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
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
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