We made our first dinner in our new apartment last night. Bhindi (sautee onions and chilis, add ginger/garlic paste, salt, garam masala, and tumeric, cook for awhile, add tomatoes) and tomato chutney (sautee onions and chilis, add tomatoes, salt, pepper, sugar, and cook for awhile) with rice. The freshness of the vegetables, especially the chutney was delicious, and even though the bhindi was cooked, it wasn't cooked into mush like the okra at the canteen often is.

In the jeep in the way home, we heard a story about a patient who had been in the hospital for two weeks with an abdominal infection. The night before he was scheduled for surgery, he ran off, taking his IV drip and nose tube with him. He buried them along the road somewhere and ran off to his village, where he died the next day. The surgeon at JSS is the one I would go to if I needed to be operated on in Chattisgargh, but the thought of surgery must be scary for someone not used to technology.

We had weighed ourselves shortly before we moved to Ganiyari. I weighed just over 60kg (132 lbs) and Dolly weighed just over 50 kg (110 lbs). We weighed ourselves again yesterday, and I was down to 55kg (121 lbs) and Dolly was down to 47kg (104 lbs). The take home lesson is the all you can eat rice and potato curry diet (with occasional diarrhea) in an effective weight loss regimen. BTW, this puts both our BMIs right around 18.5, the cutoff for being underweight.

This morning while shuttling things between our place and the guest house, Dolly heard a guitar and cam running to find me. It was a school boy playing guitar, and his father is an evangelical Christian and as part of their thing they have a rock band. Next door is a drum set, and he says they have bass guitar and amps. So I may have a chance to play some plugged in electric guitar, or at least find a place to buy new strings. And a chance to bang on some drums. (There is also a tabla teacher across the street where I will soon be taking lessons, and Dolly will learn singing).

Before we left Ganiyari on Saturday morning, Sharta, the girl who has a crush on me came by our room to say goodbye. This was the first time she had come to where we were staying. She was talking about how nice American weddings look in the movies, so we showed her some pictures from the weddings we've been to. She started out surprised by the tightness of our friend Germain's wedding dress, and the picture of John way up under her dress to get the garter. We then showed her pictures of my sisters wedding, where many of the pics were me giving Dolly a kiss or holding her close. Sharta flinched visibly each time she saw one of those. (This may have been more due to her crush than to cultural standards) She also asked if (said that) that Dolly wore short dresses, even though by American standards they were entirely appropriate. Her last comment was "I guess you live a different kind of life".

Yesterday there was some confusion as to where the key to the computer room was, so Dolly and I went and hung out in the lab, where we know most of the people (and its air conditioned). Surrinder was showing us the instrument that tests for blood sugar, and someone came over from surgery with a bag with a giant translucent bubble the size of my fist. We looked in the records (India is not as strict as the US in terms of medical privacy) and found that it was an ovarian cyst. Ewww. It was probably still warm.

I had forgot how strong and foul the smell of the city was. We noticed it as we were walking towards the bus stop. In the JSS campus the sanitation is good, and in the village of Ganiyari the population density is low. In the city, the density is high and the sanitation quality is "open sewers" so you are assaulted by new stenches at every turn.

We do have our new apartment, sparsely but thoughtfully furnished by the Doctors and Jacob. Our first night back was spent in the guest house, however, as we did not have a way of hanging our mosquito net. There is a hot water heater in the guest house, so we were also able to take a warm shower, which was nice.

It is also Dolly's birthday today (call her! 9406433262). We went out for chicken (Tandoori and Curry), and I made her a breakfast of French toast (one of the few American foods we have the ingredients to make). Last week we bought cloth for a new outfit, and had it tailored last week. Though the tradition is to wear it on your birthday, she wore it on Saturday instead, as that was our last workday living in Ganiyari, and the German med students were also wearing their new Indian-style outfits.

The med students and Jaya, a village health trainee from Assam were both leaving, and Jaya brought henna, a paste that stains the skin and acts like a temporary tatoo. She was decorating people's hands, and the German girls had some done. One of the henna artists entheusiatsically started on a swastika on one of their hands, not knowing the significance. The German girl, not knowing the Indian meaning (a religious symbol that pre-dates the Nazis by thousands of years) stared in horror, and Dolly did her best to explain to both sides the other culture. She has side of the story on her blog.

Today is our last day on campus. We will spend the night and then move to our new apartment tomorrow. Dolly is very sad about this, as she is a very social person, and has made many friends. I am more ambivalent, as I am looking forward to the comforts of having our own palce, and I have a language barrier with almost all of the people here. That said, we will now have to find a way to spend our evenings, and hopefully find a new circle of friends.

Last night we had a mini jam session with me on guitar and Anil on harmonium. It was kind of messy, as I don't have a good handle on Indian music, and he doesn't have a good handle on western music. The songs to me sounded like random noodling, and to add to the difficulty he very much preferred the black keys, which meant that I had to figure out what key(s) that meant I should be playing in. He didn't know any chord names or which notes were which so I couldn't ask/tell him what to play. We got it sounding good for a while when I did show him C and G and had him playing those. Unfortunately, I don't know when the next one will be, as my guitar will be going back to Bilaspur and we won't be spending our evenings here.

In the past month, I have eaten a simple, mostly vegetarian diet. I have eaten meat once, and eggs about every other day. I have not touched alcohol or taken a hot shower. I have had tea almost daily, but usually only one small cup. I have not watched TV or listened to radio, though I have listened to mp3s. On many days I get up early to do yoga.

What has been the result of all this clean, healthy living? I have lost about 10 pounds, had diarrhea 3 times, and have generally felt hungry and weak. I do not recommend it. I think the main culprit has been the lack of meat and calories. Even a mountain of white rice can only provide your body with so much. Would things have been different if there was sausage or bacon for breakfast every day, and an occasional chicken roast or lamb curry? Possibly... the other things I have not missed so much, but there is apprehension at every meal - will the food be tasty enough that I can eat enough to fill myself up?

The yoga has felt beneficial, and I think I will continue, on those days that I wake up in time. The style of yoga is very gentle and I appreciate the stretching it provides for my back and the rest of my body.

One of the major differences between the socio-economic structures of the US and India is the ratio of the costs of materials and labor. Compared to America, Indian labor is ridiculously cheap, and materials are relatively expensive... steel and glass and other materials are moved fairly easily, levelling out their prices all over the world. People are not as mobile, especially internationally, and so the labor rates vary wildly.

This is apparent in many ways, most recently the other night as I looked at a plate made from leaves held together by little slivers of wood. In the US, the costs of the labor involved would make it much more expensive than paper plates. Here, it is a simple, economical solution. Another is example is street cleaning. They do not use big, hundred thousand dollar machines. They pay old women to sweep them with brooms, probably less than a dollar a day. Imagine how insane it is to spend you whole day literally sweeping the street of dirt and dust.

Overall, it affects the balance of what kinds of things are economically feasible. Working class families can afford a housecleaner and/or a cook, but must rely on a bicycle for transportation. Markups in restaurants are much less, as the labor in the dining room and kitchen is such a small percentage of the cost.

It also effects construction approaches. Heavy machinery is again put aside in favor of manual labor. Need 2 tons of bricks moved up to the 4th floor? Hire a few women to carry them on their heads.

Much of the staff here at JSS, who are performing skilled labor, whether lab work or computer work, get paid around 3000rps/month, or about $60 a month. Thats a long shift at US minimum wage, and some of you make that in an hour. Here, it is enough to live adequately, though not luxouriously or even "comfortably". It is still much more than manual laborers, and is also a reliable paycheck. There is no risk of going hungry, which is a comfort not afforded to a large percentage of the population.

In contrast, our apartment in a high-rise (5 floors), in a nice neighborhood rents for that same $60/month, and we will be getting paid a few times the amount of the local workers. It is a struggle to balance the feelings of worrying how to get by for a month on what used to be a days' pay and the sense of guilt at getting paid so much more than the people we work next to.

We went into Bilaspur yesterday to see our new apartment, pick up a SIM card, and eat some chicken. The apartment is identical to the guest house, and though there's no furniture yet, its pretty nice. We should be able to make a home out of it.

Unfortunately, with respect to the chicken, we were not able to get any, as it was a festival holiday. We knew that it was a local thing where wives fast for their husbands and single women fast inhopes of landing a husband, but we did not know that it was also Ganesh's birthday, and the first festival of festival season. Long story short... on this festival day, no chicken.

We had gone to the restaurant with two German medical students visting for a month. Both are women and very light skinned, and one is almost 6 feet tall and blonde. I thought I attracted attention, but it is nothing like the attention these girls get. Men stopped and stared, or catcalled, and there were flatbed trucks full of young men who all stared and waved. They took it pretty well though, and pointed out that it was all just staring and no one said anything to them or did anything, and they had gotten used to it.


When we got back, we heard the sounds of tablas and singing while we were eating dinner. We were going to go out to find it when our friend Surrinder told us he knew where it was comign from and took us there. The sounds were from a temple where they were singing song-stories from scriptures. I had planned on just sitting by the edge and watching, but that proved to be impossible, as my white skin made me a celebrity. They took us on a tour of the temple, and the various shrines, and there was a very cool and ancient tree growing in the center, with long vines coming down from the branches, which would themselves take root and from new trunks. It was then explained to us that Ganesh was invoked when new things were started, and this (being Ganesh's day) was a day to start new things. I will take it as an auspicious sign that this was the day we saw our new place.

We stayed for awhile until food was served... I don't think they would have let us leave if we had wanted to. Part of these festivals are apparently free food. We sat on long mats, and plates made of leaves were place in front of us. They were made of 4 or 5 leaves, held together with pieces of toothpicks, and must have been assembled by hand. The food was rice and a chickpea curry with a side of fresh salad/salsa. The freshness of the salad (onions, tomatoes, chilis, and corriander) was especially refreshing, as fresh veggies have been very much missing from our diet. After the dinner we, left along with many other people... apparently many people show up just for the food.

I have a new girlfriend now. I had noticed her staring at me at the canteen during meals. I would look over at the other table and she would be looking over at me. One evening I was reading a book by the a light near the clinic and she shyly came over and asked my name (in English) and where I was from. I asked her the same questions, and then she ran off.

She's not really my girlfriend... just an admirer. She told Dolly that she is so interested in finding out about America, and in (Hindi) movies, Americans are always such bad guys, but I seem so nice (and have such nice eyes). We heard through the gossip circle that one evening last week I came to dinner and she made her friends change seats so I would have to sit next to her.

Also, for the single ladies out there, if you are looking to marry a young Hindustani man involved in the medical profession and working for social equality, we have a couple of eligible bachelors you may want to check out... get in touch for details.

Its also beginning to cool down here. Days have been in the mid 80s and nights have been as low as 72, and we have started getting up in the night to turn off the fan. This is a bit of a nuisance, due to the mosquito net around the bed, but I'm no longer damp from sweat every moment of the day, and I don't have to force myself to gulp down water by the liter.