My last post was short and direct. I think the immense poverty here got to me. Someone during our meeting today said at least 50% of the population (in Mumbai) was living in poverty. Driving through the streets and seeing all the little children living, sleeping, bathing on the side of the road like they were wild animals really amazed me. Yesterday evening we saw a young man with 3 young women and about 6 children under the age of 4 years. You don't see that in the places I've lived. But, as Curt pointed out, more people probably live like he does and we are the minority in the world. Wow!
It's still somehow a safe place. I don't feel like I'm in any danger of physical harm. Sure we are stared at because we look different and the blonde hair and blue eyes are especially of interest to some of the little children but I enjoy watching them as much as they do me.
Yesterday we found a nice neighborhood in Bandra after visiting a friend of a friend off of Linking Road. It was the first area where dogs were actually on leashes. Must have been security dogs. The preference being bull mastifs. Huge dogs! Very lucky dogs as there are thousands probably millions of wild starving dogs here. Even a few stray cats but not many.
The other thing we noticed were bats. Giant bats with wing spans of at least a meter. The kind that you only see in plastic or material on Halloween. These were flying through the trees at dusk. Incredible.
The other things that are flying are kites as it is kite fighting month. I've never even heard of kite fighting until reading the Kite Runner last year. The kites are everywhere and since a couple of days ago they are less in the sky and more often seen stuck in the trees.
One of the big cultural differences we have discovered is the shaking of one's head means yes and not no as we know it. Every time we ask a rickshaw driver (I've had it confirmed - they are officially referred to as auto rickshaws in India and 'tuk tuk' is more a Thai or Vietnamese word) to take us somewhere they shake their head. So we walk away assuming they are letting us know that they cannot take us to this location. Instead it means 'yes'. Who would have thought?
Yesterday when we were talking with the kids back home they were so interested in hearing about India and what we are doing and seeing. Terence really, really wants to come here with us and see it for himself. Mia does too but then she started crying about it. I asked her why she was crying and she replied, "Mama, I want to go to India with you but I don't want to get the shots!" She was with me at the clinic when I had to get my final Hep A and B shot and my Typhoid shot. She hates shots and was crying about having to get one in order to come with us next time. Maybe only Terence will get to see India in the near future ;-) Ali is still too young and would only want to come to be with us and play in the hotel pool or on the beach. One day I look forward to bringing all of them as I feel it will be incredibly enlightening.
As for work, so far our meetings have been quite successful. It's just the beginning of a long road and we truly hope to see Move One here in the near future. There is competition but plenty of room for a new relocation company. We had to give a presentation about Move One today and said it would only be about 30 minutes. It was at least 2 hours before Curt and I realized that we went over our 30 minutes. We both laughed explaining that it was our passion and excitement of our industry that keeps us talking.
Tonight we have a dinner meeting - at 9:30pm! They definitely like to eat later, stay up later and start work later. Fortunately our jetlag is working in our favor as we haven't been able to fall asleep before 2am or 3am since arriving. Back home I'd be heading to bed at 9:30am! ;-)
Oh, I almost forgot, Curt and I came up with the perfect solution to handling all the begging children (often carrying their baby siblings) who were coming up to us, rubbing our feet and hoping for some change. Our hotel room has a cookie jar that they fill up with fresh new cookies every day. The hotel staff must think we are the biggest pigs as we empty it everyday! We take the cookies and fill up my purse before every outing. While at red lights, the children come up to us in our rickshaws and beg. We hand them each a cookie. Poor things are so taken back by the gesture but then are happy when they realize it is food.
It's 6pm and I'm off to the gym before our dinner ... in 3 1/2 hours...
