India! India! India!

The theme of the month at Amiya's school is Asia and Friday of this week was specifically about India! Amiya was marginally healthy enough to go to school - her nose was still letting off flourescent green stuff (see picture of Kev's bed for accurate color sampling) and she still had a pretty big cough, however, she was on antibiotics and frankly, it's not often that this part of Amiya's heritage is going to be celebrated and focused on, so she could have had tuberculosis and I still would have sent her. (Ok, not really, but it would have been a moral debate before I decided which way to go.)

Amiya's teacher had asked me to come in and help the kids cook something Indian, so we decided on samosas. Easy enough to make in school as long as everything was prepped. The kids were icked out by them, until they tasted them. Then it was looooooove. (And frankly, why not? Deep fried potatoes in a crispy shell? Spiced ground beef (more on that later) in a crispy shell? It's like a deep fried Happy Meal!)

We made both aloo mattar samosas (the favorite!) and spiced beef samosas. Amiya's teacher is of Pakistani descent, so she suggested beef for the kids who wouldn't try the potatoes. I know beef samosas aren't authentically Indian, but hey, it's all about Pakistani-Indian cooperation!


We used wonton skins (I know, not authentic!) and stuffed them and then fried them in a portable fryer. Amiya and I also brought in kheer and fresh mango for the kids to try. It was all a big hit!

My favorite part of the day was seeing "Mr. Vinay" talk with the kids. He was very good at containing 10 free spirited 4/5 year olds. He taught them to count to 3, say hello and goodbye (Namaste! for both - it's a 2 for 1 word!) and even showed them some Hindi words on the board. The kids were most excited about the word for cow - guy! They think it's great that you can yell, "There's a guy!" and what you're really saying is "There's a cow!" Vinay also told them about how people in India take baths - this topic is of endless fascination to Amiya - I suspect she imagines a lot more splashing and sploshing of water - but it wasn't so exciting for the kids!
The night before "India Day" was Step into Asia at school. Each classroom was assigned a country and that teacher developed a craft for the kids to do or cooked a recipe from that country. Amiya's room was Pakistan, so the teacher asked me if I would help her do mehndi on the children's hands. We decided to do first initials only and it was a big hit! Her teacher said that the kids were very excited to show off their "henna tattoos" the next day at school!