First few weeks here in a nutshell

So I guess I’ll start with some details…

I am living in Delhi and currently live with two fellow Research Assistants on the project, Jack and Diane. From now on I will refer to them as “Little Ditty” (wait what is she talking ab...oh wait I get it, like the song, haha). Two other RAs will be joining us shortly. Naturally the only one of us who speaks a word of Hindi gets here last. Unlucky.

When we first got here we were introduced to Sreela, a wonderful woman who works with CPR, our Indian employer. Sreela was unlucky enough to be put in charge of us. I will get a picture of her up here at some point but basically imagine you just got off a plane in India and are thinking that you wish you knew someone in India who could serve as a mother-figure while you are here. Enter Sreela. So far my favorite moment with her was at lunch on our first day when she casually asked us how long we were going to be here. We told her a year or two and you could literally see the fear and terror sweeping across her face. Apparently she thought we were summer interns. It was as though you could see her running the calculations in her head: she had already given us her cell number, would it be easier to get a new number and inform all her friends, realtives, and coworkers or to have to deal with these three clueless Americans for over a year…tough call.

Most of our first few days here have consisted of trying to buy things for our apartment, trying to negotiate with rickshaw drivers, trying to figure out what exactly our jobs are, and sweating. A lot. In case you were curious standing in line for four hours to get your visa registered in India is a lot like standing in line for four hours at the DMV. It really is a small world after all. Little Ditty and I have also decided that so far the only way we’re solving global poverty is by paying way too much for everything and getting ripped off at every turn. The best is when they even point it out and say “for you, special price” as if we need a reminder that we paid four times as much for our rickshaw ride as any local would every pay and they are laughing at us on the inside (and sometimes on the outside too now that I think about it). But for the record we are slowly getting better at this world of bargaining and will probably get the price down to twice what it should be by the time we leave.

Little Ditty and I do pretty much everything together and frankly they have quickly become my security blanket here. Coincidently, Diane also does races involving swimming, biking, and running (or triathlons as some in the business would call them). Sidenote – while she is entirely too modest to admit it I think it’s a very good thing that there aren’t any races here because I get the distinct feeling she would get extremely bored waiting for me at the finish line because she is quite kick-ass and raced for the Cal team. Anyway, being the triathletes that we are we naturally both bring a suit, cap and goggles with us everywhere and thus set out to find a pool in Delhi. As luck would have it, there is a sports complex about two blocks from our apartment! Yes! And, its not even just a vacant lot that one calls a sports complex, but looks fairly legit! (Yes! And, it even has a swimming pool! Not just a pool, but an Olympic sized pool! Yes! And, its closed for approximately one year for renovations.

Oh so close. So very close. We comfort ourselves by pretending we would have gotten rashes from the water.

I am realizing this blog is a lot of Seinfeld and not very Rick Steves and talks less about global poverty than Brad and Angelina. I’ll give you a moment to google all those mad cultural references. I really hope that no one out there thinks I am making light of India’s people, culture, and most importantly poverty. I can honestly say that so far everyone one I have come across here, whether its someone I’ve met and interacted with, asked for directions, or even just seen on the street has treated me with respect and has been extremely friendly. And the poverty is very real. You cannot go one day here without being reminded of it. I really do hope that by working on this project I am doing at least one little thing to make one tiny dent in this huge problem.

That said, I have a feeling the rest of this blog is going to focus more on the lighter, funnier side of things because, well, most of my life I focus on the lighter and funnier of things. And its more fun to write. What can I say folks, even in India the glass is still half full. Assuming it’s a glass of filtered and sterilized bottled water that was adequately sealed and comes from a trusted and reliable source.