4 weeks in

And 1/3 through the summer already! It does go by fast.
So Tuesday, Fabian and I took a roundtrip flight from Delhi to Bhopal (about 1h20 each way), leaving at 5:40 am and returning at 11:15 pm. The lovely thing about Bhopal is that they have already been hit by the monsoon so it was much cooler than Delhi, if not a little muggy. We met Caitlin and had a hearty breakfast of "poha" (flattened, seasoned rice, a dish of Madhya Pradesh) and omelets at her B&B. We went to our stakeholder meeting later that morning, where we met with state government representatives and people from UNICEF to go over our proposed study in the western part of the state. It will be the first of many meetings as some higher-ups need to sign off and give feedback.
After the meeting, we dropped by the State AIDS Control Society to say hello to the staff there, then went into Old Bhopal for an Afghani lunch. Despite all the flies around (good thing we got the VIP ceiling fan area), the food was delicious!
We made our way over to a coffee shop at a hotel for the afternoon to continue to go over work stuff. They just happened to have my favorite British dessert - banoffee pie!
Before getting on our flight back to Delhi, Fabian and I had dinner at the house of the state commissioner of education, an old friend of Fabian's. My first home-cooked Indian meal! Ever since I was a little kid and the Indian neighbors wouldn't invite me over for their dinner parties, I've wanted homemade Indian food - especially homemade rotis. Mission accomplished!
This weekend, it was finally time to explore Delhi a little more. Friday night, my roommate John had some Kashmiri friends over, who were good fun, and we went out to a bar (with a rooftop terrace that is NOT fun in hot Delhi). I've realized lychee wine is both delicious and dangerous! On Saturday, on what seemed like the hottest day ever, I went to watch a bit of John's cricket game - so now I have seen a live cricket game! I stayed to watch (and sweat incessantly) for an hour, then went off to a crafts bazaar called Dilli Haat. You pay 20 rupees (less than 50 cents) to enter the bazaar and get to enjoy a clean space with much less of the market hassle. I will have to return again before I leave but try not to buy everything - all the lovely scarves and hand-painted/carved crafts and pottery. They also happen to have a great food court with different foods from around India! I had some awesome, real Butter Chicken! (gotta say, better than Curry Point) The market is open-air though, so I guzzled tons of water and was so happy to take a cold shower when I got home and relax on the couch.
Today, John and I went to the police station to try to get the police to put something in writing to show that I live here in the apartment. So, it seems I have to register at the Foreign Registry Office here in Delhi, according to what the NY embassy stamped in my visa (despite the regulation that you do not have to register with a visa of 180 days or less). Any expat I have talked to says that the FRO is an absolute nightmare of contradictory, maddening bureaucracy. You will be there for hours, waiting outside in the heat or inside with no AC, possibly be sent home empty-handed and instructed to gather more arbitrary paperwork. I've been instructed by other expats to try to arrive around 6:30 am, even though the office doesn't open until 9:30, and if I'm lucky I'll be out by 1. Also, apparently they make girls cry. I guess every expat has to have their war story.
The police were not very helpful and didn't give me anything to work with, so I'll try to go tomorrow with whatever I can put together for proof of residence, plus all this other random paperwork that I had to get from CHAI.
Later this afternoon, it was slightly cooler due to the rain last night, so I went to take a nice stroll through Lodi Gardens - a well-groomed park in the city that houses the remains of 15th-century tombs, mosques, and shrines.

I'll come back with the FRO experience...
:)

Jhabua

It has been a bit of a whirlwind these few days!
Friday night I left Delhi at 10 pm to take a 12-hour overnight train (about $22 each way) to southwestern Madhya Pradesh (a state south of here, where we will be conducting our nutrition study in the coming weeks) with Fabian to spend the weekend in Jhabua. About a decade ago, Fabian and his father built a free, English boarding school in Jhabua for the local children, and he takes the train there and back every weekend from Delhi to check in on the school. Caitlin and Julia, who work with our partner, Real Medicine Foundation, also live there, so we all lived together in one house for the weekend.
First of all, the train is quite an experience. The only sleeper cars I knew were the trains in Europe, and these are quite different - again, the rule of 'maximizing space.' The beds flip up/down kind of like shelving units, and it's a bit squishy - no room for personal bubbles! They give you clean-looking sheets to sleep with, and you can order a little meal on the train. There's also plenty of vendors who go up and down the aisles selling junk food, chai tea, and toys. I can't complain because we were in the more 'luxury' cabins with AC; apparently in the non-AC sleepers, there are even people sleeping in the aisles. And despite my longtime fear of the Indian train toilet (even before I knew I would come to India), the toilet situation wasn't all that bad (I noticed on my way home, since I held it for 12 hours on the way there).
We arrived at Mevhnagar station at 10 am on Saturday. I could tell we would be the only foreigners in the region. People were quite interested in watching us move about, and I was interested in watching them walk their goats around on ropes!
We got into a Jeep and rode the bumpy roads for 25 minutes to get to the house in Jhabua. I soon came face-to-face with my lifelong nemesis - the squat toilet. As my only option for the weekend, we quickly made peace!
We got a bit of work done, went to the market, and visited Fabian's school where the kids will be piling in for the new school year this week. What a wonderful place for the kids! I hope they fulfill the dream of getting a pet elephant for the kids!
Saturday night, we had a German feast (since Fabian and Julia are both German) of imported Mini Wini's, potato salad, and pancakes!
Sunday, we discussed some more work issues, then had a great lunch at one of three restaurants in Jhabua. We checked in again at the school to check on preparations for the arrival of the kids, then they showed me the Maharaja's former palace in Jhabua. It's quite run-down now, having been abandoned for quite a while, but figure they could turn it into a fancy hotel with a million dollars or so!
They also took me to the Jhabua district hospital, which used to be a dump but has really cleaned up in the past year. Now it houses a state-of-the-art UNICEF-sponsored special newborn care unit. Unlike in the US, you can walk in and out of the different wards without showing ID or explaining why you're there. We also visited the pediatrics ward and nutrition rehabilitation center so I can get an idea of how malnutrition cases are referred in the field.
Fabian and I hopped back into the Jeep to go back to the train station for our 4 pm train back to Delhi (and I finally spotted my first child taking a poo in public! Yikes - don't walk through a field without watching your step). Seems I can sleep really easily in a moving vehicle, even if it's cramped (a whole family can buy a ticket for 1 seat and squeeze on one cot, I noticed).
Getting back to Delhi at 4 am was also an interesting experience, just taking a rickshaw back to my apartment in the middle of the night (don't worry - I went with Fabian's trusted driver). It's of course super quiet, and homeless people dot the sidewalks, sleeping. Most of them were sleeping on the narrow island between two-way traffic. I haven't quite gotten used to all the smells of trains and traffic and streets, but taking the auto home from the train station I suddenly got a whiff of an especially terrible stench. I thought we must be going past open sewage, but in the dark I started making out little shanty roofs of a slum. I asked about this today and indeed there is a big slum next to awful open sewage.
Had a couple hours of sleep and then a long day at the office today to prepare a grant proposal and get ready for tomorrow's meeting. Tomorrow, Fabian and I fly out at 5:40 am to go to the city of Bhopal in central Madhya Pradesh to meet with state government representatives and discuss our nutrition pilot study, set to take off in a few weeks. A quick turnaround - we'll fly home that evening and get back to Delhi at 11 pm.

Will report on Bhopal later this week!
:)

You know it's hot when your elbows are sweating

Though we did have one day of relief yesterday - my first Delhi storm! It poured and the winds were slamming against the house at around 4 am, and when I woke up, it was a cool 75 degrees, which later in the day turned into a good 90 degrees.
I have found a way to live stream the Stanley Cup finals online! (at 5:30 am) The problem is that our electricity has been fickle, so that I don't always have the connection to watch the entire game. I am thankful that the electricity came back on Tuesday night after a 2-hour break - no AC or fan can be brutal in this season, even at night.
I was duped for the first time at lunch this week - I could have sworn I was eating cubes of meat, but it was sneaky soy! I do eat mostly vegetarian here - as most people do - but I can't complain if it's good Indian food.
Went to a fancy Chinese Sichuan restaurant the other night in the next neighborhood. The food was really good, but the atmosphere was so bizarre - really fancy modern-looking restaurant, but the entertainment all evening was a Chinese woman singing soft rock hits with a karaoke machine. She did not entertain our table's request for her to sing "Welcome to the Jungle."
Work is very exciting - a lot of things are coming through for nutrition this summer for CHAI, and looks like I'll be doing a little bit of traveling to the field soon! It is really nice to be busy with work that I really like - instead of busy with work that is no fun or not busy at all.
I need to start taking more pictures to catch some random cool stuff I've seen around (Delhi is scattered with ruins and old temples) and good food I've eaten! I will try to be better about that.

:)

Momo phase

Namaste! Starting with a picture of my street in Delhi (and my roommate, John).
I think I'm finally over the jetlag.
Delhi has been super-hot, 110 degrees everyday - which is especially rough when the power cuts out (has been happening quite a bit lately) or when you're stuck in an open tripod taxi in "maximize space" traffic. There is this one intersection that I hit everyday on my way home from the office where you will sit through at least 3 green lights every time - brutal! And rumor is that the pollution is really bad here... Other than that, no complaints!
Over the weekend, I tagged along with my roommates to a random wedding reception, being the notorious wedding crasher that I am ;) It was a low-key reception for a journalist couple at the Foreign Correspondents Club, and a good chance for me to get some free drinks and cake, meet some cool new folks, and dance outside (in the heat) to some Hindi hits!
Work is going well - this week, I am working on putting together training modules to train village health workers on how to treat severely malnourished children. Great hands-on learning.
The big to-do in the news this past weekend was about a big-time yogi who was going on a hunger strike to protest corruption in the government. The police 'squashed' the whole gathering of followers pretty quickly - but not without controversy...
I've been trying more and more great local food - dosas and curries and lassis and chicory coffee... I've discovered street "momo's" in the market a block over from our neighborhood. They are steamed dumplings - it's that Tibetan influence - and I've been eating them almost everyday, and will continue to until I get sick of them. 8 dumplings for less than $1! :)

Jetlagggg

I don't think I've ever had this whole jetlag thing last so long but I'm still not quite sleeping properly (well, had a normal sleep 2 out of 6 nights). Could also be just getting used to the sound of the AC, my 2 inch thick mattress, my unusual eating habits here, and my tough love pillow. Went to bed at midnight last night but felt wide awake until 4, which foiled my plan to get up at 6 to watch game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals, if I can indeed find somewhere online to stream it live.
I actually haven't started taking any pictures! I will try to start photo-documenting today.
Yesterday, we had a meeting over at the GAIN office, a big player in global nutrition at the moment. Their office is located over in the Lodi Aman Hotel/office building, which was like entering a modern palace or fancy UN compound. I wish I took pictures! It was a really impressive place - looked like all marble, marigold petals everywhere, secret elevators... It was really interesting to meet with the program manager from GAIN and find out about the work they are doing in South Asia.
Driving here is quite different. I've been taking the little rickshaw taxis everywhere (see pic I just took from Google). The roads are actually great here in Delhi but it's just that cars, rickshaws, bicycles, and pedestrians are constantly weaving and whipping around, coming within millimeters of each other. Lots of "whoa, whoa... WHOA!" moments going around town. But there is a method to the madness of course - everyone seems to make it work and my rickshaw hasn't hit anybody, yet!

:)