BMS from http://www.electrodacus.com/. I’ll close with my current SBMS0 dashboard:
It’s been over three years since we returned from our trip to India, and just over 3 year since the last time I wrote. (Chris and Monica and the kids have visited the states twice since then.) It’s always been in the back of my mind, and so far down on my to-do list that it didn’t hit me until I was going to start writing the story of our new house building that I never finished writing our adventure. So here I am, armed with my notebook and scattered memories to put together the final, albeit shorter, ending part of tale of our 1st trip to India.
Friday
We had made the decision to go to a local Hindu Temple that morning, so Sara and Robert joined us for the drive and walk through of the temple. When we arrived we put our shoes in little locker type things before we could enter the temple. I was actually a bit nervous leaving my sandals behind in an unmanned shack for who knows how long, but the others seemed okay with it, so I did it.
Sara took us around the outside of the temple where the Hindi god Krishna’s life was portrayed in paintings and sculptures. His life from conception onward is a very crazy story and Sara doesn’t like telling it because she knows it not to be true and it hurts her heart that so many of her fellow countrymen continue to believe in and worship this cruel deity.
As we were finishing up our walk around the outside we walked into the temple. Oh my heart broke for those people kneeling on the floor rocking, humming, and mumbling prayers to a god that can’t do anything, and yet they still give money
There was a little Southern India snack shop within the boundaries of the temple and Monica wanted us to try one of her favorite things to eat from the southern part of India. We had a very light and airy tortilla with some sort of veggie filling inside and we were served dahl along with it. I remember the flavor of it being quite bland which is very different than the usual Indian fare we had come accustomed to.
After our snack we left and returned home where we sat and debriefed about the Temple experience and also made our plans to have a couple of the teachers from the school that Aida attended come and watch the kids so we could go on a double date that night.*
We started off going to dinner followed by a little shopping for Indian garb for David and I, then while walking home we stopped at the Milk Stand for an ice-cream bar. After arriving home we put the kids to bed and then the four of us gathered on Chris and Monica’s Bed for a good game of Phase 10 which David won.*
*We rarely, if ever, went on double dates when they had lived in the USA. So doing this was a real treat for all of us.
*Phase 10 is usually my game to win, so it was a shocking turn of events, Lol!
Saturday
Early Saturday morning David and Chris left to play in a soccer tournament where David was dubbed “Captain Brown Beard”. When they returned Monica and I got to go on a date to see a Hindi movie not dubbed into English. It was actually a really neat experience and I was able to pick up a few words that Monica had taught me.
While we were watching the movie Chris, David, and the kids played a game of life. Monica and I walked back home and then we all packed up to head to lunch at their favorite place to get American style food. The food ended up being okay, but the service and wait for the food left something to be desired. We were there for an hour and a half and all our food came out sporadically, so we couldn’t even all eat at the same time.
Playing with my hair while we wait for food.
After going back home we just chilled for a while before Chris and David went back to Sammy’s village with a gift that we brought from our church to help with the building of the school.
Meanwhile Monica, Aida, and I played Rummy Kub while Layani played with my hair some more. When the men returned we had dinner, and once we put the kids to bed the parents watched another movie.
Sunday
We were able to have a mini-church service with my brother, that was very cool. It had been 2 years since we had been able to worship God in the same room, that brought joy to my heart. We sang some worship songs, and then we studied Luke 9:49-62 DBS style. It was really a neat way to study God’s Word.
After church we went to a Clubhouse where they offered a Sunday Brunch, all the different Indian foods and fruits and veggies were delicious. After eating we let the kids play on the playset that was there. It was fun to see something like a playset in India because so much of that culture is so different, it was a good reminder that we’re not so different.
With the younger kids tired out and the boys ready to hang out to play some video games, the girls were dropped off at City Center for some girl time. It was so much fun. We started with some tea, and then did a bit of shopping, and then to my pleasure we, Aida and I, were able to sit and get some Henna done. It was such a delight.
On our stroll home, we met a fellow missionary, named Macky, who Chris and Monica and the rest of the team have come to know and work alongside his family’s desire to get the local people making crafts and then having Macky sell them in his shop. It is an easy way for us, and travelers and believers to help get the money directly to the craftsmen and women of India, instead of buying the ‘made in China’ cheap stuff. They make beautiful and creative items.*
That evening’s meal was a light and simple chips and salsa with a creamy cucumber salad. Followed by bedtime for the littles and then a came of Dominion for David, Christopher, Aida, and I. Getting to play so many games with my family was so meaningful for me, it was so awesome to be able to play games without having to worry about keeping my eyes on my own children.
*At some point in the last few days or our time in India we did stop in at Macky’s store and purchase goods for ourselves, family, and friends. It was so meaningful to be able to buy knowing that the money goes straight back into the community to support the believers in India. Helping our brothers and sisters doing life together is very important to David and I.
Monday
Our last day came far too quickly. David went with Chris for one last soccer game time and got to say goodbye to all the guys that he played with. They came back home and took the girls to school. David and I packed our bags and started saying goodbye. Kevin stopped in with a Coca-Cola bottle for David to bring back to the USA* so we were able to tell him goodbye. Then Aida arrived home from school, and David and I gave hugs to Monica and Tekoa and loaded up in the car with Aida and Layani, heading to the airport.
It was a solemn drive back to the airport, that quiet calm that comes over you when you know the end of a trip is quickly approaching. I was still trying to take in all of my surroundings when I focused on something on the side of the road. I looked away quickly and had a good laugh. It was a guy squating on the side of the road using it as a toilet. Lol! (Remember Monica warned me of that right when we arrived a week earlier.)
We arrived at the airport and said our goodbyes. It was a time of mixed feelings. Sad to be saying goodbye, excited to get back home, happy to be able to see them in just a few months, not looking forward to getting back to the normality of everyday life in the Burton house. Such are the feelings every time a vacation comes to a close.
We walk into the airport an hour before our plane is to depart, we get through security and sit down to wait… and wait… and wait. We had to get comfortable after we heard that our flight had been delayed by 2 hours. We recalled once on the plane that we had to show our tickets and IDs a total of 6 times just in the Bagdogra airport. We commented that we wouldn’t ever complain about the USA’s TSA again. Lol!
Last bit of love’n for Aunt Steph.
Ah… sweet nector.
Unfortunately guys, this is where my notes of our trip drop off to nothing. I remember that we arrived back in DC, took an Uber to the mechanic to pick up our van, after a $240 dollar repair bill we went on our way to meet with Megan at a Chipotle to get the girls. We then drove 5 hours home. Thankfully Rhonda brought the boys all the way to our house so we didn’t have to drive the extra 45 minutes to pick them up.
~~~~~
This is where our first adventure to India ends. We came home, back to the everyday chaos of the Burton household, back to schooling, back to work, back to preparing food, and having to be a mom and dad instead of an aunt and uncle. Life continues. We’d love to go back and we plan on it, we don’t know when or if we’ll take a child or two with us, but whenever God puts it on our hearts, we’re ready.
Thursday we were awoken by texts at about 4:30am, I was concerned about the health status of my boys so I had turned the volume on my phone to on. Only it wasn’t texts from Rhonda, they were from another friend who was concerned about something and she felt that she needed to let me know. With the health of my boys, extended family stuff that we were emailed about late Wednesday night, and some issues going on with my daughter, I didn’t want to have another thing on my plate, so I chose not to read the texts from her. But instead I texted another friend right then and there to please pray for me to able to focus on what the Lord had for me in India and not be so worried about things going on back home.
It was a good thing for me to do, because before I asked for prayer, my heart was heavy and my mind was racing and I was assuming I would not be able to get back to sleep, but after asking for prayer from a person whom I knew would pray for me right then and there, the Lord calmed my heart and mind and I was able to doze off again for about 2 hours, which was good for everyone. HA!
We sent Aida off for another day of school, and David and I got to hang with our niece and nephew while their parents worked on their language for a couple hours. After which Kevin* showed up and we loaded into the car and drove to City Center to start our adventure for the day.
We walked through the mall, stopping at a Chai shop for a cup of tea before beginning. We were served about 6 ounces of chai tea in a clay cup. Monica told me that they use these clay cups as disposable cups around there. So we would’ve been able to take our cups with us, just as if they were paper cups from Starbucks, crazy right?
On to the transportation for our adventure to the local market. Chris and Monica said that while in India there are a few things that you should do to get the full experience of what it is to live in India. We needed to ride in a rickshaw, a bus, and shop in the local market place. So we followed Kevin through the mall to what you might consider a ‘bus stop’ except you don’t buy tickets anywhere, you just wait for a mode of transportation to hold the people in your party, walk up to the driver, tell him how many you have and then pay him. Typically it’s 10 Indian Rupees per person, no matter how far you need to go. Kevin, Chris, David, Monica, Tekoa, Layani, and I hop in the back of the rickshaw which we, as americans would consider to be a full load, but the driver kept allowing more people to hop on. I think at one point we had 9 people all sitting in the rickshaw that ‘should’ only hold 6. Lol! It was an experience for David and I of the native people not having personal space issues. They don’t mind how close you sit to each other, they have someplace to be, just like you, and they don’t want to wait; besides, the driver knows the more people he hauls, the more money he makes, so he’s going to pack as many in as he can for each drive back and forth to town and back.
They don’t have laws and rules about how many they can carry in their rickshaws or buses, it seems as though they don’t even have road rules about driving. Chris told us that they only just got traffic lights and lines down the center of some of the roads within the past 2 years and are only now trying to incorporate people actually obeying the lights. So while we were there, police officers were at each light intersection making sure people stopped when the light was red, and that the cross road would stop when their light then turned red. Guys, it’s gotta be like teaching an old dog a new trick. This has been the way it’s been for generations. It’s going to take a long time for things to make a permanent change.
Driving to and through town were just as you have seen in the movies, or the films put together by missionaries visiting your church. People, cars, trucks, bikes, rickshaws, construction vehicles, police, cows, goats, and dogs all over the road. The drivers would move for the cows, but they’d not care about the dogs, or even people on the street. If the dogs get hit, no one cares. They’re mangy looking, and homeless. They’re not usually looked at as pets there, just lesser creatures. The people ought to know better and be watching where they’re walking, while the vehicles just vi for any space they see on the road, even if it means squeezing by ‘on the other side of the road’.
Finally reaching our destination we were rushed out of the rickshaw on the side of the street, not at a bus stop or anything, so the driver could load back up and head to his next stop. We started walking down the crowded street and took a left down what I thought was an alley but it actually turned out to be just another street lined with clothing stands. We still had to watch out for people on scooters that would drive through all the people who were walking.
Monica pointed out the shoddy electrical set up that the buildings around us had. WIth no government regulations about installing electricity around people’s houses, there were electrical boxes with what looked like knotted balls of wires and cables surrounding it. I was silently convinced that there could be a electrical fire at any moment, but then she told me that when her father had seen it last year, he was shocked too, no pun intended, so I knew that somehow it’s able to work without causing a fire.
Scary looking huh?
We continued down the side street and soon it branched off into what looked like designated sections, food and produce stands are more on the streets to the right and everything else you could think of, and stuff you wouldn’t think of, tended to branch out on the left side.
Our first destination was to get fresh veggies from the stands. On our way over to the vegetable stands, Layani spied a booth with some adorable boots for little kids. Monica put some on her to see if they fit, they did. Monica asked the guy how much, even though the price in Indian Rupees was already on a sticker, he told her the cost was about 200IR more than the listed price. Monica said ‘NO’ and showed him the price right on the sticker, but the guy persisted, trying to get us ‘whities’ to pay what he told us. So Monica put the boots back, and we walked away. HA!
We turned another corner, and BAM! Fruit and Vegetable stands one right after the other. David and I asked Kevin which ones were better, and he said they’re all pretty much the same, you just get to know certain sellers, and then they will work with you and give you deals, or make sure you get the better veggies that came in just that day. (If you’re walking with a white, blond-haired baby, you’ll get a free carrot that she grabs off the bag.) The produce there is pretty much the same as here, although different sizes because they haven’t modified the fruit, and don’t go to extremes to fertilize their veggies. The apples, carrots, cucumbers, and eggplants are smaller but still pack wonderful flavor. Chris and Monica bought fresh produce to take home, and I just loved seeing the open air market. It made me want to come home and start actually using the Farmer’s markets in the summer. Or join a CSA group.
Before heading to find more treasures, we headed to a ‘Sweets’ Shop for a treat. Chris had us try some of his favorites, and Kevin came and brought David and I each a “Rasgulla”, which is a milk ball soaked and cooked in a sugary syrup. It melts in your mouth but is super sweet. Yes, even for our american mouths it was too sweet. Chris had us try some other treats from the shop, we had our first taste of Samosas. Oh goodness they’re just wonderful!! They are a fried or baked dish with a savoury filling, such as spiced potatoes, onions, peas, lentils, etc.
Getting the food fresh from the street shop was awesome, but as I looked around I understood why our seatmate Ali, from our first flight, would come back to India and not eat the street food that he loved. There was a sink on the outside of the shop to wash your hands in, no soap, no paper towel to dry with, and there was trash and dirt all over the place. People there just don’t care much about it. That’s the way they’ve been doing business for years or generations even. There was a pitcher of water that people could drink from, no paper cups, just take the pitcher and drink from it, like you’re drinking from a jug of milk. Then when the water needed filling they’d go to the handwashing sink and fill it back up with water for drinking. I’m so thankful that we had been carrying around our water bottles, and Monica keeps packs of wipes in her purse.
We walked the streets some more, specifically looking for a place that sells the stainless steel plates Chris and Monica have that David and I thought were really cool. Kevin knew just the places to go. While waiting for one of the shops to go to another ‘branch’ of their store, Kevin, Chris, David, and I walked to find some slip on shoes for David. As we were walking quickly I was trying to take it all in. A few minutes into my walk, I all of a sudden became like Jasmine, from Aladdin, as she walked through the streets of Agrabah “Pretty lady, buy a pot. No finer pot in brass or silver… Would the lady like a necklace? A pretty necklace for a pretty lady.” All these shop owners had something ‘just for me’, and what a steal of a deal they had for me. I just smiled and kept walking, trying to keep an eye on Kevin who was leading us.
It was a good thing that we had David handling all of our cash for time we were there, especially since walking the streets was a heart wrenching experience for me. I saw person after person sitting in the the muck and trash just begging for some money. Their faces were sad and hollow looking, some of them had open sores on their feet and arms, and there were a few that were actually missing a leg or arm. I had a hard time remaining logical while we were walking among them. I wanted to scoop the sick ones up and take them to the hospital, but then what? I wouldn’t be here more than a few days, what happens after I leave? Then who would pay their medical bills? Maybe just give them a large donation so they can support their families for a few days while they rest up at home? I am not their mother, I can’t force them to spend the money on what “I” would deem necessary.
So I just walked by, smiling a caring, loving smile, and praying that the Lord would be revealed to them soon, maybe by my brother and the rest of the team.
After we had succeeded with our shopping, we headed back out of the maze. If I didn’t have Kevin or Chris to follow I would have been lost for hours in there. We made it out just fine and then we had the fun activity of having to cross the road where there are non-stop vehicles and no lights to say when we should go. It was thrilling! It was a short distance, but knowing that the vehicles are going to expect you to be the one who moves, gave it a sense of danger.
Making it across the main street, we decided to hitch a ride back to our neighborhood on a bus. That was another close encounter with the Indian’s non-issues with personal space. We had our group of 7 on the back seat of the bus, then there were 2 others that sat down among us. The seats were full and the aisle was full of people standing, and yet, the driver stops again, yells at everyone to move back, and has a few more people hop on. It was a very tight squeeze getting out of the van once we hit our destination, but it was a cheap ride, 10IR will get you any place you wanna go.
When we first got on…
And yet, they were able to fit one more!
Long day, warm bus, nap time.
We were dropped off again at City Center where we stopped to have some lunch at Subway. Boy do they work slowly!! We, here in America, think of Subway as a fast food shop, they don’t do really anything fast (except usher people in and out of vehicles, HA!) David and I split a Chicken Tandoori sandwich. It wasn’t my favorite. Kevin walked with us to our car, but then he headed home.
Then we headed to drop Monica and the kids off so Layani could take a nap, and Chris, David, and I went and picked Aida up from school, along with other girls from her class that she carpools with each weekday. On the drive, Chris pulled a “dad” and asked what each girl had learned that day. The answered ranged from ‘how to do math better’ to ‘I learned more about the lives of Knights.’
When we returned to the house, we made some coffee and sat down to debrief about our different cultural experiences so far in our trip. We opened up about our thoughts and feelings when we went and visited Samuel and his family. What we thought about the village life, and what Samuel was doing with the school. Then we chatted about that day’s adventure in the Market. (Much of what we spoke, I have shared on these blogs as they happened on those days, so I am not going to go back over those experiences.) We also took the time to talk over what was going on Stateside with our children, and if I remember correctly we prayed over the issues at that time too.
We all needed an afternoon to just chill.
Dinner that night was Tikka Chicken and Rice with a bowl of fresh sliced veggies from the Market. Eating with my family once again was a delight, and something that i have truly missed while they’ve been gone. Some people don’t realize that since they’ve left, we have no family in the area. So our holidays and Sunday ‘on the fly’ lunches don’t happen as much anymore. We have many in our church that love us like family, but they still have actual family in the area to do holidays with, so we’re left to our own most of the time. Which, even though I might sound disappointed, has led to us making our own traditions, and being sure to invite others who don’t have family around to join us for those holidays. It’s worked out wonderfully and our friendships have deepened over the past two years because of it.
After dinner, I heard good news from Rhonda that our boys were feeling better. Praise the Lord… So we went to the TV room and everyone sat to watch Secret Life of Pets. I got to snuggle with my niece and Chris got to cuddle with his son, about halfway through the movie, I pulled a “Clinch” and fell asleep, and Chris did as well. We’re such goofballs.
The movie finished and we had fun working with the kids to get ready for bed, then Monica and I just sat on her bed and had another heart to heart chat. It was soothing to my soul.
Once David and I were in bed, I received a text from Rhonda saying now my boys had spiked fevers and she was at a loss of what to do, we decided to have a day where they just take it easy, and have a rest time during the afternoon. Also Rhonda was going to take them to a local Christian Chiropractor who is also a friend of ours, the next day. I thought those were great plans and prayed with David about our children and the people caring for them while we were away.
*I saw more stray dogs than cats, which I didn’t really realize until I got back to the US. I actually don’t recall seeing any cats at all. Now that could’ve been something that I just missed, but here in the US it’s not strange to see cats wandering the neighborhood and no one cares, over there it’s dogs you see wandering.
*There are different tactics that the Indians use while working with “whities”, we have to remember that they’re all out to make money, some dishonest, some not. They’ll either tell you a higher price, or price it higher and then ‘give you a deal’ and say “for you 100IR less the listed price” In both cases they’re hoping for ignorance.
*In the states I try and pick up things that I come across while walking, a water bottle, a bag of fast food trash, plastic utensils, etc. It’s just a habit that I’ve gotten into. I had to fight that urge while I was in India. I would have spent all day just picking up trash, but there wasn’t a trash can just a few yards away that you could just drop the trash into, you’d have to carry it all the way to your destination. And the trash there isn’t “clean” trash, it’s “dirty” trash. People and animals use streets as their bathrooms as needed, so along with the typical dirty-ness, you’ve got that to deal with, and there are people there that walk around with open wounds, or blood dripping. So yeah, if you thought picking up trash along the highways here was gross, try and do that in the marketplace in India.
*If you were blessed to see a video that the Johns’ shared that showed them crossing the road while they were in India last fall, then you know exactly where we crossed and a bit of what we went through.
*We did eventually find a stand for David to get some slip-on shoes to wear while in India, since he was tired of having to tie and untie his shoes whenever entering or leaving the house.
*My dad thinks it important that you learn something new everyday, often he’ll text me just to ask “what have you learned today?” Sometimes I have to rack my brain to figure something out to respond with, sometimes it’s something like “Kale’s favorite color is now purple” or “I just found out that Jellyfish are a Type of Plankton.” that’s one of the blessings of homeschooling, the opportunity to be learning right alongside my children.
*When I say “pulled a Clinch” I am making fun of my brothers who would, when they visited and we decided to watch something, fall asleep within the first 20 minutes of the movie. So it was just David and I and the spouses who would watch the whole show and then make fun of the boys for falling asleep. This was the first time that I had done it with one of my brothers. LOL!!
As David and I were getting up, I checked in with Rhonda again. Now she had two kids with earaches and fevers. She had taken them to her doctor who said there seems to be a super bug going around and these were some of the symptoms, we were just hoping for some odd swimmer’s ear. I told her that we trusted her to treat our boys the way that she thought best. Poor lady. Having to care for someone else’s kids and have them be sick when the parents can’t come get them. She was sure a trouper handling the illnesses of my boys.
Wednesday morning brought the first day back to school for Aida, so after Chris and David got back from playing another round of soccer, at which David sprained his ankle, they left with Aida to pick up the other girls in their carpool they have set up with other families who are there doing the same kind of work they are.
We also got to meet Sara* and Robert* who are Monica and Chris’ language teachers. Chris’ old language teacher, Kevin*, stopped by to give David and I a rose as a welcome gift. I found that very thoughtful. Susan*, their house helper, also came by in the morning to clean the house.
While Chris was doing his language, Monica, David, Layani, and I went for a walk to what they call the Dudha Styanda (‘doot stand’, Milk Stand) to pick up some groceries. It was a nice stroll through their community. Monica pointed out to us several paths she uses to walk and run along, and told about the changes that have happened in their neighborhood just since they’ve moved there 2 years ago. While we were walking, we were approached by a native Indian lady that was asking for money to buy her son some clothes. She was talking to Monica in Bangla (‘bung-gluh’, Bangali is what we call their language), after she spoke with Monica and Monica told her that she could come by her house in two days and get some clothes, she then turned to David and I asking us for money. All we could do was shake our heads “No” as Monica politely told her, in Bangla, that she needs to go on her way. Monica told us later that poor people there are very similar to the poor people here in the US. They will share their story and ask for money for food, to help with their medical bills, or for clothing, but Monica said that sometimes that’s just a story and they end up using the money for some other purpose. Whether it be paying house bills or buying alcohol or other drugs for themselves or an abusive family member.
We had simple lunch when we got back home and Monica went to rest. David and Chris hung out talking about guy stuff while I got to play Nerf guns with Tekoa and Layani. It eventually got to the point where we were shooting Chris and David, Tekoa was just shocked that I would shoot his dad, it was like he hadn’t thought of that before! It was fun being able to play with Chris like we used to growing up, except without the angry outbursts from either one of us, but instead of calling on my brother Nic to come and be on my side, I’d call on David and his typical response seems to be: “Hey, you started it. I’m not going to join on your side just because they’re now fighting back.” So I had to count on Tekoa, and he just had a really hard time shooting his dad. So much fun!
After Aida got home from school, we spent more time as family before we headed into the downtown of the local city to Punjabi Kadai (poon-jaw-bee cud-eye) which is a fantastic Indian restaurant. Chris and Monica ordered several of their favorite dishes to be brought out and shared between all of us. This place had waiters who would stand by the table and serve the food onto your plate, whatever you wanted, when they saw your plate was empty. It was an experience alright. The food was just AMAZING, and the company was better. I can’t even remember all the food we got, but I do remember the Naan that was served. OH MY GOODNESS mouthwatering wonderful. Combining the curries with the naan… I could’ve eaten that the whole trip. HA HA HA!!
After dinner was done we headed home and just chilled. Got the kids into bed, Monica and I sat and talked, which was fantastic. Oh how I miss her company here in the US just for that reason, not only is she my sister in law, but she’s also one of my best friends. I’ve thought of her that way since before my brother and her were officially a ‘thing’. We have a lot in common, and she’s always treated me like a friend, and not as Chris’ little sister. There was a time in my life that when they would come and visit SD from CO, before they were married, that I admitted to people that I didn’t care that Chris was gone, but I hated having Monica leave. I adored her so, and still do.
*I’m sorta thinking I may be a day off with the kid’s being sick. I’m trying to look back at my texts from Rhonda and trying to figure out what the time would’ve been in India, and I think that I didn’t get the first sickness text until Wednesday Morning, not Tuesday… whichever day it was, it added a little stress to our lives while we were out there.
*David and I are so proud of how far Chris and Monica have both come with their language learning. When we Skype with them, Chris would try and tell us things that he’s learning, just a word here or there, but to hear them have a conversation in Bangla was just awesome.
*Tekoa shared with me his favorite Bangla saying “Ami jani na” (ahmee jahnee nah) which means I don’t know or I don’t understand. He liked to say this when people spoke Bangla to him, or when adults would ask him to do something, or say something in Bangla.
*Growing up in the Clinch house was awesome, now that I look back. I have the best brothers in the world.
*It was about this day that the thought of having Indian food again wasn’t appealing to me. It just didn’t make my mind happy. More rice? More curry? But the cool thing was that we were introduced to such a selection of indian Curries and Dahls that it was a new experience with each dish I tried. So even though the thought of Indian food didn’t appeal to me, the actual eating part didn’t bother me at all. (Almost like after Thanksgiving or Christmas when mom has to use up all the turkey or ham somehow, so she makes all different kinds of meals, still using those ingredients, but totally different flavors. You hear “Turkey or Ham soup, Turkey or Ham Sandwiches, Turkey Pot Pie, Scalloped Potatoes and Ham” and your first reaction is “Turkey or Ham again?!?” but once you dig in and take your first bite, you’re like “oh goodness, this isn’t what I was thinking, this is awesome!” – yeah, that was me with Indian food.)
*I am happy to say that having lived in close proximity of my brother, Chris, as adults, our relationship has gotten a lot stronger, and I do miss him too. I’m not yet sure if it is more me missing him as a brother, or me missing him as my husband’s best friend. Probably a good mix of both.
