I have been India now for a little over two weeks. This trip is short and I only have one more week. The time has flown. I have meant to write this blog post but somehow it always comes last on the priority list.
I am staying at an apartment connected to the Gram Vikas office. The office is on the 1st and 2nd floor and my apartment is on the 4th floor. I have to say its a very nice little apartment and a perfect size, photos below. I do have a cold and hot water thinga-ma-gigy (see top left of bathroom photos). It is definitely a step up from the electro-duche I had in Honduras. However I have found that the heat and humidity here make hot water unnecessary, at least for my mornings after yoga. The rest of the day the tank, which is on the roof, gets so hot that all the water is hot water!
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| In front of Gram Vikas office |
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| My room |
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Bathroom in my room
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Honduras Shower Example - Look at all those electrical wires!
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The office has a guard at the front entrance and a very friendly dog named Kalu (black). This is because he is mostly black with some brown and white socks. The office feeds the dog and I of course immediately got in on this. So now Kalu is my friend and walks with me sometimes in the morning when I go to yoga.
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| Kalu the office dog |
The office being so close to my apartment has several advantages. I am two stair cases or an elevator ride away from work. This also means that I am an elevator ride away from my bed, which was not good for jet lag.
I found a beautiful park barely a stones throw from the office. On one of my first days I went to the park and walked around. I immediately met a man who spoke English and was very helpful in getting me into a yoga class.
There is free yoga in the park and I have been going every morning at 5:30 am. I started drinking coffee in Honduras so its only right that I start yoga in India. I bought a salwar kameez (which is basically just baggy pants and a long shirt) to do yoga in. I didn't check one of the pants I bought though and I ended up going with a hole in them! eek! A lady was kind enough to point it out to me and luckily I was able to yoga around the hole...or maybe I just flashed everyone a few times and no one said anything :).
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Park near my office
Park near the office
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After yoga I generally come back, shower and hand wash my yoga clothes since they are gross and I have a limited amount. These then get hung to dry in my room. For someone who does so little for herself back home I'm actually pretty proud of my hand washing. Look ma I'm a real adult!
The office typically starts at around 9:30 am to 10:00 am and tea is served at around 10:45 am. This is wonderful and I think should be adopted in every office. I look forward to the morning and afternoon tea everyday. It's typically a little sweet with cream or milk, fantastic I tell you. The best tea, simply the best. I need to remember to ask how to make it.
We work typically in the conference room on the first floor and have taken over the area. There are plastic parts, PVC fittings and lever arms strewn about. When I say strewn I mean neatly organized and labeled due to my Type A-ness.
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| Office "strewn about" |
I am working with two employees from Gram Vikas. Ashutosh who has been with them for about 3 years and Siddarth who just joined. Ashutosh is an amazing project manager and does the work of probably 3 people. He is constantly juggling our project with the demands of others and has been great to work with. Siddarth is learning the project and the company at the same time. It has been helpful to have Siddarth around when Ashutosh is needed for other projects. I will talk more about that on a project update.
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| Ashutosh (left) and Siddarth (right) in the conference room that we have taken over |
Getting around has not been easy. I am hesitant to go out by myself since I don't know the language. Everyone speaks at a least a little English but it is not always enough to get around. This is compounded by the fact that crossing the street scares the ever living crap out of me and it is night by the time office hours are over around 6pm. The first week this wasn't a problem as I was asleep usually by 6pm and up at 4am thanks to jet lag. The time difference between Houston and Bhubaneswar is approximately 11.5 hours. So when it is 9:40 pm in Houston it is 8 am the next day in Bhubaneswar.
Ashutosh has been patient with me though and taken me out quite a few times when I'm not already asleep. The food has been amazing, some photos below. I am still getting used to how spicy the food is. I had an unfortunate run in with a chili that I accidentally bit into. My whole mouth was on fire and I had heartburn that night. I am inexperienced with heartburn and that night as I was going to lay down some of the chili came back up. I'm still not exactly sure what happened but I ended up with a little bit of puke and chili in my nose. That is an experience that I'm not sure I'll forget. I didn't know your nose could be on fire...
Luckily no one was around to see that. Several people however were around to see me freak about a bat, very likely a baby bat. The windows on the apartment floor are open every night to allow the breeze in. One night along with the breeze came a bat. I opened my door to leave and whoosh there it went past my door. I tried to close the door fast but they are large and the hinges move very slowly which means the only thing fast was my heart beat!
The bat continued to fly up and down the hallway with me opening and closing the door with little tiny shrieks (from me) in between. I finally called Ashutosh but as I did I saw one of the employees who lives on the floor came up and I think I hung up on Ashutosh as I was ducking back into my room. I'm still not quite sure. I stuck my head out long enough to say bat to the employee on the floor. He was on the phone and looked at me blankly, his English is so-so. I motioned towards the window where the bat seemed to be flying around ceasing its excursions up the hallway. It was dark so he couldn't see it. I then proceeded to flap my hands, you know kind of like chicken dance but with less elbow. This only produced a quizzical look and a smile. I pointed to my eyes and then to the window. Success! He turned around and saw the bat, but then it came back down the hallways so I closed the door again. I waited about 10 minutes poked my head out again, all seemed clear and I made a run for it. I haven't seen the bat since, but he's probably laughing in a tree somewhere.
Besides the bat there have been lots of other animals all around! Chickens, goats, cows, monkeys and pigs... oh my! The monkeys have been super cute and I have typically seen them around tourist attractions. They are usually fed in those areas. Some of them are tame but a few can be aggressive. On one roof top viewing of a temple they had to be scared away with a stick.
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| Great Dane at the welders shop - Bobo |
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| Cow out for a night stroll on the streets |
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| 1 week old baby goats! |
Another cow just chilling at the welders shop
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Stray pigs wandering the streets
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Monkey selfie
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| More monkeys |
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The cows roam freely and have the right of way in the road. The road is an amazing and scary place. The cows come and go, the motorcycles zig in and out and as far as I can tell the side lanes are reserved for wrong way traffic. It's hard to explain and pictures don't really good a job. Though there are some interesting pictures on the road below.
That's all for now!
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