Nadia... Indian Princess

From Renata:
"I think these pics of Nadia in the cutest outfit EVER will make you smile :) She was acting like such a hot shot - the bracelets are her favorite thing to take on and off and on and off and on and off and on and off and throw them around and put in her mouth and on and off."


...and they do. :-)

Gopi's wife has Dengue Fever :-(

World-wide dengue distribution, 2006. Red: Epidemic dengue. Blue: Aedes aegypti.

Gopi's wife has been in and out of doctors offices and hospitals since Saturday (6 days ago) she will be in the hospital for 2 more days for treatment. She was finally diagnosed with dengue fever. Gopi has been beside himself... so sad to see the whole family suffering. Damn mosquitoes!!!

From Wikipedia:
Dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are acute febrile diseases, found in the tropics and Africa, and caused by four closely related virus serotypes of the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. It is also known as breakbone fever.

Dengue is transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti or more rarely the Aedes albopictus mosquito, which feed during the day.

The symptoms are: a sudden onset of severe headache, muscle and joint pains (myalgias and arthralgias—severe pain gives it the name break-bone fever or bonecrusher disease), fever, and rash.

The mainstay of treatment is timely supportive therapy to tackle shock due to haemoconcentration and bleeding. Close monitoring of vital signs in critical period (between day 2 to day 7 of fever) is vital. Increased oral fluid intake is recommended to prevent dehydration. Supplementation with intravenous fluids may be necessary to prevent dehydration and significant concentration of the blood if the patient is unable to maintain oral intake.

UPDATE: Gopi's wife came home from the hospital 1 week after the sickness began. She is feeling better, trying to get stronger, and her mother is staying with them to help. Gopi says his wife's hands are so swollen after dripping liters and liters of IV fluid into her body using the veins on the back of her hands. Today, Feb 4th, is her birthday. I did not need Gopi today so he was able to stay home and be with her.

Another first for Jennifer/Angel

Yesterday, when Angel was at the house, I made my first pot of sun tea in India. (Like I've said, the weather is heating up)
I put a few tea bags in a glass pitcher of clean water and Angel was very curious. I told her I would put it in the sun and it would make tea. She followed me outside. I found a very sunny spot on a hot stone and left the pitcher to cook.
A few hours later when Angel's work was done, I escorted her outside and we checked on the tea. She was amazed to see the tea color in the pitcher.
This morning Angel stopped by to see Jennifer. While she was here she told Jennifer the amazing tale of the plain water becoming tea in the sun.
I asked her if she'd like a glass and she happily accepted.
I took a glass to the freezer and put some ice cubes in it. Angel was so curious that she counted the cubes as they went into the glass (I told her the amount of cubes is random - to taste). Then I filled the glass with tea, squeezed in some fresh lemon and offered her sugar to taste.
Both Angel and Jennifer loved the tea. PLUS they never use ice cubes so they found that interesting too.

On a previous day I was filling my ice tray and Angel asked "What do you do with these cubes, M'dam?" The question caught me a little off guard. Simple refrigeration is a luxury in some of these small villages so a freezer with a section dedicated to freezing water is probably a little over the top. Plus Indians are so used to room temperature beverages that ice is not very common.

Weather is heating up!

It's CRAZY how fast the weather is heating up. We went from cool mornings/evenings last week to needing to use ceiling fans to circulate the air this week. The afternoon temperature in the sun was uncomfortable and I stood in the shade as I waited for the school bus.
If March/April are the hottest months of the year - February must be one crazy month! To take us from "winter" all the way to HOT!
I'll keep you posted!

Where are the photos?

Recent posts have been sans photos because the batteries in India are CRAP!!!
I think when battery companies have a bad batch or find an expired bunch they send them over to India. Even reputable brands don't last very long here. It's VERY frustrating!!!

Anyway, inside our digital camera is a small battery to keep the internal memory of the camera going - like the date and other things. We replaced that battery about 2 months ago - with a fresh new battery that I took out of the packaging myself - and it's already dead. Last week I sent Gopi on a hunt to find two more replacements so we have a back-up on hand for when the new one fails. It's a camera battery so it's not readily available. It took Gopi a couple of weeks to find the last one.

We use AA batteries a lot. India is big on the rechargeable batteries and so we've invested in a lot of those too - but even those aren't reliable. Papa sent a package of American AAs for Xmas and it's just amazing how those toys/appliances just keep going and going and going...

Lay offs

I can't even fathom this tailspin we're in...
Caterpillar lays of 20,000 people
Home Depot lays of 7,000 and closes stores
Another 6,000 people here and 8,000 there...

Every day its a crazy number and every "1" is a family sent into a tailspin of their own.

Dude, what's with all the mosquitoes?

As the weather is warming up, the mosquitoes are getting more active.
I've been sitting on the porch studying my Hindi and I had to come inside to apply mosquito repellent! For the last couple of months I've sat out there to enjoy coffee or other things and have not been bothered by mosquitoes. Today they're all over me and all over the side of the house and under the eves. We haven't had any rain so I don't know how else to explain it.

Stop signs

When we go back to the US driving again will be a learning process. Driving on the right hand side of the road and respecting stop signs will take some getting used to. And I'm not talking about a "California rolling stop" I mean acknowledging stops signs at all. Here it would be MORE dangerous if you DID stop at a stop sign because the people behind you wouldn't be expecting it and the outcome would be a 5-car pile-up.
I'm still big on cars staying in their lanes so the practice here of driving where ever your car fits on the road won't be a problem for me to leave behind.
But I'm not saying one way is right and the other is wrong... here it works. And honking your horn is a language drivers speak to one another so it is necessary in the chaos of the roads.

Wax napkins?!?

Q: What is the main job of a napkin? A: To be absorbent

So I'm totally confused as to why, in India, they make wax-coated napkins?!? They do not absorb liquids or even smudges on your fingers or face. I'm totally clueless.
Does wax aid in the manufacturing process? Does it make them more "top-shelf" when they're waxy?
And they seem so environmentally unfriendly while not serving a purpose.

Any feedback as to why this is done would be greatly appreciated.

World's highest drug levels entering India stream

Associated Press
When researchers analyzed vials of treated wastewater taken from a plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.
Click to read the article

They laugh at me because I'm pink

When I get out of the shower and walk to my room (the geyser - or water heater - is better in the downstairs bathroom) Angel and Jennifer snicker at me. They think it's cute how the hot water turns my face/skin a pink color.
Snicker, snicker

Mustache club

Mustaches are so popular in India that Erik and some guys from work decided to discover the joy of mustaches.
It's an ongoing project...

Go - Go - GOA!!!

Erik had a great time in Goa.


The gang.


Fresh fruit anyone?

Cows on the beach, why not, it's India.




He's already checking flights to go back with the family.

Watching history

Watching the CNN.com live feed of the inauguration.
4 hours to go!!!

IT'S A NEW DAWN!
And India is as excited as we are!

The continuing education of Jennifer/Angel

Angel is very Christian - not just in her beliefs but to her very core. She likes to talk about it and says Jennifer being Roman Catholic is not Christian. Angel is not aggressive or annoying - she's just very firm in her beliefs and very curious about other people and what they do in other parts of the world.

I've told her many times that I don't have a religion and I don't pray to Jesus but I do consider myself spiritual. I believe there is a power greater than myself but I don't believe it ever had a human form.

Anyway, today she asked me if I know anything about the story of Jesus. I said yes I do. So she asked me how...

...so I took the opportunity to open her eyes a bit and went to YouTube and pulled up Jesus Christ Superstar. We watched Mary Magdalen spread oil on Jesus' face, Judas descend from a helicopter in the best rock opera outfit ever, dabbled in a little Pilot, Herod and the crucifixion.

They were surprised that a person who claims to not worship Jesus would watch something like this and feel compelled to sing and dance along. Hahahahaha.

UPDATE: Angel said she wanted to sing a song in English to her congregation and asked me if I knew anything. We went back to YouTube and I showed her some Mahalia Jackson. Wow.

Erik just left for Goa

Erik + friends left this morning for a 3 day trip to Goa.
I went to Delhi for 3 days back in November so now it's his turn.

Sad to see him go. :-( But he'll have a blast.

Swedish neighbors are moving today :-(

Bummer...
They are shifting to Palm Meadows where the neighborhoods and clubhouse are more lively. There are a couple restaurants and a couple grocery stores so you never need to leave the walled community. Claus travels for business a lot so they are looking for those kinds of services.

Also, there are two other Swedish families at Palm Meadows, so they're set.

We'll be at Palm Meadows a lot this summer (their pools are awesome) so we'll see them a lot.
Sad to see them go.

Oh my darlin'

Indians must really like the tune of "Oh my Darlin' Clementine" because I heard it again today. It seems to be a musak favorite. Every time I hear it it catches me off guard. Heard it again today while having lunch with the kids (today is a school holiday).
Dreadful sorry

SO HAPPY!!!

Just found out we can get ComedyCentral.com in India!!
I'm laying in bed and watching clips of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert!
I've missed them!

I was hoping we could get NBC.com, ABC.com and CBS.com here but no luck. We're locked out. No SNL clips :-( except a few Tina Fey as Sarah Palin clips got through by being posted on alternate sites.

Now back to the show!!...

Access to safe drinking water

We take drinking water for granted. You are thirsty, you get water, you drink it, done.

Here, water has to either be purchased, treated or boiled. That's fine and dandy if you have the money to buy it or if you're in the comfort of your own home but in India not everyone is that lucky.

A woman, who is on the landscaping crew of Ozone, rings my door every day. I open it and get a lovely smile, a set of praying hands, and a "Namaska M'dam" as she hands me two empty 2-liter bottles. And every day I fill them and hand them back with a smile.

How else is this woman, who works in the sun all day long, supposed to drink? To purchase a 1-liter bottle of cheap drinking water is Rps. 13/. If you're only making Rps. 100/ a day it's a luxury you just can't afford. She can't get water from a hose or faucet because it's not potable without boiling it first. There are no drinking fountains. Now that I think about it, I can't recall a single drinking fountain except at the kids' school and possibly a mall.

My driver also has to get his safe drinking water from me. He doesn't bother with it in the early morning when he takes Erik to work - but when he comes back to pick me up he comes to the door with two empty 1-liter bottles.

I have an "RO" (Reverse Osmosis) system in my kitchen. This gives us purified water - pending the power is on - but the storage tank is probably 4-liters and that lasts us a while. We use this for drinking water but also to wash fruit/vegetables and anything else food related. We wash our dishes in untreated water, the harmful bacteria dies when the water evaporates.

Anyway, it just seems strange to me that adults are dependent on me (and people like me) to supply them with such a basic human need like safe drinking water.

UPDATE: Apparently a lot of local people do drink the tap water and are OK with it. It's just the hard water in Ozone is soooo salty that it's unpalatable.

Frustrations about living in India

Last weekend two men came by the house to "fix" the fuse box. They said the electric load was not being shared equally and they needed to fix how the energy was disbursed (anyway, that's what I gathered from the conversation).

I must mention, we did not call to have our power supply fixed - and that should have been a red flag. Not much here is proactive.

Power was terrible all week. Losing power for hours at a time (losing power daily is a common occurrence, but these were prolonged outages). We got very frustrated because the weekend "fix" seemed to mess things up.

Erik lodged a complaint and the management said they would send someone to the house at 12:00p Monday.

Power went out at 10:00am today. I called to make sure the electrician was coming and he said yes, they were coming (I confirmed the appointment but not the time) At 12:30p no one came so I called again. They said someone was on their way. At 1:45p I still did not have any workmen at the house (and still no power) so I called again. They said someone was on the way. I had to get terse and explain that I was promised a workman at 12:00p and now it's almost 2:00p and no one has shown and I've been out of power since 10:00a. They said someone is on the way. So I said "When?!? When will he be here?!?" So every time they gave me a vague answer I kept saying "When?!?" Finally he took my number down and said he'd get back to me. At 2:15p he called and said someone would be at my house at 4:00p. I reiterated the 12:00p appointment and that I've been without power all day.

Power came on at 3:00p.

At 3:55p four men knocked at my door. (How many does it take to screw in a lightbulb?) They went to the main power supply on the side of the house and told me a new conductor was needed and it would cost Rps. 1,500/. I said I needed my power restored but I'd need to talk to the owner of the house.

By 4:45p they told me they were done. Showed me the melted old conductor and told me the new one would solve all our power problems... we'll see. :-)

New Year's Eve

Much like Christmas, Club Med did a great job with New Years.


The Kids Club had a very special dinner for the kids so the adults could enjoy their own very special dinner.


Lobster Bisque

Lobster, oysters, muscles, prawns, etc.

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CELEBRATE!!!
The Kids Club had it's own nightclub so the kids could party in a safe environment under the watchful eye of the G.O.s

Annika's friend Alexa

The adults got a floor show that is difficult to describe. They played a medly of "American" music (including AC/DC, Celine Dion, Wham, etc. that are not American) with the G.O.s supposedly dressing up as the artists and singing parts of the songs. Most didn't know the words but it was a GREAT time.


The show's finale was "We Are the World" by USA for Africa but again, pretty funny

The countdown...
The voices are right, the screen is a little behind.

H A P P Y N E W Y E A R ! ! !


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Sweet dreams for 2009 my little angels...

Helen and Erik time

Since the kids were happy to dine with their friends from time to time that gave us a chance to dine alone.




Almost every day the kids went to camp for some portion and we enjoyed that time by just hanging by the pool, taking a walk into town, and even getting a couple MASSAGES at the Club Med Spa! It was a lovely time.

Dreamland Beach

We were told Dreamland Beach would be a beautiful, white sand beach where we could have fun with the kids away from Club Med. Years ago it was the "it" spot for surfers but once the tourists found it the real surfers moved on.
We had fun.
Had to save the kids a few times in the strong surf. :-)








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After playing all afternoon at Dreamland, we went to a nearby town that has restaurants with tables set up all along the beach. We watched the sun set as we dined on fresh prawns, lobster and crab. The kids mostly liked the peanuts that came with their drinks, oh well, but we all enjoyed the sunset.




And what evening of beach dining would be complete without a Balinese serenade...

Nightlife at Club Med

Those French know how to do it up right...


Dancing / dance music would break out any time any place...





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Our nightlife often ended with a trip to the beach for Auggie and Erik




Goodnight monkeys...

Exploring the Island of Bali

We took several excursions to explore the island of Bali.

Erik went out by himself one afternoon to scope what was out there.
We took the kids on a full day tour that circled the island.
And Erik and I did a couple of other excursions while the kids were safely tucked away at camp.


Lots of temples, I mean, several per block, they were everywhere and most were very ornate


Most of Indonesia is Muslim but Bali is Hindu - we were surprised to see so much meat when India is so veg. Erik even had an honest-to-goodness McDonald's cheeseburger on one of his excursions... we only get the McAloo Tiki in India.


Darling Indonesian Princess



Little palm baskets filled with offerings to the Gods were everywhere. Temples were piled high with them but every shop had a basket or two or three or five outside. The palm baskets were filled with flowers and some type of food be it fruit or crackers or whatever. We even saw some with cigarettes in them. So when you were out shopping, you had to be careful not to step on the baskets all over the ground because it's an offering and also because the baskets were ususally covered in ants (red ones) and they will bite you. Yes, it happened.


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Balinese rice paddys



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Batur volcano




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Coffee / spice plantation




Man roasting coffee beans over an open fire on a hot day... wouldn't want that job

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Goa Gajah, The Elephant Temple read more

Built at least 700 years ago, the cave was rediscovered in the 1920s and fully excavated 30 years later.

The Ganesha statue discovered inside the cave.







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Got our attention...


Darling little Balinese boy


Not something you see every day...