This is my light switch panel for my bedroom (that's ONE room folks!). In the U.S. I have one switch to flick. Clearly, too many choices here. Maybe this is contributing to the daily power outage problem?
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Festival of Lights
Though it's not officially a festival per se, it still causes quite a raucous in these parts. For days now there have been fireworks popping off every night. Fun to watch, not so fun when you want to go to sleep and it sounds like a war outside your bedroom window. Diwali typically covers 5 days. From what I understand you exchange sweets with your friends, people perform a ritual similar to spring cleaning in their houses, some may even buy new pots and pans....oooooh.....ahhhhh. But at the end of the day it is really all about the lights. It is lit up like Christmas around here. People light their diyas, or oil lamps, they light sparklers and fireworks. And there you have it. Happy Diwali everyone!
Thursday, October 6, 2011
A world of good
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, what we do for others echoes throughout the ages" ~ Unknown
For our wedding we asked that in lieu of physical gifts that our guests could donate money so we can help the poor people of India. Who needs a brand new set of china when there are much less fortunate people than us who barely make enough money to eat every day? I met Dr. Josephine several months ago. She is a lovely Indian woman from Tamil Nadu area. She spent 12 years in Spain to study and go to medical school. When she returned to India she knew she wanted to put some of her money towards helping those less fortunate than herself. She puts a lot of her own money towards children near her neighborhood that live in a slum. Unfortunately, girls here aren't as valued as their brothers who are sent off to school. They are often relegated to cooking and cleaning and many of the girls look after the family because the mother has had to go to work because the father is an alcoholic. Anyways, Dr. Josephine has taken 60 girls of various ages under her wing to provide them with the basics of education in a makeshift school. Other than her own money, she often relies on generous donations (like yours) from foreigners or from anybody who is willing to help. She provides the essentials like backpacks, clothing, and toothbrushes. Very basic things. Things you and I probably take for granted. Recently I was invited to take part in a vaccination campaign to provide typhoid inoculations to people of the slum. Typhoid is a disease that is transmitted by the ingestion of food or water that has been contaminated by the feces of an infected person. Typically this is not a problem in the modern world where there are modern sanitation techniques. Here in India, sanitation is hard to come by. Men urinate wherever a dog can urinate...so that is everywhere. Typhoid causes a myriad of symptoms some of which include: gastroenteritis, fever, dehydration, and if left untreated can lead to intestinal hemorrhage and perforation. Modern day medicine can treat these symptoms but another thing these people lack is *surprise* lack of medical care. So basically it can be fatal.
For our wedding we asked that in lieu of physical gifts that our guests could donate money so we can help the poor people of India. Who needs a brand new set of china when there are much less fortunate people than us who barely make enough money to eat every day? I met Dr. Josephine several months ago. She is a lovely Indian woman from Tamil Nadu area. She spent 12 years in Spain to study and go to medical school. When she returned to India she knew she wanted to put some of her money towards helping those less fortunate than herself. She puts a lot of her own money towards children near her neighborhood that live in a slum. Unfortunately, girls here aren't as valued as their brothers who are sent off to school. They are often relegated to cooking and cleaning and many of the girls look after the family because the mother has had to go to work because the father is an alcoholic. Anyways, Dr. Josephine has taken 60 girls of various ages under her wing to provide them with the basics of education in a makeshift school. Other than her own money, she often relies on generous donations (like yours) from foreigners or from anybody who is willing to help. She provides the essentials like backpacks, clothing, and toothbrushes. Very basic things. Things you and I probably take for granted. Recently I was invited to take part in a vaccination campaign to provide typhoid inoculations to people of the slum. Typhoid is a disease that is transmitted by the ingestion of food or water that has been contaminated by the feces of an infected person. Typically this is not a problem in the modern world where there are modern sanitation techniques. Here in India, sanitation is hard to come by. Men urinate wherever a dog can urinate...so that is everywhere. Typhoid causes a myriad of symptoms some of which include: gastroenteritis, fever, dehydration, and if left untreated can lead to intestinal hemorrhage and perforation. Modern day medicine can treat these symptoms but another thing these people lack is *surprise* lack of medical care. So basically it can be fatal.
But thanks to our friends and family we have prevented this from happening in at least 210 slum people that live in the Hauz Khas area of Delhi. All of them were children (only about a handful were screaming) and a few of their mothers....and even one very tall grandma! All of the vaccines were bought by our guests that donated money and I was able to administer the injections!!
Dr. Josephine, the kids and the moms, Glen and I all thank you for being so kind with your money. Thank you for helping us help others. Peace and love everyone!
 |
| Typhoid vaccine campaign |
 |
| The lovely Dr. Josephine |
 |
| Drawing up 210 vaccines |
 |
| My first victim ;-) |
 |
| The kids were so brave |
 |
| Screening |
 |
| More screening |
 |
| They got sweets after their jabs |
 |
| A very tall Grandma! |
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Ch-ch-ch-changes
My goodness there have been a lot of changes in cyberworld these days. Funny how much bitching people do when Facebook updates their website. It makes me realize that people don't like change unless they're consulted first. Hey people! It's a FREE service and it's OPTIONAL!! You don't HAVE to use it! Quit grumbling! I say this as much to you as I say it to myself as I caught myself bitching this morning when I wanted to make a post and noticed that this good old blogger website had finally updated some templates. I am not super computer savvy and wanted to personalize this blog a little more. I notice my friends are able to personalize their blogs but I'm a little more retarded than them I guess. I've tossed around the idea of using wordpress.com instead but I hear that is just as much of a pain and you really just have to navigate and figure it out no matter what site you use. Since I'm no pro at this I think I'll just stick to what I have going on here.
With that being said I'm hoping that the new design will inspire me to write more refreshing posts!
With that being said I'm hoping that the new design will inspire me to write more refreshing posts!
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The cynic in me
So needless to say...Tasty Tuesdays are a thing of the past. It was a good idea but between traveling, being sick, and sending our cook to her village to be with her mom...well it's just not working out on a consistent basis. I decided I need to stop making myself guilty for missing self imposed deadlines. I've been so uninspired in the kitchen anyways. I hate going to the grocery store here because it never has good quality anything. I go across town to get fresh produce. Because it's out of my way I tend to overbuy so then half the fruits and veggies to go crap. On top of it all, I hate having to disinfect everything. To clean the veggies I have to soak them in chlorinated water for 15 minutes at a time. This goes on for several batches. It's so time consuming. I can either ingest bleach or eat shit (E. coli). Great choices.
In better news, the lift has finally been repaired. The only way I was able to get it fixed was to use some leverage. The landlord wanted something from me, which I withheld until the lift was fixed. Yes, I resorted to playing games with this guy but it worked. The landlord needed a very important phone number for tax purposes. Normally I would just give it to him but it was the only thing I had that he needed so I kept it from him. Anyways, no more huffing and puffing up the steps! There's still no water pressure but you take what you can get.
In the last month or so we reached the milestone of living here for a year. We marked that anniversary by going to visit Dubai. I hate to say that I'm over this place. I think I really wanted to fall in love with Delhi, with India. We both thought long and hard about coming here, we went through a million emotions, we were supported by family and friends, and we tried to make the best of it. I don't regret coming here but I won't be sad to leave. I am grateful for the opportunity to have lived in such a different country than the one I grew up in. I am forever changed. Living here has really highlighted how much I miss my family and friends, how much I need to be near my dog, how much I miss going to work, and how much I love to be able to get in my car and go wherever I wanted to go. Coming here was a big risk for me, someone who really craves routine and consistency with little shake ups here and there. And I'm ready to have that back in my life again. Here's to hoping.
In better news, the lift has finally been repaired. The only way I was able to get it fixed was to use some leverage. The landlord wanted something from me, which I withheld until the lift was fixed. Yes, I resorted to playing games with this guy but it worked. The landlord needed a very important phone number for tax purposes. Normally I would just give it to him but it was the only thing I had that he needed so I kept it from him. Anyways, no more huffing and puffing up the steps! There's still no water pressure but you take what you can get.
In the last month or so we reached the milestone of living here for a year. We marked that anniversary by going to visit Dubai. I hate to say that I'm over this place. I think I really wanted to fall in love with Delhi, with India. We both thought long and hard about coming here, we went through a million emotions, we were supported by family and friends, and we tried to make the best of it. I don't regret coming here but I won't be sad to leave. I am grateful for the opportunity to have lived in such a different country than the one I grew up in. I am forever changed. Living here has really highlighted how much I miss my family and friends, how much I need to be near my dog, how much I miss going to work, and how much I love to be able to get in my car and go wherever I wanted to go. Coming here was a big risk for me, someone who really craves routine and consistency with little shake ups here and there. And I'm ready to have that back in my life again. Here's to hoping.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Argh!
It's about that time where I need to vent or this shit that's bothering me is going to make me e-x-p-l-o-d-e. We looked at almost 30 places before we decided on this flat. It fit most of our criteria. We are across from a park, we have a large terrace, we have privacy, we are on the top floor. Here it means the 3rd floor but really it's the 4th floor since there are 3 floors below us. Complaint ♯1. For the past 2 months the elevator (lift) has been broken. It is stuck between the 1st and 2nd floor. So I called the phone number and filed a complaint to get it fixed. Turns out the maintenance contract had expired so they wouldn't come fix it. So then I call our landlord, then I call him again, and again, and again, and again, and now I don't know how many times I've called at this point. Each time I was told it was being worked on and that they will know something in a few days time. Well 2 weeks ago we got a contract in the mail from the elevator company for an annual renewal of 35,000 INR. That's 750 bucks my friends! Ugh. So I called the landlord so that he could pick up the contract. Well, it's been a lot of promises and nothing's happened. I don't mind the exercise. Stairs are healthier to take than lifts. But it's been so stinkin' hot and humid here and there's not much air flow in the stairwell. It's hard to breathe in there let alone carry a bunch of groceries up. Thank goodness I have a spritely 18 year old guard that volunteers to carry my stuff upstairs.
I've also been waiting for 2 weeks for the 'water pressure motor' (whatever that is) to get fixed. See we have our water supply in tanks. One on the ground floor and 2 on the roof. To get the water from the ground floor to the top floor it has to be pumped up there. To get pressurized water to come into our house we have to turn on the motor. Complaint ♯2. It stopped working and so we're back to taking showers in trickles. Hey, at least we have water, right?
You may or may not remember that our car was involved in an accident last December. We weren't in the car but our driver and his family were (everyone was okay). Well there was pretty bad front end damage and our driver freaked out and got it 'kind of' fixed by a Maruti Suzuki place. Our car is a Toyota Innova. This all happened without our knowledge since we were on holiday in the UK. So he got the car up to speed and it had been running okay until 2 months ago when we sent the car in for routine maintenance. Complaint ♯3. Of course a million things were found wrong and now the car needs at least 1 lakh rupees worth of repairs. That's over 2100 USD. And guess who gets to pay for it? Guess who gets to pay for it right after we paid for our entire wedding ourselves? Ugh, couldn't the timing be better? It's just a hard pill to swallow sometimes. I hate cars. I hate car problems. I hate having to pay for car problems. Money sucking, gas guzzling, ozone depleting pieces of s**t that I can't live without.
I guess I can't complain too much about anything. After all, our power only went off once today instead of the normal 3 or 4. And the monsoon mellowed out a little bit so it stopped raining in my bedroom. It's the little things, ya know? I have to end this on a grateful note for fear of sounding and feeling too negative. We have a roof over our head, we have water, we have full bellies (even if it's not all organic or food selections I would normally make). My life is abundant.
I've also been waiting for 2 weeks for the 'water pressure motor' (whatever that is) to get fixed. See we have our water supply in tanks. One on the ground floor and 2 on the roof. To get the water from the ground floor to the top floor it has to be pumped up there. To get pressurized water to come into our house we have to turn on the motor. Complaint ♯2. It stopped working and so we're back to taking showers in trickles. Hey, at least we have water, right?
 |
| Our power generator on the left, water tanks up above. |
You may or may not remember that our car was involved in an accident last December. We weren't in the car but our driver and his family were (everyone was okay). Well there was pretty bad front end damage and our driver freaked out and got it 'kind of' fixed by a Maruti Suzuki place. Our car is a Toyota Innova. This all happened without our knowledge since we were on holiday in the UK. So he got the car up to speed and it had been running okay until 2 months ago when we sent the car in for routine maintenance. Complaint ♯3. Of course a million things were found wrong and now the car needs at least 1 lakh rupees worth of repairs. That's over 2100 USD. And guess who gets to pay for it? Guess who gets to pay for it right after we paid for our entire wedding ourselves? Ugh, couldn't the timing be better? It's just a hard pill to swallow sometimes. I hate cars. I hate car problems. I hate having to pay for car problems. Money sucking, gas guzzling, ozone depleting pieces of s**t that I can't live without.
I guess I can't complain too much about anything. After all, our power only went off once today instead of the normal 3 or 4. And the monsoon mellowed out a little bit so it stopped raining in my bedroom. It's the little things, ya know? I have to end this on a grateful note for fear of sounding and feeling too negative. We have a roof over our head, we have water, we have full bellies (even if it's not all organic or food selections I would normally make). My life is abundant.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
I love a good jingle
Ever catch yourself in the middle of the supermarket (not so super in my case) and you start humming a random commercial jingle? I remember simple ones from the U.S....like "Every kiss begins with Kay" for Kay Jewelers. And "That's Jared" for Jared's Jewelers. I don't know why the jewelry theme popped in my head. Then there are the classic Oscar Meyer weiner/bologna songs. With no job or other healthy distraction besides yoga and volunteering I shamefully spend more time in front of the television these days than I ever used to. No matter what channel I have it on this commercial plays over and over and over again. So it's fair to say I catch myself singing this jingle at random moments of my day. To simulate the experience I suggest you watch something on TV and then when a commercial break comes you should hit 'play' here. Then between each commercial you should play this one again. It's only fair. If I have to listen to it, so should you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)