Over the weekend we got an invite to dinner from Joseph and Briana (the American girl) for Monday or Tuesday.  We choose Tuesday because it fit our schedule better, but it also happened to be my birthday.

When we got to their house, I was amazed to find out that they were making beef for dinner!  There is no beef available in Bilaspur, but Joseph is from Hyderabad, and when we was home recently his brother bought some beef.  Bilaspur is a day's train ride away, so they boiled the beef, wrapped it in plastic and put it in the freezer when they got home.

They used it to make a curry and a soup, and I would describe the cut, or at least the result, as being like a pot roast.  It was a really nice surprise.

I also got a few gifts from the JSS workers.  One of the lab techs bought me a shirt in true local style, red and white stripes with random English words on it.  It was a very sweet gift, as he only has a few shirts himself.  I also got a small Hanuman figurine from one of the workers who found out it was my birthday.  Hanuman is a monkey god and warrior, and so when I told Dolly I got a "little sparkly monkey" she pointed out the blasphemy, lol.