Taj Mahal—My Eye!

Something got in my eye soon after our arrival back in Delhi, and I don't like it. Our friends here accommodated me by obtaining some eye drops to lubricate the problem, but that didn't seem to be easing the pain or leading to a solution. So, Wendy led me through some further steps! Her investigations did not find the speck in the upper outside quadrant of my left eye, and the redness continued to disgust the viewers, while the pain continued to dismay me. Finally, we found a clinic open with a doctor in attendance—yay! Nope, he was reluctant to even touch my eye let alone look in it! He did proffer a prescription for Ciproflaxin antibiotic eye drops. These, he assured me, would destroy the infection troubling my eye and its observers! Clearly, I was left to my own devices. Following the advice of a friend who had informed me that Q-tips were not to be used in ears, I obtained a Q-tip, and used it on the inside of my upper eyelid—man, was that uncomfortable! Then, I began dosing it with the Cipro, on the hour as recommended by the good doctor. Today, I have continued the treatments every second hour (I'm good at following some of my doctor's recommendations!), and it both looks and feels better this evening.However, I may have to get it looked into (If I can find someone who will actually look into it!) when I get back to Canada! 

And, as to that other little point—we visited the Taj Mahal, and the Agra Fort today. The Taj Mahal was duly spectacular, but I was actually more impressed with the fort. We found ourselves at a loss to get a picture that would do justice to the Fort, but here's one Wendy took of the Taj Mahal. 

Taj Mahal

Delhi-Closing the Week

QTUB Minar

We flew down to Delhi on Thursday, and plan to spend the remainder of the India trip based here. On Friday, we did a number of tours to sights around the city. The QUTB Minar (the tallest brick minaret in the world at 74 metres) and the ruins left from the Islamic period were very impressive. On the other time extreme, we toured the Lotus Temple which is of very recent vintage. It was also very impressive, and both places of worship remain in use. Then, we traveled to the India Gate, which is a remembrance of the war dead from the World War I time, and closed off with a viewing of the nearby Parliament Buildings. On Saturday, we endured a small tour of an unknown part of the city while our drivers tried to find the location of the India Social Institute. With the help of street vendors, they finally dropped us off close to our destination, and we walked the remainder. Once there we had a prolonged meeting with a group of Ray's friends from Manipur who are located here in Delhi. It was a good time! Throughout the last couple of days, I've been troubled with something in my left eye. None of the rest of the group wants to dig around in my eye, and Wendy seems able to find anything in there. It keeps irritating the eyeball, so I'm wandering around with a red eye that also alarms those unfortunate enough to see it! We hope to find a place of first aid that can get it cleaned out for me—soon!

Lotus Temple

Things seem to be progressing just fine on the home front; we were able to FaceTime with two of the children, but could only see the third! It kept saying it was 'connecting', but we didn't get to talk. We are looking forward to getting back there next week. The markets have continued to wobble their way forward, and I had a decent week, but remain short of quota and with only one day left in the trading month. My pick, Edmonton, takes on Ottawa in the Grey Cup tomorrow. We'll see if they can finish it off for me! 

And that's about it for another week. 

Chandigarh

We flew over to Delhi, and caught a flight up to Chandigarh on Monday. It was hard to know if we were still in India—the traffic lights were working, the drivers were (mostly) staying in their lanes, and the beeping was much diminished! Chandigarh was a planned city built by a team in response to the partition of India after it gained independence and Pakistan opted out. As a result, the traffic system is (I was going to say, "much more") organized, and getting around feels very efficient. There are traffic circles for most intersections on the arterial routes, and there are signs to explain where we are, and where we are going—what a concept! We are mostly on the wind down aspect of the trip, and we enjoyed several touristy destinations around town. We also got to meet many more of Ray's old friends and contacts from years gone by. We enjoyed the Rose Garden—even though it was not in season, there were lots of blossoms. We marvelled at the Rock Garden—one person's dream for turning trash and waste into an artifice. Some of us enjoyed the museums, but we only got started on checking out what was available there. Others spent much time and money shopping! It was a good time. Today, we flew down to Delhi once again. We will spend our last few India-days based here.

Another week in the books—Bagdogra

Bill in the Posies!

I scheduled Saturday as a day of rest and recovery for me. I have been fighting a head cold lately, and it finally appears to be breaking loose. So, after breakfast it was Tylenol Cold & Flu, and back to bed for me. The rest of the team has also been experiencing similar effects of being used up! Some are already on the mend, but most of us are less than 100%. Ray is much better; he's been gaining strength and energy toward this weekend. Next week, we begin to head west with a trip to Delhi. We shall see what adventures await us. 

It has been a good week in the markets although Friday had a bit of a downturn; still, I was able to gain more than double my weekly quota, so that provides some catch up. We don't hear so much about sports from home. CFL playoffs continue with the conference finals this weekend, and the Grey Cup match up will then be set. 

Internet provision here has been strange in that it drops off every so often, and then we have to get a new password. We have little slips of paper all over with expired passwords; it's hard to imagine who thought this was a good idea! When we do have connection the bandwidth is not great, however, we were able to get some FaceTime with Erica this evening, and that was a start at least!

And that's about it for this week! 

Bagdogra Part 2

Thursday and Friday were spent at Morningstar, another fledgling school focused on teaching English here in West Bengal. Here in the Darjeeling tea plantations, and near the border with Nepal, the Nepalese connections are strong. Upon our arrival, we were feted with scarves, garlands and bouquets—one after another after another! It was overwhelming. I believe I collected ten scarves, six or seven garlands—mostly of marigolds, and many bouquets. This is, apparently, their tradition for welcoming people! We felt very welcomed! This was accompanied by songs and dances under the hot sun until the shiny parts of my head were beginning to feel uncomfortable! On Thursday, we worked primarily with the children, and I also did some preparatory investigations on the teachers to focus my workshop which took place on Friday. Both sessions went well, and we hope will be of lasting benefit as this school plans to continue adding classes each year. It currently has three pre-school levels, and the first four classes of basic school. They have obtained registration from the district inspector of schools; this seems to be based on adequate facilities and adequate curricular match—progress! 

This completes are scheduled work with schools for this visit to India. We feel quite satisfied with our attempts in all localities except Chennai. We have continued to track the situation there, and it has not improved! The continuing rains led them to release water from a local reservoir, which in turn, caused further flooding, evacuations, power outages... We can only imagine the ravages of exposure and disease that still remain for them. The rains have not stopped yet, so who knows when clean up and recovery may begin! 

Bagdogra Part 1

We have enjoyed working with the first of our schools in this area. We were able to revise the schedule to get in two days of activities with the children, and still have occasion for a teachers' workshop. Both efforts went very well. The school enjoys high enrolment in the Nursery, Lower Kindergarten and Upper Kindergarten classes which bode well for the future. They are currently offering schooling through Class IV, and plan to continue expanding with one class per year until they reach Class X. Considerable development of labs and the like would be needed to complete a high school program, but it does remain a distant dream for the staff. They plan to add to the facility each year as they expand grade offerings, so their ambitions are high and commendable. The structures and program they have already is impressive. I know we are an encouragement to them, and I hope we have also provided some further tools to help them progress. 

Yesterday, we also paid a visit to Lenin Colony, a lepers colony near here. We met some of the families and entertained about twenty-five children. The children are all clear of leprosy, but we did note the ravages of the disease on some of the grownups. It was a humbling and gratifying experience to spend time with them. Tomorrow we move onto the second school in the area. 

Chennai in the Rear View Mirror

It has been a difficult and discouraging visit to Chennai, and we feel a certain sense of relief to see it behind us. When Ray fell ill, that was enough to put our program into turmoil, but it was considerably exacerbated by the rains. Thunderstorms continued to dump water on our heads, on the streets, into the parking lot of the hotel, into the hotel, into our rooms, into the elevator shaft—do you get the picture? Due to Ray's illness, he could not take the pulpit on Sunday morning, so that task fell to me. I was not expecting to face 800 to 1000 smiling faces! Fortunately, they remained smiling, and Emmanuel must have done a good job with the Tamil side since the message was well received! When we got back to the hotel, the parking lot was filling again, and by supper time it was coming in the front doors. We were hearing reports of flight cancellations, and the vehicle people were doing lots of hand-wringing about how long it might take to get to the airport in the morning, and jacking up the prices! To make a long story short, we have arrived in Bagdogra, India. It's a suburb of a bigger centre called Siliguri, and you may be able to find that one more easily. The longer version—it's been a long, tough day. We were up at 4:45 to attempt a run to the airport through the flooded streets of Chennai. The hotel was back to taking on water after another night of thunderstorms, so we had to wade into the water to get to the vehicle. The vehicle price had more than tripled, but we were stranded, and they knew it! We made the trip successfully, and were promptly informed that our flight was delayed, so we had an extended stay and they wouldn't even let us check-in until 8:30. After that things got better. The flight was about 1 hour late, but we had the same plane from Chennai to Kolkata to Bagdogra, so at least we didn't have to worry about connections. Once here, we have made connections with the school, and met with Naresh over the program at his school for tomorrow and Wednesday! It feels very good to see the prospects of a good program coming together. We feel very badly about how little of our program worked out in Chennai, and even though it's in the past now, we feel like there remains unfinished business there—another time, I hope! 

Saturday in Chennai

Saturday in Chennai went much better with drier weather. However, Ray has fallen ill as the head cold he has been battling, has gained control and extended into his chest. We have called the hotel doctor to check on him this afternoon. So, plans had to be cancelled, postponed and revised—same ol', same ol'! He has asked me to have some messages ready for tomorrow, so I'm busy with that this afternoon. We went for a tour this morning, sans Ray. We visited St. Thomas's Mount, which includes a shrine for St. Thomas. I climbed to the top in honour of my own brother Thomas since he's laid up with a partial knee replacement! After that we toured Little Mount which includes Thomas's hideout cave, and the spot where he was finally killed—just as well you weren't here for that, brother! We got in a brief stop at the Marina Beach, so we could wet our feet in the Bay of Bengal. Carter got a little bit more than his feet wet! I have been testing out my constitution with solid food today, and so far, so good! We have another day here in Chennai; Monday is travel day, and we're set to fly to Siliguri in northern India. We have two schools to work in there, and the teachers in one have already asked for a teachers' workshop as well, so I'm prepping for that. This week has been a bit disjointed as plans keep falling victim to changed circumstances, and that can get discouraging. 

We're continuing to suffer through troubled stock markets as strong data out of the US has made investors anticipate a rate increase there, and troubled economies in the rest of the world have prompted them to worry about growth overall. The double whammy condemned me to a losing week, and I've fallen off the pace I've been trying to maintain. In sports, the Riders closed off the regular season with a win in OT. Way to finish Riders! The CFL is into the playoffs this weekend, and I'm picking Edmonton to win it all.

We have had better internet connectivity here, and we've managed to FaceTime with our children. They're doing fine, and we're reassured. Eric/A have Liam home for the weekend, and Greg visiting, so the whole family is together. Kristian has been sick a couple of days, but he's better now.

And that's the end of another week in India. 

Flooding in Chennai

We flew into Chennai (Another renamed city, as it used to be Madras) on Thursday. It was great to be greeted with flowers, warm smiles and handshakes, in 30 degree comfort! Thursday evening we paid a visit to a local orphanage (more flowers, warm smiles, handshakes) and enjoyed supper with a family here—good friends of Ray, and now our friends as well. Ray has put together plans for our weekend here, and like other Indian plans, it is subject to change! We awaken several times through the night to the crash of thunder, and the splash of rain. We patter to breakfast through the splash of wet hallways. Our hotel is not only surrounded by flood waters, it's flowing in through the front doors about an inch above floor level. Sandbags and towels are used to improvise a dam; staff are working frantically in a losing battle to keep the floors safe and dry. Ray informs us that today's plans are cancelled and that for now we are stranded in the hotel. It's a low-key day which is just as well for me as I'm down with Delhi Belly, and cannot wander away from safe access to a washroom! Several visitors brave the water to visit us here. One group took several hours to drive about 10km to the hotel. Another group was in transit for half the day to get to see us. We are honoured by their efforts. The rain stopped in the afternoon of Friday, and we're hoping our other weekend plans may go forward. The team has gone out for pizza supper, while I remain in my room. I think that I'm improving! 

Oh Kolkata!

Oh Kolkata! "That which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet." The name has been changed, but the City of Joy stills smells as much, and is vibrant with life. We got here in time for Diwali, the festival of lights. The official start this year is November 11th, so that means the tenth was Diwali Eve, so fireworks started that evening, continued all night, and then accelerated in intensity on the evening of the 11th. Talk about Remembrance Day? We thought we were in a war zone. Regulations being what they are, we sometimes found ourselves in the midst of a shower of falling sparklers. After our first evening visit with long time friends, Swami and Violet, this was a tourist stop. On Wednesday, we paid a sombre and humbling visit to the site of Mother Theresa's work. Her tomb is there, and her small room has been maintained as a shrine. Then, we made a disturbingly easy pivot to the world of KFC, ice cream and shopping. After we were shopped out (It happens more quickly for some!), we rode the subway to a station within a few km of the hotel, and then the six of us packed into one small Ambassador Cab for a memorable ride the rest of the way. This morning, we packed up and headed to the airport for our flight to Chennai. We've arrived to a rain-soaked city, and the discovery that November is the rainiest month of the year in this part of India. 

Good Bye to Imphal

We have completed our tour as far as Imphal is concerned. We are now in Kolkata a city of 15-20 million at about 9m above sea level, and 30 degrees above zero! On Sunday, Ray had the pulpit and I had the day off! We enjoyed our time with the Langol congregation, and several young people came back to the hotel to hang out with some of our team. Then, on Monday we toured Joshua's school, Brighter Academy. It is serving about 1000 children in Nursery through Class XII. I had a chance to discuss some aspects of the program with Joshua. It was good to learn about his approach, and have a chance to offer suggestions. In the afternoon, I headed for bed in an attempt at heading off a cold, and the remainder did some sightseeing, and also managed another school visit. I am sorry to have missed the school visit as the reports made it sound quite exemplary. Joshua and I had discussed it, as it is operated by another family member, and he would like to move his school figuratively and literally in that direction. It is located a bit out of town, on a larger tract of land and seems to have many upgrades over his current situation. Tuesday was travel day, so we packed up and flew about one hour south west to Kolkata. I'm feeling better, so the extra rest may be paying off! 

End of the week in Imphal

Another week has ended for us in India. It has been another full week of activities, but also filled  with rewarding experiences. Today, we worked with students from a couple of schools who attended to us on their day off. We enjoyed participating with them, and even took advantage of the occasion to practice some Manipuri—the local language. One of our hosts supplied the lessons, and we made an attempt. Our efforts were to their great amusement, but some admitted to understanding what we were trying to say! Communication is not so easy. It is one of the lessons we are trying to pass on from our time here. Even when using an interpreter, one is subject to the failure of understanding that occurs with a troubling degree of frequency. Did the interpreter understand me? What did the interpreter actually say? One is left to rely on the good faith of the participants to grant you a favourable intention if not an accurate message. As usual we found the students attentive and respectful. The demonstrated great athletic ability during our games break, and we were all struck with their artistry in interpretation of a pencil crayon activity. This was a new aspect of expression for us. 

Back to the more mundane, the markets have been mixed, but at least up a bit this week. I have returned some good gains and am near quota once again for both this month, and the year-to-date. The Riders complete their season tomorrow, and we will cheer that they can go out on a high note. The Jays are in the offseason and player movement is being considered. The Royals at least paid off my call with a World Series victory. 

The internet here has been very poor, and we haven't managed to chat with our children. We have heard from them in other ways, and all seems to be going well. It is heartening to feel that they are well-able to take care of issues that develop in their families even without our being near at hand, but parents always wish to know anyway! 

And that's the kind of week it has been. 

Tampak

We flew into Imphal on Thursday, and immediately started fielding requests from schools and other groups for attention. It is a bit daunting, and certainly encourages us to make maximum effort! Today, we drove out to Tampak, a rural community south and east of Imphal. Our local expert confidently asserted that we could make the trip in about 45 minutes. It is only 70km! However, Ray was not so sure; he felt double that would be optimistic! We left at 8am, and 2 hours later we arrived at the small village school. The children had been informed that the Canadians were coming, and had assembled at the school sometime before 7am. As usual for here, they were waiting quietly and respectfully on their benches in the classroom. The room serves as the educational centre for about 40 children under  the guidance of six staff members. So, it's like a one-room school of my childhood, but containing about 30 additional children, and 5 extra teachers! We worked with the whole group for some time, and then sent the younger ones out for games and sports while we focused our attention on the older students. Later, we switched the groups. It all went well, and we were quite impressed with the children's attention and quick learning both in the classroom and on the playground. Tampak is in a small village area, and this little school is providing the only opportunity for these children to get an education, so we were delighted to provide whatever encouragement we could. Construction has begun on new classrooms, and plans are in place for more. It was a great experience for us; I hope the staff and children benefit as well. 

Bye, bye Guwahati!

On Sunday morning I was privileged to speak at Bread of Life Church. It was with a translator, and I found it hard to maintain the flow of the message. Sunday afternoon, we packed our bags for storage and for the trip to Kaziranga National Park and Wildlife Refuge. As soon as breakfast was over on Monday morning, we packed into the vehicle and headed toward Kaziranga. It is about 200 km, but the vagaries of travel in India turned that into a five-hour drive. It was four-lane for the first half, but still it was impossible to make good time. Thankfully, the driver knew of the lodge we had booked, as I failed to see any road signs pointing to it, and it was several back lane roads off the highway. The lodge appeared Olde English in style, and we estimated it had been built before the turn of the century, the 19th century! There was a great hall adorned with various animal and historical artifacts; that was enjoyable; we took our meals in that room. The rooms were of the era as well. Our room was on the ground floor, and we could see the ground between the floor boards. We were called at 5:30am for our game drive. We boarded elephants for the occasion; that was pretty special. The mahout sat on the neck with one barefoot on the top of each ear. Three of us rode behind him. We had a great time and managed to see several of the one-horned Assam rhinos. We also saw buffalo. After breakfast we stopped by a shop to view the goods produced on the handloom by an acquaintance of Ray's. I enjoyed watching the loom in action. After lunch we drove back to Guwahati. On Wednesday, we had our final set of classes with the schools in Guwahati. That seemed to go well, and there were many heart-tugging good-byes as we realized we would be leaving Guwahati the next morning. Now we're off to Imphal, where the prospects are for cooler weather as we gain elevation from 55m in Guwahati to 785m in Imphal.