Feb. 12 - 15

Tuesday, February 12, 2008: Arrive in Durg
Our last train trip was quite comfortable, we enjoyed the extra room with the beds that were only stacked two high—and the privacy curtains. It was also nice that our luggage all fit underneath our seats so we did not have to pile it in the aisle between us and on our beds. At our arrival in Durg we were greeted as usual, by a group of Rotarians with marigold Leigh, and then taken to our host homes. There we had time to get freshened up before we gathered at our coordinator’s house for breakfast.

After breakfast we visited a hostel near the hospital for family members of patients to stay. As is the custom we were offered tea and other Indian food but we were busting at the seams with chai and other Indian food and could not even force ourselves to politely taste anything. I think we had all reached our limit. We first visited a beautiful Jain temple and then we all had lunch at the home of a Rotarian. After lunch we went to a cow sanctuary where we were shown how cow urine and dung were used for a variety of products. One Rotarian drank a glass of cow urine to illustrate the benefits of cow urine. We were not at all interested or inclined to try it, but we did take the soap made out of cow milk, curd, ghee, urine and dung. After the tour we went to our host’s home to get ready for the evening meeting. It was scheduled for 8:00 p.m., but as is the practice here it began around 9:00 p.m. We gave our presentation and then after the meeting there was music, snacks and dancing. We were quite tired but some of the Rotarians had quite a bit of energy and enjoyed the dancing. Around 10:15 we gathered for dinner—another practice that we never adjusted to. We were as usual quite tired and ready for bed!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008: Travel to Raipur, Fly to Delhi
This morning we all gathered for breakfast at a Rotarian’s house in a nearby city and then loaded up vehicles with all of our luggage for a two hour drive to Raipur. In Raipur we had lunch and then gathered our extra luggage and items that we had sent back from the district conference. We finalized arrangements for our time in Delhi and got ready for our trip to the airport. Our flight to Delhi was uneventful and we were pleased to find our driver who took us to our “guesthouse”. We were pleasantly surprised by the nice accommodations—hot water, and western toilets with toilet paper were a very welcome sight. There were only two beds, but the caretaker (and we found out also our cook in the morning) brought in a mattress that Tom was able to sleep on.

Thursday, February 14, 2008: Visit to Agra
Our driver arrived promptly at 7:00 a.m. to drive us to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We were just finishing breakfast which to our delight was omelets, and toast with peanut butter—yummy! The drive to Agra was at times slow going, but the roads in and around Delhi are an improvement from the other roads that we have traveled on. We arrived at the Taj Mahal around noon, and we were immediately descended upon by various vendors and tour guides. The competition must be quite fierce because they were very persistent! We walked to the Taj Mahal and purchased our tickets—it was nice to not be the only Caucasians and hardly anyone asked to have their photo with us. The weather was sunny and warm and we thoroughly enjoyed walking around the beautiful grounds at the Taj Mahal. After our visit we were quite hungry and very excited to go to McDonalds—they did not have hamburgers, but they did have chicken sandwiches and French fries that tasted just like what we remembered from home. Oh what a treat it was to eat food that we were used to. The next stop was a fort with a spectacular view of the Taj. Finally around 4:30 we headed back to Delhi, this time there was a lot of traffic, and we were all exhausted when we got back at 10:30.

Friday, February 15, 2008: Tour of Delhi and Flight Home
This morning we packed up and had another good breakfast. Our driver arrived as scheduled, and due to miscommunication we had to check out, so we loaded all of our luggage into and onto the car. We were very crowded but we knew it was just for one more day. We drove by the capital buildings, visited a museum and did some shopping. We also had lunch at KFC—it was quite similar but the chicken had a little zip to it that we didn’t remember tasting in the states. We did not have anywhere to go, and since we had our luggage we decided to head to the airport around 8:00 p.m. When we arrived they would not let us in until 3 hours before our flight left—so we had to pay to wait in another waiting area across the street—as is typical there were not enough seats and it was quite dirty and smelly but we knew it wouldn’t be for too long. Around 10:00 we headed over to stand in various lines and get checked in—the airport was very crowded, dirty and smelly. We finally found some seats and waited until we were finally able to board the plane for Amsterdam.