Weekend

We are here in India, primarily, to work (well…Brandon is here to work. I'm here to read blogs, bask in the abundant sunshine, and provide encouragement during those awake-at-3am-again moments when we are both questioning whether we will ever again sleep when it's dark). BUT, we also carve out time for play. This weekend's activities included: a trip to the store, and a five-hour car ride. Exciting, no?


 
On Saturday, we decided to venture out to the Big Bazaar – a local catch-all store a la Wal-Mart or Meijer (but much smaller). We were joined by Abhi, another American staying at the house, who is a PIO (person of Indian origin) – he connected with the Kumars somehow last fall, and he is staying here for about 6 weeks before returning to the US to attend medical school. Since Aarti and Vishwajeet were gone for the day, we were on our own for transportation. We walked a short distance to a busier street and flagged down a motor rickshaw. 

This is not the busier street...this is right outside our house after we returned home

A first for me, but for Brandon, this is old hat (he has also experienced travel via bicycle rickshaw and motorcycle). There are two methods of paying: a running meter or a pre-negotiated price. We have been warned that if you ask them to run the meter, they may take the longest possible route in order to run the meter up. Brandon and Abhi negotiated a price of 100 rupees (a little over $2), and we all squeezed in. It was a relatively short ride and a fun way to see some different parts of the city.

View from behind the wheel - see how we're not quite in one lane....lane markings don't really matter

We arrived at the Big Bazaar and made our purchases. [Aside:  It always cracks to me up when foreign stores have an "international food" section, and the American food consists of Pringles, peanut butter, yellow mustard and pancake syrup.  It was the same way in Hungary.] Heading out, we found a couple motor rickshaws waiting for customers. We bargained down to 70 rupees – we think maybe he felt we would defect to another waiting driver – and felt pretty good about that! However, we later asked Ghiri how much the trip should cost, and he said about 45-50 rupees each way. Bummer – we got taken! But it was a fun experience, and good to get out of the house.


On Sunday, Aarti told us they were going to look at a possible new location for a health center and asked if we'd like to come along. Brandon thought it might be fun to take a drive in the country, so we piled in the car. It was fun to see different parts of the city, and to get outside the city, too. Lots of interesting sites; unfortunately we were in the car for most of the trip, so no pictures. The ride ended up being five hours long! (Including a stop for lunch - which is where the paparazzi found us and demanded a photo). It is interesting though, even outside the city, in the "country," there are still people everywhere.


All in all, a nice, relaxing weekend.  We're finally starting to adjust to the time difference and getting some good sleep at night.  This makes the days much more enjoyable :)