Reflections and some trust

April 25, 2016

 This is the beginning of our fourth week in India. As we start to finally settle in we are working on smoothing out the little bumps in the road. Here’s a list to give you an idea of how it goes: staying on top of the water purification which is constant and slow. We now have a water pitcher and four one liter glass water bottles that we fill as we empty each container and rotate them as we use them. That way we always have water to drink and cook with. The dining room AC drips water onto the buffet, our cell phones have hiccups (mine locks up almost daily requiring taking out the battery and reinserting it which I cannot do because of arthritis in my hands, Ron’s cell turns itself off frequently and cannot be turned on until he plugs it into a power source for seconds), we are dependent on a friend’s son who is 19 to get us set up with internet and he rescheduled his Saturday appointment for tonight. We can use our phones for internet but it is not adequate. Today I need to stay home all day because of Amazon deliveries and a plumber who is to come and resolve the lack of hot water, We have not been able to find mayo without sugar (ick) or good mustard (what can I say, this is a minor problem but it adds up to one more thing to get resolved), One other factor for me is learning to cook in a place that does not have familiar food or food availability. I have no oven and the kitchen has no AC which makes cooking uncomfortable for a southern magnolia blossom. This is a flavor of how it goes.

Now there are some wonderful things going on as well. We continue to be humbled by the friendliness of the locals towards us. This morning on our walk we made it through four loops in our development, totaling 40 minutes. We met others who were doing the same. One stopped us and it turned out he lives right next to us. We met his adult son our first day here. Our neighbor offered to help us in any way he could. He even told us how to get a trash bin from the ‘society office’. Here neighborhoods are called societies. Our development is a gated community and has an office on site. Apparently this is a very high end society. We were told the CEO of Shell Oil India lives here. There are BMW’s and Mercedes here as well as Toyotas, etc. We now are settled enough in the house to make our breakfast and sit on the veranda to finish our coffee before Ron heads to work. We watch birds and chipmunks from the veranda. They chirp, sing and squawk. All in all it is coming together and getting easier.

 

Each shopping trip we are able to find items to make our life easier as well. Yesterday we bought an electric kettle so we don’t have to use the gas burner to heat water for coffee. Today a printer, coffee maker and iron should arrive from Amazon. Later in the week a fry pan. Did I mention that every fry pan (with one exception) I have seen in four different stores has been a coated pan? When I went back to get the one pan I saw it had been sold. That will teach me. If I see it and it is what I need I had better buy it then! Yesterday we also got a large wire basket with handles to put dirty dishes in so Sankar can easily carry them all outside where he likes to do the dishes. When he came to work today, I showed it to him and he was delighted and shook my hand. It was a sweet moment.

Ron is getting in the groove at work. He is dependent on Meghal, the Director for making the initial contacts with people in local government and today she has arranged a meeting with someone from Ahmedabad. Meghal leaves for a month in May so Ron is hopeful to make contacts to keep him busy in May. After our two years in Rep of GA Ron has no patience with sitting and having no work to do. BTW most local pronounce the city name as Ahmdabad so I will start spelling it that way.

Sankar told me his wife got sick and had to go to the hospital yesterday and it cost 1000 rupees for her to get a shot. Now he is working and I am trying to get him to go home to be with his wife. He is worried about her and worried about money and probably worried about his job security. I gave him some money to cover his expenses and asked him to go be with his wife, yet he continues to work. He just finished with is current project and left for home. I told him to come back tomorrow. I said if Hasha is sick to stay with her.  I am never quite sure how much he understands but I think he knew he still has a job. Several hours later he returned and told me Hasha was back in the hospital and he needed money. It was one of those moments when I have to ask myself ‘is this real or a scam’. Given who I am I decided it was real and went upstairs to our hidden stash and got what we had, 8500 rupees. I brought it back downstairs and countered it out. He took 5,000 and then said ‘6,000’ referring to the fact I had given him money earlier. I felt like I had done the right thing at that point. Then he made a gesture that we had learned when we visited Raju in Navsari years ago.  As a gesture of respect a person lowers himself and touches the feet of the person they are honoring. Somehow this does not strike me as something a con artist would do. I figured the worst case scenario is I am out 6,000 rupees and Sankar is out of a job. Time will tell. I have stayed home all day waiting for Amazon and the plumber. Hopefully they will appear before day’s end. Of course the day is long here. Shops stay open to 8, 9 or 10 o’clock.