First Weeks

Well first of all, dear readers, let me apologize for not posting an update sooner. As you may or may not be aware, things in India don’t always happen on schedule, as our odyssey of setting up a wifi connection has shown. It is normal and expected that you basically call five times and and chew service providers out to remind them to come keep the appointment they themselves set with you. And a week and a half later we are still going through this process. But I have that luxury now (or at least the boys in the downstairs apartment do) and as you can see, I’m safe and sound in Hyderabad.

I arrived after an exhaustingly long flight via Portland, Seattle, Seoul and Mumbai. Luckily there were plenty of movies and shows to keep me entertained and I must say Korean Air has won me over. Not only are the flight attendants all Korean models (well or something like that because it is no accident they are all gorgeous and of the same proportions) but they are extremely nice and accommodating, including babysitting crying infants, of which there were two on each of my flights, sitting right in front of me. Lovely. But anyway, the flying part of this is boring. Just suffice it to say that I will be perfectly happy if I don’t have to step foot on another plane for a long time.

But back to India. Well as you would expect, things are quite chaotic but in a controlled way. On the drive from the airport to our flat I quickly realized that lane lines don’t matter at all here as our car proceeded to careen in and out of traffic, barely missing rickshaws, buses and motorcyclists as we drove deeper into the city. So far, I haven’t seen all that many cows on the roads, mainly because I’m sure they are scared of the traffic as well. Crossing the street resembles a game of Frogger as you look right then left (Indians drive like the British on the off side of the road which still confuses me), wait for a lightening of traffic because an actual break would be too much to ask for, and then with one hand out and a deep breath, run like hell to get to the other side. If you’re lucky, you can shadow an Indian as they cross but even this isn’t foolproof. And if you don’t have to cross the road? Well sidewalks are dicey at best, and nonexistent for the most part so keep your wits about you.

My living situation is definitely looking up though. I love all of my roommates, three who went to school in the South and one from the UK. I’m already saying things like “going to the loo” and adding an accent to certain syllables. That coupled with my hopefully perfected India head wobble means that I may have a bit of trouble readjusting to the US to say the least. Our apartment is in a really central area although when you say it’s more “western” I don’t think most of you would agree excepting the Mercedes and Beamers that will often cruise between the half-broken rickshaws. But the common area is large, we finally rented our fridge, table, and furniture, and the toilets and showers work fairly regularly. At least when there’s water and the electricity isn’t out. During monsoon season, Hyderabad receives epic downpours and thunderstorms that make candles a necessity every now and then. But it’s nice and cozy actually, sitting and listening to the rain by candlelight, and it’s only happened like that once.

The rest of the fellows are amazing and we have already all gone karaoking and dancing, taken rickshaws around the city to each others’ places, and even have regular P90X workouts, dinners and Planet Earth watching with the male IDEX fellows that live in our building. The rest of the group is spread out around the city but as these first two weeks are orientation, we are definitely seeing each other enough. Each morning we start out with meditation and yoga before embarking on in-depth discussions about social enterprise, development and working in the schools. And we recently returned from a two day retreat at a resort outside of the city. We did a lot of team building activities, including teaching the three Indian fellows how to play flip cup and we even got to swim in the awesome pool. Other than the fact that I had to wear a t-shirt and workout pants into the pool, I almost forgot I was in India.

I’m very excited to get a start in the schools on August 1st and I can’t wait to put some of my skills to use. I went to meet my school owner, who is very nice and seems to be very aware of the areas her school needs to improve in and its strengths already. I can tell my work is cut out for me but the kids are absolutely adorable with their “hello madam”s and smiles. But for now, life is more about settling in, bonding with everyone else, and surviving the heat. It’s bearable if you don’t mind being drenched in sweat all the time and from our apartment, we can often pick up a nice breeze although it also will carry the local calls to prayer from nearby mosques, waking me up every morning at around 5. I am working on filling my closet with Kurtas and am hoping to get a few saris made. They are definitely cooler in this heat.

There are hundreds of things more that I could say about India right now but I think I’ll leave it all for later. Just know that I’m loving it, feel completely like this is where I need to be right now, and will be posting pictures soon. Until next week, pher milenge!