Strangers in a strange land...

I have a few minutes to sit at a computer with a regular Internet service today so I am taking advantage. Apparently we should have Internet and satellite TV on Tuesday at the house so I won't be stealing someone else's connection when I need to get on. I am also looking forward to the service not just cutting out randomly when I am in the middle of working - oh happy day!

So we have moved into our place formally but it still needs some work. I haven't spent much time there since the cab didn't make it to the hotel to take us to the flat until 3:00 on the day of the move and the next day I spent at Nathan's co-worker's house where I could (at times) pick up a faint Internet signal. Cheri is the Business Development Manager and comes from Northern Idaho. She is a lot of fun and has been to Delhi before so she is a good resource. Today Nathan needed to come into the office in Gurgaon, a suburb or Delhi, so I am hanging out here for a bit and then we are going to a couple of malls around here to do some shopping. Not being a shopper, I am surprised at how excited I am to go. It will be nice to spend some time with Nathan and to be in a somewhat familiar environment.

The other night when we moved in, our downstairs neighbor, Anita (a name I can both pronounce and remember!), gave me the phone number for the local grocer who delivers. She told me to just call him and tell him what I want. This is all fine and good except that I have no idea what they have here. Cheetos? Haagen Dazs? Non-contaminated produce? I just don't know. I wish I still had commissary privileges! As much as I hate to admit it, I think we might be getting a cook. The fact of the matter is that I just don't know how to cook here. Everything is so unfamiliar and there is an unwritten rule that there is one price for locals and another for us pale faces. Beside, I think it might cost us about $30 a month to employ a cook. A price I am willing to pay. Anita also laughed at me when I suggested that if we get a maid in to clean it would probably be one morning a week. She explained that she has her floor swept and mopped twice daily by Lakshmi, her maid servant (and I thought they only use that term in the Bible!). There is just a light film of dust that settles on everything and so she suggested that I have someone come in once a day to clean the floors and bathrooms at least. I guess I probably will. We are going to ask around at church tomorrow for recommendations and if there aren't any Anita said she would help me find someone. I'm becoming a real lady of leisure I guess.

I have a new set of heroes. They are the women who sit sidesaddle on the back of scooters behind the drivers on the motorway in saris. The few, the proud, the Indian commuter.

Nathan and I have had some interesting encounters. It seems that people understand his English better than mine and he has an amazing way of making people believe that he understands them when he is clueless. Let me put it this way, the English ain't great around here. For most people it is their second or third language, if they speak it at all. We have had to use a lot of pointing, acting, and describing around the word (thank you MTC!). Because of this, we are clinging to anyone we find who does speak good English. I read an article in the Hindu Times the other day that said that the country really needs to work to improve its language skills because, despite the theory that Chinese and Hindi were going to become viable languages in the world of business, they just aren't. I am glad, though, that they have kept their languages. It is important to retain a memory of one's roots and culture (hence the resurgence of Celtic languages in the British Isles). We have a ton of channels on our TV because there are so many different languages stemming from different tribes that were forced into becoming the country of India. There is even the taboo of marrying into different tribal families from different parts of the country among the more westernized people. This is dissipating, but it is something that I would never have considered before. They are not a homogeneous people but, like so many countries, were meshed together by colonization. The Raj is a touchy subject here. Nathan has a coworker who he has really come to like who is from the area. He told me his name but I don't remember it off the top of the head (as Nathan said the other night "I would kill for someone to just be named Bob!"). At the end of their first day working together, his coworker told Nathan, "You know that I hate the British, right?" It turns out that his Grandmother was killed by the British and his Grandfather was imprisoned for six years. I think that's a pretty good reason to have a distaste for a certain group of people. Nathan talked about it with him for awhile after which the coworker assured him that he was very forgiving - at least to Nathan.

By the way, we had our first blackout the other day. We were at the Big Bazaar (the wannabe Walmart) when the power was cut. No one reacted. They just kept going about their business as if nothing happened. Crazy stuff.

Well, this is really long and I am sure that I have lost some, if not all, of you. However, to give you a visual of the people of Delhi watch "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and check out the folks in the village. I am not exaggerating when I say that many a Delhi-ite would fit there perfectly. Just sprinkle in a lot of men wearing slacks and button-down shirts and a few women in western wear and there you go. Except they speak better English in the movie. And we have christened our flat Pankot Palace.