Sundays

Sundays are the only day "off" for Indians, the only non-work day. Sundays are a day to rest, a day to be with family, a day to relax (and apparently for the majority of Indian men, a day to drink a lot and go to work hungover on Monday, ah see, we aren't all so different).

Here, Sundays are pancake day, reminiscent of my own childhood where Sundays were also pancake day, or more often, Dad's french toast. Sundays are also biryani day, a nice break from our standard lunch of rice and yellow dahl.

Sundays are nice.

Today I went to the market and stocked up on apples and oranges. We got caught in a wedding procession, which was a big truck with loud speakers going through the town and a group of about 15 men dancing and singing in front of it. Where the woman was, I do not know. As we walked along and tried to make it through the group and get back to campus, I had one of many instances I have here where I say to myself "damn, where is my camera?"

Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love a little rooftop happy hour. My friends and I in DC are frequent takers of the rooftop bar, and luckily, there are many for us to choose from, one of the best being at my old apartment building where Kristen and I would frequently head up with a glass of wine and debrief our days.

So today I decided to have my own rooftop happy hour. Armed with my book and a nalgene bottle with some beer I headed to the roof of the building next door to watch the sunset. It was, in a word, beautiful. Its still 80s here and there was not a cloud in the sky. I looked out at the lush green fields and saw a man with his herd of goats, and listened to the sound of people driving by, talking, in the village background. I looked out at the campus, and felt incredibly lucky to be here. While its no Bristol House, its not half bad.

Then the birds came. Lots and lots and lots of birds, making lots and lots of noise. They drove me to retreat to the safety of my room. I guess they want to have their happy hour too.

Only in India...no, this is not a joke!

Pregnant woman uses train toilet, baby slips out
Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:31pm EST
AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - A newborn baby girl survived an ignoble birth after slipping down the toilet bowl of a moving Indian train onto the tracks when a pregnant woman unexpectedly gave birth while relieving herself on Tuesday.

"My delivery was so sudden," said the Bhuri Kalbi, the mother of the infant, born two months prematurely. "I did not even realize that my child had slipped from the hole in the toilet."

Kalbi, a 33-year-old woman from a village in Rajasthan, fainted on the toilet seat after the birth for a few minutes before waking up and alerting her family.

"They stopped the train and ran on the tracks to find the baby," she said, speaking from her hospital bed in the western city of Ahmedabad.

Railway staff at a nearby station were alerted and soon found the newborn girl lying uninjured on pebbles by the track. She is now in intensive care because of her premature birth, doctors said.

Most toilets on Indian trains are filthy chutes emptying directly onto the tracks.

Pics from Pune

Here are some pics from Pune --- the pollution was so bad that we really had to cover our mouths to not breathe it in, it literally made our eyes water. Awful!! Also some pics from the streets and our night out.



 
 
 
 

Dry WHAT? This Would Never Fly in America...

This week I got out of dodge with a much-needed trip to the big city. My friend (who was leaving here to travel around the rest of India) and I left Monday morning for two delightful days of shopping, sightseeing, and good eating and drinking (read: we were going to get to actually choose what and when we ate) in Pune. The car ride was uneventful (or as uneventful as any car ride can be in India). When we asked to make a pit stop, our driver diligently pulled off to the side of the road, hell, men pee everywhere, why can’t women too? Equal rights baby! So off we go to hide behind a tree, all was well until my walk back to the car when I stepped on a thorn that went through my flip flop. Ouch. Thank goodness for my tetnus shot, no permanent damage done.

So we arrive in Pune around lunch time and check into our hotel. It is at this point that I get a call telling me that, oh yeah, its actually election day tomorrow and everything (all shops, etc) are closed the next day. Oh really. So off we go to do a full afternoon of shopping to make sure we get everything. Of course, the first order of the day was a trip to the “German Bakery” for a latte. This little restaurant is right next to Pune’s big “meditation center” which is filled with Westerners (mostly older from what I could tell) who go to learn yoga and do who knows what (you have to take an instant HIV test before even entering…something tells me more than yoga is going on in there…).

After lunch we went to a department store (who-hoo), book store, western grocery store, and mall. It was great, 4 weeks without any retail therapy had been tough, luckily I rectified that and made exciting purchases like coffee and soap. At the grocery store we had intended to buy a little wine to celebrate our trip, it was at this point that the bomb dropped. Monday and Tuesday were DRY days. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? We quickly learned that yes, the entire city was not selling any alcohol on Monday or Tuesday because of the elections. Apparently Indians + drinking + elections = lots of violence. Our dreams of a nice cocktail at dinner were quickly dashed, what the hell kind of place is this??? After an hour of hating India, we got over it and also learned that dry day was up at 5pm on Tuesday, whew. Plus, we thought, what better way to spend Tuesday than to go sit by the pool at one of the nice hotels. Great idea, way to make lemonade out of lemons!!! So, we went on to enjoy a nice dinner out. It was about 10pm when the monsoon hit. What the heck? Someone up there must not like us. So with the pool out and nothing open, we wondered what the heck to do the next day.

So on Tuesday, we went to the zoo, which thankfully decided to stay open despite election day. It was actually a pretty nice zoo, lots of green space and plenty of room for the animals. No commercialization like you would find in the U.S., in fact you couldn’t even buy a bottle of water if you wanted. But there were about 25 toilets, more than I think they have in the rest of India. I saw a leopard up close. He was fat. I didn’t know leopards could be fat but this guy was. They also had a snake park which was cool/terrifying. They also had an “extinct animal” graveyard that actually had graves of animals that had gone extinct with a picture up. Then there was an open hole in the ground for the White Tiger, which I guess is on the list…sad.

After that we headed to the upscale hotel in Pune for a nice lunch and to sit and chill (and pray the sun might come out). It didn’t, so I got a pedicure while Simone read in the lobby. And finally, 5pm rolls around. After putting on our Sunday best, we headed to this area called “ABC Farms” which is popular with the students. Basically it’s a little alcove populated by a half dozen restaurant/bars. Most of them didn’t open until 7, but since we were such eager beavers we were there by 5:45pm. Luckily, the Iranian jazz bar we had planned on going to anyway happened to be open for business. So there we went, and there we stayed for many hours. It was lots of fun. As is typical in India, we ended up chatting with some locals, who also happened to own that very cool bike on which I took my first (and probably last) motorcycle ride. Eventually we left ABC Farms and walked down to what they said was “a cool bar.” As we approached and saw a giant pyramid that read “Hard Rock Café” I thought, ooooh no. Won’t do it. Luckily, the place we were headed was behind there. It was so cool – I literally thought I was in Vegas (minus the fact that it was a Tuesday night and closed at 11:30pm.) They had pools in the middle and loungy couches everywhere, the downfall was the prices were just like Vegas too…

All in all a great trip. Simone went on her way Wednesday morning and I headed back to the village rejuvenated. I have spent this week working on marketing materials and an abstract submission for a global health conference. I had been scared of submitting abstracts but they really aren’t so bad.

Tonight is the start of Diwali, the biggest holiday in India, the “festival of lights” – that sounds familiar!

Things You Would Not Expect to See on a Motobrike...

1. 2 men, 1 microwave
2. 1 man, 1 woman, 2 kids, 1 baby
3. 2 men, 3 goats
4. 2 men, 1 bicycle
5. 1 man, 20 lbs of potatoes
6. Me

Pumpkin Spice

 
 
 
 

The days are coming and going, and I'm pretty settled into a routine, guess that happens whether you are working in the states or in the middle of India, but certain people called me a blog slacker (not naming names), so here goes. I guess my main observation is that I miss Fall (read: I miss the first chily day where I can order a pumpkin spice latter from starbucks!) We are still hitting upper 80s here on a daily basis and sine Fall is my favorite season, I am missing it! The monsoon is hopefully winding down, it POURED most of last weekend. Normally I'm a big fan of rain when I'm safely inside, but here, even when I am safely in my room, the water comes through my front door and is VERY loud on my tin roof making sleeping a tad difficult. But, the rain is great for the farmers here so I can't complain much.

Work is going well, we had a consultant here this week. She is a woman that basically built a non-profit from the ground up in San Francisco. She grew up in Pune, but has been living in the states, she is back for 4 months traveling and experiencing what is going on "on the ground." We had some great meetings and has she had really good advice for me on how to help build the fundraising structure here. It was a nice break from budgets and data sheets. She is coming back in November to stay for a couple of weeks so that will be great for us.

I took some time last week to see CRHP in action, a chance that most people working in NGOs in the states wouldn't always have. I spent one morning at the new hospital - - it looks so great. It is such a huge improvement from the old hospital. It wasn't overly crowded but saw some interesting cases, including 2 snake bites, 1 case of dengue fever, and a premie baby who after 21 days still only weight 1.7 ounces. Yikes. I also visited a few villages, its nice to get out into the community. Its also interesting for me because I'm looking at it from the a different side now. Instead of just watching and learning what the mobile health team is doing in a village, I'm now thinking, "how can I make a data sheet so that its easy for them to collect health data and easy for us to record it?"

Other than that, I am missing my DC life and my ladies, as one might expect when one moves to the middle of India. Although a little package from the states last week was a nice treat. Not only did I get to catch up on a few US Weeklys, but I'm still enjoying mini reeses that survived the journey (albeit a bit melted). The majority of other westerners here are YOUNG. While I realize I am not old, you really forget that 20 years old is YOUNG. Anyway, I can deal. I am very excited because on Monday I am running away to the big city. My buddy is leaving so I'm going with her and we are going to spend 2 days in Pune before she goes on to Mumbai. I am so excited for restaurant dining, a little shopping, and some espresso. There is a place called the German Bakery that supposedly has awesome coffee, that will be our first stop. We are also going to an Iranian jazz club. It will be nice just to have a change of scenery for a few days!

So, Dana and Liz, there ya go :)

Go Cardinals!