international getaway - Dubai

In a moment of insanity and spontaneity, folo and I decided on Thur afternoon at 6 pm that we should go to Dubai for the weekend. He realized he had 3 days off, which is rare and we really have been wanting to get away. He was at work until 2:30 am on Thur, so I booked the tickets, found a hotel, packed up all of our things and organized a cat sitter in only a few hours!
It was great. we spent a fortune, but it was great to finally see Dubai and to get away for a few days. Dubai is basically little America. Big clean roads, tons of fancy cars and malls the size of cities on every block!
Folo was amazing actually - he hates shopping, but somehow we spent a total of 23 hours in the malls!! My feet are still hurting. Folo’s shopping trip was quite successful. He came away with 10 new shirts, 1 sweater and 2 pairs of shoes. They had all of the same European brands he is used to for much cheaper, so he was happy.
I focused my attention on food mostly. We ate Chili’s everyday (at least chips and salsa if we were too full for more), I shopped at western grocery stores stocking up on all my favorites. And I bought a few things.
Dubai is expensive compared to India, but I would say still cheaper than the US except in property rates.
We did a few touristy things, but not much considering we had a short amount of time. We will go back though sometime. We need to try to plan it in advance next time so we can at least get cheaper flights. We have a few photos that I will post in the coming days. Now I am busy with 3 volunteers who arrived last night and looking forward to seeing the Dali Lama on Wednesday.

back to busy again

Well, so much for updating so often! I got back into being busy busy with work and of course the first thing that goes is the blog!
Lots going on, both with work and socially! I’ve gotten out of my funk and have been going out a bit again. A few weekends ago was the yearly kite festival. It isn’t celebrated *as much* in Mumbai as in Northern India, but it was still fun. We headed to Shivaji Park first to check out the action, but there were too many cricket games going on to fully enjoy the kite flying. Folo got into it for a while and had a local showing him the ropes. He was running all over the field, right through cricket games! Then we got a call that the action was at Chowpatti beach, so we jumped into the cars and headed further into town. It was packed there and again absolute chaos! We all had our cameras out snapping away until the sunset. And since we were in town, we decided to go to the nearby Salt Water Grill for dinner. Its such a nice place, but we are so lazy we never feel like going to town for it. But folo was happy - he got steak, mashed potatoes AND Guinness!
And this past weekend we had our first real Bombay Expat get together. It was poorly planned - someone else had taken the lead, but then dropped off at the end, so we settled on a local bar. Considering the last minuteness of it all, we still had about 60+ expats come out. I wasn’t feeling well so I didn’t get to make the rounds as I would have liked, but just gives us an excuse to do it again soon!
On the work front, I was in Gujarat again all last week. It wasn’t a fun trip, but was successful work wise so that is good. And it was cold! well, cold to me. It was nice in the day time, about 80 degrees, but as soon as the sun started to set it got chilly!!! I think at night it was in the 40’s - and thats cold when you only have open toed shoes and a light sweater.
I didn’t do much besides work and come back to the hotel to sleep. My schedule got very messed up because two of the 3 days I had to be up at 4 a.m. And perhaps that was part of the reason I arrived home to Mumbai with 102 fever
The fever broke and then the stomach cramps began. My doctor says it is due to my incessant ibuprofen usage. So i have been banned from ibuprofen and now have to take medicines to coat my stomach. we’ll see if it works. he also said to reduce my stress levels… hmm.. not sure about that one. But i have added a nice new juice to my daily diet - papaya, musk melon, and aloe vera. supposed to be great for irritable stomachs! Lets hope it works so I don’t have to take medicine forever.
thats all from here. happy birthday to all the january birthdays - owen, emma, mark, aunt lisa, eric paul and probably several more that I am forgetting at the moment.

honorable guest

Yesterday I was an “honorable guest” at the opening of GYAN Niketan, a new home for street children located in Navi Mumbai. I am still not quite sure why I was considered an honorable guest, but perhaps it was just a ruse to actually make me go to the opening!
It was fun, but a long day. One of my current volunteers and I got up early and headed out to Vikhroli around 7:15 a.m. so that we could ride with the rest of the organization. I have no clue about Navi Mumbai - i’ve driven through many times, but never stopped for anything. Of course the hospitable ways of the organization made sure that we had breakfast on our arrival (so nice since neither of us ate before leaving!). Then we boarded a rented “school” bus with a bunch of other people and headed out for another hour journey. It was nice driving out there, cold, but nice scenery.
One of the bishops of Mumbai was also there to bless the new home and hold mass. I also probably wouldn’t have gone had I known I’d have to sit through 1 hr of mass! But I was there and sitting in the front row, so not much I could do, but watch. It was actually interesting though. All of the brothers from the organization got up and sang songs way off key to obscenely loud music. Then came the blessing of the centre. To this point I hadn’t done much but just watch. Then i was called up to light a diya (lamp) for the new centre. Unexpected, but nice to be included. And I thought then that my work was done and I could just sit and enjoy the children.
nope… after all of the kids gave a “cultural performance” I was called up again — to be thanked for my support of the organization. So sweet. I was also presented with a Kashmiri shawl (which i could have used in the morning when it was freezing!). Again I get that feeling of “why am I being thanked”. I do appreciate the thoughtfulness, but I don’t do much for the organization other than supply it with foreign volunteers and of course my own attention to the children. But I guess in the scheme of things these are important, so it was nice to be recognized.
Following this we all sat down to lunch in the new centre. I was very concerned with the children outside who had been watching us most of the day. they looked like they were construction workers children or new arrivals to the area. I asked in my broken hindi if they wanted some food and they said yes, so I made sure they were all given plates of food (i’m sure someone else would have as well, since this is a home for street children, but i just wanted to make sure!)
And after spending several hours taking photos of each and every single person from the “village” we headed back on our school bus in the blazing heat. I slept the whole way back with one little boy poking and prodding me the entire time!
And so we left to a chorus of children calling out bye to us. All 80 of them each having to say it themselves! (so cute)
It just goes to show again that even the little things that are done can add up to mean a lot. So next time you see that person sleeping on the street just smile and know that that little effort could have meant a whole heap more to them than you even know.

Happy New Years!

I cannot believe it is 2007 already. When I got my passport 7 years ago, it seemed like 2010 was an eternity away - now I only have 3 years left before it expires! (I think this is how an expat measures time - by the expiration date on a passport and/or visa!)
We started off the new years with our closest Mumbai friends, Stacie and Mukesh. It was really nice and I am glad we decided to stay home. We were invited to dinner at this lady Rageshwaari’s home (She’s a famous singer I met the other day when I was out with the Sharanam girls), but thought it would be better to be home.
I have no idea what this year will bring, but probably much of the same - too much work! But we hope that this year will also bring more travel for Folo and I. A few places that we constantly speak of going to: Kenya, Japan, Vietnam, Dubai and Borneo. We’ll see! It feels like its been ages since we left India, so we are looking at flights already to find at least a weekend to get out of India. I’m dreaming of chips and salsa again - so we know it must be time! Last year we had planned to take at least a 3 day weekend every 3 months, but somehow that never materialized… we travelled quite a bit at the beginning of the year, but nothing since June. We will try again this year.
And I hope we are starting off the new year with our permanent maid - I hired a new one named Julie. She is set to start today. Crossing my fingers.
I hope that you all had a safe and happy New Years and that this year brings you the peace and happiness you wish for.