10th and Lawrence Streets, N.E. Washington D.C. 20017
Sorry it's been so long since I've written but things have been rather
hectic. I thought about you in India, but finding an email connection was
so inconvenient, I couldn't find the time to write from there. My trip was
very interesting but pretty chaotic, not the most relaxed trip I've ever
experienced. Some of the chaotic highlights were getting bitten by a monkey
at breakfast one morning. It jumped on our table to eat sugar and suddenly
leapt across the table and bit my arm. The bite itself wasn't bad but
because the skin was broken and there is a danger of rabies from wild
animals-and the monkey ran off so who knows which one did it- I had to get
a series of rabies shots along the trip and when I returned home. The shots
took us to some incredible places such as the All India Medical Institute
in New Delhi, a huge medical complex like NIH, but oh, so different too. It
was incredibly hot (110 degrees at 8:00 am) with long lines of people. The
Indian system can be extremely bureaucratic but you can go to the front of
the line if you're foreign and/or pay a small bribe to the doorman. There
is not nearly as much privacy in administering medical care with 3 or 4
people and their families in a room to receive care. The halls around the
outside of the hospital buildings were dirt. The doctors were really nice
and of the three I saw in India, none would accept payment from me. Now
that's different. . .
Another "highlight" was being thrown off a train at night in a strange
city. My son and I boarded the wrong train in Allahabad. We had tickets for
an air-con sleeper to Delhi but the people at the train station assured us
that our sleeper was pulling out of the station as we arrived there
one-half hour early. On the train we were urged to get on and so we did but
when the conductor finally appeared after the train had built up speed and
left the station we discovered that it was in fact the wrong train.(One of
the people who urged us to get on felt bad about it and arranged for us to
use his bunk until we got to the drop off point-the conductor wouldn't
allow us to stay aboard.) So they left us at midnight at a big station a
couple hours down the line and we then had to find another train to Delhi.
Turns out that our train was running late by about 8 hours so after an hour
or two snoozing on the platform, we caught a non-air conditioned train to
Delhi. (We went to the stationmaster's office to see what he could do to
help and observed him at work. He got lots of phone calls-basically he was
a traffic director-and he had about 9 phones on his desk, each a separate
line-not exactly high tech.) My son asked for a refund on the original
tickets we bought but we would have had to go back to Allahabad to claim
our money and by the time we got back, it would have been too late! We had
to bluff our way onto the second train but we made it to Delhi the next
day.
The real big struggle was getting into the country in the first place. I
was deported for not obtaining my visa in advance and then had to get a
visa and re-enter. It was a real hassle and really was my own fault for
not doing enough research. I wound up in the Netherlands and it was a
really beautiful Springtime there. It was an interesting digression. Once I
arrived at last in Bombay, my son got really sick and I wound up staying at
his host families for an extra 5 days or so. They are really interesting
and lively people. Unfortunately for them, they were experiencing a water
availablity problem, so there was a lot of storing water in buckets and
sponge bathing, etc. Nonetheless, my visits with Braden's two host families
were super interesting and I learned a lot about the culture through them.
Communication was really easy as the educated Indian people speak English.
All in all the trip was really fascinating. I got a glimpse of Indian life
and can better appreciate the experience my son had over the last year. A
few days after Braden and I got home, my husband left for Oregon and his
new job as copy writer at Musicians Friend. He loves the job and is
currently looking for a place for the rest of the family to reside next
year when we move out there.
A couple weeks later our Brazilian student flew back home. And another
couple weeks and Willow returned from her 2 1/2 month trip to Thailand,
Indonesia and Japan. Meantime, Braden had the opportunity to participate in
the WV Scholars Program, a one month writing program at Spruce Knob. In
the ensuing days, we managed to get Willow enrolled at Arizona State
University and find her an apartment and two roommates via phone and had
some distant cousins come and visit for a week. Next week we all fly to
Phoenix to help Willow settle into her new life at ASU in Tempe.
So what's happening with everyone else? (I lost all of my class of '68
emails because I changed my records to a new computer.) Miren, it's been
fun hearing from you recently. And Connie Rumsey wrote a word or two
recently-how exciting to hear from another classmate! John, the reunion
party sounded super. How was your trip in July? Bobby, I hope your trip to
Europe (Germany, right?) was fun and relaxed. And Elsie, don't get too
busy. We need you to keep everyone in touch. I'm sorry to hear about your
father's death. How is your Mom doing? Pat Bosma, let's hear from you!
Later,
Rose