What I'm thankful for this year

Happy Thanksgiving!!

• No monkey attacks in 2007! You all laughed when I said that last year – who’s laughing now???
• A pretty amazing last 12 months including exploring new places (Sydney, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Kodai, Ellora, Orchha, Matheran, Goa - twice), and new experiences (first Indian wedding, first big concert in India, first elephant safari, most enjoyable Legwarmers concert yet, tango-ing with a fat sikh man in a turban, cheerleading in a Malaysian mall, getting blessed by a temple elephant)
• Facebook and the ability to reconnect with some old friends – I’ve missed you guys – and play scrabble
• The visits of Mom, Rachel, Bev, Cheinan, Carolyn and Todd – looking forward to seeing the rest of you soon!
• I’m sort of embarrassed to admit this but I’m thankful for Ultimate Frisbee Games at Nehru Park – it’s so nice to be outside, with fun people, getting some exercise.
• That John is recovering well from knee surgery #1
• That I was able to go to Kristin’s wedding – it’s so nice to be friends with people who have known you almost all your life. Clearly Kin wins that title but there are actually quite a few of you who help by reminding me what a dork I really have always been.
• The rise of steak and bagels in Delhi – it’s not great yet but it’s getting there. Next mission: good filter coffee, dannon coffee yogurt and real pies!
• I can’t say enough about the people who make my life possible here:
• Satender: Anybody who offers to come in on the biggest holiday of the year to give my cat an injection as I’m out of town has my undying loyalty. Driver, personal assistant, negotiator of all things India, cricket coach… what doesn’t he do?
• Tenzing: It’s pretty easy to take for granted the clean house, wonderful food, made bed, folded, perfectly hung clothes. But it’s the preparing a little tin of ground coffee for me when I’m headed out of town, the coming in on her days off when she’s worried I might be sick and the sharing of her son’s successes that remind me of how wonderful she is.
• Jagdish: While I don’t directly employ him, and when I come home late at night or early in the morning, he is generally sleeping and un-wakeable (not great traits in your night guard), I really enjoyed meeting his family and having him open his home to me.
• Krishna: my new, five foot tall, nepali, professional kickboxer (“kickboxing, sport of the future? Maybe you’ve heard of it? I can see by your face, no”- anyone?) personal trainer who is giving me some new energy to get in shape.
• BC’s great football start. While they’ve clearly slumped in the last few games, it was really fun there for a while. Really wishing they’d announce bowl games further in advance so I could plan to go to one!
• In total hypocrisy, I am thankful that Doug is generous enough to give me access to the commissary. I recognize that I will continue to insult the bizarre-o-land that is the American Embassy Peeps but the frozen blueberries and chocolate chips do improve my quality of life.
• While work is going through a rough spot with cut funding I am still very grateful to work with such amazing people. Where else could I say “What have I done this year? I’ve led efforts that prevented an estimated an estimated 500,000 men from getting HIV this year.” Proven success that beats all benchmarks and saves lives is pretty cool.
• Less work travel – it may be because our funding is cut but man does it help to not travel two days a week!
• Air Crash Investigations - how else would I know to sit over the wing?? OK fine, I've learned nothing useful but it's bizarrely entertaining.
• Travel coffee filters - to ensure I get my fair trade, organic, shade grown black coffee and none of this nescafe madness.
  
• Kali – the aptly named “goddess of destruction” cat – without whom my life would be boring and drama-less.

Diwali in Goa

For Diwali this year we ended up with a four day weekend - as holidays here follow the lunar calendar no one is ever sure when exactly the holiday is.... So my colleague Dana, his girlfriend Gertrude and our friend Amy all headed out to Goa. If this post seems like a travel guide, i apologize - I've learned that it's useful to document all the places for future trips!

We decided to stay in Panaji (which also goes by like 15 other similar names), which is inland a bit. We stayed at the Panjim Inn - which is this lovely old building. Rooms were great (although ours was over a noisy street) and in this cute town that is totally decaying portugese (first and second pictures)! The colors are gorgeous! We thought we were in Old Goa but learned we were not! Just another small town in Goa.

On Friday everyone but me wanted to work - but I am such a sucker for beach and sun that I hooked up with my friend Radhika who had come down for vaca with her husband and one year old. We, and her cousin all headed to Uttorda Beach - about 45 minutes south. Pretty deserted and beautiful. The water was hot - not just warm! No real waves though. And the general weather is still about 90F. We lucked out too cause they still get thunderstorms but we missed them. We had lunch - the most amazing fish (red snapper) I've ever had at Zeebop's. Then headed down to play in the sand with Devin for a while. We headed home around dark and I met up with Amy at this crazy resort place. It's amazing to think that all these european tourists come straight to Goa - I mean who are these like 19-year-old couples that shell out $250 a night?? Couldn't tell if they stay with their parents or just look younger than they are. Anyways we enjoyed some bad cover songs of Bob Marley and a diwali fireworks display. When we got back to Panjim some local kids were doing the diwali I know so well. Setting off firecrackers that aren't particularly pretty but are noisy and dangerous and the thrill seems to be not dying. You feel like you are watching the "what not to do" safety special and it sounds like you're in a war zone. Thankfully it was short.

The next day we all went to Aswem beach - where I had gone last year but it was just before the real season starts and so a lot of places were not yet open. The crazy thing though is that it seems way more developed than last year. The taxi driver said the mayor was corrupt and so allowing construction that was previously illegal. Since the place I went last year was closed we randomly stopped at Silence. Totally randomly we bumped into friends from Delhi (Dharma from frisbee and his girlfriend) who were staying at their little beach shacks for Rs. 500 a night. That is definitely what I'm doing next time. The old town is very pretty but it can't beat waking up to the ocean. Although Radhika mentioned camping on this cute island (butterfly island 10 minutes from Palolem) that also sounded great. So I spent the day sunning - but really got very little tan (stupid effective sunblock!) - and reading. At one point I swam down the shore (it just keeps going and going) which was great. You turn the bend and it's just gorgeous palm trees. Would have been really relaxing except I was desperately trying to avoid rocks as Dharma had gotten all cut up the day before and I guess some russian guy died apparently from hitting his head and drowning a day or so before that! Later went for a walk and admired the overwhelming number of starfish! Did you know they burrow into the sand?? And tons and tons of little crabs. Totally fascinating.

The last day I had a relatively early flight so we went to Old Goa (the real one). Didn't have much time but all it seemed to be was big tourist attractions. Like the church that has the "relics" of Saint Xavier Francis who died there and never decayed (courtyard of the church is the third picture through the prayer candles). We think relics mean his body but not totally sure. Since it was Sunday they were actually having services and we saw a wedding too. It's been so long since I've been in a place that closes on Sundays - I forgot it was even an option! The churches were pretty (although why mix churches and cannons -fourth picture?) and the gardens were beautiful.

Sorry for the lack of beach photos. I let other people be the photographers there - if they send me picts i'll post them! This last one is just a sign I really liked. Mickey and Daffy are classic goan??

Office Rangoli

Three unusual happenings - all related to the office.

Monkey - the other day, only like two weeks after a monkey gang attacked the Deputy Mayor of Delhi which resulted in him falling off his balcony and dying, I heard a big sound outside my window, which is like 2 ft from where I sit in the office and expected to see birds nesting on the A/C again. Instead a monkey was jumping around the neighborhood. I haven't seen him at the office (or anyone like him) in several years.

Cricket - So I admit I kinda got into watching it during the recent 20/20 tournament that India won. 20/20 is a few hours long (like a baseball game) so more tolerable than the 5-day matches. No tea breaks. Then Doug invited me to join him in Jodhpur for a long Thanksgiving weekend as the American Embassy folks were invited to play in a charity tournament hosted by the Maharaja of Jodhur. I said yes because though I've spent a few hours in Jodhpur, I've never explored the fort or the rest of the town and it sounds cool. Plus I haven't been to Rajasthan in awhile. Somehow though joining him turned into playing. So I had Satender (my driver) go buy me the necessary equipment (bat, ball, gloves and wickets) and now every afternoon for lunch I go out to the nearby park and he teaches me cricket. This attracts a huge crowd - first because everyone loves cricket and would stop and watch no matter what. But that it's a white girl is just too much so the office guys have started playing and then kids appear out of nowhere to play catcher (wicket keeper) and fetch stray balls. This might be better than the tournament!

Rangoli - We celebrated Diwali at the office today with a Rangoli contest and movie. I at first was disappointed as we usually have a big party where I can wear a sari (don't have many excuses and have two new ones). And I don't want to see a hindi movie - that's not social. But they made me a judge of the Rangoli contest at our two delhi offices and it was really pretty. Rangoli is a traditional art/prayer done in doorways during celebrations. Although one website I checked said, "In a traditional household, the lady of the house starts her daily chores with purifying herself, drawing some Rangoli lines in front of the pooja room and the tulsi. Her regular routine begins after this ritual. With this, her entire day remains fresh and lively."It varies from culture to culture around India but usually it's done with colored sand, chalk or rice. Often accompanied by lights (especially around Diwali) and flowers. Various departments competed. The top two pictures won their respective offices. Others integrated condoms and PSI very creatively! As last year I learned that Diwali in my house is unbearable due to the very loud fire crackers my landlord sets off just outside my window I'm running away to the beaches of Goa for the actual holiday (which is Thursday).

Happy Diwali!