That's Interesting..

For your reading pleasure, we thought we'd put together a collection of interesting tidbits that we've found here, starting with the air quality.

I tried to find some data from WHO studies to quantify how bad the air pollution is here, but everything I found actually looked too bad to be believable (as in, close to 1000x the accepted level of suspended particulate matter as recommended by the WHO). So we'll just leave it at this: anything you leave outside will have a visible layer of fine, black soot over it within a couple of hours, and we live 4 stories up!

No buildings are built from wood. They're all concrete support members with brick walls. When they're done, they mortar over the brick and paint it. All floors, ceilings, and support members are reinforced concrete, and it's all (except for the BIG commercial buildings) done by hand, with basic hand tools. Also note in the picture on the left the hand-tied wood scaffold that they use.




Next on the list, our dining table.

All along, we've thought that our dining table was veneered plywood with some tacky designs on it, topped with epoxy to seal everything in place. Not so! After trying to move it the other day to let the kids ride their bikes around the apartment (yeah, you heard me right), we realized that it was about 200lbs too heavy to be plywood. Looking under it we discovered that it's a solid sheet of marble with fake-wood contact paper glued to the top and covered with epoxy.

It's illegal to artificially ripen fruit here. There was even a big raid a few weeks ago where they confiscated a warehouse full of fruit that had been artificially ripened.

The media isn't squeamish about showing graphic violence and gore. The paper routinely has pictures of bodies at crime scenes, and just today, video and pictures of the dead LTTE Chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, were all over the newspapers and TV. What you won't find on TV is any type of sexual content, including kissing. It's interesting how sharp a contrast that is to the American media.

Moustaches are considered quite sexy. We read a recent poll in the "variety" section of the newspaper that had readers answering that they much preferred moustaches on their leading men than six-pack abs.

I was told by co-workers that hair loss in men is a pretty big deal here. If you lose your hair before you have your marriage is arranged, you better have a lot of money to make up for it.

In India, you give others gifts on your birthday.

..and that's it for now, but there's so much more.

Update

It's been a couple of weeks since we posted an update, which begs the question - what have we been up to? Getting ready to go home, that's what. May 29 is getting awfully close, and we're definitely ready to hit the road.

Last week I had to go to Bangalore for work, so Luanne and the boys tagged along. It was a good week for us all - I got a lot accomplished at the office, and everyone else got a lot accomplished lounging around the hotel pool and generally getting a break from Chennai. Bangalore is much more western than Chennai, and the climate is much milder as well. Sadly, it was in the 90's all week and it felt downright cool out of the sun at times. Summer back in Michigan is going to feel quite cool, I'm afraid.

The trip to Bangalore was fun (with a few exceptions). I must admit, the train station at Chennai was a bit intimidating. It was wall-to-wall people with very little signage, and keeping track of four bags and two kids while we're bumping our way towards the tracks was quite an experience. Luckily, Prem was able to come with us and helped with the bags, directions, and translation. That guy's a lifesaver.

Also a first for me, I got pick-pocketed. Someone lifted my cell phone right off my belt and I didn't even feel it. Thankfully the ever-vigilant Luanne saw it happen, quickly told me, and while the guy was trying to slink away I grabbed it back from him. Keeping with the tenets of small unit tactics, we didn't pursue it it any further in favor of not over-extending our perimeter around the luggage and kids. Fun!

The train ride itself was nice, and took about five hours. It was an air-conditioned car that had power outlets and reclining seats. They fed us a surprisingly good meal, complete with appetizers, coffee, soup, main course, and desert. Not bad at $120 for four round trip tickets.

We did a little sight-seeing on Saturday before going back to the train station for our return trip. Not surprisingly, our driver wanted nothing more than to take us to any of the seemingly endless string of "handicraft" shops that pay him commissions for bringing in customers. We eventually couldn't take it any more (after asking for a shopping mall nearly 10 times) and had him drop us off at the train station about two hours early. On the upside, Micah got a nap. On the downside, once again, I had someone grab my shirt and camera bag (which was on me) when I told them we didn't have any money. I shoved him back and yelled, and fortunately there was a decent guy near us that hustled over when he heard the commotion. All in all it was a minor incident, but it would have been much worse if Micah woke up.

Prem was waiting for us at the Chennai station, and found our car before the train actually came to a stop. The boys were very excited to see him, and Noah held his hand the entire way to the car.

All in all, it was a pretty good trip.

A Day On The Town

We went to a town called Mahabalipuram this weekend. It's a World Heritage Site and was quite interesting. It would have been easier to enjoy if we had two less kids with us and it wasn't 105 degrees in the shade, but them's the breaks.

We all got a little sunburned, but nothing so bad that it was still around the next day. Luanne has done an awesome job of keeping the kids from getting burned so far, but today just kind of caught both of us by surprise. It was unbelievably hot, and unbelieveably humid, and there was very little shade to be had. Good fun.

It was also a typical "site" outting in that the parking lots were thick with vendors, not to mention everyone wants to be your guide, for a fee. Noah has gotten so used to it that he has even started engaging the vendors for us. He gets their attention, looks at what they have, asks "How much?" then says "We'll think about it". I get all choked up just thinking about it.

We bought the boys ice cream bars early in the day, and Micah of course made a royal mess out of it. It was so hot that we just "washed" his shirt in a public bathroom and put it right back on him. It was dry in 10 minutes, and he got a little relief from the heat as well.

Almost as impressive as the actual idea of just washing Micah's shirt was seeing Luanne refuse to pay the fee for getting into the bathrooms and just walking past the guy. My heart skipped a beat, and I fell in love all over again.

On the way out of the last monument we decided to video tape the trip from the gate to our car. This is a short piece of the clip that shows us trying to get back into the car. It's not Academy Award material, but I think you'll get the idea. Feel free to ignore my obnoxious narration.

What's Up?

We've been keeping a pretty low profile lately, and haven't taken any big or exciting trips. We've been re-visiting a few of our favorite places and bumming around the apartment with the kids trying to keep out of the oppressive heat (which is going to get worse over the next month). But that doesn't mean things haven't been just as interesting..

I did set out on a mission to find a very small phillips screwdriver last week, thinking it would be a 10 minute run to the hardware store and back. The little DVD player that we got for the kids had something break and I needed to get the offending part out of the player before it rattled around and shorted something out.

The problem is, there's not such thing as one-stop shopping here. There are 100 hardware 'stalls' within any given square mile, and all of them have different things. It really amounts to a bunch of little shops that fill up with whatever they can get their hands on, and then hope people come by and happen to need what they have. Of course, out of the 20 shops that we stopped at over a 2 hour drive, exactly none of them had what I needed. I did get a good tour of some different parts of the city, though, so it wasn't a total bust.

Last Saturday we went to Pondy Bazaar again. It was hot and crowded, but we enjoyed it as usual. There were lots of beggars this time. Much more than we usually see. It was sad to see filthy little kids in rags, not much older than Micah, tugging on your clothes and begging for money. The usual sight is a mother with an infant in her arms shoving an empty baby bottle in your face and making the "gimme money" sign, but the little ones operating autonomously was something new.

Things we won't miss:

• Backwards light switches. Up is off, down is on. I can't tell you how hard it is to get that through your head, especially when you're searching for a switch to turn a light or fan on.
• Feet washing. We must wash the kids' feet 10x a day. Certainly any time they get on a bed to take a nap, watch a movie, or play, or walk on something that's supposed to be clean. The pollution is so thick here that it actually settles out and creates a nice thick layer of soot on everything.
• Attention. I can't wait to be anonymous again. Being constantly stared at and the center of attention any time we step outside got old quick. Not only does everyone want to know where you're from, they want pictures of you, with the kids, without the kids, just the kids, them with the kids, and so on, and on, and on. Luanne even had someone take a snap shot with her at the mall bathroom this weekend while she was washing her hands.
• Tap water. It'll be nice to have clean water from the faucet again. No more double rinsing dishes, brushing your teeth with bottled water, changing out big ol' water jugs. Oh yeah, that'll be nice.

We're gearing up for our trip home, which is 5 short weeks away. I just arranged the tickets last weekend, and I could almost feel the business class seat reclining beneath me. The flight from Chennai leaves late at night, so with a little luck the kids will be out soon after take off and the adults can relax a little bit.

Auto Rickshaw Ride

Rather than walk the mile down the road with the boys to the supermarket, I decided to take an auto rickshaw. They are not know to be the safest means of transportation, but they are cheap and we didn't have far to go, so I decided to give it a try. Just another part of India to experience before we leave here.

The supermarket is on the main road that runs parallel to the one that we live on so I decided to cut through a narrow side street to get to it. I figured it would be much easier to tell a driver (since I don't speak any Tamil and he probably wouldn't speak any English) to just drive straight down the road to the supermarket than to have to tell him to go around the block. Noah was so excited, he kept trying to flag down every single rickshaw that went past us. We finally made it to the right spot, and almost immediately got the attention of a driver who was across the street. We also got the attention of everyone else on the road when he drove directly across 4 lanes to get to us.

Upon his arrival, I told him we wanted to go to Spencers supermarket. We repeated it back and forth a few times until I was confident that he understood what I wanted. Since rickshaw drivers are know to be slightly dishonest, especially with foreigners, I asked the price before getting in to the auto. The driver replied that it would be 80 rupees. I paused for a few minutes trying desperately to recall what the going rate was from my guide book, but to no avail. It seemed a little high, but I wasn't exactly sure how far down the street the supermarket was, so I decided to go for it.

The driver took off, but turned off the street at the first intersection he came too. This didn't make sense seeing as that I was repeating "straight ahead" over and over again. However, I obviously probably don't know the area as well as a rickshaw driver, so I decided to sit back and enjoy the ride. He probably knew of a nicer or closer one. As we were driving, I kept thinking where all of the grocery stores were and trying to decide which one we were going to, but we kept passing all of the turn-offs.

Meanwhile, I was also busy trying to keep Noah's feet and head inside of the vehicle and Micah from standing up. By the time I looked up again, I really didn't know where we were. I wasn't too worried though, since there is so much traffic, I figured if things got out of hand I would just jump out and find a different driver. A bit further along, things started to fall into place. I began to recognize some landmarks, and realized the driver was not just taking us to the nearest Spencers supermarket, but rather to Spencer Plaza, (which you may remember from one of our earlier posts) to the Spencers Supermarket in there. Quite a bit farther than I had planned.

Luckily for us, the driver was willing to wait outside, so we ran in, grabbed a few things and started the trek home. The driver started off, only to turn onto a side street an stop. I got a little nervous, until he excitedly yelled "Horsey, Horsey!" Turns out, he lives right by Spencer Plaza so he brought us to his house to show the boys his horse. We got back on the road, but only for a minute or two before he pulled into a gas station. I had read many comments about rickshaw drivers pulling stunts like this with foreigners. They go to fill up with gas, but then claim not to have enough money, forcing you to pay for the gas. I had my reply all worked out in my head, only to find I didn't need it, he didn't say a word about it.

Eventually I hope to get past my expectations of everyone here taking advantage of me! However, in my defense, every guidebook I have read is filled with warnings of Rickshaw drivers (not to mention everyone else) taking advantage of foreigners.

We arrived home, finally 2 hours after we started out for our "quick" run to the supermarket. It may have taken a bit longer than anticipated, but it was also much more of an adventure that expected!

Ideal Beach, Part II

Acutally it's part III, but who's counting? And just in case we haven't adaquately described Ideal Beach resort before, it's a resort on the Bay of Bengal that's become our little escape from India when we need some peace and quiet.

This time we went for a Friday through Sunday stay which was great. We even got a "upgradation" to a sea-view cottage which was fun. Unfortunately, after we got unpacked they called us and told us it was just for one night. Had we known that to begin with, we would have most likely declined since we're more interested in the beach and pool than the room. Oh well, that's India.

The kids had a blast.

They spent every waking hour in the water, and actually expended enough energy to where they fell asleep at a reasonable hour on Friday night. That hasn't happened in a couple months. On Saturday night, they both fell asleep at the table while we were eating dinner. That gave Luanne and me the chance to sit out on the patio and relax for a few hours, which was great.

Early Saturday morning I took a long walk on the beach. You just never know what's going to happen when you venture out of your little safe zone, so there's always a low-grade anxiety that goes with it. It's really pretty fascinating if you can rise above the clamor and take it all in. I've had a person who lives under a tarp on the sidewalk, literally in a pile of garbage, chase me down and give me back a 10 rupee bill that I dropped (that's 20 cents). On the other end, the people who own the apartment that we're renting for 5x the local going rate have tried to bilk an extra $200 a month out of us for laundry service. You just never know what people are going to do so your guard is constantly on overdrive.

Anyway, no one hit me up for any money this time, but I did stop and talk to a guy digging up sand crabs for a few minutes. He spoke pretty good English, and even invited me over to his house for coffee. I politely declined and thanked him, but in retrospect I should have just gone for it. I'm sure it would have been an experience.

Easter Sunday

First, let me say how great it was to be in church on Easter, reciting the Nicene Creed, and taking communion with a group of Christians 18,000 miles away from home. Refreshing, for sure.

The heat was incredible. The church is fan-cooled, and we maximized our comfort by sitting right next one. Unfortunately it was accidentally unplugged not 5 minutes into the service by a rambunctious kid (but not ours). Luanne and I exchanged a horrified look, and the sweat started rolling down our faces. We tolerated it for less than 5 minutes before I got up and rummaged through a pile of 30 year old extension cords to get it going again.

The kids weren't horrible, but they weren't model citizens either. Noah sat still pretty well with only a few bathroom breaks. Micah was either climbing the pew in front of us or sitting on the floor or running away if he got out of arms' reach. The whole mess was held together by about 5 rolls of peppermint lifesavers, which Micah felt the need to constantly share with us - once they had already been in his mouth. Kind of nasty, but he's persistent, and how can you say no to this?