First post in ages

I'm feeling contemplative today, but I'm not exactly sure what I'm contemplating. And I suspect that I may start this post several times before writing something that's diplomatically-acceptable. Sorry, Kiwis and Aussies, I'll leave the diplomatic rows to you. So we'll see what kind of stream-of-consciousness rambling comes out.

The first interesting thing about today was the sad revelation that yet another American restaurant has begun its descent into normalcy. After a strong start featuring fries indistinguishable from the American outlets' and burgers with decent beef (a rarity in the land of the holy cow), Chili's seems to have lost its American management and its ability to stand out. Today's fries tasted like they came straight out of a freezer bag, sans crispiness and seasoning. The tortilla chips, still passable, had a hint of staleness. And I'll never understand, when the menu clearly lists each ingredient in the burger, right down to the last pickle, how renegade mayonnaise manages to slather its way onto the bun. Anyway, maybe it's still worth a visit if you're in the neighborhood and having a hankering for a giant pile of more-or-less-American-style fried goodness, but the Chili's honeymoon is over.

We've met a bunch of new people here over the past few weeks, several of them well worth knowing better. But we've also come to that time in our tour when we start to ask ourselves whether it's really worth the effort to get to know new people. That's not to disparage the people - there are always more interesting people out there, and you never know who's going to become a lifelong friend. But is there time? We're quickly counting down the weeks here (around 10 now), and it's awfully tempting to sit around the house and read a book or watch tv or play with the boys (we should do the latter anyway, of course) instead of being social. But that's not why we're here, really, and even after 170 interviews like I had on Friday, there's always more to be done, more connections to make, more events to attend, more opportunities to be out in the community.

What I think we're really hoping is that when we get to Manila, and as the boys get bigger, more and more of that socialization for us will be through them. It's a tough spot for us here demographically. The people we know who have kids are mostly several years older than us and, more importantly, live far enough away that it's prohibitive for a kid-friendly weekday event. And Pam and I are just not at the point where we're going to hit up the neighborhood pub for a pint on a Tuesday night. But if we're at a place with some other young parents of young kids a bit closer to home, I hope some of this will take care of itself.

Ok, that's all for now. I'll try not to go so long before the next one.

Memsahib means business

I intentionally caused a stir today.

For three months, we've been unable to use three of four showers, all of which are on the "courtyard" side of our house. Only the single shower on the "road" side of the house (which has a completely separate pressure pump and supply tank) has been working. We've not suffered that much, since only two of us take showers. But, with two guests coming Thursday, I really wanted to get this problem fixed.

I couldn't really understand what the problem was and felt as if I was only getting half the story from everyone I talked to - whether at work or in my building's maintenance staff. So today I decided to get to the bottom of it - or rather, the top of it. Since I don't speak Hindi, and my building's maintenance staff doesn't speak Telugu, I asked Sarwari to call down to the security guards to ask them to meet me on the roof.

Up four of us went (and then Greg and William joined, since William doesn't ever miss a chance to see how the different machines on the roof work). Between me half understanding what the guards were saying in Hindi, and Sarwari half translating, I finally figured out the problem had to do with the location of the water pump -- it was too high vis-a-vis the water tank. Armed with this knowledge, it was time to call up the building's maintenance manager.

As I peeked over the side of the building to make sure the manager was coming, I noticed lots of people were watching from various porches. Servants from four different apartments were (unsuccessfully) trying to inconspicuously see what in the world *I* was doing on the roof. Only laundry washers and maintenance people are supposed to go up there!

Another thirty minutes later of back and forth in half Hindi, half English, the building manager finally agreed to move the pump. I have no idea why it took three months for this to be worked out, but I think that by going to the top of the roof, it was pretty apparent to the entire apartment complex that I wasn't going to leave until something was figured out.

We'll see in tomorrow morning's shower if the problem really is fixed.

(PS - William had a great time watching the elevator gears go round and round.)

Knowing the time

It doesn't always happen this way, but right now we have a great outside reminder between the Catholic church to the east and the mosque to the west of us. Church bells ringing each morning around 6:30 mean we're late walking Bagwelle (if we're not already outside). Prayer call at about 6PM means it's time to stop playing in the courtyard and go upstairs for dinner. The last call just after 8PM means it's past bedtime.

It's great having these outside cues for a three year old who can't tell time and for me, whose favorite Skaagen watch broke. It also reminds me of Tokyo when loud speakers in many areas play a certain song at 5:30 - I always called it the "children, time to go home" song.

Why we get 25% differential

Generally our life here is pretty comfortable. From the outside, so much so that many people question why we get "hardship" pay - and especially why the pay is as high as 25%. I can't claim to know how all the calculations work, but this afternoon was one reminder as to why we do get the pay bump.

(1) We got our TB test done - finally. Our consulate doesn't have a med unit, so every three months or so, a doctor or NP visits us from Delhi bringing FDA-approved vaccines, flu shots, etc etc. To keep our medical clearance current, we're supposed to take a TB test before Manila. Easier said than done! A minimum of 48 hours is required to read the test. Though we've been asking for the test since April, it's only just now that the visiting nurse is staying in HYD long enough to read the results. (Don't ask me why MED didn't want us to go to a local doctor for a test. I offered, but they really wanted one of the Delhi personnel to do it). Now keep your fingers crossed we don't test positive...

(2) We stopped on the way home for diesel. Shouldn't be that big a deal, right? We're not exactly sure why, but today it involved lots and lots of hassle from the diesel pump people. In the end, Greg had to get out of the car (unheard of here) and almost pull the additional Rs 40 change from the attendant. This is pretty unusual, but it still was annoying.

(3) Lunch. We thought about trying a new restaurant, but couldn't figure out how to get our car into the correct shopping area. We drove around for some time, but kept on coming up against closed gates or walls. So then we moved on to restaurant #2, which was randomly closed for lunch today. Tired and frustrated, we decided to give up trying new places and went to a tried and true place (and thankfully were not disappointed!).

(4) Grocery shopping. Since lunch places #1 and #2 were a failure, and I didn't feel like driving back to my preferred grocery store (SPAR, a German brand), I decided we'd just pay the slightly inflated prices at the close by fancy grocery store (Ruci). After all, I could stop at the cafe for a coffee at the end and Greg could get some gelatto, making up for all the frustration earlier in the day :) At least, that was our idea. Except even though I had a really basic "must by" list (tea, sugar, ketchup, cooking oil, and floor cleaner) - none of the brands I wanted were in stock. And these are all normal brands - not fancy import brands which (with reason) are only in stock when a shipment comes. I left the store in frustration without buying anything.

In short - though we did succeed in getting the TB test done and eventually filling our car's gas tank and our own bellies, I arrived back home less than satisfied with the excursion. Only to see the kid at a house at the end of our block squatting to go poo poo outside his house next to the road. Geesh! Good thing HYD has so many other wonderful things to compensate ...

PS

William informed me last night that he does not want to go to Manila or to America. He said, "I'm Indian and I need to stay in Hyderabad."

Unfortunately, he has no say in the matter. But, I do feel fortunate that he adjusted so well to being here ... and hope that he can enjoy our next post as much as he did here.

Where did September go?

This is about the third time I've asked myself this question. How is it already September 26? How is it possible that Patch will be 11 months old in only three days? And why have I been neglecting my faithful readers back home with only a single blog post this entire month?

I had a great trip to Tashkent. I heard some people say there that they don't work at the end of the world, but they can see it from Tashkent. I owe a travelogue post on that trip. Then, when I came back, it hit in full force that we were going to be moving at the end of the year and I really needed to make preliminary preparations. Instead of tackling that problem, however, I basically decided to ignore the computer and the moving work ... and finished up Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.

Now, with the books done, I spent the morning updating my hair color (good bye grey hairs) and am ready to face the fact that we do only have three months left in HYD, sadly. A mere 12 weekends remaining :( The challenge as I see it is how to complete all the necessary chores relating to moving while still remaining engaged and "living in the present." Oh - and not let my blog fall totally by the way-side, either!

A running list

I'm sure many parents in our line of work have a running list with the title, "You know your kid is a foreign service kid when ..." William has picked up a lot about Indian culture (including the accent and head bobble) - but to me that's more along the lines of just being in tune with the culture he's in. I can see from friend's facebook posts that other three year olds say equally amusing things and articulate similar observant facts about where ever they are.

But tonight, it was a little different than just cultural observance. For those who don't know, someone is "on call" from the consulate 24 hours a day for American citizen emergencies. Good to know your tax payer dollars are at work, right? Yes, if you get arrested - or die in your hotel room - or get stranded at the airport - hopefully you can get a call through to the "duty officer." Thus, the "on call" officer has to carry around the "duty phone" for a week. We rotate amongst the staff and, in a consulate of our size, this means being on duty about once every three months. Meaning, once ever six weeks or so, either Greg or I are the duty officer.

We've explained to William about the "Emergency Phone." It's not a toy and he has to be very quiet if a call comes.

Tonight, I was walking upstairs with the duty phone. William brought up a small toy cell phone, too, and looked at me and said, "Mama, this is my emergency phone in case anyone at school has a problem. They can call me and I will help fix it. I need to take it to bed with me."

Entry #1 on "you know you're an FS kid when ... you pretend to have a duty phone"