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VIP living, Indian-style
Our hosts are treating us like visiting royalty. Sankalchand Patel Engineering College (SPCE) has decided Michael is a VIP, and they want us to feel comfortable here.
We initially stayed in the guest house VIP apartment--a whitewashed studio apartment, with a private bathroom with indoor plumbing. There wasn't a separate kitchen like I'd hoped, but it had an electric teakettle and small refrigerator. And we have air conditioning!
Professor Hiren and the college were very thoughtful and tried to anticipate our needs. They supplied the room with American comforts. In the refrigerator was Tropicana orange juice, Kelloggs corn flakes, bags of milk, and all-important bottles of safe drinking water. Another little cart held Tetley tea bags and sugar cubes. We also had whole, uncut apples and bananas. Hiren had gone out of his way--literally, two hour's drive away--to Ahmedabad to pick up toilet paper for our bathroom. (Indians do not use bathroom tissue.) They really went to great effort, and we appreciate it.
Nothing's perfect. In the Fulbright orientation, they tell you to expect small problems. We had our share. The hot water heater didn't switch on; they replaced it with a new unit. The air conditioning window unit kept the room cool, but it was old and very loud. We had trouble talking to each other over its clanging and rattling. I couldn't sleep more than about two hours the first night, it kept waking me up with its loud bangs. They replaced the unit on the second day, and the new one was humming along quietly until this afternoon when it suddenly stopped. Maybe it realized I was typing about it? They just took it out and will find a new one. Our internet connection also had a problem with a faulty cable, and it wasn't working until about 7PM on Friday. It was out again on Saturday afternoon too, so I was originally typing all this in a text editor then.
UPDATE: On Monday, we just moved to a new apartment. The campus is finishing a brand-new building for the doctors in the brand-new hospital. It's several rooms, brand-new, and sunny. Our neighbors across the hall and downstairs are medical doctors; Michael is the only Doctor of Engineering. :-) We'll see if they can get the shower hooked up to the hot-water heater; the rest is pretty nice so far.
And we have servants (or peons, as professor Hiren unflinchingly calls them). A guard/houseman is at the guest house night and day. He fetches us chai coffee whenever we want it. A housekeeper comes in once a day to sweep and mop the entire apartment. She also mopped up after the air conditioner water leaking on the floor (twice). There are at least four additional people I've seen helping them, in and out of our room, but I don't know what their status is. None of them speak any English. They understand "thumbs up" means good. For the rest, we smile at them and they smile back; I guess that's all we can do until we start learning some of the local language.
We initially stayed in the guest house VIP apartment--a whitewashed studio apartment, with a private bathroom with indoor plumbing. There wasn't a separate kitchen like I'd hoped, but it had an electric teakettle and small refrigerator. And we have air conditioning!
Professor Hiren and the college were very thoughtful and tried to anticipate our needs. They supplied the room with American comforts. In the refrigerator was Tropicana orange juice, Kelloggs corn flakes, bags of milk, and all-important bottles of safe drinking water. Another little cart held Tetley tea bags and sugar cubes. We also had whole, uncut apples and bananas. Hiren had gone out of his way--literally, two hour's drive away--to Ahmedabad to pick up toilet paper for our bathroom. (Indians do not use bathroom tissue.) They really went to great effort, and we appreciate it.
Nothing's perfect. In the Fulbright orientation, they tell you to expect small problems. We had our share. The hot water heater didn't switch on; they replaced it with a new unit. The air conditioning window unit kept the room cool, but it was old and very loud. We had trouble talking to each other over its clanging and rattling. I couldn't sleep more than about two hours the first night, it kept waking me up with its loud bangs. They replaced the unit on the second day, and the new one was humming along quietly until this afternoon when it suddenly stopped. Maybe it realized I was typing about it? They just took it out and will find a new one. Our internet connection also had a problem with a faulty cable, and it wasn't working until about 7PM on Friday. It was out again on Saturday afternoon too, so I was originally typing all this in a text editor then.
UPDATE: On Monday, we just moved to a new apartment. The campus is finishing a brand-new building for the doctors in the brand-new hospital. It's several rooms, brand-new, and sunny. Our neighbors across the hall and downstairs are medical doctors; Michael is the only Doctor of Engineering. :-) We'll see if they can get the shower hooked up to the hot-water heater; the rest is pretty nice so far.
And we have servants (or peons, as professor Hiren unflinchingly calls them). A guard/houseman is at the guest house night and day. He fetches us chai coffee whenever we want it. A housekeeper comes in once a day to sweep and mop the entire apartment. She also mopped up after the air conditioner water leaking on the floor (twice). There are at least four additional people I've seen helping them, in and out of our room, but I don't know what their status is. None of them speak any English. They understand "thumbs up" means good. For the rest, we smile at them and they smile back; I guess that's all we can do until we start learning some of the local language.