Dolly and I went out to dinner one more time with Jonathan on the last night we would both be in town.  We went to a vegetarian restaurant named Swad that we had heard good things about.  We had not yet visited it because usually when we go out for dinner, we are going for chicken, so do not often visit strictly vegetarian establishments.  However, we had eaten out 2 or 3 time in the past week, so we weren't as protein crazy.

The food started out good, the fries (called "finger chips") and spring rolls were enjoyable, and then after awhile the entrees came.

I have many allergies/food intolerences, among them a dairy allergy.  My dish came out with a sprinkling of cheese on top, which is a common garnish.  This has happened before, and I should know by now to ask that they not put it on.  I scraped the cheese off, and noticed that there were cheese chunks throughout the sauce.

These chunks were too small and numerous to remove, so I ordered another dish, tawa vegetables.  A tawa is a flat frying pan, so basically I was ordering stir fry vegetables.  I asked specifically and multiple times for "no cheese, no paneer", and Dolly added "no cream".  It is not enough to ask for no dairy products, as that is not a food grouping that is known here.  I'm sure sure if you asked specifically about each product, people would know that it came from a cow, but you can't generalize under that description.

When my vegetables came out, there was the sprinkling of cheese on top.  And on closer inspection, there was paneer in the dish.  I called the waiter over, explained the difference in what I had asked for and what I had received, and he took the dish away.  A few minutes later, the dish came back out, clearly the same food with the paneer chunks removed and some, but not all, of the cheese scraped from the top.

I pointed this out to him, and showed him that there were still cheese shavings, which he claimed were gobi (cauliflower) pieces.  After I showed him it was clearly cheese, he told me it was not cheese, it was "decoration" (made of cheese).  I started saying that I had ordered something clearly and specifically, and he had not brought it.  In India, there isn't the concept of "sending a dish back," so I wanted to make it clear that I was not accepting this dish, as it was not what I ordered.  I guess I was getting loud and/or angry, so Dolly took over.  Eventually a manager came over and had the kitchen make something I could eat... by this time is was past 10 oclock, so I was very hungry.

Also, I saw a mouse running under some of the booths, but didn't mention it because Dolly would have freaked out. I don't think we'll be eating there again.

In the course of trying to get my visa situation straightened out, we learned that there is another American in Bilaspur, a white girl who married an Indian man, who is a pastor at a local Protestant church with the suspiciously Catholic name of St. Augustines.

I tracked down the couple, and last night we went to dinner with them.  The husband, Joseph, had been in Bilaspur for about 5 years, and the wife, Bryana, had been here for three months.  They asked us what type of food we were in the food for, and we settled on Chinese, and they knew a place.

The sign out front said "China Bowl: Chinese and Italian Food" and when we went in it felt suprisingly like we could have been in an American strip mall.  Except there was also pizza and pasta on the menu.  The staff was Chinese, and the menu was in English, so I started ordering in English and then realized I wasn't sure what language I should be speaking.  So I spoke my English-for-Indians and pointed.

The food ranged from bland to good, and it was also interesting to see how another American was coping with the local culture.  She seems to be mostly staying at home, as a housewife.  She speaks almost no Hindi, and said she doesn't go to the market by herself.

It was nice to hang out with some other people around our own age who spoke English.

We currently have a visitor from the US at JSS, Dr. Jonathan Fine, a resident of Cambridge, MA.  Jonathan is associated with the Boston chapter of AID (Association for India's Development) and is in the last week of a month-long stay.  Jonathan is 78 and retired, and has spent much of his life in human rights activism in places such as Iraq and the Philippines, among others.

Jonathan is very talkative, and asks questions machine-gun style, one right after another.  You only get time to answer a small percentage of them, as before the answer to one question has started to come, another question knocks that answer out of the way.  He is also very large-hearted, and has been very taken with JSS.  This stay was supposed to be 2 weeks, and he extended it, and he plans on coming back in the summer.

His task is to interview the most oppressed and unfortunate stories to shed light on the relationship of poverty and disease.  His first "case" is a boy who fell into the fire during an epileptic fit, requiring surgery to treat his burns.  This is not an uncommon story.  Jonathan has interviewed the family, finding that they can not afford enough food, they have borrowed heavily against their small plot of land, and they do not even have enough blankets to stay warm at night.  So Jonathan gave them the money to claim their land, buy blankets and buy dal.  His form of philanthropism (or at least, one of his forms) is very immediate.  (For a much more detailed version of this story, visit his newly formed blog at povertyandhealth.blogspot.com)

Last night Dolly and I decided to go out for dinner and we invited Jonathan.  Upon arriving at the restaurant, he invited the auto driver in to join us.  The driver was clearly embarrassed, and after much coaxing agreed to come in for something to eat, but he would not sit with us, and he ordered one of the least expensive things on the menu (a half order of chicken Briyani), which we told the waiters to make a full order.  The waiters, in the comically bungling manner we have come to expect, brought him a half order of mutton Briyani.  The driver ate this quickly and retreated to the comfort of his vehicle.  The other half of the order (this time chicken) was brought to our table near the close of the meal... we had this packed and gave it to the driver.

On the way back, Jonathan, energized by the food, kicked into question mode.  I learned some things I had been wondering about.  The driver owned the auto, and had paid 40,000 rps (about $850) for it.  He was saving to buy a new one, which would cost 110,000 rps (about $2300).  He had 50,000 rupees saved, and loans from the money lender were paid back with 10% monthly interest (as best we could understand).  His savings would take a hit as he is getting married this month.  His bride-to-be is a waitress/counter girl selling tea and samosa, and he is not taking dowry.  He is 35, and used to be an electrician, and he lost his lower leg when he got hit by a truck 3 years ago (oh yeah, he's missing a lower leg, and came into the restaurant on crutches.) .  He has a prosthesis from the government, but it is unusable.

By the end of the ride home, Jonathan had offered to find out more about getting him a proper prosthetic leg, and Dolly had ended up offering to help plan his wedding, which was a difficulty for him as he only had one woman at home to help.

It's been very nice having Jonathan here, not just for the comfort of having a fellow American and Bostonian around to relate to, but also because his energy is inspirational.  Dolly and I have fallen into a kind of crankiness and weariness and to see him jump in with a fresh enthusiasm has been refreshing.

Last week they were building a door on the small enclosure that had been the chowkidar's (watchman's) quarters, where he lived with his wife (our cook) and their daughter.  Its a small area, maybe 8x15, concrete on all sides, with a bench on one side.  This one room was their bedroom, living room, and kitchen.  They had no bathroom, only a tap on the outside of the building. 

The chowkidar was an alcoholic and abandoned his family at the end of November.  His wife continued on performing his duties for the month of December, when she gave up hope on his return and moved in with her family.

Dolly and I always thought it was outrageous that they didn't have a door, and we asked a few times why they didn't have one an how they could get one.  The space now has a door, and new occupants.  It is a man and his wife living there, and we haven't had a chance to find out more about them.

The other night we were driving home from Ganiyari on the busy main road when a motorcycle going the opposite way and carrying three people wiped out.  The passengers skidded along the road with the cycle, starting their slide at their driving speed of around 30 mph, traveling unprotected in the middle of the road as friction brought them to a halt.  Our driver luckily had time to swerve to avoid running them over, and fortunately none of them were seriously injured.

In this first month of the year we have already seen a number of wrecks on the road.  On New Year's day we saw the smashed remains of two big trucks which had hit head on.  These trucks are not as big as 18-wheelers, but are built like dump trucks, made for hauling cargo.  Based on what was left of the passenger compartments it would have been a miracle if there were no fatalities.

A week or two later an SUV T-boned a passenger van.  The first evening we saw the vehicles on the side of the road, and the debris from the accident marked the intersection for many days.  JSS was involved with those injured in this incident, and in this case there were several fatalities.

I have been told that India has the highest number of deaths per 1000 vehicles. No one wears seat belts.  The roads here are crowded and often in poor condition.  Major routes are often barely two lanes wide, like a rural county road in the US, and these roads are shared by massive trucks, 3 wheel taxis, bicycles and even ox-carts.   When two trucks pass there is room for no one else.  Truck drivers don't appear to be particularly regulated, and the drivers may be drunk/sleep-deprived/who-knows-what.  These rural highways seem to be more dangerous than the city, where it is more crowded, but people are more aware and driving slower.

It is in the back of our minds that we could be victims of a traffic accident.  JSS has good drivers to pilot the vehicles, and we are in sizeable SUV's, so we have reason to hope we make it out OK!

A few weeks ago a friend from the lab organized a day trip to a temple site called Amarkantuk. His friend picked me up early in the morning and we headed on our way, stopping by the JSS clinic to pick up the rest of the people, 11 of us jammed into a van. Shortly after this we stopped for tea.

On the way we made a roadside stop for firewood which we gathered in the woods, and after another 80km, we stopped again for tea.

We wound through the forests for a total of three or four hours and then as we approached a gate, we turned off down a dirt road. I thought we were going around some toll, but we were headed to a lunch spot at an "ashram" (basically a hut in the woods by a stream) where they cooked a lunch of mixed veggie curry, dal, and rice, served as always on leaf plates. Also, they made tea. A short distance from the where we ate was the edge of a cliff at the center of a horseshoe-shaped valley, which gave us nice views.

After lunch, which probably took 2 hours in total, we went to a waterfall, about 120 feet high where there was a path to the bottom and you could walk under and behind it. Most of the men bathed (their daily bath). I went in, not to clean myself, but because it was a chance to get under a waterfall. It was cold water on an already chilly day, but it was an invigorating dip.

By this point it was late in the afternoon, and we visited a few temples. The men are all religious, to varying degrees, and so they acted devout and respectful. Temples are to India as churches are to Europe, and after awhile, you've seen enough of them, and in Amankartuk there are dozens of temples of different sizes. The scenery was very nice, as many of the temples were along the edge of the cliff.

The ride home was long and windy and most of us slept.

Here are some videos posted by Pampi who came to visit at the end of November: