August 29, 2009.

To appreciate this picture, double click on it to blow it up. It is a view of a crowded market street in Delhi. Please note all of the electrical lines.

We flew home on August 29. We left Dehli at midnight and arrived in Paris at 6:00am. We flew from Paris at noon and arrive in Cincinnati at 4:00pm.

The Delhi Airport was on backup power since we were there during the daily power outage. There was no air conditioning. The airport was a sauna.

In India, a cup of coffee costs 30 cents. At the Paris airport, a cup of coffee costs $4.30. An Internet cafe in India charges 60 cents a hours. At the Paris airport, one hour on the Internet costs $7.50.

August 27, 2009

New Delhi is a modern city with fairly good roads. It is the capital where the politicians live in nice government provided bungalows. The roads to Agra (Taj Mahal) and Jaipur are also fairly modern to cater to the tourists. This is in sharp contrast to the roads of the rest of the country. Even though, New Delhi is modern, it still loses electricity and water pressure for a several hours a day.

We visited to Sarajini Nagar Market. This is an open air market where you can buy clothes for a dollar or two. These clothes might have been returned as rejects from the United States so they have labels like Gap and Old Navy. Sometimes US discount stores buy them and send them back in the US.

There are a number of craft shops in Agra and Jaipur for textiles, inlay marble, and miniature paintings. The inlay marble craftsmen are necessary so they skill is not lost to make repairs on the Taj Mahal. India provides tax advantages to these shops to keep the crafts alive.

August 18, 2009

Hi All,

TRANSPORTATION (first 3 pictures) The buses don't really stop, they just slow down and people hop on and off. In some cases, there isn't really room, so they just "hang on". The 3-wheeler (also called auto rickshaw or meter taxi) seems to be the most common. Again, in this picture, people are crammed in. This is the vehicle that carried 7 children to and from school every day. The motor cycle (called 2 wheeler) is blurry but shows a family with the kid in front, dad driving and mom with purchases in back. I have seen mom, dad and three kids on one bike a few times. The last pix is of a typical shopping market in a big city of 4 million people. We bought 2 pomegranates for about $0.60. We wish we could figure out how to get them home!
EDUCATION Today, when we arrived at the college in Hyderabad for Chuck's lecture, the gate was locked. Students who had arrived late were waiting outside. They could not enter until the start of the next class. Attendance is taken. They go to class from 9-5 daily. At most colleges, students wear uniforms. "Girls" sit on one side of the classroom and "Gents" on the other. Students stand when their professor enters the classroom. Kids start school at age 3. They all wear uniforms, but not all wear shoes. The schools are regimented by our standards. Children stand in lines, at attention to listen to announcements, practice dances, go into their classes, etc.
Yesterday, we went to the Birla (Hindu) Temple. We have never seen so much white marble in our lives. The sculptures and lattice work was most beautiful. There were sculptures and verses from Confucius, Judaism, and Christianity in keeping with Hindu acceptance of other religions.
Hyderabad has many Muslims. There are many women dressed in black with only a slit for their eyes. The Muslim men wear western clothes just like most men in India.
We met a women and her children at a Hyderabad restaurant. She speaks excellent American English since she works for a call center. She invited us for dinner at her house tonight. We are going to take a 3-wheeler to her house. Experiences like this are how we are seeing India.

Off to Dehli tomorrow morning for our last leg. We are still really enjoying this experience of a life time, but miss you all and can't wait to talk to you when we get back. Thanks for the emails.

Love Chuck and Jan

August 15, 2009

Hi All,

This has to be short and sweet. We leave Hubli for Hyderabad in 15 minutes. An AC bus that leaves at 7 p.m.and gets in at 6 a.m. It's the way they travel here. I'm getting better at sleeping on the bus, this is our 4th overnight bus trip.

I am sending the picture of the ferry from the previous email. If the other three pictures load, you'll see how we spent our last two days. We were the International part of the International conference Violence Against Women. By the way, my info said I was from Germany! Chuck was from the US though. The first pix is Chuck with other dignitaries at the lighting ceremony. The woman lighting the candle is our host (and chair of the event), Shrimati Das.

Next is a picture of me in a sari. I was not happy about wearing one since I had read that foreigners look really funny in them. But Shrimati insisted and I wanted to make her happy. I wore it the second day and thrilled everyone. Even the men complimented my "ability" to wear it. Originally Shrimati said to wear my western clothes the first day since I was the third speaker that morning. Another example of Indian time...I ended up being the 7th speaker on the second day. She had 27 speakers scheduled over two days. Originally all were told to speak for 45 minutes, then she asked us to cut it to 20. Most did not. Poor Chuck was second to last on the second day. I think most people were too tired to listen any more, although his talk was more interesting and informative than most of the others.

The last pix is an example of the cast system. We thought these were girls serving us our meals and Chuck loved making them smile as we went through the line. Now I think they are probably young adults (one with a toddler). But lighter skinned and taller are revered (even commercials to lighten your skin) here, so smaller darker people do menial labor. At any rate, they loved Chuck and called me "auntie" and were absolutely thrilled to have their pix taken with Chuck.

All for now. Hope to tell you more on our next stop.


Love Jan and Charles

August 12, 2009

Hi All,

We're back in Hubli after two days in Hampi (pronounced Humpi) for the big conference on Domestic Violence Against Women. Hampi was fascinating, described as a second Rome (a UNESCO heritage site). It's 13th-15th century palaces and temples in pretty good shape.

The most fun was getting over the river. The government spent tons of money building a bridge over a river. Then it collapsed and killed 8 people in the process. The bridge is still just sitting there in the river. So the villagers went back to the original transportation. (I can't show the picture of the boat because the Internet location we're using doesn't have usb ports, but I promise to send it later) The boat is a large round shallow basket, maybe 10 feet in diameter. They used woven bags (like those that large amounts of rice, onions or potatoes come in) on the underside of the basket, then painted it with tar. One of the roarers bails the water out before anyone boards each time. On our way back to the main side, we were with 8 other people and 3 motorcycles! It was wild and we felt amazingly safe.

All for now until we get a better Internet connection.

Love Jan & Chuck

August 7, 2009

Hi All,

Just a brief update since we have visited the Internet cafe frequently.

We were supposed to fly to Chennai on the east coast Sunday, but the talk was cancelled, so for a variety of reasons we cancelled Chennai and are busing back to Hubli overnight Saturday. We're relieved not to have to be cool in 100+ degree weather.

We have traveled from village to village and town to city and have seen vast green space with mature trees, brush, plus cultivated orchards of Coconut palms, banana plants, pineapple, sugar, tea and a bunch else. (The houses that have land, grow most of their own vegetables and fruit and have a cow for milk.) So we were wondering where are all the people when there is so much green. But seeing any village or city, we can answer. The people are densely packed into the living areas. Many are out walking to run errands, so we always see people around towns no matter what time of day. Bangalore is huge and congested. But there aren't fights, everyone just moves to where they need to be. They pack in to buses and anything else that moves.

We went on a "safari" today. I think at home it would be called a natural zoo. We were on a bus and entered habitats for bears, tigers, and lions. Each habitat was separate from each other. It was actually quite fun.

Love Jan and Chuck

Picture - August 6, 2009

Hi All,

I hope you can all open these. They are smaller than my last try.

The first is of Chuck taking part in a lighting ceremony (we think it's Hindu, but it seems to be for everyone) that brings light upon whatever activity follows. We had one the day earlier before his talk. This was prior to a concert. Some of the band members and other dignateries were up there too.

THe second is of two elephants with dusted trunks blessing people who put a coin (offering to the gods) in the trunk. After the elephant gave the coin to the trainer (happening in the farther away elephant) he then took his trunk and fairly gently rubbed the head of the person or persons (the closer elephant). It was really neat.

The last picture is of Chuck and me "helping" some fisherman pull rope that was attached to a large limb attached to fishing nets in the water. As we pull up, the net comes up with what ever fish were swimming by at the time. This process is called Chinese Fishing.

All for now. Hope you are all healthy, cool and enjoying your summer.

Love Chuck and Jan

Bangalore/Mysore - August 4, 2009

Hi All,

We are in the Bangalore/Mysore area and are doing a lot of sightseeing and car riding. We saw the beautiful Mysore Palace. Gold paint, gold and gold plate everywhere, columns and grandeur.

Other than that, we thought we'd share some observations with you (in no particular order.)
• The middle class and above houses have no yards to speak of. They have a solid wall in front, pretty grill work on the gate, occasionally painted advertising on the wall and bars on all windows. All living quarters have balconies/railings/cords to dry laundry on.
• Some cows and oxen have painted horns, usually blue. This is consistent with everything here...very colorful and decorated including the semis and taxis.
• Young children wear ankle bracelets, bangles and earrings. Sometimes they are made up to confuse the evil spirits.
• Elephants bless people by gently touching their heads with their trunks
• Stores are mostly the width of a single garage. When closed, they roll down the metal garage door. I originally thought there were garages in front of all the buildings!
• Driving...no traffic lights except in the big cities (4 million or more people), they don't use seat belts, don't use lane markings (3 lanes of vehicles out of two lanes, etc), they pile people in anything that moves (I saw a family of 8 in a car the size of my old Insight, and 8 children on the way to school in an auto-rickshaw which is a 3 wheeled motorcycle) The drivers in the cities use their horns to mean "I'm coming through".
• The roads are mostly pot holes from the monsoons with tons of widening projects. But we've never seen workers. They block the road they are working on by placing softball sized rocks every 2-3'.
• It is typical for a young family to own a motorcycle for their transportation. The father drives, the middle child sits in front of the dad, the mom is on the back (side saddle because of the sari) with the baby on her side, and the oldest child sits between the mom and dad.
• There are beautiful huge old trees (trunks 6-8' in diameter) on the sides of most roads except where they are widening the roads and have to cut down the trees...by hand
• Farm workers and their families live in plastic tents on the farm.
• Animals walking attended or by themselves down the streets: Cows (no calves because all the cows roaming around belong to someone and the calves are taken care of at home), boars, pigs, dogs, monkeys, oxen, houses, elephants, sheep and goats
• They have a small pick up with the back about 4' x 4'. The women going to work squish into the back, standing up. I think there are about 30 in there.
• In the villages, water is from wells. The families go to the wells daily with two or three plastic gallon jugs for their water. The women put one jug on their heads and carry the other two on their hips and very gracefully walk home. We have also seen the women carrying large branches, bowls of construction materials and about anything else on their heads.
This may sound depressing and we hope it's not. It's a fascinating country with differences every place we look. The people are happy if they have family, food, work and water.

Love Chuck & Jan

Ujire - July 30, 2009

Hi from the not-sunny city of Urije. It has the distinction of being the second rainiest part of India, and we're here during the rainy season! It's amazing how everyone just goes about their business. Many just stop wearing shoes and roll up their pants. Many carry very good umbrellas, almost all black with white shiny insides.

We want to share some of the culture that has been consistent throughout our visit. I think I mentioned that time is relative. Besides choosing a time or day that is auspicious, they are just laid back and don't have the stress of starting or being somewhere on time. We were to go to Manipal at 10:30 a.m. At 9:30, we were all packed and eating our breakfast when we got a call from Commissioner Dileep (whom we've never met) inviting us to stay in Mangalore until that evening so we could see a concert and that he would take care of everything. That was fine with us, actually kind of exciting.

But an hour later, one of the instructors from Manipal showed up for us. We had him call the Commissioner. At the end of the conversation, the Manipal teacher apologized for disturbing us and said he'd be back for us at 7:30 p.m. He then rode the 2 hours back to Manipal! By the end of the evening, he had spent 8 hours in the car on bad roads and we only saw a bit of the concert because it started 45 minutes late. (the neat thing is that Chuck was asked to assist in the lighting ceremony at the beginning of the concert, a great honor...one of the attached pictures).

We got to Manipal University the next morning to give a talk. Chuck asked what his audience would be because he had a talk for programmers and one for general computer students. The Director responded that the talk would be for general users, then directed the faculty to get the programmers together for a second talk in 90 minutes. Chuck gave his two talks like a trooper. He is also being really flexible.

Then to Urije and Dharmasthala, a pilgrimage village and Naturopathy Clinic for 3 days. We were both afraid that we'd be at a spa getting massages for three days. It turned out to be a fascinating trip. The President of SDM which we thought was just a series of colleges, is wealthy, smart and has his heart in the right place for India. We saw schools for poor 7th & 8th graders to teach them life skills and confidence, training for 20 something to be entrepreneurs, and mass feeding of 2,000 pilgrims (the second picture) where the food is served and cleaned up for the next batch in 13 minutes and nothing is wasted.

I know this is getting long so we'll tell you all about it when we get home, but the last few days have been mind boggling.

Have a great week,

Love Chuck & Jan

July 25, 2009

Thank you for all of your emails. We are having a fantastic time, but miss everyone. So it's great when we get to the Internet and can see mail from around the world.

We have had our day on the houseboat through the back water of the state of Kerala. When we first planned it, I was picturing Humphrey Bogart on the African Queen, having to duck through tight passages in the jungle. This was a beautiful, roomy one bedroom with a western style bathroom (toilet instead of hole) and toilet paper. Oh, the simple things in life. The waterways were large, open and developed. There are straight pieces of land through out the backwater, that have really nice houses on them. They have the water in the front and thousands of acres of rice patties in the back yard. They go to work or school on boats. Here, the pictures will be better than the description.

Our first meal was lunch served on a banana leaf instead of plate. It was a beautiful presentation and tasted delicious. We sat at the table in the front of the boat, facing out as we floated along. There are thousands of banana trees, pineapple plants, cashew trees, coconut palms, so everything is fresh. Suffice it to say, we had a great, relaxing time.

We had a brief stop in Cochi and visited Jew Town, went to the oldest Synagogue in India and met Sara Cohen, a store owner, who Chuck read about in one of his books on India. It was a strange experience having all of the signs say "Jew Town".

We are now in Mangalore where Chuck gave his fifth talk. I think this was the best so far. And we are still being treated like very important people. We are going to be so spoiled when we return. And we will be enunciating well, and talking very slowly too. It's become pretty natural.

Gotta get to dinner before it gets too late.

Love Chuck and Jan

Kerala - July 20, 2009

Hi All,

We are on our second day in the state of Kerala, writing again because we've had a jam-packed day of firsts. We drove out of our hotel this morning and the workers were already pruning the tea plants, I'm sure it's a constant process. She (they were all shes) had a wooden box 12 x 12 x 4 with the 4" edge hinged and a knife blade at the bottom of the hinged door. She just took the box and door, slapping it closed, and cut the new growth off which went into the box. When the box was full, she emptied it into the bag on her back. These went to the factory to be dried and packaged.

Then we took an elephant ride through trails in the forest. She (the elephant) was very sweet, slow and sure footed, but Jan was still very nervous when she was going down hill. The trainer was taking a movie of us during this time and it needs to be edited or deleted because of the "scared to death" expression it caught. Other than that, Jan loved it and Charles laughed and enjoyed the whole thing. We have attached a picture.

Our next "first" was pedal boating around a lake for a half hour. We actually made it back to the second since Charles used his stop watch and we pedaled fast at the end!

We were supposed to visit the tea factory, museum and store but it was closed for maintenance. We will go tomorrow morning. So instead, our guide suggested we visit a massage place because of the local oils used. We decided to try another "first" and both got head-to-toe massages for 60 minutes for $14! Jan was a bit nervous at the immodesty of the whole thing...and Charles hoped the guys at work don't find out that he got a massage. We were covered by a 4" by 12" piece of cotton tied on by strings (sort of like a sumo wrestler) while they rubbed and beat on us.

Hope everything is going well with each of you.

Jan and Charles

July 19, 2009

India is both a very beautiful country and a challenging place. The toilets and the showers are next two each other without a curtain. You need to make sure the hot water tank is turned on before showering. The toilets have a spray hose next to them instead of toilet paper. How do you use the hose while wearing clothes? The things our mothers forgot to teach us! Fortunately, we've learned to take toilet paper with us. While writing this email, we lost power temporarily. This happens regularly.
We had a driver take us to Mundgod where we visited some beautiful Tibetan temples and to Jog Falls, the highest in India. The roads were mostly one lane with two way traffic, herds of water buffalo and goats, lots of people walking, and holy cows wandering. Of course there were pot holes and speed bumps. Our driver drove quickly through this all honking often as he went. Chuck got motion sickness. Jan swore he passed out. Chuck said, "I feels fine". Jan said, "You are lying".
Last night we boarded a bus in Hubli at 10pm to Bangalore. We got off at the right stop even though the name did sound right when the assistant shouted it in Kanada. We stepped off the bus into a swarm of three wheel taxi drivers. Fortunately, our scheduled driver came running to us and shepherded our baggage and us to his car to drive us to the Bangalore airport. We caught a Go Air flight to Kochi where we were met by another driver who will be with us for four days in Kerala state. We finally got a driver that doesn't have to be the fastest and honkiest on the road. Nascar should come here for their drivers.
He took us to several beautiful waterfalls (It is the monsoon season) as we drove up the Western Ghat coastal mountains and to a spice garden for tourists. We now know what many of the spices we use look like in the wild. We also walked around a tea plantation.
We are spending the night a Misty Mountain Resort (www.mistymountainresort.in) in Munnar. It is cool enough here that the Indians are wearing jackets. The temperature is comfortable but not jacket weather by our standards.
Jan took a cold shower. Chuck is waiting to see if hot water shows up. p.s. it did after the barefoot employee ran it for 20 minutes.

This may sound like complaining, but we laugh about it. It's just a very different standard of living because of a very poor infrastructure.

July 15, 2009

We are at Global College in Hubli for the third talk. As we got out of the car, we were each presented with a rose. Then as we walked in, they took our pictures, introduced us to the Principal (like the dean of the college) served us tea, a sandwitch and biscuits, and gave us a standing ovation as we walked into the lecture hall. Then we were presented with boquets and a gift of appreciation. This has been typical at each of talk. Indians are very warm and friendly people and treat us as visiting dignitaries. The Indian university gets credit for accreditation by hosting a foreign scholar.

After the second talk, Shrimati took us on a whirlwind trip on our way back to Hubli. We went to see the Gol Gumbaz (big dome) in Bijapur. The sultan build it as a crypt for himself and his family. It has an unsupported dome second in size to St. Peter's in Rome. Quite an architectural achievement. We took the stone stairs up to the chamber at the top of the temple and could whisper to each other across the room and still hear.
We visited where the 12th century saint Basaveshwar received enlightment. It is where three rivers come together. It is quite a large site for his Hindu devotees. This was my first trip inside a Hindu temple. We also visited the Durga Temple in Aihole, Pattadabal temples, and Bidami. Badami has five temples carved out of the rocky hill side. It is similar to Petra in Jordan. It was really a fascinating place. Finally, we visited another Hindu temple Banashankari near Badami. Since Shrimiti is Hindu, she participated in the rituals at the temple. Most for the women are to ask for health, prosperity and long life for their husbands. On the surface, that seems funny to not ask for the same for the women, except that widows do not typically remarry in India, so the wishes indirectly help the women too. What a day of adventure this was.
The drives during the previous two days have taken us through many small villages and farms. It is fascinating to see the goat herds, the oxen pulling wagons filled with people, the water buffalo wandering down the road, and people walking and visiting on the narrow highway. The villages take us back to how India has been for centuries.
One interesting thing is that most men wear western style clothing even in villages while women almost always dress in traditional Indian clothing.

Hope this is not boring or too rambling, but their is so much to share.

Love Jan and Charles

You wouldn't recognize me - July 12, 2009

Hi All,

We are now in Hubli, staying at Shrimiti's house. It's colorful, full of gods and very interesting. I can't possibly describe it but I'll take plenty of pix. We got a lesson by Vasanth (her husband) on his prayer ritual which is fascinating.

Our bathroom has a sink on one end and about 5 feet away is the toilet on the other end. In between is a faucet with hose near the toilet for cleaning yourself. Then there are three sets of hot and cold handles with two shower heads and a faucet on the wall (no shower curtain or difference in floor). Near the faucet are two big buckets and a plastic two-cup measure. I have no idea how it's supposed to be done, but I poured water into the bucket and used the measure to pour over me, soap up and then rinse. I got the job done. Still haven't figured out the shower.

Then Shrimiti was entertaining five colleagues, all female professors. One wanted to go shopping so I joined them (Charles was incredibly relieved and went to the Internet cafe on his own). It may have been a bait and switch because within minutes, I was wearing a cotton tunic and pant with matching shawl out of the store to the delight of all who helped me. By the way, it cost about $7.50.

Then to the sari shop. What an experience! We all took our shoes off before entering. It was a very large shop, maybe the size of a Gap with the walls lined with folded "bolts" of different colored material. There are wooden benches coming out from the walls dividing the areas into spots of about 8' x 8' that had a single covered pillow covering the whole area. We all walked through to the back, behind the glass doors where the "good" saris were. So several of our group were telling 3-4 men what they wanted all at once. The guys took 5-10 saris (what I thought were bolts of material) opened each up to their glorious 6 meter length and waited for the women to narrow what they wanted. It was a wonderful experience of sight and sound. In the end, one woman bought two, another bought one, both very different, both silk. And I bought two identical silk ones because it was a good way to choose the material for the dress I want made.

India is everything I've read, full of people, sounds, sights, cows, pigs, goats and water buffalo roaming, no driving rules...and it's wonderful and exotic. Everyone we've met has been kind and genuine.

All for now, Love Jan and Dr. Charles

Goa, India - July 9, 2009

Hi All,

Unbelievable trip so far. Goa is on the sea and is a resort town. But since it's monsoon season (not just season, it's raining a lot!) it's not populated. We went to Bom Jesus, a Jesuit church, which houses the actual body of Saint Francis Xavier, who died 450 years ago but who still has skin and hair and hasn't decomposed. He's a bit thinner though.

The highlight of the three days, besides the wonderful, hot food (Wendy, you'd love it!!) is trying Paan. It is a beetle juice leaf, painted with oils,spread with spices and folded to a triangle about 2" x 1 1/2", made at tables on the street. You put the whole thing in your mouth at once and chew and suck to get the flavors. The leaf is sweet and the different spices are very exotic. However it's a huge mouthful and you don't swallow. Both times we tried it, we got into the car and drove for at least a half hour. I figured out to stuff as much into my cheek but still couldn't talk or do much of anything else but look forward to the next trash can! People who are addicted to it have stained red lips. Who needs lipstick!

Charles (he's called Mr. Charles here) and I went for a walk along the beach and got caught in a downpour. As we were walking home, two men called "come" to us to join them under an awning. The people are ALL warm, generous and very helpful. We were looking for a certain restaurant and stopped to ask for help. The man started to give directions but said it was very complicated, just go to this different restaurant that is as good. We did and it was good.

We are currently at an internet cafe where Charles is reviewing his first talk that is this afternoon at 3. I'll write all about it next time because we can tell there are many different traditions for teachers here.

And we leave for Hubli, our host's home, tomorrow.

All for now, Jan & Chuck

We made it - July 8. 2009

Hi All,

We made the trip easily, if not long. We are here in Mumbai at an incredibly fancy hotel, just for an overnight until we catch our local flight to Goa to meet our host, Shrimati Das and begin our journey. We landed about 10 p.m. and there were people and 3-wheeked cars all over the place. It has been raining with no wind and a constant 82 degrees since we got here.

We had our first Indian breakfast, which was similar to what we would have had for dinner at an Indian restaurant in the States. In the lobby was a man sitting on a mat playing different sized bowls filled with colored water that sounded very much like wind chimes. It was lovely.

Will write the next time we have internet.

Love Jan and Chuck