day one

The doorbell just rang, and because I am in a nightgown and Brad is already asleep (he went to bed at 7) I took a minute to wrap myself in a blanket before I opened the door. Outside on the porch there was no one. But then I saw three men standing on the sidewalk shoving a bag of food through our gate.
Today was a strange day.
I'll begin at the beginning:
The school left us a sheet on our coffee table detailing the events of the week, which according to our interpretation started today at 8 am. So this morning we dutifully awoke at 7, searched through our luggage for work clothes, had a little breakfast and then waited. And waited and waited and waited. Having just come from Colombia we weren't surprised that the school was late picking us up, but after an hour we became suspicious. I found our phone (on the floor, behind the couch) and a list of important contacts and called the school secretary who told me today was our day to rest.
Oh, okay.
And rest we did. Because even though we have 8 suitcases to unpack there are no drawers in this house. Not a single one. There are huge closets, but no drawers. I'm sure we can solve this but we decided that to do that we must first leave the house.
As you know we bought a car, which came with a driver, whose phone number we have. Thinking our driver could drive us straight to a drawer store I tried several times to reach him but never could. That's when we decided it was up to us, we'd have to search for a drawer solution on foot.
We left the house, made two wrong turns and then immediately came back to grab the address card the school left us. Then, as we were walking, finally in the direction of the main road I spotted a silver Suzuki. Brad and I love the game where point out a car that looks like the one we bought so I poked him and said, "Hey Brad, there's our car." And at the very moment the window of the car rolled down and a small Indian man shouted, "Are you the new teachers? This is your car! Get in!"
HA!
The small Indian man turned out to be Michael, our driver who took us first to the school where we met some of the office people, then to three different stores where we did not find a drawer solution, but did get a mop, a bucket, soap, paper towels, toilet paper, dish rags, an electric kettle, juice, tea and a converter. After shopping Michael took us to Kaaraikudi for lunch. There Brad and I sat in a daze, staring at the menu with no idea what we were looking at and trying to process all that we had just seen.
Somehow we ended up with delicious food on our plates, chicken stuffed with ginger, onion, chilies and garlic for me and spicy lamb for Brad. There was some initial confusion over what exactly we were eating, but overall it was a very nice meal. After lunch we were ready to be back in the safety of our house. Michael took us straight home, turns out we never went more than a few blocks from our house, and after helping us with our bags he put the car in the driveway and walked off.
After a little more unpacking I tried to resist sleep, but ended up taking a three hour nap. As soon as I woke up Brad announced that he was going to bed. Which is when I went downstairs with my book and heard the doorbell.
As far as I can tell the food was sent by the school. From the outside it looks like a Subway sandwich, but when I opened it I smelled strange sauces and saw a hair. So I've got my leftovers in the microwave, which I will eat, and then go to bed because tomorrow, according to our schedule, the school will pick us up at 8 am.