With the arrival of the Transformation Team yesterday, and our jumping around to various locations in the city, I realized how many people I’ve come to know in my two months here and how strong those relationships have become. We’ve met people like Divium who is already back in Hong Kong and a really nice guy named Morali who came from India but lives in Mike’s home city of Atlanta. Another example revealed itself last night. The team wanted to go out for drinks after dinner but the cover charge was $36.00 US at this nice club “Ahalaa“. I’m friends with a few of the Taj hotel duty managers, so I called my friend and setup free entry for the entire team.
Relationships have been a valuable experience on my India journey and something I didn’t expect.
I experienced Double Vision yesterday in the morning when Mike and I were eating breakfast and I said good morning to “Sweety”, the Taj Deccan hostess who has greeted us every morning for over a month. She said “good morning Mr. Delmar”, and smiled as she seated us. As I looked closer, I noticed her name tag said “Meneca”. I asked her why her name tag had changed and she explained that she is actually Sweety’s twin sister and they often switch shifts. They had been laughing the night before about Mike and I confusing them. This morning, I made the same mistake again, and asked Meneca if her sister was ill. Meneca told me that Sweety has taken a job as an Airline stewardess and we won’t see her again at the Taj.
We didn’t know Sweety very well but she was a familiar face that provided comfort every morning and helped with the longing for home and familiarity.
Last night reminded me that Sunday is my 2 month marker and my 1/2 way milestone. I truly hope the experiences I’ve had here and the friends I’ve made won’t be lost to me. I know my the strongest relationships came as the biggest surprise. I didn’t know who Mike and Gulshan were before coming to Hyderabad India but they have been like brothers for two months and I know we’ll always keep in touch after our 4 month journey.
-Jason
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( 2.9 / 11 )I’m over here laughing at my condition. Please laugh with me :)
In a small way and because there isn’t much I can do about it and in large part because I’ve been taught to persevere, I am working through these recurring health issues. I’m the kind of guy who always tried for the no-sick day award in school and usually got it. Since having kids, I still maintain that attitude personally however, I acknowledge our culture in the US has changed significantly. I keep my kids home when their sick to ensure we don’t pass the sickness around school and end up with it again ourselves. The only sick days I typically take are when my family is very ill.
If you’ve followed my blog, you probably know that I’ve had Montezuma's revenge 2x in the last 2.5 weeks. It’s also known as Delhi Belly over here. What you don’t know is that I finished my medication for the 2nd round on Thursday and felt great Friday & Saturday and then pow, another virus was waiting in line.
On Sunday while on our roadtrip, I started to feel really sore in my muscles and throat. Today, things escalated and while I worked through it until we left work at 9:45pm I was hurting pretty bad.
By the time we reached the Taj Deccan, I was having cold flashes and continued to be sore. I called the doctor again (he knows me by name and room number now) and he made another house call. I have a 99.4 fever so he perscribed some antibiotics and gave me some good advice.
Thus the title of my quick blog entry tonight, "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger ".
I’ll be sleeping in tomorrow unless the medication helps me make a miraculous recovery. If you don’t see another entry from me until next weekend, I wanted to apologize in advance. I will be working but likely won't have the energy to update.
More Trivia: Medication I’ve taken in the last 3 weeks
Delhi Belly x2
Sporlac
No-Metrogyl
Zofer 4
Cyclopam
Immodium
Whatever I have now
Ceftum
Chymoral Forte
Combiflam
And I take a daily pill to prevent Malaria.
I feel like a walking chemical plant :) but I'm hanging in there!
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( 3 / 13 )After 55 days in India (8 weekends), Mike and I have been running out of new places to see in the Hyderabad area. Sunday we decided to head out of the city and see a large Dam which holds the main water reservoir for Hyderabad as well as a Waterfall and possibly take a boat ride.
It was an interesting and painful day as we drove 3.5 hours out of Hyderabad and found the Dam closed! We also arrived to late to take a boat ride. I should also mention that for over a month now, my previous driver "Lakeeq" has not been my driver. We decided a full time car was needed so we could have weekend trips and mid-day lunch and errand runs which Lakeeq just isn’t available for. Our current driver “Khayum” is a maniac on the road. His horn sounds every 3-4 seconds and he gets up to 100 KPH on the back roads. While Mike and I never feel unsafe with him, it’s a very jerky ride and I found my body pretty sore when the trip was over.
We did get to see a less urban side of India Sunday. Our only other destination was a beautiful waterfall. With it, we found a little park and many families having picnics. It was worth the trip just to get out and I want to share with you some pictures of the many pictures I took.
Kids Celebrating Ganesh
Road Hogs #1
Road Hogs #2
At the Park
Monkey looking for a Free Meal (These little guys are all over)
The Waterfall #1
The Waterfall #2
Hope you enjoy these pics. By the way, that little monkey almost put a whoppin on Mike! He showed his teeth and lunged. It was pretty funny seeing a 250 pound man jump back from a 3 pound monkey.
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( 3.2 / 12 )Mike and I didn't venture out of the city today as it was expected to rain fairly hard. We decided to visit the Charminar again. It ended up being a wonderful day with partly cloudy skies and a warm sun.
I took some video for a change and put it together in an Indian music video format. It's actually not that little "just under 600m", but you might enjoy it.
Right Click to Download - Left Click to Stream
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( 3.2 / 12 )At last, we’ve finally reached another weekend and I’m not feeling sick, yeah!
Mike and I are heading out for more sight seeing and photo opportunities. I wanted to start the weekend off by sharing with you something that gave me a great chuckle at breakfast this morning. If you‘ve been following Mike Mckennon‘s blog as well as mine, or if you‘ve recently been to India you‘ll be able to relate to this.
;)
Incase I've made the image to small to read, the punch line is,
Question: What happened to your castle?
Answer: It was torn down to make way for a Shopping Mall!
That's actualy a big problem over here right now. In the paper about a week ago, I read how the economy can't keep up with the desire by internationals to invest. Many real estate ventures are on par with US pricing due to fierce competition and it's only getting worse.
The issue at hand is that the growing prices (Cost of living or cost to use these facilities) is unreasonable given the economy. Almost as fast as these Malls are going up, they are deserted and being converted to appartments or office parks.
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Well, have a good morning everyone! Hopefully I've given you a good chuckle. I'll post some pictures this evening.
-Jason
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