Days, Good days and Better days

July 19, 2016

I don’t read the Times of India some days as I have discovered the news gets me down. I ventured forth today and started with the front page. About a week ago four Dalits (a lower caste) were beaten with iron pipes by another caste because they were caught skinning a cow carcass. They then took the beaten men to another part of the village and did it again in front of by standers, reportedly in front of police who laughed. It turned out the men had bought a dead cow for the hide, so they had not broken any law or rules. The perpetrators were arrested and the beaten men were hospitalized. Today the paper said there have now been protests over this event. Two state transport buses were torched, seven people consumed poison, stones were thrown and glass in buses were broken, and finally Dalits dumped dead rotting cows at government offices. From what I can understand from the papers, the Dalits are frequently victims of violence and other forms of abuse including verbal abuse in the workplace. India has a system that I don’t fully understand but they reserve a certain number of jobs for members of lower caste. I remember reading about a Dalit who was verbally abused at work and committed suicide as a result.

On the brighter side, a hospital in Ahmedabad no longer requires parents of a new baby girl to pay for the hospital bill. This is to “make parents value and feel special about the girl child in a state reeling under skewed child sex ratio of 890 girls per 1,000 boys.” Abortion was outlawed after the ability to determine fetus gender, due to the number of aborted female fetuses.  

We leave this Saturday, July 23^rd for Portland on a two week break. We will be busy seeing friends, family and having doc checkups. Both of us are excited to be at home briefly. We fly to Abu Dhabi, spend the night in order to avoid a 15 hour layover and then fly direct to LAX. There we will have a three hour layover with time to get through customs and catch our next flight to Portland, arriving Sunday evening at 8:00. We leave Portland Saturday, August 6^th to return and will repeat the itinerary in reverse arriving Tuesday night. We will lose a day as we cross the International Date Line.

Ron had a great day yesterday.  The first training program has been approved for the week after we return and two more sessions are in discussions that look positive, although the contact had some positive ideas and was encouraging Ron to not give up as the last time there was a request for the organization to fund training it took the person in charge of funding four months to give his approval. OY! Incredible India….

July 21, 2016

Today, Pooja from next door, came over to ask if Sankar could help them out. Their servants did not show up today and her son is ill with a fever. Pooja owns two retail shops so this is a real imposition with Kamla out of town and the two women who perform child care and house cleaning are no shows. Sankar said he would shower then get something to eat and return. I have my fingers crossed, as the last time this happened he didn’t show up and it infuriated Kamla as she had a house full of company staying with her.

The lifestyle here is quite different for the upper classes. Because they have a full staff of servants they do not do things many of us do like washing dishes, laundry or any house cleaning. I have a feeling it would be unthinkable to do such things. I may be wrong. Staff do these things daily here. Because the air is so dirty and the houses are constructed differently and doors are often left open, homes are swept and mopped daily. My housekeeper in Portland comes every 14 days by contrast. Many household staff here work seven days a week 8-12 hr days.

Our weather seems to be in somewhat of a pattern. The temps are in the 90’s and it’s humid. We get sunny days and some days we get light sprinkles and some days monsoon rain which is usually quick and heavy. Some days there is no rain but a cloud cover, making it really humid. But all in all, it is so much better than 110-121 degrees day in and day out!!!

Currently we are waiting to hear when an AC tech will come to fix our bedroom AC which started pouring water all over the pillow area of our mattress yesterday morning. Fortunately we were in the room getting dressed so I dashed to the bathroom, grabbed towels and threw them on the bed to try to catch some of the water. Even so, the mattress got wet. When Sankar came I took him upstairs to show him so he wouldn’t make up the bed; as I wanted the mattress to dry out. A few minutes later he came and got me, took me upstairs and suggested by mimic that he switch mattresses with the guest bedroom. Mattresses here are thin, about four inches and there are no box springs but they are large, nearing king size. SO I tried to help but he declined. You should know that Sankar is maybe five feet …maybe and thin as a rail. Anyway we got it done. It is another example why I value him so much. A lesser person would not have ‘solved the problem’. He always tries to fix what isn’t working.

The AC tech showed up on the appointed day and only 45 minutes later than planned. This is history making news; a first since we have been here. He ‘fixed’ the AC and left, only to be called back within 10 minutes as it continued to rain on our bed. Fortunately we had not put the mattress all the way back on the bed. So he came back within an hour or two and fixed it right.