The Last Day of 2010

December 31, 2010

Because we lost a day or so, on this trip, it is very difficult to remember that today is the last day of the year, but here we are.  We are snuggled away at the Choudhrie farm/mango orchard, and couldn’t be happier about it.  We arrived yesterday evening, after a grand total of 40 hours of traveling (not including the times sitting around waiting at airports, etc.)

Lys

 

A view of the farm.  Its very green and lush.  Very different from where we live.

We’ll post some pictures of the place soon, but know that it is a serene and beautiful place.  A simple, but ample house—we’re staying in what was the chicken coop when Sanjay was a child, but is now a very nice little guest room for us.  And the farm is beautiful.  It’s no longer mango season, but the guava trees are full of fruit, and the wheat fields are a deep green.  Lys and I went for a walk through the little village—small little mud houses with livestock running in and out and lots of little kids to giggle at us making a strange sight. 

All of Sanjay’s siblings are now here with their families in tow.  This means a grand total of 6 cousins for Daya and Lys to play with.  They have been playing with the dogs, racing around, picking flowers and watching the cows get milked all day.  More relatives will continue to arrive tonight and tomorrow for the big 50^th anniversary celebration tomorrow.  This one will be a “small” gathering with only 125 people or so—not like the weddings which have 1000 guests. 

Daya and her Uncle Ashish

Sanjay and I wasted no time in getting good, inexpensive health care.  We both saw the eye doctor this morning, and will go to the dentist next week. 

I used to have hair like that.

I still feel a little like I got hit by a truck, so I’m moving slow and took a nap while Sanjay got a tour of Padhar Hospital, the mission hospital that his brother Rajiv now runs and the other siblings work at.  Rajiv has lots of new projects going on to serve this rural part of India better. 

Moments of Grace

December 30, 2010

Moments of Grace

We left home at about 2:30 am on Tuesday the 27^th of December.  Today is the 30^th, and we’ve lost a day somewhere along the way.

The drive to Albuquerque and flight to San Francisco were painless except for the fact that both girls were awake the whole time.  San Francisco greeted us with a number of options for breakfast.  After mulling over the many food options we had udon noodles, miso soup followed by Peets coffee and cinnamon twists.  Yum

After a 6 hour wait we left San Francisco in a super crowded plane for Frankfurt am Main.  Apart from being shoe horned into the cattle car it was relatively tolerable.

By the time we reached Frankfurt, which is a far more chaotic airport than Albuquerque or San Francisco, we were tired.  Our rather simple breakfast cost more than $50.  We did notice quite a lot more people drinking beer for breakfast in Frankfurt than in San Francisco.  The snow left over from snow storms that hit Europe was piled really high around the airport.  It was too late that we found a whole waiting area filled with camp cots from the prior week’s flying mayhem.

We had left home worried that we would not have enough battery to sustain entertainment options, which we thought we’d need for child control.  We were right.  Amazon Unbox functioned like a virus, would not download, load, or uninstall.  My phone could not be charged.  But the children did fine without electronic entertainment options, reading a drawing instead.

In Frankfurt it seemed like they were going to need an extra-large shoe horn because there were so many people who were standby.  The row we had reserved last week was no longer available. We were assigned 3 aisle seats not near each other.  When I saw the seat assignments, my heart sank, because I knew that this leg of the journey was going to be a trial of endurance for Kris, Daya, Lys and I.  And we were already very sleep deprived.  I had less than 6 hours of sleep for the last three nights combined.

The ticket lady quietly asked us to wait once we had cleared the gate.  A few minutes later she showed up with different boarding passes that had three seats next to each other and one just behind.  When we boarded the plane we discovered that we were in Business Class.  Not just any Business Class but the one where the seat becomes a bed.   We all got some major R&R.  I got 4 hours of sleep on the plan.  Lyse got about 6, Kris and Daya about 3 hours each.  I even watched a movie and at a great meal, Christmas goose.  Thank you Lufhthanza.

I am writing this as we fly the penultimate leg of the journey, the flight to Nagpur, the winter capital of Central Provinces during the Raj, and one of the principal cities the state of Maharashtra.  My sister Manjula and her husband Sunil will pick us up and take us to the family farm about 100 miles away.

Pillar erected in 1903 in Nagpur at the center of India, which at the time included Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Cousins having fun together.

More cousin time.  This Andy (the boy on the left) and Daya.  The sheep are not relatives except in the New Testament sense of the parable.

The new milch cow.

So far the girls have done wonderful with an upper case W.  They have managed their moods while communicating their needs.  They have been better then we could have possibly imagined, making friends and chatting up strangers wherever we went.  The food has been pretty good between what we bought, got and brought.

One downside to visiting India:  When we arrived at customs at immigration in Delhi, the immigration officer refused to speak to us.  He just used gestures.  Later, when I was next in line to check in for our flight to Nagpur, after having been given the wrong information twiceby the Information Desk, I was suddenly passed by two people behind me and then bulldozed by a luggage cart.  Not accidentally bulldozed, because he was waiting in line behind me for a few minutes.  The presence of the Commonwealth games ensured a very much improved Indira Gandhi Airport facility, but customer service still sucks!

This trip would not be possible without the generosity of our parents, who basically paid for all our travel so that we could be present for their 50^th Wedding Anniversary Celebration. 

Rajiv describing his vision for a nursing school on land he purchased adjoinng the hospital

We are looking forward to riding an elephant, seeing a tiger (hopefully), visiting with cousins, uncles, aunts and friends, eating good food, and hopefully some sleep soon.  (At about 2:30 Lys said that she was done with traveling and wanted to sleep in a house tonight).

Until Next time

Post Script by Daya: Taking a Trip

We went on 3 planes and we are sleeping in lots of weird places.  We’re up in the air right now we’re going to land soon.  My family and I just might ride an elephant.  We’re on a little jungle tour.  India is very hot but since we are going in the winter it won’t be so hot.  We are at India now and we just got a room to sleep in.  We cut the ribbon to get into our room and everyone was happy.  (grow ups did to)  All of the kids had a tickle war.  We opened lots of presents and there is a party but I don’t know when the party is.  India is great so far.