Early Days in India

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I am definitely in India and that point keeps getting hammered home more and more each day! I'm swinging a bit emotionally - some moments I feel great and other moments not so much so. I'm trying to be patient. I finally slept through the night for the first time and I think catching up on sleep will really make a difference. My three weeks of suckage are underway and that's what I keep reminding myself. Afer that, things should start to settle down. I'm also working on weekend get-aways to Goa and Varinasi for September and October which is fun to contemplate.

My hotel is fine, although I had two teleconferences and a training session last night and, for the first time, the wireless was out! I missed the first call, but made the second. I couldn't do the web training so I missed that too. It was a real "India Moment"! I haven't been able to post much between the wireless outage and the fact that my lap top battery died Sunday night and didn't recharge until the wireless was out. So far, so good tonight.

I looked at apartments this morning and picked my first and second choice. The first choice would be right across the street from the new building, but it's full so it may not work out. I didn't get to see inside there today. The second choice is ~30 minutes away, but is very secure and has power backup and water all the time (both of which are big issues here). There are 1,000 apartments in four buildings and it's surrounded by other buildings just as big! There are some small common areas with grass and trees and benches which is nice. The apartments seem OK with two bedrooms and two full bathrooms plus a living room and a kitchen. There are lots of windows and a small balcony. I can put an air conditioner in the bedroom. It's quite different from my house, but I guess I will get used to it.

For 1,200 rupees (~$30), I can have a cook who will cook three meals a day for me plus do my laundry. For another 600 rupees ($15) a month, I can have a house cleaner and errand runner. I'll also have someone to drive me to work and back every day as well as drive me around on the weekends. This is quite common and almost everyone here who can afford it has "people". I feel funny about it, but it's how the economy works. It's Reagan's "trickle down" economics at it's finest.

Gurgaon has been OK with all of the flooding which is massive in other parts of the country and many people have died and millions are displaced. Parts of Delhi were flooded last week and some people were unable to get to the office as roads were impassable. There was a great photo in the paper yesterday of a woman in Mumbai walking in thigh-high water. She had her baby, maybe 1, floating alongside her in a big cooking pot!

I did get caught in the rain on Saturday and in less than two minutes, I was absolutely soaked to the skin. I didn't seem at first like it was raining that hard, but it certainly was. The nice thing with that is that there's nothing you can do about it so there's no point in even trying. Anyway, there's too many really green, yucky puddles and cows and cow poop piles and cars and bikes and stray dogs and people to even try to run.

No orphans to adopt yet, although there are lists of "found children" in the paper every day and it makes me so sad. Most just got lost somewhere, often in railway stations, and can't find their way home. The little ones who can't talk get renamed by the institution. Many of the parents probably can't or don't read the papers so the kids are likely to stay lost. They are lucky to be in a home where they are cared for and fed. There was another interesting article about a group that's matching HIV+ women with HIV+ kids in a foster care type situation. For the most part, no one wants either group and they are often abandoned by their families so it seems like a nice things for both parties. Many of the kids die as they do not get any treatment or early enough treatment. Again, at least they have someone to take care of them.

There are so many cows and bulls here! Way more than I remember in Delhi last time. My taxis have almost hit two of them! The cows just look at you with such utter (udder?) contempt and keep shuffling along. I did see the aftermath of an accident today. A truck hit a bicycle rickshaw and killed the driver. The body was laying sprawled in the road and everyone stood around watching. There were two policemen there and everyone seemed to be waiting for something else to happen. It was sad and also a bit spooky since I'm not used to dead bodies laying in the street. I kind of wanted to see a dead body floating down the Ganges, but I wasn't ready for this. At least it wasn't too bloody (which only helps me, not the dead guy).

Work is good and I feel best when I'm doing something that I know how to do. I'm flying to Mumbai for a PSV next Friday. How cool do I sound saying that??? I'm also going to Ahmedabad and Hyderabad on site visits this month. Also, in the next month, I'm going to Europe (exact location TBD) for a week for InForm training as I'm going to be a super-user for my study.

I'm planning to take photos of the offices and my hotel this week and I'll get those posted. Thanks for all the emails and I'll get back to all of you soon. Tonight is my last evening teleconference so tomorrow night is all my own!

Namaste!

Today I miss: Gus (my ex-car)
Today I am thankful for: my excellent taxi drivers

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