No more black boogers and some GREAT cooking!!

We are now out of Hotel Namaskar for good! Yaaayyyyy! But it was a fun experience! We are now living in an apartment in a village called Hauz Kauz. Hauz Kauz is a bustling little village that has one main road running through the center of it. This sometimes proves to be a problem because if someone is coming and someone is going then there is never enough room for both to get by. Most of the time when this happens instead of one of the drivers backing up they both stick their head out of the window and yell at each other until one back down and moves his car out of the way. (I say HIS car because out of all of the crazy drivers I have see here I have literally only seen three women drivers.)

Anyway... I'll just pick up the story where Nick last left it...

Monday, June 18th, 2007
We waited in our new apartment for the key that Nick somehow managed to lose within three minutes of receiving it. Thankfully the people at Navdanya found it and returned it to us. It was early in the afternoon so Nick and I decided to go wonder around the streets to see if we could find so food and some cleaning supplies for our dirty apartment. We were successful on both counts! After walking down the road about a mile we ran into a little shopping center. It was very Americanized... it even had a GAP! (Of course they advertised that they had much lower prices than the Gaps in America had!)



Up above the little shopping center we found a restaurant that looked trustworthy so we sat and ate. Once again, the food was incredible! I'm not sure what exactly we ate but I do know that it was fantastic and it received a big Mmmmmmmm!!! of approval from Nick. I'll be honest but only because I know Nick will add it if I don't. We ordered some bottled water along with our meal which the waiter then poured into our glasses. We were eating and drinking and talking and all of a sudden the waiter came over. Well... I looked up right as I was about to take a sip and down my front the water poured. Sort of embarrassing... but funny. The serious looking waiter couldn't help but laugh and from then on he had a broad smile every time he came to our table. We then left the restaurant and went on our way to find the cleaning supplies. Before going in that adventure we poked around in the shops below hoping to find a cheap cell phone. We managed to find a few cell phones but they were really expensive (over $100 USD) so we decided that could wait.

We left the shop and crossed the street. Now you may not think anything of it when I say we crossed the street but this could have been the most frightening part of our trip yet! The way that crossing the street works here is much different than in the states. If you see a break in the first lane you cross and stand in between lanes of traffic until you can make it to the next lane and then you stand there as more cars whip past. You do this through four lanes of traffic before finally reaching the safety of the other side. Lets just say that it takes a brave soul to cross the street in New Delhi!

We reached the other side, caught our breath, and moved on with our journey. First stop ATM. We found a CitiBank indoor ATM just as we crossed the street and pulled out some money. I was very surprised that there was no service charge or anything. Just straight exchange for the going rate.

We then moved on and the next embarrassing event was about to happen to me. We were waking past a series of little shops in a small market place. There was a tin roof that jutted out a bit from the building where plenty of birds were scouring the ground. Yep you probably guessed it. I felt a heavy drop come down on top of my shoulder. A bird had crapped on me! This bird crap was not your normal bird poo! This bird must have been eating WAY too much curried food because the crap I now had on my shoulder was a bright chunky yellow. YUCK... GROSS... EWWW!!! I grabbed a piece of paper from Nick's bag and wiped most of it off and we moved on. We were not sure where we needed to go to get cleaning supplies so we headed into a chemists shop. He looked at us strangely when we told him what we were looking for and gave us directions to the general store.

One thing I will never get use to is the staring. The tall girl stares I get at home will never bother me again after this experience!!! Nick and I can walk by a full bus and at every window a head is staring in our direction. Everywhere we go we get this! While we were hunting down the general store (we got a little lost) a car a boys (age 20-25) drove by. I didn't see it but Nick sat that one of the boys stuck his tongue out at me in a really crude manner. Unfortunately for the boys they were planning on stopping a few feet in front of us. The one who stuck his tongue out got out of the car and walked past us. I was a step or two in front of Nick because of the narrow walkway, so he gave me a suggestive look. Once again Nick noticed but I did not because Nick had already told me about the first look and I was trying not to make eye contact. Then Nick walked by and gave him the don't you dare look. The guy barely came up to Nick's shoulder (like nearly every body here) so needless to say he scurried off rather quickly!

We finally made it to the general store, bought our supplies, and then walked about a mile and a half back to our apartment. Thankfully no more excitement on the way back. Just a nice, warm walk.

When we returned to our new home we were exhausted! It was now about 6:30 but we were still suffering from jet lag so our eyes were beginning to droop. We quickly swept the entire apartment because we could not stand the extreme filth. One of Nick's co-workers at Navdanya came by and introduced himself. His name is Manu and he seemed very nice! After Manu left (he was only there for a few moments) we had a nice lazy night of reading and cribbage and hit the sack about 7:45.

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
Once again, up at 5. No matter how hard we try to push ourselves to sleep in late our eyes open way to early. So up we went. It was the first morning in Delhi so far that we did not wake up to the sound of pouring rain. Nick and I were positive that Monsoon season had started early and were thinking we brought all the wrong supplies until Manu told us that it is really rare that it rains this early in Delhi and that it doesn't even tend to rain very hard during monsoon season. He attributed the weird weather to global warming and the melting of the icecaps. Both Nick and I were sad to see the cool weather that came with the rain leave us because the muggy heat is back!

We got up in the morning and did a quick workout before hitting the showers. Then off to work we went. We walked with Manu and talked about all sorts of things. It was very humid so by the time we got to the office Nick and I were both drenched in sweat. The office was a different one from the one that we went to before so we were glad to have Manu to guide our way. We went inside and instantly felt the relief of the fans. They were just installing the AC so it had yet to be turned on but the fans felt wonderful!

(That's Manu on the computer)

For the first few hours Nick and I just sat around reading and using the internet because no one was quite sure what we were supposed to be doing. Then at lunch time Nick received his first assignment. The assignment was to research a current supreme court case dealing with street vendors. Currently there is legislation to try to shut down all street vendors who sell and cook food on the street on the grounds of city "beautification" and the claim that it is unsanitary. A possible reason for this is to cause a need for corporations like Walmart to move in to provide jobs and goods. Much of the Delhi master plan and other planned developments in India are ghost written by multi national corporations looking to influence the direction of India's development and cash in on the upper class's desire to "modernize." Unfortunately a step like this would put millions of people out of work, raising the level of poverty to unimaginable heights. Hopefully that explains it a little.

We decided that since the school I am going to be working at is far away, I will go to work with Nick and he will come teach with me. I am such a spectacle here that I don't even want to try going out by myself yet! Maybe once I feel a bit more comfortable... but who knows if that will ever happen! It helps having Nick with me because he is so huge compared to everyone here that no one wants to mess with him. In truth I am huge compared to most people here as well but I am a woman and woman seem very meek in this society from what I have seen so far. So regardless of my stature and my attitude I am still viewed in a similar way.

After work Manu took us to get some bedding. The night before we had slept on little more than a wooden plank and we were definitely feeling it! We were very happy that Manu came with us because he helped us not to get ripped off like we probably would have. When ever we think we are getting a good deal on something we always find out later that for this society we payed way to much! So we were thankful that Manu came with his fine tuned bargaining skills!

We then walked back to our apartment. Manu invited us over to the neighbors house for tea and dinner but we had a few tasks to get done. First we went down to the creepy basement of our apartment complex where the computer lab is so I could talk to my parents. Unfortunately right as we hooked up to computer the power to the building went out so once again talking to the parents had to wait. So we walked to the store to get some water and then headed to our neighbors house.

Her name is Tasnim (pronounced tas-neem). Manu said she is 36 or 37 but she does not look it at all! She has no husband or children to look after so she has adopted Manu and his roommate, Mukesh (our other co-worker). She makes fun of them for just showing up on her doorstep every night but she always takes good care of them! She cooked us dinner and fed us desert and we talked for a few hours. It was really fun! I think Nick wants to become her next adopted child while we are here because he has yet to stop talking about the food.
Last night she made us tea (real chi tea... Nick and I are thoroughly obsessed with it! SO YUMMY!) Then she cooked a lamb stew... it got a real big YUUUUUMMMMMMMMM from Nick! And lentils in a green sauce... also delicious... with home made bread (sort of like a thick tortilla only way better!) and rice.

Then came desert. Nick and I had our first fresh mango's. I have never had anything like it! They are even better than Yaju claimed they would be!! After we each ate 2 or 3 mango's Tasnim remembered the ice cream in the fridge and told us to mix it with the mango's. Lets just say I have a new favorite way to eat ice cream! Then she pulled out some chocolate that a friend made for her... after all that we almost had to roll Nick out of there!

We all sat around a talked for a little while longer until neither of us could keep our eyes open any longer. So we headed up the stairs to our apartment and went straight to sleep!

What else have we learned so far?

While at dinner we learned that in Indian culture if you have a cold you do not drink anything cold. We learned this because Manu was scared to eat the ice cream with his cold.

Women are seen as shy and weak. I have met very few strong minded women here (but I have met a few!). People expect it of me as well, something as simple as paying for my own purchase when Nick is by my side gets a funny look. Nick is constantly trying to get me to be more confident with this society.

We have been ripped off SO many times! We keep thinking we are getting a great deal because things are so much cheaper here than they are in the states. None the less when we tell people what we paid for various items they tell us we paid far to much!