I left off pontificating yesterday, so I thought that I should change pace a little bit and write more about how I have been spending my time the past week or so. We have gotten into the habit of doing little day trips with Mausam on our Sunday’s, since that is the only day that the clinic is closed and we can go exploring. This past Sunday Mausam took Prabjit and I up to Tikrit (sp?), which is a temple on the top of this really high hill just at the outskirts of the city. There is a little cable-car ride up to the top, although we took Mausam’s bike because it is wayyy more fun. …and also I’m not entirely sure if I trust cable-cars in general, and more so in India. It was neat, because you could see almost the entire city from up at the top. We went up the stairs to this gorgeous temple (which I believe Prabjit said was to Hanuman, but what do I know about these things?). You weren’t allowed to take photos inside so I don’t have any photos, but it was a lot nicer than most of the other temples I have seen; the floors were all gleaming marble, and everything was completely immaculate. It had these really neat chandeliers made out of these glass orb-type things. I bet that had they been all lit up it would have been even more beautiful, because the orbs were each different coloured glass.
Mausam took us to the side of the hill that faced the sun so that we could watch it set. I have to admit that sunsets in India are a lot more intense than in Canada. Every night it seems like there is a spectacular sunset, even the ones that I just see here at the clinic. The sun is just so huge and deep orange. Also, they are a lot faster than Canadian sunsets, which suits me just fine, since I am too impatient to wait three hours for the stupid thing just to get under the horizon. Anyway, we ate ice cream and joked around and giggled at all of the romantic couples who had come to also watch the sunset. It was fun.
While we were up there watching the sunset, Mausam got very very serious all of a sudden and said he had to ask us something important. For a minute I was actually worried that he was going to ask us both to marry him. Luckily that was not the case. However, you remember how I talked about a different understanding about sentimentality here? The attitude is somewhat akin to being filtered through a cheesy, poorly translated Japanese greeting card. So keep that in mind when I say that Mausam officially requested that Prabjit and I become his friends. I was a little taken aback by it, since I of course had assumed that we were, in fact, already friends. But I guess Mausam was making some sort of distinction between the kind of friends that you see and hang out with once in a while, and the kind of friends that you pour your heart out to. I suppose I make that distinction as well, but usually I don’t offer the second kind to people so openly; I just decide after the third pint that sure, were good enough friends that I can tell them my deepest, darkest secrets. Anyway, after my initial shock, I decided that it was a really sweet gesture on his part. I of course gallantly accepted. Now when Dan proposes, I’ll be ready to look appropriately shocked without seeming silly, since I’ve gotten it all out of my system in this practice run!
After our special moment at the top of the hill, Mausam took us to his friend Monty’s house for dinner. Monty lives on the opposite side of the city from Qazi camp, actually much closer to Tikrit. His family’s house was very neat, since the living room was all open concept, and opened up onto this large deck. There was also a swing in the house, how cool is that? Anyway, Monty’s family was very nice, and we got to hang out with several of his little nieces and nephews and one of his sisters. We also got tomato soup, which I thought was absolutely delicious. There isn’t enough soup here I don’t think. Anyway, we also had really great chicken for dinner, but I, once again, was the source of great embarrassment by not being able to finish all of the food that was served to me. This happens pretty much no matter whose house we are at for dinner. I have tried to cheat the India stuff-you-till-you-vomit system by only taking excessively tiny portions, but watchful hosts, like Monty, always catch me in the act and put ten times as much food on my plate, which I, of course, then can not finish. Anyway, I have decided that I like being twenty pounds thinner, and I’m not stretching out my stomach to its previous girth for any reason if I can help it, so I’m not eating what I can’t finish… I just hope that it isn’t too rude…
When we got back to the clinic we realized that Derek had still not returned from a walk to New Market that he had left on at about noon. Since it was now 9:30pm, we were a little alarmed that we hadn’t heard anything from him. I went to inform Sathyu that we were starting to become concerned, to which Sathyu immediately replied “why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?”. I grit my teeth and explained that we had only just returned ourselves. Anyway, Sathyu was about to leave for town for a meeting for two days, and he instructed us to contact the US Embassy if Derek wasn’t back by about midnight. In the meantime, we started calling every number we could think of to see if perhaps he had run into a friend on his way back; Rachna called shortly afterwards and said that she was calling the police; Biju and Vikas both went to New Market on their bikes to see if they could track him down: in short, we panicked. After Prabjit and I returned from rapping on Ankeeta’s door across the street and waking up the entire family to see if anyone had seen him, Derek came strolling down the street. It turned out that he had gone to Bharat Bhavan, the cultural centre, and had taken in a Hindi play. He had just forgotten to call. Anyway, we are all happy that Derek is safe and sound and back here at the clinic with us. Although his little disappearance reminds me of the time I went for a walk at Bill and Faye’s house, down by the beach, and everyone thought I had drowned.
We went out for dinner at the infamous Jehan Numa Palace on Thursday of last week. We had decided that we were going to take Derek out for his triumphant return to Bhopal after his terrible experience in Delhi. It also happened to be the same night that the new group of students came from Delhi, and previously the dinners for the large group had consisted mostly of rice, so we were eager to avoid dinner at the clinic. Anyway, Jehan Numa is certainly outrageously priced, or at least it is far more expensive than any other place in India that I have seen so far. That said, for four people to eat, I believe it cost about $47.00 CND (about Rs. 1800). I was upset because I had wanted a glass of wine if we were going to eat there, but my head was so stuffed up that I knew I would regret it if I did, so I didn’t get my wine. The food was good, but not out-of-this-world, and I think that if I was to go back (which I am sure that we will at some point), I would order off of the Thai menu or the Italian menu instead of the Indian now. In fact, I’m not sure why I didn’t this time around. After dinner we took a little stroll around the hotel grounds, which are really beautiful; everything is immaculately neat, fresh painted, decorated etc. I’m looking forward to mom and dad staying there when they come to visit. Maybe it’ll be warm enough that I can go swimming in the pool…
I won’t go into the details of the work I have been doing, since they aren’t that interesting. Suffice to say I have been looking up the causes of white vaginal discharge. Although I did have a good meeting with Masurat and Aziza late last week, and they showed me some of the teaching aids that they currently use, and explained what other ones they thought they needed. If anyone has any brilliant ideas of how I could make a life-sized torso that opens up and has the female reproductive organ in there, please do let me know. Oh yes, and you have to be able to take the organs out of the body and open them up and look inside of them, too. My best idea so far has been papier-mâché, so, as you can see, I am in need of some inspiration.
I’ve spent the past hour re-arranging the furniture in the volunteer’s room with Prabjit. I quite like the new setup, since now Prabjit and I are facing each other and can spend all of our time making faces at one another. Joking aside, I do think that the set up is far superior to the previous one. We also rearranged the furniture in our bedroom yesterday, and Prabjit finally unpacked the last of her suitcase. I joked that she had finally decided that she was going to stay.
Mausam came by after his coaching lessons (or as we call them, tutoring) last night. We sat in the empty canteen and got eaten alive by mosquitoes and chatted about various things. Mausam is interested in going to the US, either to finish university or afterwards, so I got one of the world maps from upstairs and showed him where Prabjit and I lived. I think that for anyone from pretty much anywhere else in the world it is impossible to grasp just how huge North America is. Just looking at how tiny India is by comparison really kind of shocked me. But I did promise Mausam that if he was ever to go and live in California (that’s where he wants to go) I would certainly come and visit him. I think that that is about all the news that is fit to print for now… so adios.
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