# 44 Settling into India

Hi Everyone I really need to be more prepared when I get online like this. I don't want to waste my internet time yet I think of a hundred things I would like to do for you so I'll start making a list and have everything ready when I sign on. Such as: I would like to take photos of my room and the view from my 14th floor windows and post them so you can see. My room is very simple, clean for India standards, quite large (can sleep 3 people or more), has a private bathroom and a lockable cabinet with my own padlock. I have a desk I am using right now and a chair. A fan to cool me off when it's hot and a row of wall pegs so I can hang things, such as my bag of snacks. Bugs are a problem which can be handled in various ways: Mosquitos - I use a plug in called Good Knight that keeps them away using a chemical. With my cough and the suggestion that I may be allergic to something, I want to eliminate this so I bought a mosquito net and I will attach it to the window to prevent them from coming in. Right now I have no screen there. Ants - I don't know how they find things I don't and make it up 14 floors to invade what they find. Last night I came home to find a lot of tiny little ones, no bigger than that last comma I typed, on my bed. They seemed to like something that was on the plastic bag I had some papers in and had quickly dropped the bag on my bed as I was leaving, along with my backpack. I don't see what they were after but when I found them I hung my backpack and the plastic bag from my clothes line and slept in the extra bed. They're gone now. Otherwise I just have to be conscious of not having any food or food garbage like banana peels left around. Glad I wasn't a total pig before because you have to keep things absolutely clean. I am still the new kid on the block and have a really big learning curve to climb. I haven't been to the shopping center yet which I hear is big and there is another one being built which will be the biggest one in India. Cochin was well known for good workers that were willing to relocate. Some were Muslim and they left in droves to work in the Middle East. Well the aging process has taken place and they are now retiring and coming home - with lots of money. And I know you can guess who is building these shopping centers, Arab corporations. They are just following the money. I have to go see them which means a ricksaw drive and I have to make a list of the things I need to make it worthwhile for the trip. For the mosquito net I need tape to attach it to the wall next to the window. I need window cleaner because the window really is flithy and needs to be cleaned first. I asked the cleaning ladies to do it this morning and she thought she did it (I had to say Thank you, good job) but she didn't use any cleaner, just water, and it did nothing. I don't want to buy anything I don't need right now since I will be leaving in 6 weeks and will have to find someplace I can store stuff for 2 months while I'm gone...or give it away and start again when I come back. Here's some observations that I find funny: Did you ever wonder what happened to Lifebuoy Soap? It's in India. I use it everyday now. I am having a heck of a time getting/keeping my feet clean. They get dirt stuck along the sides of the nails, the skin seems to absorb dirt. I need to lather my whole body with soap, than it's a bucket bath so you use a cup to scoop up water to pour over the body. When I'm done I use a towel to rub and dry to help get the old skin cells /dirt off my body. I've been told by someone that I should try washing my body with Salt - rubbing salt all over as a first wash and then after, wash the way I am washing. There's another item I need to put on my list to buy, salt. I must be tired and it's not even lunch time because I can't think of all the things that keep popping up and I think, I have to tell everyone about that. It's all new to me so I am seeing it as you would, but give it time and soon I won't even see things with this perspective. It will be "old hat". I just remembered another one I thought I would share. The American woman in my office, Eileen, brought candy to work for Halloween. Little coffee sweets with a wrapper on it. We were told that the desks in our office were on loan and would need to be replaced. So I show up as the workers are taking the door off the frame because the desk doesn't fit through the doorway. After they finish removing the one desk (we have two, the one I share with my boss, and the one Eileen has) Eileen offers sweets to the workers. They all take one or two and leave. I walk outside our office and all the wrappers are scattered on the floor. It's their culture to just remove and drop on floor, whether it is on the street or in an office. There's a post script to this, they find out that they took the wrong desk and had to return it and take the other one. But this time they don't want to take the door off. So they turn the desk on its side and drag it through the doorway. Yep, totally messed up the end of the desk but who cares. And Eileen gave more sweets, and more wrappers were on the floor. You have to be able to laugh! I'm going to end now. I'll write more again soon. Love Marie