Sarah Attends an American Town Hall Meeting

Melinda is out of town this week at meeting I have no part in. That means I have the whole house to myself! Woo! Anyway, that explains why Melinda's name does not appear in the title of this post.

Today, the US Consulate in Kolkata hosted a Town Hall meeting for American citizens. A friend of mine heard about it, and we were like hey a chance to meet more Americans and get free food. Let's do this thing. Four of us went. Basically what happens at these meetings is representatives from the consulate come tell you about the services they can provide and tips for staying safe in the city. It's fairly boring and mostly stuff you already know. But THEN, they open the floor for questions and that, my friends, makes the whole thing worth your time. The first attendee to ask a question began with this long winded speech about how there were elderly Americans who were home bound and had no internet she wanted to know what the consulate had offer them. It was kind of hard to follow her and ascertain what her point was exactly, but basically she wanted the consulate to establish a daycare center for the elderly. The speaker politely informed her that he neither the money nor the staff to provide such a service. Another man complained the education systems in India and America are quite different and wanted to know what the consulate could do to provide American schooling for his children. It seems to me this is something you should take into consideration before you move. But what do I know? I heard a lady sitting in front of me mutter, "Go back to America." under her breath. Again, the speaker politely recommended some homeschooling websites and schools run by NGOs the man could try. My personal favorite was the man who said he had two homes and was afraid of being robbed. He then asked if the consulate's security services could provide a guard for his personal residences. The security guy did an admirable job of laughing in attendee's face, though I think he really wanted to. His response: I am the department. So, I cannot personally come and patrol your house. My thoughts are, if you can afford two homes, one of which is in a very nice part of Kolkata, you can afford to hire a guard. A lady in the audience suggested that this man go and acquaint himself with the local police so that they would know him personally if he ever had a problem. Then, an Indian-American audience member made the comment that this plan probably wouldn't work as people don't normally do that and you can wait all day at the station before some will agree to meet you. (I happen to think this man is correct.) The woman apparently was seriously offended that anyone might contradict her. She proceeded to yell at the guy for thinking she was stupid, and then basically said that if he wouldn't condescend to visit the police station, maybe the police would not want to come to his house. So there. The man dealt with the situation quite well, and simply said that they would have to agree to disagree. (Wherever you are sir, I applaud you.) There were some more questions and a quiz about random American trivia. I now know that the Styx started out in Chicago, and Wyoming is the least populous state in America, with about 500,000 residents. I'm totally moving there when I get back. Afterwards, we had tea and refreshments. It was mostly Indian food, which I have to admit was slightly disappointing, but they did have rolls. I hadn't had rolls in almost a year, and I had forgotten how much I like them. We did meet other Americans and found out that an American Center exists where they occasionally have entertaining events. I liked it on facebook so it would keep me posted.

Melinda and Sarah Go Wading Through Villages

Last week, Melinda and I went visiting in villages. We went with a translator and two guides who know the area. It is currently rainy season and in the area we visited the rains have been quite heavy. To the right is a picture of one road we drove down on the way.  We were in a van that was really high off the ground and sometimes I wasn't sure we would make it. The next day, we had a little bit of engine trouble, and Melinda and I were thinking "Well, we sunk the van..." I feel like if I had been walking and stepped in pothole I might have gone completely underwater. But maybe that's an exaggeration. There were men fishing on the edges because their ponds had overflowed and since the road was slightly slanted one side had a current.  Fortunately, other roads were not that bad.
When we got to the villages, our guide said, "Now, this is going to be a little muddy is that ok?" Yeah. Sure, we can handle mud.  By the end of the day, we had mud absolutely everywhere. At one point we were wading through water and mud up to our knees and that was the "good road". The other roads don't bear thinking about...

Our guides were extremely concerned about us lest we should fall and world come crashing to an end. They were always asking if we were ok and one of the ladies was holding onto me at almost all times. At first, the lady would hold my arm right by the elbow, which is really awkward to begin with and as time passed, her grip would get tighter and tighter until it became painful. I was thinking, um... this is actually making it more difficult to stand up. Finally, I said "It would be better if you held my hand." Melinda has better balance and walks faster than I do, so a lot of the guides' concern was focused on me. There were many conversations, in Bangla, about my ability to walk, including the following:

A: Is Sarah doing ok?

B: Yes, she's doing much better now.

Sometimes, I was doing well and sometimes, I was decidedly not doing well. We had a lot of fun though. We plan to go out visiting again in future, but probably after the rainy season.

Melinda and Sarah Embrace the Rainy Season

Melinda and I have done a lot of traveling recently. On the first of this month we went to Bangalore, which I always try to spell Banglalore, but that is not correct. We spent 2 1/2 days with some friends of ours. They live just outside of the city in a typical American-style house located in a gated community. It was quiet, there were kids riding scooters down empty streets. It felt so much like the US it was weird. My favorite part of the house by far is that nearly every room had a bay window with curtains in front of it, that created perfect reading nooks. If I ever get my dream house it's going to include a giant Beauty and the Beast inspired library, reading nooks, and a couch swing. Yup. A couch, attached to the ceiling, that swings. (I'm pretty sure that's not technically a sentence, but I don't care.) Also, the temperature in Bangalore was about 75 degrees in the daytime. Melinda and I woke up shivering every morning. It was wonderful. Bangalore also has Taco Bell! It doesn't really taste like America, but after a year without it, Indian Taco Bell was great. I had a chicken quesadilla and a crunchy chicken taco. They don't serve beef.

We returned home late Friday night and then left Saturday to go work on a housing project we're helping with. The goal is to build sturdy houses for people who lost their homes in a hurricane a few years ago. On this trip we were surveying to see who needed help the most. That was an adventure. It's rainy season here, so the ground is just mud.  Melinda and I slipped, slid, and stumbled across paths and down mud coated stair steps consisting of single bricks, with the entire village following behind. Some of the homes we are going to rebuild (and relocate) are presently sitting in ponds. And many are made of bamboo poles and tarp. It definitely makes you rethink your definition of house. The houses we're providing are really just four brick walls, a window, a door, and a tin roof, situated on top of a 3 foot high concrete foundation. And the whole thing is 10 1/2 by 12 square feet. That may not seem like much, but it's a big step up from what the families have now. We may also add a small verandah but only if the budget allows it. The survey trip lasted 2 days. By some miracle, we managed not to fall on our faces and returned home Saturday night.

Before I left, my aunt gave me an India travel guide. The picture of my city was a of a rickshaw puller pulling his rickshaw down a road through water that reached his knees. Why that picture was used in a travel guide is still a mystery to me, but I have now witnessed it in real life. Sunday and Monday it rained all day and flooded some of the lowest parts of the city. For example, this road in front of our supervisor George's house.

We took a bus over there not suspecting anything as our part of town is fine, and then realized that we would have to cross two rivers to get to his apartment building. At first, we tried to roll up our pant legs and stay dry, but a then a car passed and created a wave, so our efforts were in vain. Fording the road was kinda fun though. Definitely a new experience. We were able to borrow dry clothes from George's roommate Antu so we didn't have spend our entire time there in soaked pants. George let us use his car and driver to get home. On the way, we passed some kids literally swimming in the road. Epic. Gross, because I don't even want to think about what was on that road. But Epic.