#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