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.