Un raveling the mess my arrival has made at home!

So, as usual when I am preparing to leave for a trip, I tear everything out of every drawer trying to pack exactly what I need. I never have time to clean it up before I go so I always have to return home to a tornado!  I'm still taking all the pills I got in India for my eyes swollen ankles and cold.
It's 6:30 AM here in Glen Ellen, Illinois, and I can't believe it's still not light out.

I don't know what time I went to sleep; my body still can't figure out when it's time to go to sleep and when it's time to stay awake.  I woke up at 3:30 this morning and went through the 3000 pictures I took in India and Nspal.  I loaded them onto Picasa and edited them there with their groovy editing features – not realizing it would take me probably 20 hours to upload them to Google pics, which is what they are doing now.

I got some good ones!  Before I left for my trip my fifth-graders asked me if people still live without electricity and lights. My photos will be testimony to the fact that they still do.  Just the way so many people have to build a house out of corrugated materials, pieces of fabric, pieces of metal, and anything else they can find will shock my students.

I'm going to develop a unit on India and Nepal, to teach my children when I get back. Luckily, I was able to find lots of children's books on Rajasthan, other places in India, and Nepal.  I brought back a big suitcase that I bought from  Ranu's mother who sells them on the street in Varanasi.  It's filled with my new cotton duvet cover from India, and 1 million other things the children will love, like instruments, souvenirs, purses, clothing, Wall hangings, etc.  i'm going to let my students cut the band the airport put on the zippers and discover what's inside of it in class.

I think I told you that on my last flight from deli to Chicago, my counsel with movies wasn't working and what I had to listen to all stinking night was screaming babies! Especially the twins two seats ahead of me who didn't shut up the whole trip!  Even my sleeping pills couldn't get me through that.
I tried to get compensation for the fact that my counsel wasn't working, from air India at the desk, but they just sent me to the online site – so I know nothing will ever come of it. They were pretty trashy airline, I'll have to say.  The 2:20 AM flight ended up leaving at 3:30, so I spent a lot of hours in the air India lounge trying to sleep and being bored.

There was one woman sleeping in the airport with her three children – they had blankets over their heads, and so when the airplane boarded they didn't hear the announcement. The man behind them walked around them and three times tried to wake them with his voice, but he would not touch them, which is part of the Indian culture I'm sure. So I woke up to mom but gently touching her shoulder and telling her that your plane was boarding. I know it was invasion, but I had to do it. She did not thank me. The two-year-old baby across for me who was shaved bald and had black eyeliner on (which is common for Indian babies because they believe it's medicinal for the eyes),  was bored out of her mind and her boredom finally turned to hitting the sleeping 85-year-old woman next to her.  The babies mom, intern spanked her lightly twice and told her "No!"  The child, in turn, started spanking the mother everywhere – including her face for the next three minutes!  The mom had rings around her eyes like the rest of us, but handled it appropriately by ignoring it and gently telling her not to do it, instead of spanking her back and turning into a hitting war!

I feel like I've been on the merry-go-round for the last two weeks; everything went not as planned due to the intense fog everywhere and the constant delays. But Jacque, Mary, Jack, Shubha,  Sharma,  and all the others we picked up and/or met with through the duration laughed our way through India and Nepal.  Despite all of the unexpected twists and turns, there was no internal conflict with our group.

I know now that I have left, everyone's going to take a deep sigh and relax, and stay somewhere for more than a day or two.  With all of them being retired, there was no interest on their part in teaching.

My photos from Picasa to google are only 5% loaded and they have been loading for over an hour!

Last time I traveled (to Cuba) Dubai barked at me when I got home. But this time she jumped all over me,  giving me lots of kisses. I missed her so much – more with every stray, sickly animal we saw along the way. I could hardly wait to return to my healthy, bouncy, tailwagging baby! And we only saw one healthy cat alarm the way, too, so it was great to hear my healthy cats purring and rubbing up against me!

 The man who spent most of the time with you by while I was gone, trained her to do lots of new behaviors that she's supposed to hAve been doing all along. He said she was very smart; she responded very well to him. I think I am out of space, so I'm going to close for now. It's 7 AM and it's still not light out here in Chicago land!

Dying of boredom at the airport

Now it's 1220; I only have an hour and 40 minutes to go

I wish I could post these pictures of the Himalayan's,  but I need a computer to run the pictures into. We didn't see Mount Everest because it's in a small town outside of Kathmandu I guess or somewhere that we weren't. But some guy at the airport did tell us that you can get in the plane and fly around it so I'll do that next time.  There was a huge tracking group at the airport and one lady from Connecticut sat next to me on the way to Kathmandu. She show me the pictures of tracking and anyone can do it; it's only a bunch of stairs; it's not mountain climbing.
Jenni, you should do it.

I haven't gotten any texts from the family lately, and I don't think I have any comments on here so for all I know I'm talking to myself.

By the way, Carolyn, you should look into past life regression therapy. That's what Shubha does.  I'll tell you all about it when I get home

So Jacque, Mary, and Jack are headed to Chennai and I and Kerala, which are in southern India. I bet the first thing they do is unpack their suitcase and stay somewhere for two days.

Did I tell you I went to an aryovetic Director? (I know I spelled that wrong but I'm too tired to look it up.). Like the first time I was in India, this time I got swollen ankles again.  Instead of pounding out my prescription and a mower and pesto, this guy gave me two sets of pills that I had to take with hot water. My ankles are no longer swollen.

Interesting things about India:

You can't get Diet Coke and less you are really, really lucky. This created a great hardship for me. LOL

Like last time I was in India, this time I also bought a duvet cover-only it's not suck this time – it's Cotton.

Indians say yes by tilting her head left and right.

They are the masters of shoving each other in line, pushing to get to the front. When I was at the train station change my ticket for the third time I had to tell some data get off my back, because he was literally on top of me.

Compared to Chicago, Nepal was so worn; I brought boots which I never ended up wearing, because I lived in my sandals and socks.  I know you love that, Audrey!

In Nepal at airport is there a line in the lemon and limes for the man. Because hardly anyone in travel, if you're a woman you get to go bring up to the front.

When I got to Kathmandu this morning they told me that I missed my flight. But I showed them the email where Orbitz told me that it was changed from 10 AM to 3:30 PM. They said I would be charged a fee for missing my flight. I said I wasn't paying a fee.  They got two bosses; I didn't pay a fee. And the guy who helped me the most chased me down at the gate an hour or so later just asked me to please send that email I got from Orbitz to his boss.

There's an upscale shop here which has massages for $42. I thought about getting one, but decided against it because they were doing construction outside those Massage Pl., #2: I might fall asleep and waste the experience, and number three: now I am might miss my plane. So I'm going to sign off for now because I think I'm out of space I'm here i'll see you tomorrow morning! 

Last leg: Delhi – heading home.

It's December 29 and I'm sitting in the airport at 7:40 PM in Delhi waiting for my 2:20 AM flight.
Luckily, it is a direct flight straight to Chicago – only 15 hours; a real miracle!  The couple who is watching Dubai, my dog, is picking me up from the airport sometime around 7 AM on the 30th.  I think I gained a day coming home.

Nepal was a real hippie throwback area, especially in Pokhara, where we could see snowcapped mountains, which was Jack's dream!  We had to wait in that airport for about three hours because Kathmandu airport was closed down due to intense fog.  The worst fog was in Delhi, where in the morning you could barely see cross the street.  So fog? Where does fog come from? It depends completely upon who you ask in Delhi!  My Seik taxi driver told me it was because for Diwali , The lights and candles holiday of candles, there were so many fireworks blown into the air from August through November and the rains didn't come and wash away all the cloud in the air.  My German landlady at the B&B said that was pure poppycock! She attributed the overwhelming fog to all the buses and trucks and cars that drive through the city headed every where else in India. Our driver Sharma, said the fog was because every family has three cars and the roads as you probably know are jammed to the hilt with cars, trucks, buses…

And any rate, and we got into Kathmandu and said goodbye to Rabin, Who responded to our generous gift with quotes and it would be better if you could give me more."  There was a lot of drama around our visit to Nepal and none of my teaching gigs materialized except for to be able to go to teach the orphans in Varanasi and teach Rabin's class at his house for 10 children. Both were amazingly and meaningful and heart-warming.

Every day from the minute we got to India until we left  Nepal we were on the run! I don't know if I told you, but the train ride from Agra (Home of the Taj Mahal) to Varanasi was canceled and rebooked three times.  The four of us ended up waiting on the elevated train platform from 11 o'clock to 5 AM, when I rickety old train came and whisked  us away. Because of the fog, trains were running 15 hours late. Our "13 hour" train ride turned out to be 20 hours. We got very close and that little train car, The four of us.  We think we didn't tip the conductor enough because he didn't bring his blankets and we all froze the first night. But the China man came in the morning and Samosa man came in the morning and we wear rejuvenated and warmed from the inside.

Cards
Cards made us a lot of good friends. When the train that was supposed to leave at eight didn't leave until 11 (supposedly) our driver Sharma took us back to his house (after he and his wife posted us for dinner) and we ended up sitting crosslegged playing cards on their bed for two hours!  When I left his wife gave me two containers of Hannah so I could have someone do some more Henna on my arm or leg or wherever when I get home.

Then, on the train, we met a boy of 16 years who was just curious about American so he came and played cards with us too.  We never could agree on the rules for rummy, so all of our in new Indian friends taught us different games.

Everyone plays cards everywhere here. Foreigners, nationals, everybody. As a matter of fact, I bought my parents some cards and after I did and told Rabin that I had purchased them for my parents, he said to me "do you know those are Karma Sutra cards?"  LOL. It reminded me of the time that my mom accidentally brought us necklace is back from Ireland with phallic symbols on them. She thought they were just nice to locate like designs! LOL

So my internets going to die soon I think because in this airport I can only get one free hour and I think I only have a few minutes left.

Basically, on this trip, everything went wrong the possibly could but it still kept us laughing! Even as Jackie Mary and I said huddled against a beam on a cement platform for five hours, threading cross necklaces for the orphans, we laughed and laughed.  Jack? He pays the train station for six hours!  We watched humanity.  People hacking up and spitting – which is very common here because of all the fog, men and women taking leaks on the train tracks, scurvy-ish dogs wandering around – always with one bad leg,  that last thing was very sad and broke all of our hearts because they were so sick and flea ridden that we couldn't even touch them.  And all we had to feed them with potato chips, which they didn't want.  One for a little guy came over and sat next to me for a long time and scratched himself bloody.  OK, time to change the subject.

So I thought of Carolyn a whole lot of times when I was on this trip.  I wish you could've been with us.  But as it was the four of us had nine bags between us and had to rent to taxis everywhere we went!  My big pink suitcase was especially cumbersome and everyone grunted and looked at me and rolled her eyes when they had to move it.

Tuesday, Dec. 27- Chitwan, Nepal

 This morning I went on an elephant ride and saw a rhino, peacocks, antelope and other things in the jungle with Rabin!   Then all four of us went on the jungle safari and saw a rhino really up close -  so close that we could see a 1 foot slice in his armor which was bleeding from a fight with another right now over territory.

 Now we are drinking Nepali rum and hot water around a bonfire at Sauraha,  or jungle pub.   In one hour we are going to the cultural festival down the rocky road.

 Yesterday I taught Rabin's class of 10 grade 4 and through age 14 children.   We all sang jingle bells, which is the one song all Nepali  and Indian children know.  I had them tell me about their strengths and weaknesses in school. I also had them write a penpal letter to my students back home.

 Tomorrow morning at six Rabin  and I are going to the orphanage to teach those children at 6 AM.

 Then we leave at 7 am for a five hour bus ride to Pokhara,  which is in the snowcapped Himalayas.
 We only have a half day in that town, but it will be fun filled because we're going to another cultural festival.   Then the next morning we get up at nine to  take the five our bus ride back to Chitwan  and fly to Kathmandu  at nine a.m.   Then I take the 3:30 PM flight out of Kathmandu to Delhi.

 I can't post pictures until I get on a computer and no one seems to have a laptop around here.   I am doing this blog on my iPad right now  on my iPad,  and have most of my pictures on the camera – Thursday so I can't use a computer  to run my pictures into for this blog, and my Apple phone and iPad are not syncing.

 This bonfire is making the back of my iPad very hot.

 We have to hurry and finish a half a carafe of rum before we leave in 15 minutes,  so I have to run and go drink.  LOL

Love, Jacki

Days too packed to blog! Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 24:  Christmas Eve in Varanasi

Looking back to the first day in Delhi that I shared with Shubha.....Sorry,  these photos just won't stay turned properly...

Shubha and I at Qutab temple in Delhi

At the Siek temple eating with 10,000 people.

The next shift waiting to shove inside for their turn.

Lotus Temple- Ba hai

Back at the soup kitchen at the Siek Temple for lunch

Volunteers making lunch for 10,000 at the Siek temple

Jacque, Mary, Jack and I take a rickshaw ride through Old Delhi

Traffic light says go and stop at the same time;  no one pays attention!

On the last night in Delhi Jacque's student's father's business partner sends his brother to our B & B to exchange our US$1,500 for 120,000 rupees at one in the morning.  Why?  Because Modi has made it impossible to change more than US$60 per day, and only after waiting in a cue for 1-4 hours!  

From left to right:  Mary, yours truly, Shubha,  our German landlady, Jack, Jacque and Sharma, who would then drive us through India for the next three days.

On the road to Jaipur, the "red city"

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This priest blessed me and dressed me in a sari

Going to a doctor for swollen ankles.

Arriving in Fatephur Sikri, where they put out the royal treatment for us.

Taj Mahal in Agra

Selfies with some fun ladies.

Our driver Sharma and his wife prepare dinner at their house for us.

It is 11 p.m. on Christmas eve and I am tired....I have not done this blog justice.  But I hope you enjoy the pictures.  They are off my phone;  most of the good ones are on my camera.  Until tomorrow...when we fly to Nepal after I volunteer teach some slum children here in Varanasi.

 Monday, December 19, 2016-

The biggest news of the day is that  yesterday Shubha,  my Indian friend from Puna took a 17 hour train ride to be with me.  I am so touched by this but I cannot tell you. I have never met her before, but we've been friends on Facebook for eight years. She is such a delight to be around!

 She booked us a two day tour of Delhi and , Since Jacque, Mary and Jack didn't arrive till mid afternoon yesterday, Shubha  and I got to spend the whole first day touring Delhi and getting to know each other.

 We started at the Qutab complex, accompanied by our guide Sumar.

 For lunch we went to a Siek temple (The  Hindus who wear turbans) and had lunch with about 2000 people sitting on the floor in the main temple.  Shubha,   Lead us back into the kitchen where they were making enormous pots full of food, that would feed the 10,000 free meals to Indians from all walks of life, based on Donations.   All the people who cut, sliced, diced, prepared and, served the meals were volunteers – many of them from upper eschalon families.   Shubha and I  Took many fabulous photos; unfortunately, I can't get my iPad to load them onto this blog.  You will have to wait for a slideshow when I get home!

After lunch, we lost our shoes and spent an hour trying to figure out where we had left them ( after lunch, we lost our shoes and spent an hour trying to figure out where we had left them.  Since you always have to take your shoes off before entering temples, there was a special room designated for tourists' shoes. They were only three pairs there, and they were ours,   During this time, in the rush to exit the temple with the herd of thousands of diners, we also lost our guide!, So wandered around the streets barefoot looking for him for a while!  In India, and this is really no big deal.

Once we got our act together, we went to see the Lotus temple, where 1000 busloads of students were waiting in line before us – even on a Sunday! They were all wearing tidy little uniforms and looked so cute.
 While we were out a couple blocks from the B&B looking for dinner, Shubha and I ran into Jacque, Mary and Jack at a food stand on the side of the street. 

Arrived in Delhi!

 I have arrived in Delhi, India!   I spent 25 hours traveling from O'Hare to Boston to Qatarr to Delhi.  Upon arriving to Delhi, I spent two hours in the visa line, and one hour waiting to exchange currency – only to find I could only exchange US $70.  Upon arriving to Delhi, I spent two hours in the visa line, and one hour waiting to exchange currency – only to find I could only exchange US $70.   The poor driver who waited for me had to wait three hours!

 When I got to the bed-and-breakfast I was very pleasantly surprised to find exactly what it look like on the travel advisor site.   I got into the bed-and-breakfast at 5:30 AM and I am too wound up to sleep. Luckily, at 5:45 AM the Muslim call to prayer drew me out onto the balcony.   I don't care how many times I hear it, it never gets old. It is always beautiful to my ears.

Shubha,  my friend from Facebook for eight years, is meeting me here at 9 AM to go on an all day tour of Delhi.   My friends Jack, Mary and Jacque,   Who have been up in the mountains for a week, or meeting us here today in the mid afternoon.   They are teachers too, but retired so they have more time.

 Delhi is very foggy right now.   I asked my Hindu driver why and he's explained that it was because after this year's celebration of Diwali, no rains have come to wash away , which went on for 45 days, starting in October.

The cook should be bringing me my tea momentarily, then bringing me met breakfast at 8.   The sun is coming up over the balcony and people are walking by, starting their rickshaw driving down the crazy, crazy streets of India!