I'm posting! Welcome to the bi-annual event!

Where do you begin writing when you've taken a 6 month hiatus?  When so much has changed.  When you have so much to say but don't know how or where to begin (but you just gotta get it out).   When you are suddenly short on time spent in front of a computer.  When you want to connect with people but feel like nobody wants to hear what you have to say.  When you're a better listener than a talker.


When your blog title says "Delhi" but you now live in "Denver".


Time to dust off the cobwebs...and transition from a travel blog to a daily life of me blog...

Reflections

What a great time to sit back and reflect on the last year.  Part of me feels so lame for not updating this blog as things were happening but the other part of me feels so much better for actually living and doing, rather than blabbing all about it.  If you don't know already, we have left India!  We are currently in Erie, Colorado which is just north of Denver.  For those of you that don't know that Glen is British, this has been a colorful experience trying to secure a visa for him.  But we're so freaking happy it went through!  We spent the last two months applying for jobs, sorting out visas, selling our stuff, packing, moving, sitting in Delhi traffic, settling temporarily at a friends house, buying cars, learning how to drive again, finding a house to live in, catching up with friends, eating tons of good food, celebrating the holidays etc.  You name it, we have had to do it.  And we're not done yet.  After a month and a half at our friends Chris and Jenessa's we are finally moving into our new place!  Lucky for us it is only 8 minutes away from them so the cord isn't completely cut.  We love hanging out with them.  This weekend begins part 3 out of 5 of our move.  We brought some of my furniture from my Lakewood house (that I rent out to friends) while we wait for our furniture to arrive from India.  It's on a boat...somewhere.  Hopefully it gets here in the next few weeks so we can finalize this move once and for all.  Another bit of exciting news is we FINALLY get Kona back this weekend!  It's been a long time coming...we've had a piece of our hearts missing for a year and a half.  It will also be her 3rd birthday so a little celebration and family bonding is on the agenda for Monday.  Slowly, slowly, bit by bit, things are falling into place.  


I must reiterate the fact that we wouldn't have been able to do any of this without the help of our dear friends Chris and Jenessa extending an open invitation to their home as we are in this transition phase of our lives.  We are so lucky to have such great friends.


I feel compelled to write more about India.  It was such a transformative experience and yet I don't have the words to express the change in me.  For those of you that I've had conversations with, you know how much I bitch about India...Delhi specifically.  I'll never be able to pinpoint it but Delhi drove me bonkers!  It's dirty, it smells and it's noisy...all of the freaking time and though I dealt with it and became desensitized to it, I never fully embraced it.  It's wild over there!  And though I love wild, it just wasn't my style I guess.  


My memory immediately draws up chaos... cows and cow pies on the street, swerving tuk tuks, motorcycle, scooters, trucks, cars, donkeys, camels, dogs, and elephants all jockeying for position where the lines painted on the street are optional and ultimately pointless.  Where every meal I had to wonder if it would hurt my tummy or not.  Where every mosquito bite I thought I would get dengue fever again or some other funky tropical disease.  Where I had to learn to live with bugs in my bathroom no matter how often it was cleaned.  Where we had to learn to live without water pressure and a limited weekly water supply.  Where poverty is on every corner threatening to crush your heart after you've just mended it from the previous day.  Where every transaction big or small was an enormous feat of patience and understanding of 'this is how things are done in India'.  Where getting groceries was a pain in my arse and something I dreaded doing every week.  Punctuality rarely exists in India.  Indian Standard Time is a sarcastic joke of how you can expect nobody to arrive to anything on time.  If somebody does arrive on time, it is a pleasant surprise.  This is especially maddening when you are expecting something to be delivered to your house and you end up waiting hours or days.  If you think you have a high multi-cultural tolerance I suggest moving to India or another 2nd/3rd world country where that tolerance will most definitely be challenged.  I'm a pretty tough girl and that place managed to break me down.  But the good part is that it gave me the opportunity to build myself back up again.


As I've said before, India is a place of contradictions.  For everything that worried me or pissed me off there were equally beautiful and astounding things that still have me awestruck.  If you spoke the language, the local people tended to warm up to you more quickly.  Usually if you travel outside of Delhi you are bound to discover something wondrous.  Can we begin with the Taj Mahal?  One of the most beautiful buildings on the planet, hands down.  What gets me is how long ago it was built and the discipline it must've taken to get it completed.  A true testament of love.  Then there are all kinds of wonderful things about the other places we visited...Kerala, Goa, Udaipur, Jaipur, Shimla, Amritsar, Calcutta, Varanasi, Aurangabad.  Each one had something unique and I will forever cherish the memories.  My favorite bit about being in India was the opportunity to help Dr. Josephine give typhoid vaccines to the slum families.  It made living there a little more rewarding...knowing I was doing a little good.  


Things I know about India for sure:

• "Hot" take on a whole new meaning from food to the outside temperature
• I'll never get used to cows on the street
• Sari's are one of the most beautiful ways a woman can dress herself
• Marriage ceremonies are out of control and way fun
• Poverty sucks
• Baths by bucket is an art form
• Elephants will pass you in traffic
• You'll never understand the term "traffic is a nightmare" until you sit in it yourself
• You must like zeera (cumin) and coriander (cilantro) or you're screwed
• The air tastes like dirt
• There's always more to see
• Shivani is the sweetest housekeeper and I miss her dearly
• Amrita is my Hindi BFF
• I suck at squatter toilets
• The children warm my heart
• There's always a way to help someone or some cause
• Someone should spay and neuter every stray dog
• Expat friends are awesome (you're all in the same boat!)
• It's easy to become a vegetarian, especially after you've witnessed the local butcher cutting up your meat using a knife between his toes.  Barf.
• There's always a way to find beef though, all you have to do is make friends with a Muslim
• Don't ever get in a situation where you need Emergency Services because it's practically non-existent.  The ambulance is a van with an oxygen tank and nobody yields to lights and sirens...since they're so desensitized to it in normal traffic.
• Women have it hard
• Men are juvenile (sexually repressed)
• No matter where you go, the locals will ask you to take their "snap" (picture)...or ask to take one with you
• There is National Holiday every other day...always a reason to celebrate!
• Cricket is a big deal
• Yoga really is transformative
• The Dalai Lama is cute
• Corruption exists in the worst way
• Women love black eyeliner

That's all I can really think of for now.  Another reason why I really wish I would've wrote this earlier.  But it's fun to look back and think of the memories.  What I'd like to say is this: If you ever get the chance to do something outside of your comfort zone... DO IT!  You'll find out you are really made of more than you think you are.  For me, this was the risk I took going to India with a man I only knew for 9 months.  And I'm so glad I did!  India, you sneaky little bitch, you made me a better person!


Now let's ring in 2012!  More adventures to come!

Doh!

Just an example of a lack of planning in these parts...

They started the pedestrian bridge, realized they couldn't go pass the overpass on the left, so stopped the bridge half way across the road.  Pointless!  And what a waste of money!

Perfect place for a pole...

Rain or shine...apparently the show WON'T go on...

Looks like we're SOL when it comes to satellite transmission for our television....

So that's pretty much the entire monsoon season...

WHAT?  The sun went out???

Eeny meeny miney mo!

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?

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!  

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.  

     

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!