First Thoughts of Dandeli

Dandeli is built around the paper mill. Most everyone that lives in the town either works at the mill or supplies something to people that work in the mill. Raju told me he thought there are 100,000 people living here, but I don’t know because I have only seen a small portion of it. There is a whole community within the gated portion of the mill. I think most people that are employed by the mill live here, there are a lot of buildings that look like apartments and there are more that are houses, like the house I’m staying in. I’ve also seen a temple and a hospital. All the buildings look pretty run down from the outside.
The house I am staying in has three different rooms for people to stay in. I think it used to be a normal house and they converted it into a guest house. My room is pretty simple, but I have cable tv (the only thing I’ve watched so far is their music station and it is so awesome, I love Indian music videos, they crack me up), a little fridge and my own bathroom. And two twin beds right next to each other, so the room is a little cramped. I think the room next to mine has two guys sharing it, but I haven’t actually seen them, I’ve only heard them. And I’ve heard everything. I think one of the guys must be sick because he sure has the runs a lot. Totally gross. There’s only a false ceiling, so all the sound carries right into my room. I had to sleep with earplugs last night because their tv was on so loud and the guy keeps coughing over and over and then going to the bathroom over and over.
Anyway, my bathroom is just an open room and there is a shower, but I couldn’t get any hot water out of it this morning, so I used the buckets and scoopers to wash up. It worked and wasn’t as bad as a cold shower would have been.
We have each of our meals at another guest house where there’s a big kitchen and an open room where all the people visiting the mill eat. I guess there are two different places we can eat; we’ve been going to the vegetarian house to eat since Raju is Hindu. It’s all Indian food and has been pretty good so far, some of it is a little spicy for me, though. And I’m trying not to get sick while I’m here, so I’m only eating things that are cooked. They’ve given me a couple of desserts, but I have passed on them because they’re made with milk. I’m sure I would be ok, but I just don’t want to risk sounding like my neighbor. The other house has some non-Indian style foods since there are people here from Germany, Japan, China and other parts of India starting up different equipment at the mill. I’m not the only white person eating there, but I am the only female eating there. And I haven’t seen any female engineers in the mill. I think that must be why I get all the stares from everyone else working there. It’s kind of annoying.

Getting to Dandeli

I'm sitting in this community room where we just had lunch in Dandeli. This is the town where the paper mill is located. I'll tell you a little about my trip getting here. We flew out of Bangalore early this morning to Hubli, which is a teeny-tiny airport. They use a tractor to pull the baggage cart things. A driver from the paper mill was there to meet us and we took off down the road.
Drivers down here drive like they are in a race; I think most of them would do well on obstacle courses. We were first on a larger highway-type road which had enough room for our car to pass a motorbike while a huge truck was coming from the opposite direction. We soon took our exit, which was a dirt road that looped back under the highway we had just gone over. It was definitely not a normal exit, but people started using it as one. It put us back on a paved road, but not very wide and no markings on the road. There was just enough room for a car and a truck on the other side. Unfortunately, there are way more people/animals using the road than just a car or truck. I wish I could have taken some pictures as we were speeding down this road, we saw so many different things. Most of the area is farming, I saw fields of corn and sunflowers, women out in the fields carrying pots on their heads, cows with their horns painted bright blue and red, children in school clothes and children half-clothed, men sitting in front of shops.
The road was being used by cattle, men with carts full of hay being pulled by cows, people on motorbikes (a family of 4 was the biggest group I saw on one), children, dogs, chicken, monkeys, trucks with large loads, buses and cars. And the cars, like ours, were the ones passing all these people and animals. Our driver was going around 50 mph most of the time. Every time we approached one of the above, he would honk his horn and then whiz by them sometimes with a bus or truck only missing us by a few feet. I wasn’t as scared as I thought I would be, but it’s probably because I’ve had somewhat similar rides in Thailand and Honduras. Although, those rides were not in such rural areas with so many people walking on the road or on a road that was so narrow. There were a few times that I thought we were going to get hit, but these drivers are pretty good. He would just slam on his brakes if he got too close to hitting someone or didn't have enough time to get around a slower vehicle.
Not too far from Dandeli, we came to a stop because a couple of cars were blocking the road and a bunch of people were on the side of the road. I knew it had to be an accident and I didn’t even want to look over. I looked, though. It was so awful. Two men must have been hit on their motorcycle and were in the ditch. One guy had blood all over his face and I could see the other guy being held up by someone, I don’t know if he was alive. It was really upsetting. If these people would just drive a little slower, those men wouldn’t have been pushed off the road. It seems like such a preventable thing.
Anyway, I made it here and I am glad we had a good driver.
Later today, Raju, (the Indian rep I’m working with) told me that he had never been the way we came. Normally, it’s about another 45 minute drive that is on the main highway.

Bangalore, India

I arrived in Bangalore around 1230am last night, after traveling for 22 hours. I spent way too much time sitting in a plane. I was on Air France and flew through Paris, but didn't get to see any of the city from the air because it was so foggy. I was hoping to at least see part of Paris. I really need to visit Paris. I watched a few French movies to make up for it. The cutest one was La Petit Nicolas.

When I finally made it to India, the hotel had a driver waiting to pick me up with the little sign. The drive over was pretty quiet, there weren't a lot of other cars out (probably because it was 1 in the morning), but every time the driver went through a crosswalk, he would honk, which I thought was a little weird because there wasn't anyone out. I found out today why he honked. That's all they do while they're driving here, honk to let you know they're about to run you over, honk to let another car know they are in their way...lots of honking. I had to take a video, which I'm having troubles putting on here. I'll have to try later.

Here are some pics of the road around here, nothing too exciting or pretty.

I'm staying on Brigade Road, which is next to MG road, both of which I had read about as being good places for shopping. I did get out and found some nice deals on a few things, but I really didn't like how dirty everything was out on the sidewalks and all the loud traffic around me. I went into this department store that had all sorts of things on sale. The weird thing about that store was how many people were working there. I would look at one or two racks of clothes and one employee would come up to me and just stare at me, so I would say, "Oh, I'm just looking, thanks" and then I would get to the next couple of racks and another person would come up to me and start staring. It was so weird. First, that they had so many people working there and then second that they wouldn't ask me if I needed any help, they would just wait for me to say something first. And then when I was making my purchase, I asked the guy if they took American Express and he shook his head no so I asked him if they took Visa and he said, "we take American Express or Visa". I guess shaking your head no means yes here. So confusing.

I had read about a huge botanical garden here, but I didn't have enough time to find it. It would have been nice to see some more green. I did see two small garden patches, but there was garbage thrown all around it. I really should have found the botanical garden, so I could know there was something really pretty here. Maybe I'll have time on my way back home.

Heading to India

Yes, I do still have a blog and yes, I've decided to revive it. Maybe I'll do a super post and put up some pictures from last year. But for now, I'm going to share my experiences with my upcoming trip to India. I leave this Saturday and will travel for 20 some hours to Bangalore, India. I'm going to end up in Dandeli at the West Coast Paper Mill for my work. I'm helping them with a start-up of one of my company's systems. It should be an interesting experience.

The wikipedia link for Dandeli appears to be written by someone promoting the wildlife sanctuary, and I wouldn't mind going there, if I get some free time. I might get to see one of these creatures: elephant, tiger, leopard, gaur, flying squirrel...especially the flying squirrel.

More to come. I hope I have internet at the guest house in Dandeli, so I can put up pictures while I'm there.

louisiana stories

I was in Campti, Louisiana last week for work. There were a couple of funny things that happened during the trip, so I thought I would write about them. Campti is too small of a town to actually stay there, so I stayed in Natchitoches. Think about how you would say that town name, you're completely wrong, it's pronounced Nack-A-Dish. I have no idea how they get that pronunciation from that word...confusing, but again, it is Louisiana and they pronounce things differently.

When I go on work trips I normally meet some of the operators that work in the paper mill. They are friendly and like to talk to me, probably because they don't get very many girls working around them. I wish I could have recorded some of the conversations I was in because their accents are so strong, it is sometimes hard to understand what they're saying, but kind of funny listening, too. One of the guys I was working with, Eddie, was pretty nice. He gave me suggestions on where to eat, gave me his phone number on the back of a map he drew in case I got lost, talked me into trying alligator tail, wanted me to try fried frog legs (no way!), made me laugh by making fun of another guy there that was taking dancing lessons so he could dance with his daughter at her wedding, and even made me this miniature little copper scorpion. Pretty funny. And no Annemarie, I wasn't interested in him. But I thought it was sweet that he made this little scorpion. So cute, I have it in my office, now.

A couple of more random things. I was driving into the mill one morning, listening to the local news and there was a story about these two women that got into a fight at the Wal-Mart in town. I guess one of the guys that was with one of them ended up grabbing some scissors off the shelf and repeatedly stabbed the other woman. He was arrested and being held for attempted man-slaughter. Needless to say, I decided to not go into Wal-Mart when I was looking for a place to grab a snack.

I did have some good southern/Cajun food while I was there. Besides the fried alligator tail (which really wasn't that great), I tried some meat pies (basically meat empanadas), dirty rice, bbq pork sandwich, chicken po-boy (this is just a warm sandwich, but the chicken was seasoned so yummily), baked chicken, chocolate cream pie on a pecan crust and some peach cobbler. I know, it looks like I'm a pig, but I was there a few days. And I'm going back on Monday, so maybe a few more stories will come out of this trip.

acupuncture

I love running and I haven't really been able to do it as much as I would like to since July last year, JULY! It has been frustrating to say the least. I developed trochanteric bursitis, read about it on wiki. But basically, I could not run on it for several months while I was going to physical therapy. The bursitis part actually went away through that treatment and no running, but I have had an irritated muscle in my left hip since then. It's the most annoying thing ever. I've been working with a sports medicine doctor and we tried the PT first and he did a x-ray on my hip, did a MRI of my lower back, went back to PT for core strengthening....our latest treatment method was acupuncture. Yes, I know, it seems a little new age and all, but I was willing to try it. I went 6 times and nothing really helped, so I am thinking I will next try the cortisone shot. I have been able to start running some again, but it's still a nagging pain in my hip muscle (I don't know the name of whatever one it is). I would really like to be able to just go out and run and not have to think about this anymore.

So, here are a few shots of my back with the acupuncture needles in, they are really quite small and don't even hurt. Except there was one that she put in my hip that must of hit a blood vessel because it swelled up and bruised immediately. My sister does acupuncture, I should ask her what she thinks of it, maybe it works for other things.

my new band

Bart just did this on his blog and since he is so cool, I'm going to copy him. Follow the instructions below to make the album cover of your new band.


I love my new band, Wichita Wild and our new cd, Energetic Men of Good Will is so awesome. I wish I could have gotten as cool of a photo as Bart did, but I didn't want to cheat, so I got stuck with some crazy kid running in the sand. Maybe it goes with my album title? If I saw this cd, I probably wouldn't be too interested in buying it.

1. Go to Wikipedia. Click “random”or go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2. Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together and post it.