India 2007

Hello friends! We arrived safely and have had the most incredible few days. Our first day in India was intense and wonderful. It always takes a bit to find your travelling legs, the confidence that comes from knowing how to navigate in a completely foreign environment. It was fascinating to watch that transition happen with the kids in the span of a day. The morning was a bit overwhelming for them I think. After a heart-stopping ride into town, we checked into a budget guest house. Relatively clean, but not exactly what they're used to at home. Particularly the bathroom... Then we went wandering for a couple of hours. Everyone stopped and stared at us - which made Arden a little uncomfortable. (There were a couple of families with cameras who actually asked if we would pose with them for a picture - then they fought over which of them would stand directly beside us...). For the first while, Arden kept her eyes on the ground directly in front of her (not a bad thing as there are huge holes you can fall through as you walk along the concrete slabs that cover the drainage ditch...). We walked around in a daze, all of our senses fully engaged by the onslaught of new smells, sights, sounds. Deisel fumes, urine, horns, incense, drummers. Cows eating from the trash heaps.
Vendors gracefully slicing the top off green 'tender' coconuts with a machete. (They then insert a straw so their customers can drain the milk). Whole families on mopeds - two small kids in front, then dad, with mom at the back, sari trailing behind.

Everything is compressed into the smallest of spaces here. Shop after shop, each the size of our bedroom closet: butchers, barbers, dry goods, used auto parts, paper products, used tires, textiles, sweets -- all sold by vendors sitting in five by five foot stalls. Temples crammed in between, with richly coloured dried flowers and other offerings for sale out front. All manner of rickshaw, bicycle, motorcycle, bus crammed in to use every available space as they drive (no such thing as lanes here). It seems so chaotic, but you watch for a while and you begin to detect the rhythm; order in the seeming madness.

We were so taken with what we were seeing as we wandered that we managed to get totally lost. When we hired an autorickshaw to take us back, we were amazed at how far we'd gone - had to have been at least 10 km.

By the afternoon, the kids had this travelling thing down. Arden forgot about the staring and started cooing over all the little kids. Grady wanted to try every street vendor offering there was. And we were all crossing the street like locals (this is a major thing - you would not beleive the way that traffic is negotiated by peds in Bangalore. It's a fine art - I think the object of the game is to see how close you can come to the moving vehicles without a) running, b) flinching, c) getting hit. Quite remarkable. I wish we had a video camera).

Later that afternoon, we took a bus that dropped us at six different sites (two temples, a garden, a museum, a palace and the requisite government crafts emporium for a little shopping). It was scheduled to go till 7:00, and we figured we needed something to keep us awake (Bangalore is about 12 hours ahead of Calgary and we were trying to stay up - not easy given that we'd had a 20 hour plane ride and had slept only three or four hours of that...). We were all exhausted, but it was well worth it. (I'd go into details, but this is already way too long...). Anyway, the bus dropped us off at an insanely busy traffic circle and we figured it would be no problem to get an autoric back to the hotel;they were everywhere during the day. Turns out they're difficult to get at night - you see them everywhere, but they're all occupied. We were all hungry and tired and it took almost 30 minutes to track one down. Despite that, the kids never once complained or got grumpy. I was SO fricken proud of them! They knew there was nothing to be done, so they just sucked it up. Troopers, both of them. My heart swells :-)

Near the end of the day, I pointed to a spot we'd been to earlier and said "That's where they dropped us off the day we first came here." Chris said, "You mean this morning?" Oh... RIGHT! It felt like we'd lived twelve days in one. We fell into bed exhausted and smiling.

We're at the project now and I can't wait to tell you all about it - it's an incredible place. But that will have to wait until tomorrow.