My Family Moves to India

is sometimes too much for me. Take these last two weeks:

Generator down again, which means that we had no power after dark for two days in a row. My back-up lantern failed (battery had burst), and then my back-up batteries failed (nothing in them. Cardboard and foil - of course, I bought them here in India.) Then I burst. Generator man had to get a replacement coil from Bangalore. Once again, the generator is fixed - for a while.

Hot water heater pipe busted open - same pipe that they fixed just two weeks ago. They used a cheap soft plastic tube, which melted when the hot water came through it. So no hot showers for a while.

Illness - I've been in bed for two days with a cough and fever; visiting parents-in-law have had Delhi Belly. Kids seem fine, though.

By far the worst part, though, has been the near-constant traffic accidents that we have experienced. Four in two weeks - evenly divided amongst the drivers, or I would be firing one of them for suspected substance abuse. Thankfully, by God's grace, no one has been injured. Two involved motorcyclists - one of which the motorcycle was caught in our bumper and dragged along until we could safely stop - it was a miracle that the rider was able to jump off in time and wasn't drug along also. One involved a pedestrian, and in the latest episode, just today, the car's brake failed and it rolled down a hill and into a lorry.

Saddest of all, K and B, my parents-in-law, who are only here for 5 days, have been involved in two of the accidents. I'm afraid that is all they will remember from India!

Ah well. Enough griping. I feel better today; fever is gone. It's Valentine's Day and S bought me a lovely necklace. I'm not normally a jewelry person but this is a really tasteful (meaning: Westernized and not too gargantuan) peice of Indian artmanship. I'm enjoying gardening, although the weather is heating up, so soon I won't be able to do much.

Best of all, I'm planning our next rest and relaxation trip, in April. I'm plumping for Vienna, although S has yet to hear of it. Waltzes, great food, musuems, architecture, castles, gardens, Lippizzaner stallions....the birthplace of classical music.....ah, I can't wait! Not to mention the hallmarks of civilization for me - hot water and reliable electric!

I'm also working on our summer trip to the US. We will be visiting Chicago; Niagara Falls; Columbus, Ohio; and Decatur, Illinois. The Decatur bit got added on the end as a business trip for Shawn, which works well since I've discovered that it's really a lot of work to convince doctors and dentists in the US to take on a new patient who lives abroad and is only available a week or two a year.

Explanation: we didn't keep our house in the US, and had no intention of spending the time or money to return to Decatur (no offense, we just don't have family there). Instead, I had intended on doing annual dental and physical check-ups in Columbus, Ohio, where a couple of my siblings live. But, last year, that proved quite a chore. I very nearly didn't get my highly important annual mammogram (remember, I'm a breast cancer survivor, and would like to keep it that way!) because of the complicated procedures required just to get an appointment. (Referrals...out of state doctors.....insurance complications....oh my gosh. The system rivals the beaurocracy here in India.) It will be MUCH MUCH easier (I'm hoping) to get appointments with our hometown Decatur doctors. So we can get everything taken care of in one shot. I hope.

Do we use doctors here in Chennai? Yes. And they are good. They are especially expert in the local parasites and diseases that are not prevalent in the US - when we leave India, I intend to have everyone go for a final parasite check-up, just as a precaution. But the facilities - the hospitals - are not always good. And, it's just comforting to have an annual check-up in your home country. Mindsets differ.

As well as planning vacations, we are also preparing for our beloved nanny cum cook, Crystallyne, to leave us. Hopefully it will not be permanent, but we don't know. Truly reminescent of Mary Poppins, Crystallyne blew in with the wind and has been invaluable in helping with L and J. She has the rare gift of being able to get along (and direct) both of them - something which is quite tricky, since they are polar opposites. Usually if you get along well with L you are too high-energy and violent for J; and if you click with J, you have no interest in constant motion and soldier uniforms. She is also wonderfully positive, which is good for our family. Crystallyne returns to the US in early March and is going to spend the summer with her family in Idaho; what happens next is anyone's guess, but we would certainly love to have her back.

E is also preparing to move on, but when and where, no one knows. Because of her unusual academic background, she does not yet have three years of high school grades to show the colleges that she has applied to. Therefore they are deferring their acceptance decisions until she finishes this last year of school - which will give her the required three year's of grades on her transcript. So we wait. It certainly will be dull around here without her sparkling personality and highly entertaining love life. (I hope I am safe saying that - I don't think that any of her boyfriends read this blog. If they do, well, sorry, you've got competition.....loads of it.....)

And one of my favorite family members, kitty? She is doing well. She and Ginger, the dog, are finally done with their shots (whew. No more worries about rabies or feline distemper!) Next month they go in to be spayed. We will then be bona fide responsible pet owners.

Guess that about covers it. Stay tuned.....rumor has it that we may soon have high-speed internet - there is actually a cable for it draped through my shrubbery. We only lack the modem....should only be a couple more weeks to get that - making it a full year to get internet out here!!!

OK, it's not that dramatic. No one fell down a well or got caught underneath a burning car.

I'm just feelin' blue. I realized belatedly that today I have been cut off from the "real" world - my internet was out much of the day, my cell phone is broken, the land line is so full of static that it's useless, and S took my driver so that Sudhakar could get his motorcycle out of the impound lot. (That particular errand took 9 hours and no doubt deserves a blog episode itself, but I just don't want to know right now.) Of course, it's also the night (OK one of the nights - that topic too deserves a blog entry of its own!) that S works late. Really late. It's just me, the kids, and the servants. sigh.

There wasn't even anything good on TV.

I can't take a walk or go to a cafe, because there isn't anywhere within walking distance that I want to be, and walks in India are not that pleasant. They are mostly trying not to step in anything, and at the same time, not look at anything too closely.

Ah well. Tomorrow will be a better day. It is Thanksgiving and we are going to a friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm pulling the kids out of school early so we can have some fun. I think S might even try and make it.

I've been working hard on two fronts: getting the house ready for our stuff, and getting the kids adjusted to their new school.

So far, neither one is coming together very quickly.

First, school: L is doing well. (Can you believe it???!!) Or at least as well as L ever does. His teacher is awesome. We are talking about holding him back a year to keep him with her, and also because he is so behaviourally behind that his academics suffer. We shall see. He is working hard on making friends and we see definite improvement on that front.

J. Well, let me say that today I would count my efforts at getting J adjusted to school as a complete failure. She now hides when it is time to get in the car, won't get out of the car, and definitely won't go to her class. I have spent more hours than I care to count sitting outside her classroom in the 110 degree heat with her bawling beside me. (The teacher won't let me in the classroom.) I finally got fed up and now she is staying in her room with no toys all day. Nothing else has worked: lectures, bribery, playdates with friends in her room....she hates her teacher and doesn't feel safe there because her teacher doesn't let her see the nurse, etc. when she says she feels sick. We are not happy with the teacher's non-nurturing attitude either, but there isn't any alternative (no other first grade teacher and no other air conditioned school).

I have a feeling that we need to pull her out and let her adjust more to India, but I'm afraid that it's already too late and she has developed a complex about the school. We shall see.

The heat (like I said, 110 F) and the mild tummy illnesses that we are all experiencing are not helping.

The house: Well, I've tried to get curtains up all week. The fabric is cheap, but the rods are unexpectedly expensive. I've only had one company out for an estimate though; another lady is supposed to come out today. She comes highly recommended and also speaks very good English, so she has two points in her favor.

The curtain thing is a nuisance because we have lots of lovely big windows, and therefore the guards and sundry personnel can see into the house, especially at night. Frankly, I just want the freedom to wander around in my nightie and/or scrub the kitchen floor without being talked about the next day. Not that they say anything to me, but I know that they do talk.

So maybe next week we will get the curtain rods up. I also need a painter, to paint the interior of some fusty old cabinets, and haven't made any progress on that front either.

However, yesterday a man did show up to cut down the dead palm tree and trim the dead leaves out of the other palm trees. Both of our drivers are insistent that the lawn needs mown, which cracks me up since the grass grows in quaint little round clumps, and isn't any more than 6 inches high in any one spot, so it doesn't look like it needs mowed at all to me. Neither one of these guys has ever seen the beautiful thick prairie grass that we grow in the midwest, though. They both say that it needs mown because of "germs" and "mosquitos". Hmmmm. I am trusting them in this because they take good care of us, so we're looking for a lawn mower. Or whatever is the equivalent here (probably a pair of pinking shears or nail clippers, but we'll see.)

Last night I cleaned what is going to be the master bath and the sink fell off the wall, the light fell off the wall, and the shower head is so gunked up with water deposits that it will only squirt sideways. No, I wasn't using a baseball bat. So another call to the landlord. sigh. Still one more bath to go. I am thinking of simply sealing that one off as it smells really bad and we're not sure why.

But the electric and water have been fairly stable for a week or so now. Of course the internet and phones have been iffy, but hey, I've got my cell.

Our shipment is supposed to arrive next week. Wow. I can hardly believe it, and have very mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I want our stuff desperately - especially our own beds. On the other, the house is not as clean or as organized as I'd like - I haven't even unpacked all of our air shipment yet - so I know that once it's filled with boxes and furniture, I'm going to feel even more overwhelmed.

I am definitely looking forward to the cabins this summer.

Gotta run to pick L up -

T