The way of workers and the way of mail

August 31, 2016

Today was payday for Rahul and Sankar, always a good day. Sankar has one more payment and his debt to me will be finished. That will make both of us very happy.

On Saturday we are taking off for Udaipur in Rajasthan, our neighboring state. Sankar is from Rajasthan and asked if he could go with us and be dropped off near his village.  So the four of us will venture off early Saturday morning. Monday is an Indian holiday (and Labor Day in the US) so we are trying to take advantage of these holidays to maximize our travel. Udaipur is a four and half hour drive from here so we can explore the town Saturday afternoon all day Sunday and maybe a bit more on Monday before heading back. I never like to be on the road after dark here as it isn’t safe due to traffic accidents. On the way to Navsari last weekend we saw a huge truck rear end another huge truck that was stopped on the highway with a man underneath it working on it. We watched as he tried to scramble out from under and get the heck out of the way. It was not raining and on a straight stretch so why the driver didn’t notice that the truck was disabled and stalled is beyond me. Perhaps he was texting or talking on his phone which increases one’s chances of a serious accident 40%. Not good odds.

Today I ran errands with Rahul after the projector guy showed up a day and 90 minutes late. HA! Welcome to Incredible India. He was to install the new projector which we finally got a little over a month ago and it stopped working a couple of weeks ago. One has to wonder… he managed to get it installed overhead and run the cable to the receiver in a professional manner, hiding the cable where possible. He brought a new splitter box so we could go from TV mode to the laptop but oh what a surprise, it didn’t work. We have yet to have an experience here where a technician can get the mission accomplished in one trip. So he left promising to return in a day or two. Stay tuned because the last time he said that it was five weeks before we saw him again!

I managed to work in a good visit with my dear neighbor Kamla before Rahul and I headed out. Our second errand after the ATM was the post office. I had two letters to mail to Navsari and Colombo Sri Lanka. While waiting for them to reopen at 2:00 I watched an employee sorting mail on the ground outside (let’s not forget it is monsoon season and a rain can come up within a minute or two). Next to him was a man loading up his bicycle with mail and I mean loading! It is very typical to see trucks, scooters, cars and bicycles overloaded in this part of Asia. At one point he stepped away from his bicycle and it tumped over sending mail in all directions. Another fellow came outside to help him reload the bike. He managed to rip open one of his plastic bags he was using to carry the mail. Forget those handsome leather bags we use in  the US. We have no idea how the rest of the world manages to survive on next to nothing while we live in glorious excess. I watched as he squeezed one bundle after another onto the rack on the back of the bike and held it all in place with an old bicycle inner tube. I admired his ability to make it all work with less than perfect equipment.

The weather has become more tolerable. It is usually in the mid to high 80’s and the humidity is often at 79%. According to Accuweather that drives up the temperature to feel like 100 or 101 degrees although today they say it feels like 107 degrees. I did sweat every time I went out today. Anyway it is such an improvement over 115-120 degrees!

I actually am enjoying cooking now due to the heat abatement and finding more resources for needed items and expanding my repertoire. I brought some recipes from home after reviewing my files for recipes that had ingredients that are available here.

September 2

Yesterday a different man came to finish the projector job. This required him to bring the splitter box and a short cable to plug into the computer. Well that didn’t quite work out…remember what I said about never being able to finish the job in one visit. So now we will need to wait until next Tuesday for this saga to complete. We leave in the morning for Udaipur just over the border in Rajasthan. Sankar will go with us because the drop off for his village is along the way. He will be able to catch a bus taking him close to his village then he will need to walk the last kilometer or so. Apparently no roads go directly to his village.

Today I was thinking about whining about my life here. Specifically I was thinking about how I complained about having to rinse all fruits and vegetables in filtered water and that it took time to filter the water. Some vegetables have to be soaked for 30 minutes with some vinegar. Then today I thought about all the women in the this part of the world who carry water to their homes so they can give their families safe water. I was humbled once again. I don’t see this in Ahmedabad because we are a big city of six million but I have seen in on countless other trips to Asia and Africa. So forgive me for being so obtuse and insensitive.