Kodai

I have just returned from a lovely week in Kodaikanal - a hill station in Tamil Nadu. I decided it would be a good idea to get all our communication managers together for a few days. One of the best parts of Kodai, besides being just lovely, is that it's actually cold! Especially as it was lightly raining every afternoon. After the last few weeks in Delhi, it felt really good to wear a sweatshirt! The hotel overlooked a lake, which I kept meaning to jog around but never got around to.

At the end of the retreat I organized what someone referred to as my own Amazing Race where groups had to solve clues which took them to major tourist points around town. Therefore I spent three hours sitting on what's called Coaker's Walk which overlooks the mountains. However, it was totally clouded over so there wasn't anything to see but white. See behind the lady in the picture. But after 2 and a half hours, waiting for a team that had clearly gotten totally lost, the clouds parted and it was beautiful. I love those moments. Of course the local folks who were near me manning their sales booths thought I was absolutely crazy, sitting for hours with occasional groups of people running up to me breathlessly and cheering and then performing silly tasks and taking pictures to prove it.

Then Doug came down and we went to Elephant Valley, an eco-lodge that is also an organic farm, coffee plantation and has wild elephants roaming around. The place itself was much nicer than the other elephant eco-lodge we went to (I never thought I'd have a comparison of that!). However, I'm sad to report that while it was indeed in a valley, we saw no elephants. The place was gorgeous though, beautiful river, waterfalls, mountains and flowers. We took a horse ride up the mountain which was a great way to see the area. And the horses were well fed and taken care of, which is always a relief. Another horse that lives nearby broke free and came running through one afternoon as we were having lunch. It hopped the corral fence in and then back out. It was having such a good time I sorta wanted to join it. Doug said it looked like it was streaking - it had an expression like it knew it was being naughty!

We took some walks around the mountain in the rain - and it really was such a nice break - good air, no traffic, just peaceful. The food was surprisingly good - although oddly the french/italian food was better than the indian. That's a first. And real shade grown, organic coffee!

However, the bed was infested (INFESTED!) with fleas. Never thought I'd bring fleas back to my cat rather than the other way around.

It's tough to get back into the mugginess of Delhi though. It's nowhere near as hot as it was a week ago but it sure is restricting.

Crazy job

Have you ever found yourself realizing how strange life is? Yesterday that happened as I'm sitting next to a police chief on the back of a stage that feels like it's going to fall over and shaking violently as some of our performers finished a play about STIs and was asked to give a speech.

I spent Sunday evening in Chennai doing a very brief field visit. And in some ways this was a very typical visit, saw street theatre performances promoting condoms and STI treatment and went to meeting of community members who volunteer their time and money to help us spread awareness. I always do those things. But in other ways this was not a typical visit. The two new additions to my department, Ragini and Dawood, wanted to see how I do field visits and what kind of feedback I give, and what I look for. My friend Alison is a journalist for a newspaper here and was also in town for another story but wanted to do a story on HIV so came along as well. So usually I travel with just the state staff and this time I had an entourage (in my own head anyways). The first meeting was with the community members and my role is always to just say thank you. So I handed out certificates. Then gave a speech and received a shiny, gold garland. We then saw a play about STIs and got another shiny, gold garland. And then a play on condoms. Yup, we got shiny, gold garlands.

This brings us to the end of the night and my realization that my life is not normal. We went to a "mini mega event" where we go to a community, set up a stage and do a few hours of plays and discussions. This one was paid for by the local police station and another NGO so when I got there Alison and I were immediately escorted on stage to sit next to the police commissioners. Our performers finished up a play and the audience was almost all young kids who then answered trivia questions about STIs and chanted about how good our STI clinics are! The pict is a kid holding a referral card for our STI clinics! Not really the group we're trying to reach but I asked the men later how they felt about their wives and children seeing this and they were totally fine and said they thought everyone should know this. This time we were given garlands and a present (some fake flowers in a glass box as I found out later since you can't open a gift in front of the givers). And like always I was asked to give a speech for which I was unprepared to a group of people who didn't speak english. The police chief said I "spoke very well" so the translator must have made some stuff up. It then started pouring - you know the really wonderful rains that just make it impossible to do anything but laugh? - so I'm running out of this village with little girls who want to practice their english by asking what I eat.

It's wonderful to be involved in this work. But I forget how weird it is sometimes so have a random foreign man indicate how long he needs his condom to be or pantomime with his finger that one should be erect before putting on a condom. But I think it was the treatment I receive that struck Alison - she kept saying, "you have such a bizarre job".

The final picture is of the typical family on a motorcycle. This one came to our show.

Have I mentioned it's hot?!?

Dear lord it's hot. May was supposedly the coolest May in a decade but now we're back on track and I feel like without the warm-up of a normal May, this is hitting me hard.

All my air conditioners broke at once (the one in my car, the one in my bedroom). And the power cuts out so frequently at the office that I'm working in a sauna - literally sweat dripping down my body. It's been hitting about 47 these days which is like 115F or something. Weather.com currently says that at 5:30pm it's 109F and feels like 135F. Everything has melted, including my suntan lotion.

That's all I can think to write because that's all my body and brain can process right now. It's hot!

The pict is from a while ago but I just still find it so funny that you can specify that you want a male or female for each job!