#79 Playing Hostess

Where am?  In Ponnekarra at the hospital but tomorrow I go to Vallikavu, Kerala, look it up on Google Maps, yes it’s really a place.

How am I?  Now that my nose has stopped running for a few days, I’m fine.

Today I am starting a very small project.  For the next week I am going to host a group of 10 people coming from Sri Lanka.  They are the Sri Lanka Women’s Cooperative.  They are a very well established micro finance group.  See http://www.slwb.org/

They are coming here as consultants to the women’s group that are only starting.  They have 80,000 members, the ones here only have 10,000. They have a self funded health insurance plan, the women here have no health insurance. It should be very interesting. It’s a man with 9 women and the man is the only one that we know speaks English.  The women will be speaking Tamil and I will have someone with me who can act as interpreter. I go to the airport at 2:00, come back to my Guest House where they will spend the night, and then tomorrow we head to Vallikavu.  They’re there visiting some of the women’s groups for a day, and then they have a 2 day workshop with the 55 groups here in Kerala to exchange information. I also get the benefit of traveling with them as they stop at these little villages, then take a boat trip on the backwaters. Should be good.

We return to Ponnekarra on Tuesday after the workshop ends for another meeting here on Wednesday. They’ll get a tour of the Hospital. And on their last day, Thursday we go to Fort Kochi, a tourist destination to sightsee, eat and in the evening attend the local Traditional Dance Kathikali.  See http://www.kathakalicentre.com/

Friday they have to leave for the airport at 6:30 a.m. and I volunteered to accompany them there. I think it’s nice to make sure they get to the airport without any mishaps.

I’m sorry I don’t post more often.  This project took time and I didn’t get to it until now. As I'm entering this however, I realize I didn't post for Thanksgiving and I really meant to do that so I owe you one.

I’ll let you know how the visit goes.

Love,

Marie

#78 What’s next?

Where am?  Still the same, in my room at the Guest House in Ponnekarra.

How am I?  Very well, I’m happy to report.

Today is Sunday and I wrote this on Thursday.  I didn’t need to go into my office, no one was there except the Administrative Assistant who is there by herself.  I feel bad for her that she gets lonely so I stop by to say hi whenever I’m near the office.  But my two co-workers are out of the office, one is in Sri Lanka, and the other went to Varkala, the resort town I went to about a month ago. I had no interest in going back there. So I’m going to have a quiet weekend here.  Last night I saw the original Thor as a video at a friend’s house since we saw Thor 2 at the cinema last Sunday. I’ve missed a lot of movies that I will have to catch up on when I get home. Net Flix here I come.

What?!  No photos!?  I am attaching a photo of me being blessed by an elephant in Ponticherry, India. Funny stuff. And then another of us having dinner out.  Notice the table behind us.  Always, wherever you go Indians look at you...Stare at you!  We definitely entertain them!  Ha Ha.

But I’m sorry to say the camera saga continues. Now I have a new camera but the storage disks can’t be read by my computer.  I’ve checked several disks with my computer and my co-worker’s computer and they are fine on her computer, but cannot be read on my computer.  I got these photos by bringing the storage disk to the store I bought my camera at, buying a CD and having them copy the photos from the storage disk to the CD I had bought. Too much work.

If money was no object I’d buy a new computer, a nice light weight one, maybe a tablet? But I don’t want to – the electricity cord wouldn’t be American but I know that should not be a problem. I think I’d probably break the thing before I get back to the US. I don’t know how they work but I know that I could learn.  I’m kind of talking myself into buying the stupid thing so I could just ship this heavy computer back to the US when I leave here rather than lug it around with me on my travels back home.  We’ll see. 

Which brings me to the topic of this post…What am I doing next?  I really don’t know.  I have to leave here by February 20^th and by “here” I mean India.  If I want to go to Kolkata or anywhere else in India, it has to be before 2/20/14.  But I really don’t want to return to the US until May or June.  So I have 3 months to dink around on my way back. I admit traveling is not easy. That’s why I want to keep my bags light.  I will probably ship a box home with the heavy things so I don’t have to carry it.  I am thinking if there is anyone that I want to see – like my brother in Australia – I better see him one last time because I don’t know if I will come back again.  My ex-husband has decided he is not coming to India and he loved India.  I really thought he would come but see, at his age he decided it’s too much or at least that’s what I think he is thinking. More to come on what I decide to do as I consider where to go?

Love you,

Marie

 

#77 Auroville

Where am?  Back in my room at the guest house of the university/hospital in Ponnekarra, just returned from Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu.

How am I?  Wonderful. Feeling good, in great spirits, enjoying my time here.

I went to Auroville, near Pondicherry last Thursday. Came back on Sunday. Auroville was beautiful. The towns of Auroville and Ponidcherry were just typical Indian towns but the section that was declared an International Community is inhabited by 3,000 people from 45 countries (it was envisioned to hold 50,000) and is a very nice self-contained place. Everyone gets around by bicycle or motorcycle and there's lots of solar energy, organic farming, great restaurants, etc. Three days was too little and I would suggest at least a week to anyone interested in seeing the place. They are still accepting residents and they suggest a month's stay make a decision.  For more info see: http://www.auroville.org/

I used my new camera and hoped to show you a few photos that I took but I’ve run into another problem. The storage disk is not able to be read.  I tried my computer and my girlfriend’s computer and it is the disk. This is the “free disk” that came with the camera. You can see the photos on the camera but we can’t seem to get the photos downloaded so I can show you.  I will go to the store where I bought the camera and see if I just didn’t understand how to do it. So that is what held up this posting, I wanted to give you some photos and it is not going to happen.  I just hope I don’t lose the photos I took.  I see them on my camera but I can’t get them to my computer. But my camera takes beautiful photos.  I can’t wait to show them to you.

Otherwise it’s been a good work week.  I finished my part on two projects: the By-Stander Handbook and the editing of the Peripheral Intravenous Textbook. Both my co-workers are away right now, one is in Sri Lanka and the other is in Bangalore.

Hope to upload those photos to you soon.

Love,

Marie

#76 Going on another Trip

Where am? In my room at the guest house of the university/hospital in Ponnekarra, Kerala, but tomorrow I am taking an overnight train to Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu.

How am I? Still in great health and excited about this next trip.
Ok, now I am trying to keep track of what is going on here so I can keep you updated.

I did some more research on the song “When I’m Sixty-Four” and found that it was written by Sir Paul McCartney (but co-credited to John Lennon) and released in 1967 on their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was one of the first songs McCartney wrote, when he was only sixteen! I also picked up a Time Magazine this week with his royal highness, Prince Charles on the cover and found out that Charles is 64 years old, too. 1949 was a busy year! But moving right along, my birthday is over and there’s no more celebrating.

Today I was in an auto-rickshaw going from the Hospital to my girlfriend’s house and had my first “accident” here in India. A motorcycle ran into us. It was totally his fault, he was going the opposite way, and was making a turn into the street we were on and he swung out to far and hit the passenger side up by the driver. I didn’t even see what happened but after he hit us he went down and I heard his engine go fast as it was on its side. He broke his mirror off and lots of people ran to see if he was ok. I knew to stay in the rickshaw (didn’t want anyone to see there was a Westerner inside) and let them settle it. The rickshaw didn’t sustain any damage that I could see but it seemed to shake up the driver. After it was settled, he got back in and continued to drive me to my destination. I’m surprised that this was the first accident I’ve been in.

So let me tell you about where I’m going tomorrow. Pondicherry is the French claim in India when all the European countries were making a grab at it. If you saw the movie or read the book The Life of Pi, this is the city where he came from that had the Zoo. Then in 1968, a group decided to try and establish an “International” experimental city nearby. The group was an offshoot from the Aurobindo Ashram so the city is called Auroville. There are 45 different nationalities living there. The Government of India endorsed the township, and in 1966, UNESCO also endorsed it inviting the member-states to participate in the development of Auroville.

Here’s the website if you would like to take a look. http://www.auroville.org/

I’d heard about it and always wanted to see it so when my co-worker said he was going there with his cousin from the UK, I jumped at going with them. It’s only for 4 days, a quick trip there and back.

I also bought myself a new camera last week – Whoopee. So I will see how it works and what I find that is photo-worthy on this trip. It’s a Canon SX160 IS.

Work isn’t going great, or maybe it is that I don’t really have any. Ha Ha. There is the project that I am supposed to be involved with of training Home Healthcare workers and that is going nowhere. I went on my Birthday Trip because they said they would postpone the Ministry of Human Resources coming to visit until after Oct. 27th. So I get back to work on Oct. 28th and they had the meeting while I was away. Did they send me an email about it? No, but this is India. So now I’m editing a book and I’ve got to a place where I really need to talk to the author about it (she’s the Director of Nursing at the Hospital) and she’s either out sick or just too busy to meet with me. So I’ll send her an email and see if I can meet with her when I get back on Nov. 11th.

So now, don’t expect to hear from me again until after 11/11 that I am not bringing my computer with me. Did this year fly by or did it fly by?!!!
Have fun. Enjoy every minute.
Love,
Marie

#75 Back from my BD Trip

Where am? Firmly planted in my room at the guest house of the university/hospital in Ponnekarra, Kerala

How am I? Rested and feeling very “at home”.

Arrived back from Varkala last night. Varkala was ok, really nothing to write home about. I don’t care if I ever go there again but my co-worker loves it down there. She plans on going there again in November. Me, if I have time on my hands there are a lot of other places in India I would rather go see.

Varkala is very international with so many different nationalities there: Russian, Polish, French, Israeli, Nepalese, Tibetan… I could go on. And they come there for the beach and because it is still India so it is very inexpensive. The beach was badly affected by the weather so there is no beach; right now anyway. I told you how bad the monsoons were this year and the “second monsoon” is scheduled to hit. This second monsoon is actually the first monsoon that goes to North India returning down south. It makes two appearances. Except this year there wasn’t a break so it’s been one long monsoon dropping a lot of water. I never would have known it could affect an Ocean? But it did.

The food was good with as much variety as the nationalities that visit, so that was nice. And of course I had fun with myself singing Happy Birthday to Me every day or When I’m 64. I read 4 books, all written by this Indian author Chetan Bhagat. He’s young and funny and it’s an education about Indian society. I’m still finishing the last one, 100 pages to go.

The B&B we stayed is a good walk from the strip so I got plenty of exercise. We went to the strip twice a day. But it was also very relaxing sitting on the roof of the B&B having breakfast, and afternoon tea. It also had wi-fi so we could check our emails. Still no word on the meeting I’m supposed to attend with the Ministry of Human Resources Rep. Glad I decided on going with my co-worker because I could have been sitting there waiting for them to schedule it this whole week.

So besides the reading, eating and relaxing, there is nothing new in my life. I’m just chilling out. I can tell you the train ride coming home was another trip I could have done without. We paid to upgrade but there were no seats in the car we were assigned to so I climbed up onto the upper berth and sat there for the 4 hour trip (with two other people) and my co-worker found a “seat” on the lower berth two compartments from me that she couldn’t even lean her back on something, for four hours! Glad I wasn’t her.

So anyway, I’m home sweet home now in my Guest House. Going to my co-worker’s home for lunch today, her housemate is cooking. Tomorrow starts another workweek and we will see what it brings.
Life is Good.
Love
Marie

#74 A Special Day

Where am? In my room at at the guest house of the university/hospital in Ponnekarra, Kerala

How am I? Marvelous.

Yes, my dear Loved Ones, tomorrow I am going to celebrate my birthday. There’s even a song about it….

"When I'm Sixty Four"
When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?

You'll be older too
And if you say the word
I could stay with you

I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?

Every summer we can rent a cottage in the Isle of Wight
If it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck & Dave

Send me a postcard, drop me a line
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away
Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I'm sixty-four?

Isn’t it amazing that when I first heard this song 64 years old seemed like forever away, and I AM THERE NOW!!!! It’s hilarious!

So anyway, tomorrow my friend is taking me to the Holiday Inn (a FIVE STAR Hotel here) for their Buffet Breakfast. Then we will go to a museum that she has heard is excellent.

On Monday I am going to a Resort Town for a fun trip with the same friend I am going out with tomorrow. She’s gone there several times and loves it. The name of the town is Varkala, look it up! It’s around 4 hours south of where I am. We’ll take the train. We’ll be staying at Kaiya House.

Here’s what Trip Advisor has to say about the place:
http://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Review-g297639-d1634368-Reviews-Kaiya_House-Varkala_Kerala.html
So I hope it will be a nice Birthday Trip for me.

As for my work here, I was hoping to go to a meeting before I left and that never happened. So now the meeting with the Head of Nursing Department (HOD), the person in charge of the training, and the Representative from the Gov’t Ministry will be after October 27th, not before Oct 24th. I really don’t know when it will happen and what the meeting will produce.

All I know is I carefully read the syllabus they gave me which apparently no one else did. Here is the handbook of what the Gov’t Ministry wanted people to learn, to become Healthcare Providers. I showed it to the HOD and she laughed. It said that when they completed the course they would be able to “install elevators and escalators.” An obvious “cut and paste job” that they didn’t change correctly.

And the other project I had of editing the textbook for the IV Course, there were so many errors that I didn’t know how to keep marking it up so the corrections could be made. So instead of picking out the errors, I asked the HOD to please give me the computer version so I can make the corrections myself. Otherwise it would take me forever to go over the corrected copy to check if the corrections were indeed actually changed. I just rather do it myself.

So I am free for the next week to relax and enjoy myself and hopefully I will come back to lots of work to get on. Less than 4 months to go, I want to make it productive.

I’ll keep in touch and report how my birthday trip was.
Love you all.
Marie

#73 A year later and finally getting used to the place

Where am? In my room at Ponnekarra, Kerala

How am I? Doing great.

The weather has been really good lately, although it’s slowly getting warmer day by day. I know most of you are getting colder, day by day, as winter is creeping up. But here the rainy season has slowed and without the rains to cool it down, it’s getting hot sometimes and definitely muggy. It feels good driving around in an auto-rickshaw with the wind blowing, God’s natural air-conditioning.

I’ve been given a project on top of the Home Healthcare Training project. The Head of the Nursing Department wrote a book for training Peripheral I.V Cannulation and she has asked me to edit it for spelling, grammar and basic English. No, I haven’t any knowledge of this but basically the book is to teach students who have no knowledge so it’s a good match. Without her knowing it, though, I was once trained as a phlebotomist when I worked in a blood bank in a hospital in Wisconsin so that helps. And the book is only 40 pages so it should be easy.

I went shopping at the big mall near me and bought treats for myself…fruit, nuts and even croissants. Even though I have tried several times to find Time Magazine, they are always sold out but I scored this time. And I found some instant Latte packages. So Wednesday morning I sat out on my balcony (with my mosquito net covering firmly in place), drinking my Latte, reading my Time Magazine, I could have been on my patio in Tempe, AZ. It felt so good. I could get used to this. Not really. I was 14 floors up and still heard all the streets sounds like I was in NY.

A friend of mine emailed me asking if India is really as dirty as she has heard and I had to reply, Yes, it is filthy. But it’s funny, if you can laugh at it, after a while you get used to it. Some things you become vigilant at doing, like always making sure your hands are clean when eating or touching something you are going to eat. The fruit I buy is soaked in a disinfecting wash, either Bleach or Dettol, before I eat it.

And I don’t know if I will ever get used to the people pushing and shoving or being just plain gross when it comes to hygiene. For example (and I am picking a not so gross example here). I know someone who was hanging out with an intelligent Indian (college student) and the person threw their garbage on the street, a wrapper to a food she was eating. When my friend mentioned this the Indian said, Oh, I forgot, so she picked it up and then proceeded to throw it into the water they were next to, as if that was better! When I was in Africa there was a young woman from NY who used to say she wished she had a Common Sense Stick that she could club someone over the head and give them Common Sense. She would have a Field Day here in India.

My co-worker friend who bought a new house purchased a Top of the Line cabinet system for her kitchen cupboards. Sliding selves under all the counters, it was not cheap, even by US standards, around US $750. The items were manufactured in Germany. And the carpenters that the store sent to install them made such a mess of the installation that it’s a shame! The shelves don’t slide nice and easy. She’s going to complain to the store where she bought them but other than that there’s no recourse. Just write it off as It’s India! I will not be buying a house intending to settle down here in India. It is a temporary stop for me, even shorter than the normal 3 year pattern I have.

India is celebrating another holiday, Durga Puja and Navaratri. I think it is about 13 days long all together. There was even a stampede at a temple up north today and 89 people were killed. Such a shame. Here it is just very pretty with colored lights and decorations everywhere and lots of praying going on.

Today I went to see the movie Gravity with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Definitely something to see on the big screen, and I saw it in 3D, too. It sold out both showings last night and we had to buy the tickets for today yesterday, but definitely worth it.

I’ll end this now and check in with you later this week. Hopefully I’ll have some news on how my work projects are going.

Love,
Marie

#72 New Month, a new start… continued

Where am? At my co-worker’s flat in Eddapally, Kerala

How am I? OK. Yesterday I felt the results of helping my friend move and my back wasn’t in great shape. So I was a slug and did nothing but watch DVDs. It’s good and bad because it doesn’t stress the back but it also makes it stiff. This morning I’m washing my clothes which is a primary reason I come to the flat, he has a washing machine, but I am also thinking I want to leave today. It is not my place so there is no coffee here and I didn’t think of bringing it with me.

So what happened this week? Not much, as I said it was the end of the festival season so there weren’t many people around. My co-worker will be returning this week. He timed it well that if he came earlier he wouldn’t have had anything to do. My other co-worker had a angiogram done and that required hospitalization for a night. We hurried up and got her packed to be out of her flat but didn’t quite make it. The cupboards in her new kitchen weren’t finished and we didn’t want to bring the stuff there if the workmen were still coming. So I offered to move the last batch Friday by myself while she was in the hospital. That’s what may have taxed my back. She lived on the third floor so it was two flights of stairs for each trip. I didn’t do it alone, the driver helped and did most of it. I’m not stupid…well not a total idiot.

But now that the festival season is over everything is coming to life. There was a political demonstration this morning walking down the street. The flat is on the 11th floor so I can see for miles and the building is at the intersection of two big streets. I admire the Indians that they use their freedom of speech often. I have no idea what they were demonstrating about this morning but I think Americans are wimps that we do nothing about the Gov’t closing down!! Maybe there are demonstrations but it doesn’t make the news, so I really don’t know.

There is something going on at St. George’s Cathedral next door. The bells are ringing, they are setting off fireworks, and there was a procession of people who just walked around the perimeter of the church property. Indians merge old customs into new belief systems so fireworks during a Christian activity is not a surprise. In Sri Lanka the taxi driver had a slew of idols on his dashboard, a Ganesh, a Krishna, and Buddha (Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist) and I asked him what religion he was. He answered Hybrid. Made me laugh. But most people are hybrid. I certainly am right now. I respect all religions as long as they teach that everyone is our brother or sister, and to love one another. I’m just sorry to see that the teachings are not put into practice.

I was going to see a movie yesterday, Diana, but my get up and go, got up and went so I didn’t go out at all. Today I am meeting my co-worker at the movies so I will get my butt in gear and go. We are going to see Runner Runner with Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck. Hope it’s good. The movies I have seen lately are Elysium with Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. I went to see that with my co-worker and glad I did. The line was nothing but men and after we watched it I knew why. Very intense and some what violent. Jodie Foster gets killed before the end of the movie, but she’s the bad guy in the movie. She played it well.

I know you didn’t come here for movie reviews so I’ll stop there. This week I hope to meet with the key players for the Home Healthcare project. I’m not taking it on for any kind of glory or satisfaction of accomplishing it because I may never see it created. The Project I did last year with my co-worker, Dr. Patel, resulted in a 33 page report that we submitted but never heard a word about. That was done in February. We may never hear anything. You learn that you do things for the doing of it, kind of like living in the moment. A good way to learn that life is about enjoying every moment.

And enjoying the moment means FOOD for me. Ha Ha. I have been going to McDonald’s here and getting a Veggie burger meal, with a coke and French fries when I go to the movies. And the movies have an intermission and I have a Latte right there in the cinema. I mentioned that I missed eating a Baked Potato and my co-worker is going to have a Baked Potato party for me and a few friends in her new home. Isn’t that nice? And the other thing I really miss is Mexican food. We went to a restaurant that advertised The World’s Best Nachos and it was a big disappointment. They weren't even good, nevermind the Best! I’ll just have to wait until I get home for some good Mexican food.

So keep your fingers crossed that the meetings with the Home Healthcare Project players goes well this week. As long as they are nice to work with I’ll be happy.

Love,
Marie

#71 New Month, a new start?

Where am? At the Hosp/Uni in Ponnekarra, Kerala

How am I? Good, rested from another weekend stay at my co-worker’s flat. The weather has been perfect lately, not too hot and not wet.

I’ve had a lot of time to myself lately with the holiday festivities so I did a lot of reading and watched lots of movies. I had to download a computer program that now I can view DVDs that are not meant to be seen by American computers. It’s called VLC and actually I wasn’t able to download it myself, I needed help. But finally I got it on my computer so everyone is loaning me DVDs to watch.

Last week I watched Fiddler on the Roof. It’s been a long time since I watched that. I even had a triple feature the other day, I watched Love Actually, August Rush, and Fair Game. A real nice mixture of very good movies. Fair Game was the only movie I had not seen before and it was food for thought that President Bush and his cronies did lie to the American people about the Iraqis trying to develop a nuclear bomb. Yet his fall guy took a couple of years in prison and a pardon and everything was smoothed over. I hope America never becomes like the third world countries that are so corrupt the heads of states can do anything and get away with it. Yet that is exactly what happened back then. The White House even released the name of a secret agent, the whistle blower’s wife, and as the movie showed, maybe 15 scientists and their families were never seen again because of this spiteful action. That was also against the law, a crime. I truly dislike politics.

Speaking of politics, I am so annoyed at Congress that I can’t even express how I feel. How stupid can they be? Yeah, pretty stupid to close the country and have it cost over $1 billion a day while they talk.

And today is Gandhi’s birthday and a National Holiday in India. He was such a great man with such noble plans and hopes for the future of his country and look what happened here. Politics!

I’m going to post this so you know I’m alive but I’ll have to start putting down my thoughts to remind me of what I want to tell you. This week is pretty much a wash, as far as work goes but next week is starting to look like it may get busy. This week I’m still helping my friends close up their old flat, get their new home livable, my co-worker (the owner of the home) is in hospital for a test, my supervisor, the Head of Nursing is away and will be back to meet with me next Monday. I’ll go to my other co-workers flat for the last weekend before he returns but the Dutch girl that was staying there leaves tonight for Bangkok so I’ll be all alone there. For nothing happening here, there’s a lot going on!
I’ll fill in the blanks next time.

Love,
Marie

#70 Return of the Monsoon?

Where am? Back at my room at the Hosp/Uni in Ponnekarra, Kerala

How am I? Good, rested from the break to my co-workers flat and I’ll be back there again every weekend for the next 4 weeks.

So let me tell you what is happening here. It’s raining again. I heard Kerala has two monsoons and I think this is the start of the second one. It’s been raining almost every day but not continuous. So if I wait it will stop or lighten up so I can go out. But Tuesday night at my friend’s flat me and the Dutch girl went to the mall to get something for dinner and on the way back we got drenched! I mean walking in puddles that were up to my ankles. It was good fun because we were on our way home and knew we could just dry off, change clothes, and we watched a video.

In the meantime between being offered the use of my co-worker’s flat (his name is Arun) while he’s in the UK, and his actually departure, an 18 year old girl from Holland (Amber) appeared. She is on her “gap year” traveling and needed a place to stay. She is the friend of Arun’s daughter and they offered her the use of the flat, too. She’s a really nice girl and we get along great so no problem.

So what is a gap year? Something I think the US should have. When students finish high school, instead of jumping into college the very next semester, they are given a gap year. My friend’s son in Australia took the year to work to get the money to continue with his education. Many Europeans, including Arun’s daughter and Amber, travel to see the world, de-stress from H.S., and think and make a decision on what they want to study in college. Arun’s daughter is back at Uni now, that’s why he’s in the UK, helping her move to the campus. In the US we are just expected to continue straight into college if we intend to continue our education. But in the rest of the world, they allow the students to take a break and breathe a little. Very smart.

So I have been playing the role of Host to Amber, taking her here and there. I met an Australian woman (Nina) in Sri Lanka who lives right here in Kochi. She was traveling in India with her sister a few years ago and met this Indian man. She went back to Australia but continued corresponding with him by internet and eventually decided to hang everything up in Australia and go back to India to be with this man. So here it is, two years and one break-up later and she is still in India. She loves it enough that she had gone to Sri Lanka to renew her visa just like me when we met. She started an online business creating websites. She laughs because she says there is a whole town in New Zealand where she has never been but she has created all their business websites. Word of mouth has spread her ability. So Nina has met lots of ex-pats (foreigners) here and when I told her I was with Amber, she invited us to meet her and them at a Club in Kochi. She knew the man who was DJ-ing. I have never been to a Club in India but I thought Amber might like it. What clinched the invite was someone from the Hosp told me that the Club was in a very nice hotel and that we should eat dinner there before going to the Club. So four of us ended up eating dinner at The Bubble Café: an American, a Dutch woman, an Australian and a Swedish woman working here at a marketing company. And Amber made a connection for finding a job when she gets to Australia.

I have skipped over the time I arrived back in India from Sri Lanka until I went to Arun’s flat. I landed in a frenzy that the hosp/uni were putting together a last minute Event for the community. They offered 60 classes/workshops/seminars within 4 days from September 6th to the 9th. All for free. I went to a Photography class (don’t laugh), a Foot Reflexology class where I was the model so I got a foot massage, a painting class and a yoga class. But just two weeks before when I was there at the hosp I had not heard a word about it so that is how last minute the decision was to do this event. I arrive on Friday and by Saturday I’m working until 9:30 p.m. trying to help put together a listing of what was being offered. It was wild. Too wild for me that by the following week, I was able to remove myself from the fracas. I was still there willing and able to help but not responsible for anything that people could complain about.

I was also asked to be a By-Stander for someone who had Parkinson’s that required me to sleep in the patient’s room for a night. In fact that was the excuse to get myself out of the Event Planning project. Shortly after that I was asked to be a By-Stander for someone who needed surgery. That was 3 nights sleeping in the patient’s room. They found her another volunteer By-Stander to take my place.

So the holiday season continues and the Hosp/Uni is quiet. I did get a document by email with a suggested syllabus for the Home Caregiver Course that they would like me to consult on. I’ll try and meet with a teacher at the School of Nursing, if he’s around. If not, there’s next week or the next. We’re in India.

Let me post this and I’ll get back with you later.
Love,
Marie

#69 Onam with Puja photo

Where am? At my friend/co-worker’s flat in Edapally, Kerala, if you want to look it up it’s near Ernakulam.

How am I? Great. The bed is soft, there’s a kitchen, washing machine and refrigerator here. It’s walking distance to a mall with a cinema. On weekends I’m living in luxury while he’s in the UK for a month.

I was back in India on Friday, 23rd August I've been kept busy since I returned from Sri Lanka so I've got to get caught up on my blog. Basically everything is good.

One of my American friends & co-worker and an Indian friend bought a house together. It's lovely; if they offered to let me rent their extra bedroom I would have grabbed it but there already is an ex-roommate of the American who wants to take it. So I'll to be staying here at the Guesthouse. But there was the house blessing that took place at 5:00 a.m. one morning. Everything is done according to astrology here. And the "puja" (blessing) they did was a small raging fire in the kitchen on a brick altar the priest constructed the day ahead of time. Here’s a photo of us at the blessing. The smoke was so thick in the house that I had to escape outside for fresh air. These are the things that they get used to from a young age and reconfirms that I am NOT a Hindu.

The photo at the beginning is from the House Puja. There's me, third from the right, with the two flat owners, Eileen who is second from the left, and Reshma who is in the very colorful saree next to her. The couple to my right in the photo are Reshma's parents and the other two people were friends. I am hiding my hand because I was holding a big bag about to leave when they said WAIT! We want a photo. So here it is.

Another Indian co-worker is going to the UK for a month and has offered me the use of his flat while he's away. SEE HOW FAR BEHIND I AM WITH THIS BLOG. He has a kitchen with a refrigerator and a washing machine and lives close to the shopping center so I'll be going there on weekends for the next 4 weeks. Cold drinks while I'm having my clothes washed for me, how much luxury can I stand?! I’m also checking the cinema that I can walk to movies while I’m there. It’s in the shopping center.
UPDATE: The only English movie showing yesterday was Grownups 2 so that’s what I went to see. It was typical juvenile humor but at least I got to eat popcorn and had a laugh or two.

It's holiday season here, kind of like Thanksgiving called Onam. I have to look it up for myself. According to Wikipedia "Onam is an ancient festival which still survives in modern times. Kerala's rice harvest festival and the Festival of Rain Flowers, which fall on the Malayalam month of Chingam, celebrates the Asura King Mahabali's annual visit from Patala (the underworld). Onam is unique since Mahabali has been revered by the people of Kerala since prehistory. The King is so much attached to his kingdom that it is believed that he comes annually from the nether world to see his people living happily. It is in honor of King Mahabali, affectionately called Onathappan, that Onam is celebrated." So while they holiday, everything is at a standstill work-wise. This will go on for the rest of September.

I’m going to end and post this now so you know I’m still alive.
Love,
Marie

#68 Greetings from Sri Lanka dated August 21

DELAYED ENTRY
This is a photo from Africa. I got a young woman to help show me how to load the photo and voila, here's the Rhinos I saw. Has nothing to do with Sri Lanka but by time I got to Sri Lanka, my camera wasn't really working anymore. I have two photos from Sri Lanka and I'll try to upload them another time. I'm lazy, but I'm retired and I'm allowed to be lazy! So on with my blog...

Where am? At a hostel in Colombo, Sri Lanka

How am I? Wonderful. I get my visa tomorrow, and I’m back in India on Friday, 23rd August.

This has been a whirlwind trip. I can start by saying I didn’t like Colombo but from all the Guide Books I have looked at, all three of them, no one says great things about Colombo. It’s just where the airport is. I hooked up with a British woman the first night I got here, at the same hostel I’m at right now, and we went out together to see a Temple, had dinner two nights, and walked on the beach. I think I got a touch of too much sun when I went to the consulate and she was there to help me which was very nice. She walked to the local store and bought me what I needed. She’s a nurse who quit her job to travel for a year. She went to India and found it too hard to handle. She also didn’t dress Indian style and she is going to try an experiment I have been wanting to try. I had an Indian pants outfit that really needed to be altered because it was too long for me and I gave it to her. When she goes back to India, she is going to wear it and see if the men treat her differently. It will be interesting if it has any effect because she actually counted how many times men exposed themselves to her. She is younger than me, tall and blond and she was traveling in the north of India, not where I am. I felt sorry for her because she was really disturbed by it.

So I’m back at that hostel and no one is here, it’s very quiet. I like it because I just got back from a 6 hour bus ride which was exhausting. The hotel owner at the place I stayed at in Haputale last night recommended that I get off the bus headed to Colombo at Nugegoda and take a rickshaw ride from there to my hostel instead of going all the way to Colombo and taking a rickshaw from there. It saved me time and money but it was chancy because I had no idea where I was. But it all worked out fine. Tomorrow I will take a bus to the Consulate, hand my passport over before 10:00 a.m., and then go back to pick it up with the new Visa before 5:00 p.m.
This is where I stopped typing this entry so let me tell you what happened after that. I didn’t get out of the Visa Office until after 6:00 p.m. We were a captive audience, around 40 of us, waiting for our passports to show up that the Visa Office is separate from the consulate and the passports had still not been delivered from the Consulate. But we did get them and I made it back to India, no problem. I actually had a lovely day that I didn’t want to hang around the hostel so I found things to do in Colombo. I window shopped, went to the Tourism Office. I didn’t know there was one and I even asked the Srilankan Airlines and they didn’t know to tell me where it was. I walked by a hotel with a sign that said it was run by students and I stepped in because I wanted to see if they had a restaurant that I love going to places run by students. They didn’t have a restaurant but they knew where the Tourism Office was, right next door to their building. Then they told me where to go for vegetarian food and I had lunch. I tried to see a movie but there wasn’t any English language movies that I wanted to see. Then I went to a 5 Star Hotel for a cup of tea and it was time to go back for my passport. I truly hope I don’t have to go back to Sri Lanka again, kind of like Qatar. I had enough of it.

The only two highlights:
1. The Perahera Festival in Kandy that was amazing. I couldn’t believe I was experiencing this centuries old ritual with elephants dressed up with electric lights, and thousands of Sri Lankans in costumes, dancing and playing drums and twirling fire tipped batons and
2. Staying at a Buddhist Ashram that was silent. It was beautiful but three days was enough for me because it had no electricity. I’d like to try it again in the USA and see how it goes.

I'm actually back in India so let me post this and I will try to get up-to-date since you haven't heard from me in a while.
Love,
Marie

#67 I’m all set for my trip to Sri Lanka

Where am I? Still at the University Hospital in Ponnekara, Kerala, leaving early tomorrow morning for Sri Lanka

How am I? I’m doing great. I even got my Boarding Pass printed out so I’m set for tomorrow morning.

My Buddhist friend came through for me. My Dear Good Friend Upala sent me his full name and the address to use so he could be my reference for the Indian Visa. He doesn’t have a phone number but I just typed in None and it worked.

Check this out-
Website: http://sridaladamaligawa.lk/perahera-2013/index.html

There’s a big festival going on in Sri Lanka and you can watch it in same time! I’m watching it now. As my parents would say, “I’m glad I’m not having to pay the electricity bill!” All the buildings must have thousands of lights on them.

Now if you go and look remember the time difference because there may be nothing going on if it is 6:00 a.m. It’s 8:00 p.m. for me right now and I’m not sure if there is a time difference between India and Sri Lanka or if it’s the same time. But it has dancers and drummers in some kind of parade. People are sitting watching it go by.

I wonder if the Boy Scouts who just walked past the camera know they are being seen all over the world?! The festival will be going on until I leave so I’ll see how it impacts me. I have never seen elephants so dressed up like this, with electric lights on them!

I think it must be an “auspicious” time because I hear fireworks going off outside. That means there are weddings or other occasions for celebrating and usually that doesn’t happen unless the astrology says it’s a good time. If they are having a festival in Sri Lanka, I think it must all tie in together.

My Biorhythms are looking real good. I also found out from the website that I am 23,306 days old. I didn’t know that. If you want to check yours, go to http://www.bio-chart.com/ It’s free.

I’m going to close now and relax for the rest of the night. I have to get up early tomorrow, like 5:00 a.m.
I am bringing my computer so if there is wifi available, I’ll be in touch. Otherwise, you’ll hear from me when I get back.
Love,
Marie

#66 Before I leave again

Where am I? No change, Ponnekara, Kerala, India but I leave Monday, August 12th for Sri Lanka

How am I? Doing well, but I really wish it would stop raining. (Wrote this on 8/7)

I was told today that the airport is closed, flooded out. I don’t think it should affect me on Monday, or at least I hope it won’t be still closed by then! I am starting to appreciate what it must have been like for Noah in the bible. They say the rain here is the worst it’s been in 23 years. Now those terrible floods in northern India last month were brought about by 4 days of constant rain. I know because I was up in Simla, not far from there, and I asked what happened and was told by the locals. Four days of constant rain on areas that have been built on when they shouldn’t have been, kind of like the building in CA on the cliffs so that the land gives way and you get the mud slides.

For me it’s the sound of the constant rain and the barometric pressure that makes me feel tired. I just want to sleep or see the sun! And it is funny seeing the Indian men with their inventive way of handling it. A lot of them carry their umbrella with the ? on the end of the handle hanging from their shirt collar from the back of their neck. Doesn’t look comfortable to me.

I have no idea what it is going to be like in Sri Lanka. (I checked the weather online today and it looks like it has about the same temp but we’ll see if it rains as much?) I go to Colombo, the capital when I arrive and as soon as I put in my application at the Indian Embassy I will leave Colombo and go to Kandy or there is another town that looks interesting. I’ve only made reservations for the first day and the last 3 days. I go to a hostel when I get to Colombo because I can’t take my baggage to the Embassy. Everyone is afraid of bombs, now these days. So I have to drop it off at the hostel before I put my application in. And the last 3 days will be at a Buddhist Ashram, very pretty looking by the photos on the website, very quiet, no electricity, vegetarian for me. So all I have to do is figure out what I would like to do for the 4 days in-between.

I have been reading a lot lately, not only books but magazines. Do you find that you are not as happy after you spend time on Facebook? It seems that 60% of the respondents to a survey about Facebook (this is from Time Magazine) said they do not feel better about themselves when they are done. And 76% of them believe that other people make themselves look happier, more attractive and more successful than they actually are on their Facebook page. So three out of four people think that their Facebook “friends” are indirectly lying. No wonder I don’t want to be on Facebook, if you don’t believe what is written there!

I have been reading a real “feel-good” book, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. He’s a baby-boomer and reflects on growing up in American during the 1950s. Now I understand why America was so successful after World War II. I recommend this as a must read.

And I also read Zeitoun by Dave Eggers about what happened in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina and now I know how a society can go down the tubes. The system can break very easily. I had thought about this before after the earthquake in Haiti. Picture a situation where there are no supplies to buy, I mean basics for living – food, water, shelter – it doesn’t matter if you are a millionaire, there is NOTHING to buy. And your money if you have it is worthless, and if you don’t have it, how do you get it? There are no banks open. You need to prove you are who you are but your wallet has been destroyed or lost. All records have been destroyed so how do you get your insurance to pay, if you had insurance.

For those of us who have never faced situations like this, we are so blessed. I have always had enough to eat, even if it is just peanut butter sandwiches sometimes. I have only spent one night on the street, in Barcelona, Spain, last August and that was by choice. I could have gone to a hotel but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money for less than 6 hours.

Getting my Visa is going to be interesting because the Indian Government wants people to do their application online and they want a Sri Lankan Reference. I don’t know anyone there. I wrote to the Buddhist Ashram asking if they would be my reference since the man/woman? wrote to me a couple of times signing “Your Good Friend Upala”. So I sent an email saying My Dear Good Friend Upala would you be my reference? If I don’t hear from Upala my backup plan is sending an email to the Indian Consulate telling them I don’t have a Sri Lankan Reference and see if an American or Indian reference would be ok? But this all has to be done tomorrow because Monday I will be on the plane.

Wish me luck everyone. The adventure continues.
Love you all,
Marie

#65 Keeping in Touch

Where am I? No change, Ponnekara, Kerala, India

How am I? Happy as can be.

I thought I would start keeping a list of what I want to share with you. I’ve been reading a lot of books lately. I finished Waiting to be Heard by Amanda Knox, the American college girl who spent 4 years in the Italian jail for murdering her British roommate. Very interesting. I assumed she was guilty but wanted to know the story behind it because there are always not 2 sides to a story, but 3. Anyway, I now understand what happened and I do believe she was robbed of 4 years of her life. AND… I think the moral of the story is we let young people do whatever they want at too young an age. An American friend I met here recently told me a story of when she was 17, just finished High School and she went to Europe. Ended up being deported from Amsterdam, they sent her to Heathrow Airport for a flight back to the US, but she didn’t have the money for the ticket so her father had to wire her the money. He wired it to the wrong airport so a week later she is still sitting at the airport waiting for the money! She finally called him and got the money sent to the right place. But 17 years old she was deported from the Netherlands, I wasn’t allowed to spend the night at a friend’s house at that age.

I read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, which I just read in Time Magazine was the #1 Summer Read last year. And Tina Fey’s Bossypants. I got these books downloaded when I was in Africa. One of the young people had a Barnes & Nobles’ Nook like me and she gave me almost 40 books on my Nook. I’m not fussy when it comes to reading, I mean if I start reading a book and it really bores me I would stop but if I’m just reading to pass the time, I will read most anything, fiction, non-fiction, murder mysteries...

Another book I read (a book, not an ebook) was Robin Cook’s Foreign Body. It was very good with its insights on India. I could not describe a ride in an auto rickshaw the way he does, and lots of other Indian descriptions like the new hospital down the street from a mountain of garbage. So if you would like to read a medical murder mystery book that tells you a little bit more about India, consider finding this book to read.

I still have lots more to read but I don’t know anything about them until I start reading them. If you have read a good book lately, please let me know what it was and I’ll see if it is one of the 30 something books that were downloaded for me.

I’ll going to close for now.
I look forward to hearing from some of you.
Love,
Marie

#64 Sharing some thoughts

Where am I? Still in monsoon city, Ponnekara, Kerala, India. I just looked at my passport in my metal cabinet and the cover had started getting mold on it!

How am I? I’m good. Working on a project that needs to be done by next week, writing a submission for the Nursing Department for a Healthcare Innovation Award. The committee is accepting submissions until the end of July for the award that will be handed out at a conference in New Delhi in October. I really think they deserve it. The Innovation was offering Continuing Education for the nurses. It is not required here in India but back in 2002-3 the Head of the Nursing Department was a U.S. trained nurse and she introduced the idea of classes for the nurses. Now the hospital has the same requirement as the US nurses of 30 credits of Continued Education every two years. All of the education is In-House since it’s not offered elsewhere, unless the nurse does formal education, not continued education.

So What’s new? I have to leave India again by August 15th so I’m going to Sri Lanka this time. I found air for around $175 round trip leaving on August 12th and returning on August 21st.. The only thing is I’m not sure if I allowed enough time for the visa because I didn’t notice that there’s a holiday while I’m there, Indian Independence Day, August 15th. I’m going to check with Sri Lankan Airlines to see if I can change the date and how much it would cost me?

I found a Buddhist Ashram that looks like a nice place to stay in Kandy, Sri Lanka. I have already written to them to say I would like to stay there. I’m waiting to hear back from them.

I don’t think I can upload any photos, but I will try and if it works, fine, if not, as a typical New Yorker would say - forgetaboutit! Yep, just tried it and it won't load. Sorry.

However, in place of photos I have been thinking of a few things I would like to share with you.
• July 22nd was a full moon and you are familiar with how we name the full moons- Harvest Moon, Blue Moon, etc. Here in India every moon also has a name. This last one is Teacher Moon or Guru Purnima. It is when The Teacher, or Guru, is honored. Now I know you heard of “Gurus” but here at the University all the Teachers are honored as Gurus. I attended their event and I was touched. All the heads of the different schools, The Medical College, the Nursing School, the Dental School, the School of Pharmacy, the Business School, etc. (in case I forgot to mention one) attended this morning gathering where a representative from each college garlanded (put a string of flowers like a Hawaiian Lei) around the neck of the Head of their school. Then they also honored Mothers because they consider Mothers are the First Teacher or Guru. So there were several Mothers invited on the stage and they were garlanded by their child, and then they did a Pada Puja to them, a ritual when you wash their feet. (Does it sound familiar to what Jesus did on Holy Thursday?) And the finale was all the students who attended this got to come up to their “principal” for lack of another name, and the Head of the school gave them an edible treat, what they call “Prasad”. Indians love sweets so it was a Ladu, a ball of a very sweet pastry. I wish Western students respected their teachers (and mothers) like this.
• That was the good, now here’s something I want to share that really shocked me. When I was in New Delhi I was at the train station. It is a huge train station with at least 16 train tracks but where I was standing there were as many as 6 in a row, 2 or 3 then the platform and another 2 or 3 and a platform. There are people, and dogs all over the place. I watched as this little child walked along the track (which in itself was attention getting to me, why was this child walking on the tracks of a Train Station?) and he found a piece of bread, like a tortilla (actually called a Chapatti) and he picked it up off the train tracks and folded it up and started eating it! Who knows where it came from, whether it was dirty or not but at least it was something he could eat and he got it before the dogs found it. If you need to be thankful for something, be grateful that you have food to eat.
• And with that in mind I have an electric kettle in my room. It’s “my kitchen”. I can make tea, coffee, instant soup, porridge, whatever. So I keep the ingredients needed for all these things in my room on a table. I am constantly battling the ants for supremacy of my room and keep all my foodstuffs in plastic containers. Two days ago I saw that the ants invaded my jar of sugar. These ants are the size of my comma , like that. In fact a grain of sugar is bigger than the ant. There aren’t a whole lot of them, and I thought how can I separate the ants from the sugar? I thought about throwing out the sugar and after I gave it some thought, I said The Hell with it and I’m using the sugar anyway. I figure the boiling water kills them and disinfects them as the same time. I don’t even see them in my coffee or tea, they seem to disappear. Now the funny part is I told the receptionist in my office today and she told me that in India, they think eating ants is good for your health. I can’t tell you WHY it’s good for your health, but that’s what she told me. So I’m doing something good for my health by using up the sugar. Are you laughing?
• Lastly I have been thinking about “Work” lately since it’s been a full year now that I am retired. I’ve been thinking about the people I used to work with and wondering how they are doing? I heard there were a lot of changes after I left and I really am happy I wasn’t a part of them but I wish all of you the best. If anyone wants to write me, I’d love to hear individually how you are all doing.
That’s all I got to tell you this time. Thanks for listening.
Love you,
Marie

#63 My internet is too slow!

Hello everyone, even though there isn't a lot of you. My fault, I don't post often enough to entice people to check this blog. The reason is my internet is just too darn slow. I can't even Skype with my brother without us having to disconnect and reconnet several times during the Skype and I can't even send emails with more than one photo without the connection giving me problems. So until I can figure out if it is my computer or the internet connection, I'm not putting myself through the frustration of waiting and waiting as I try to upload photos.


Where I am now? AIMS, the hospital.

How am I? OK, trying to get back to work but the monsoons really play havoc with people showing up at work, and getting laundry done, etc. The weather influences these things. So don't complain about it being hot there, at least you have a/c and everything still works for you.

I'll keep putting something here for you. Or email me and I'll answer. Much more personal anyway.
Love you
Marie

#62 Back in India

This is a photo of where I have been during this last week. Sorry I didn't tell everyone I was going away again. What happened is I try to post something with a downloaded photo and it takes so long that I give up. I was going to post two more photos and I have been trying to do it since Sunday (2 days ago) and I am giving up on it. I wish I had never started this blog it is more trouble than it's worth! If someone can suggest something easier, please do!

Where am I? I’m back in Ponnekara, Kerala, India. Last 10 days I went up to the Himalayas by way of New Delhi (and Agra where the Taj Mahal is) after I returned from Africa.
How am I? – Doing wonderful. I now feel very refreshed from this week of retreat. I was a little tired from the Safari. In Nairobi I met a travel buddy from CA for breakfast. We hadn’t seen each other since Thailand in 2008. She made me feel really good that she completed a non-camping safari and was amazed that I survived my camping safari in such good shape.

I took over a 1,000 photos on my safari but I have some favorites. I’ll give you one here at the end. My camera also died on me. I dropped it one too many times. It's working if I hold the bottom up so the battery doesn't fall out, and I take just a straight photo, no more zooming in. This photo of me in front of the Taj Mahal was courtesy of a woman I met there who offered to take it and send it to me. Otherwise I was going to have to pay for a photo and it wouldn't have been digital to publish like this for you all to see. Thank you, Liliana wherever you are.

It’s the monsoons here in Kerala and it has been constantly raining since I got back. I'm also in a new room so I have to get it sorted out, put up the mosquito net, arrange my things, unpack. When I went to unpack all my clothes smell of mildew and the pair of shoes I left behind had mold on them. I don't think I'll be staying during monsoon season again.

So the question everyone always asks when people return from a Safari is Did they get to see the Big Five - Lions, Elephants, Rhinosaurus, Leopards and Water Buffalo? They were the hardest to hunt on safaris. We got to see them all. In fact, here's a photo of how close we got to Lions! Yep, this female felt like taking a nap on our tire and I'm really next to her.

Except that you can't see the photos. I'm not sure if it's my computer or the internet connection but I can't get the photos downloaded. Sorry about that. I'll see if I can get the IT Dept at the hospital to help me.

Love you all,
Marie

#61 At Base Camp of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

I'm at the Village Education Project Kilimanjaro, a school that my tour company sponsors and was able to get online.
It's cold, wet, and I can't wait to get to the Serengeti which is supposed to be just as cold, if not colder, and MAY be wet but could also be dry. I'm praying for dry.
Having fun, wish you were all here! Ha Ha
Love
Marie

#60 Going to Africa

Hello everyone,

Where am I? – Ponnekara, Kerala, India, but about to leave for Africa
Here’s my itinerary because I don’t think I will have internet access there to do this. I will not be taking my computer with me. I am taking a notebook to journal in and will post the highlights and photos when I return.
May 17 traveling to Africa by way of Dubai, UAE
May 18 overnight in Johannesburg, South Africa
May 19 to 24 I arrive at Livingston, Zambia but staying at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
May 25 Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe
May 26 & 27 Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
May 28 & 29 Masvingo & Harare, Zimbabwe
May 30 & 31 Lusaka & Chipata, Zambia
June 1 & 2 Lake Malawi, Malawi
June 3 to 5 Chitimba, Iringa and Dar Es Salam, Tanzania (pronounced Tan-za-knee-a, I was saying Tan-Zan-ia, wrong)
June 6 to 8 Zanzibar, Tanzania
June 9 Dar Es Salaam, again
June 10 & 11 Marangu and Mto Wa Mbu, Tanzania (let you know how to pronounce that!)
June 12 & 13 Serengeti National Park & Ngoronogoro Crater (ditto), Tanzania
June 14 Mto Wa Mbu, again
June 15 Nairobi, Kenya and I’m done with the tour
June 16-18 Nairobi, seeing the sights before catching my flight back to India

How am I? – Great, it’s hot & muggy but I’m going where it’s winter and should be cooler and I’m excited about the trip

Sorry, no photos but I thought I better post so you know Where’s Wally?
I have been having a wonderful time. I made friends with an American who is coming to the Medical Center for treatment and we’ve had adventures going off campus. Two weeks ago I wanted to see a movie The Croods which was showing at the Cinema not far from here – In English and 3D. I was willing to go by myself but when I checked the last minute, the movie had changed to Ironman 3. I’ve never seen Ironman 1 & 2 so I thought I wouldn’t be able to follow 3 and plus I thought it was going to be violent. Then I met this person, Craig, and told him about the movie and he was very interested in going. He assured me the violence would not be blood and gore and filled me in on things that I didn’t know about Ironman. I enjoyed the movie and it wasn’t too violent but very “action packed” and entertaining. Later we found out it was a BIG success when it opened there in the US. Movies are opening here before they do in the US.
Going to the cinema in India was very interesting. You get “assigned” seats that you have to pick when you buy your tickets. They cost around $3.00 (Rupees 170) and the eyeglasses to see the 3D cost a little over 50 cents to rent. Craig said he has gone to 3D movies in the States and he didn’t wear the eyeglasses there and was able to see the movie ok. But here he had to wear them because the movie looks blurred without the special glasses. Then, in the middle of the movie, they stop it and put the word Intermission on the screen and everyone gets up and leaves. Not sure if it is a toilet break or to sell more food and drinks. Ironman was the first movie I had gone to since coming to India this time and the theatre was packed.
A couple of days later Craig was still around getting treatment and he asked if there were other cinemas that offered English movies and sure enough The Croods was playing at another cinema. I didn’t know there was another one and we even found a third cinema that was playing Jurassic Park, the original made into 3D. So we went to see the Croods and it was fun. Nicolas Cage did the voice of the main character. This time the theatre wasn’t packed like it was for Ironman, so when there was the Intermission, the ushers actually came up to us and asked if we wanted anything? It was like being on a plane and the stewards asked what you would like? They also serve all kinds of things, not just popcorn, candy and ice cream. I mean sandwiches, steamed corn niblets in a little paper dish, samosas (an India snack), French Fries, cheese nachos, cake slices, etc.
Then last night Craig was back for another treatment and we checked out the cinemas again and this time we saw….STAR TREK. I really enjoyed this one. There were only 10 people in the theatre. I think it was because it was a weekday at 5:30 p.m. If you are a Trekkie, you will love it. It takes place when all the characters are young (Captain Jim Kirk’s first assignment to the Enterprise) and they did a great job of finding actors who look like their older characters on the TV series, and was written so they followed the personalities they were. It was fun watching.
I am just about packed and ready to go now. I was having a difficult time getting US Dollars that I needed for the trip. I’m traveling with an Australian company, Gecko Adventure Tours and they set it up that when we meet in Africa, you give the tour guide cash to spend for the trip – food, entrance fees to the parks, etc. They want US Dollars and I don’t have any left, well actually I was down to one twenty dollar bill and three ones. So about a month ago I went to Thomas Cook (British Travel Co and Money Exchange) and asked them about getting dollars. That time they told me to have the money wired to me here, it would have to be changed into Rupees, and then I would buy US Dollars with the Rupees I get. Double the cost of currency conversions but that is the price I had to pay. Then my American contact told me he didn’t trust Western Union and I decided to just take the money out from ATMs, little by little less than $200 per withdrawal, and eventually I would get to the 80,000 Rupees I needed. Last Thursday I went back to Thomas Cook with my Rupees to exchange them and this time the man tells me, NO, they don’t exchange Rupees to US Dollars, that could only be done at the airport on the way out of the country. I accepted that, didn’t argue with the man, but after I left I started thinking - there was No Way I was going to the airport with all that money and if it didn’t work, I would not have the money for my tour AND I would be carrying around all these Rupees for a month! The Rupees are dispensed from the ATMs in 500 Rupee notes. It’s a bundle!
I was thinking about this and checked the internet and found I should be able to change money within 60 days of international travel. Talking to Craig he suggested going to the local bank right here on the campus and voila! Yesterday I was able to get $870 and today I got the additional money needed. Lucky I got moving on this because there is a maximum exchange of Rupees 50,000 per day. I am not very happy with Thomas Cook but all’s well that ends well and now I’m all set for the trip.
Just in case you are wondering what I mean when I refer to “Campus”, this is a teaching hospital. It’s part of a huge university so there is a 1,200 bed hospital, a Medical School, a Dental School, a School of Pharmacy, a Business College that offers a Masters in Hospital Administration, and I don’t know what else. It really is a city in itself with 8 restaurants, a store, a bank, an eyeglass place, a bookstore, etc. That’s why I hardly ever left the campus but there is a big world out there, including cinemas!
Recently I had a wake up warning that I need to pay more attention – I lost a small change purse I had with my father’s old penknife in it. I hoped it would show up but it hasn’t, I had my name inside it and thought someone would return it. There wasn’t a lot of money in it. So yesterday when we went to the movies, I went to the store where I purchased my sleeping bag and bought another Swiss Army knife. Not as sentimental, not as small but at least I have a knife for the trip. AND I know to pay more attention to what I am doing and not lose anything else.
My camera battery is charged, and I’ve emptied my storage disks and I’m ready to take 12 Gs of photos. I bought an international electrical plug adaptor for the trip so I can keep juiced up for the duration. Bought a new duffle bag suitcase that is very light but holds more than my Camino backpack. Need to check a few things online before I leave to make sure my banks are all doing well and see what the exchange rate is like in these countries. I just checked the weather and it is a heavenly seventy something degrees during the day. It does look like it gets cool at night but I have my sleeping bag.
So I’ll say goodbye for now. Enjoy every moment of your life. That’s what I’m doing. You'll hear from me in a month.
Love, Marie

#59 More Photos

Hi Everyone

Where am I? – Ponnekara, Kerala, India
How am I? – doing just wonderful, it’s hot & humid here but I’m surviving


I’m going to post some photos that I didn’t post from my trip to Wayanad, these are of scenes and scenery, the good and the bad.
But before I start I realize it’s been one year since I started this blog and I still am not an expert on it. I’m not sure if it is the blog I am using (everything keeps getting squashed together no matter what I do to try and make it format nicer) or if it is the operator, me. Anyway I’ve given it thought and decided I will make a change. The blog is called Where’s Wally? and was meant to be someplace where you, my friends and rellies (Australian for relatives), can check if I’m alive or not and where in the world I am. So in keeping with that, I think I will post that info at the start of every post. Hope that helps those of you who want “the facts, just the facts”! And I will try and get photos for everyone. I realized how easy it was to just take a snap or two if I have my camera with me.

I am going to post the photos here and usually this is where my Blog has a mind of its own. And it did but I cut and pasted it here! I'm starting with the "Good" and the "Bad". The scenary was gorgeous, like many places that some of you live in. Pristine landscapes that man hasn't touched. The last of these "Good" is actually a Tea Plantation. I've been told that when they harvest, there will not be a leaf left on all those bushes.



Now the "Bad", while my co-worker was at a shop I sat outside and this is the street scene from the balcony. And when I looked closer at the river the bridge went over, I realized how filthy it was. No, it wasn't a surprise to me, it's like this everywhere. How do you like the way their language is written on the advertisements and street signs? That is Malayalam.




And the driver of our vehicle comes from a family who lives nearby and the home is very old. He invited us to come see the location that an ancient tree is there, a Jain Temple, a special Tulsi Tree that is considered Holy in the Hindi faith, and even a resident Monkey. My brother loaded the movie Avatar on my computer and I love watching that. I was reminded of that movie when I saw this large old tree and the way the people live with nature. Except that they also disrespect their environment and dirty everything. Oh well.

As I wrote at the beginning, I am still not the expert on this blog so the one photo of the base of the tree is lying down the wrong way. Sorry about that. This is the other side of the tree and it was so magnificent that they actually built steps up to it.




And lastly I was taken by the prolific vegetation, that the coconut trees are laden with coconuts. They sell for 25 Rupees on the street (around 50 cents) and you drink the juice and then eat the meat if there is any on the inside. There must be at least 100 coconuts in this one tree.





That's it for now. I'll keep in touch and please do email me if you have any questions or comments.
Love,
Marie

#6 Finally internet!

Here's another Draft Posting that was not published. It must have been written on May 27th because we started on May 25th and this is two days later. I was still learning back then and was awed about everything. I'm in Espinal, Spain. We've walked around 25 miles now, over the Pyrennes and survived. It was rough yesterday so we took it really easy today. Only around 6 miles today. We're at a nice little hotel. We hand-washed our clothes and dried them out on a clothesline. I can't remember the last time I hung clothes to dry. I took photos and will post them when I get access to a computer. I found out back in FL from Barnes & Nobles that I can't post photos on my Nook. So when I get to a town that has a Cybercafe, we'll caught up. The Camino has been everything I expected and more.

#58 Photos Continued

First I'll show you the Monkeys! I couldn't pick which photos I liked the best so I included a lot. Take your choice. The last group are of TWO moms, each with their babies. I thought I was very fortunate seeing them together. Then comes the COW from the ashram (or monastery). She has the whole run of the place. < < And then the Edakkal Caves, what we had to climb up to see them. < And then the "Attempts" I made at trying to photograph the elephants from the car. As you saw, there was that BIG Sign, No Photography. Very funny. What are you supposed to do at this natural reserve? A tiger preserve, I can understand no picnics, horns or parking. But photos? I hope I get better at this by time I get to Africa. There is a photo of the dog owner trying to intervene, and one you can see the head of the elephant and the other you can see the body (Smack in the middle of the photo) as he moves through the forest. This is forest, not jungle, so it will probably be harder to photograph in Africa. The fireworks for Vishu (New Year's Day)are starting to pick up outside, like a small war is going on. I'll stop for now and see if there is any other photos you might enjoy. Take care and Happy Vishu!