#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