Beggars and Shoe shiners

Well I've managed to stay away now for almost the entire day. We are heading upstairs pretty soon to meet up for dinner. Poor Ray is on his way back to the airport to get some more teammembers. Turns out that there is another team here this week from Saudi Arabia and the host has been spending a lot of time with them. I met Moira straight away, she is the team leader's girlfriend and she is here until tomorrow. They've been here for a week and it was nice having her to show me around the neighborhood. She took Chinmoi (teammember) and I to this coffee shop where I had a paneer tikka sandwich (imagine a bagette with a cheese-like substance and a redish sauce... YUMMY!!!). The cafe is on the second floor andoverlooks a busy street. We sat up there for hours watching (and listening... people use their horns here for EVERYTHING!). And the streets... OMG!!! Traffic is on the wrong side of the road and the lanes mean absolutely nothing. I am used to crazy traffic, I am not used to trying to dodge motorcycles, cars, rickshaws and people at the fast pace that you have to do so. I almost got hit by a motorcycle the first time I tried it (don't worry mom... not a scratch on me! :) ). I feel a bit like frogger!!! It was really relaxing sitting at the coffee shop and Daniel came to join us. He's REALLY sweet! After awhile Ray showed up and told us that Ava and Liam were now @ the hotel. Ava had just spent the past 10 days up in a homestay up in the himalayas. Chinmoi had a friend here in Delhi that he called and so he came over. He was having a good time trying to teach us how to say thank you in Hindi, Urdu and some other language. I still have no clue,,, something like surday. We came back to the hotel and picked up Ava to go for a walk and explore some of the shops. Ray headed back to the airport. Daniel, being a tall white guy... seemed to pick up all the beggars. People would beline for him and ask him for money, to let them shine his shoes, you name it. He is very sweet and has a hard time telling them no. He finally gave in and let some guy shine his shoes. They are waterproof Merrel shoes that dont need shining but it was hilarious watching the pleasure he got out of ruining his pair of shoes for the experience of interacting with a Delhi native. The shoe shiner even took off his own sandals to have Daniel put them on in the meantime. A crowd quickly gathered as we are the only white people that I have seen all day in this neighborhood! We walked a bit further and next thing we know, we are surrounded by an entire family of beggars. Turns out Daniel had given the little girl 20 rupes (50 cents) and she brought her whole family over to ask for more. the little boy (about 7years) began to beg Daniel and the little girl began to hang on my arms. I tucked my hands into my pockets and tried to just keep walking. She was filthy and sticky and her hair was completely matted. She was probably about 9years old). The mom and baby began to bother Ava and Moira. They were really persistent and must have followed us for a half an hour. Ava taught us that we could say "naji" which means "no thank you." She also taught Daniel how to say "go away." None of it worked. Finally, we dodged some cars and crossed the street. They did't follow. Moira told us that oftentimes there is a man, similar to a pimp that makes these families work the streets and beg. If they don't bring in money they are beaten. If they do bring in money, they do not get to keep any of it.

Dinner was here at the hotel... I get to eat Indianfood for 2 weeks! What could be better than that?! At dinner Ray talked about Bawana... he told us that it is a neighborhood of slums where we will be building. When he asked at the front desk for a driver who knew how to get to Bawana, the response he gotwas "oh no sir, you definitely do not want to go there." Hahahaha... He also talked about Vijay our taxi driver and how he has the absolute worst sense of direction! :)

The team members I have met so far are SUPER cool!!! I can't wait to get to know them all. I laughed more today than I have in weeks. The brochure for customs said "Incredible India." Incredible indeed!!! Tomorrow we will continue to hang around while other team members arrive. We were talking about goingg to see a Bollywood movie or taking a Yoga class @ an ashram. We'll see!

Delayed... Delayed and Delayed!

Wow, what a LONG trip it was getting halfway around the world!! I survived though and am currently sitting in my hotel room in Delhi. After all the stress of the ticket fiasco, I arrived at the airport a bit drained and stressed. I know that it will all work out before I have to go home, but I was stressed out getting them to fix the two tickets just to get me here! I arrived at the airport to find that my flight was delayed an hour because of the snow in London (the plane was coming from London). I had great company to wait with though. My mom was there with her friend Marti, and my friend Jennifer and her daughter Cali had just flown in from New Hampshire and were waiting at the airport. By the time I had to get ready to go through security, I could feel the exhaustion and stress of the past few days settling in. Being sick doesnt help! I must admit, it was really nice to have a little bon voyage group standing there waving me through security! While waiting in line I started talking with a pilot standing behind me. And when I say talking, I really mean flirting! He was cute!!!! He had a British accent and we talked about India (he had just been here last week). Turns out he was the pilot for my flight to London! When we parted ways I said "alright, you have a safe flight now" and he turned and chuckled! :) He'd BETTER have a good flight!!!! The flight to London was amazing... it was half empty so I got a whole row of 3 seats to myself. I probably slept for 5-6 hours of the 10 hour flight. There was a very sweet man sitting across the aisle... he was heading home to Scotland. When we landed, he threw a dark chocolate Cadbury bar and a bag of chips at me and said "this will help you along on your journey." Very sweet!!!!

Can I just say that London is freezing! Who would ever want to live there!? IT was in the 20's and they walkways are not heated! BRRRRR!!!!! It had snowed and there was snow on the ground. I quickly realized that my next flight was also delayed. It said it was delayed 1 1/2 hours. I was famished and luckily my mom had packed a peanut butter sandwich for me. I ate half and sat around watching planes. I made my way to the gate and waited, and waited, and waited. The original flight time was @ 3:25 and the sign said 5pm was the updated time but at 5pm we still hadn't boarded. At this point, exhaustion was starting to set in and believe it or not, I was getting grumpy! :) Boarding was a nightmare! I am starting to see some patterns here. If you are over 70,you can cut to the front of the line. If you have small children, you can push your way in front of other people as well as bring along both sets of grandparents. If you have any sort of disability, you get pushed to the back of the pushing mob of people :) Or at least that's how our boarding went (and later our customs line in India).


We get onto the plane, get buckled in and the pilot comes over the intercom to say that while the plane was waiting, ice developed on the wings and we were going to have to wait for a de-icer. The wait was an hour and a half and then the proposed wait for take-off was 30 more minutes. I just about lost it. WE are sitting in the seats, can't get up, can't watch movies and they wouldn't feed us or give us water. Luckily I had the 2nd half of my PB & J or I might have had to knock someone out! The good news is that the de-icer came sooner... the bad news is that the have to turn off the air inside the plane while they do it. So now we are all grumpy, hungry, thirsty, tired AND hot! Oh... and thanks to the hot... STINKY! There must have been about 20 children on the plane under the aeg of 2 years so you can just imagine how well they handled the wait. The two guys next to me were very sweet but I was about ready to throttle them by the end of the flight. One was a 74 year old man from Vancouver who is flying home to India for a visit. The other was in his 30's and also was from Canada. They didn't know each other and promptly started debating about some topic... in Hindi... loudly... with hand motions. So here I am, stuck in a seat, sweating, hungry, sick, frustrated, listening to a bazillion children screaming, trying to dodge hand movements. To make matters even better, the woman with crying baby #4 stood up to get something out of the bin above me and pour a whole bunch of water all over me. So now I can add SOPPING WET to the mix. The flight gets underway and everything seems to be going smoothly. We eat and then I try to get some sleep. Yeller #1 and Yeller #2 are continuing their debate in the seats next to me. I try turning on the radio full blast. No dice. I then add a blanket over my head. I can still hear them. I then tie my sweatshirt around the towel which is around the headphones with the radio on full blast. Loud mumbles is the best I could do. I tried meditating and praying. I then try alcohol... excuse me Sir Flight attendant, I'd like a bottle of wine and quick. One bottle of wine later and all it does is make me tearful! I was so frustrated. (repeat of the Miami airport incident anyone? :) ). when we landed in India, 3 1/2 hours after our scheduled time, you could not get me off the plane fast enough!!! I practically ran down the walkway! The first thing I noticed though is the smell. It was hazy when we landed... a thick mixture of fog and dense smog. L.A. doesn't have a THING on Delhi smog! The smell though is something I'm not sure how to describe. It's a mixture or burning wood (a sweet pungent smell) and an incense smell. It's thick and makes you want to cough. I really like it though... it's somehow comforting and soothing.
(this image was above where passport control was... I LOVE the hands!)Passportcontrol was much of the same pushing and shoving... I even got elbowed by an 8 year old as he merged into line right in front of me. I can tell that the moral of this trip is going to be patience. Good news though is that my luggage made it here! YEA!!! Ray (the team leader) met me at the airport, poor guy hadn't gotten the message that my flight was delayed and had been waiting since 4:30am! He seems REALLY cool!!! He rode back to the hotel with me, giving me the low-down on the hotel, what to expect today/tomorrow and the like. On the way, we dodged about 23 potential car accidents, saw about 30 beggar children in the streets, dodged to miss a cart being pulled by two oxen and went the wrong way on a one way street. WELCOME TO INDIA! I LOVE IT!!!! :) Driving to the hotel, I suddenly felt invigorated and peaceful. Gone were all the hassles of getting here or knowing how I am going to get back. Instead, I simply sat back and watched. Ray dropped me off at the hotel and immediately turned back to the airport. Daniel is already here but his room has a Do Not Disturb sign on it. It looks like I will be sharing a room with Natasha (National Guard from Canada). but she will not be getting here until tomorrow so I have the place to myself. The room is small but clean. The beds are ridiculously close together so that should be fun... getting to know each other right away! The first time I went to use the loo... I practically fell in because it is much closer to the ground than we are used to. As I am typing, I can heard a pigeon trying to hack into the room through the airconditioner and there is something crawling in the wall to my right... ah, nothing like it :) the shower has a small window in it and under that is a simple wood plank, let's just hope it is well bolted down as the shower looks out onto the street!! Well, I think I am going to head out to scavege for some food and see if Daniel or anyone else is around.

I made it on the flight!

I just found out that they fixed my plane ticket and I am ON the flight to INDIA!!! YEA!!! Lots of phone calls and complaints but I have seats!!! YEA! I don't even care that they are in economy class!!!!! Coming home is a different story... The travel agent somehow released the booking and they are currently unable to find me a seat on the flights back home (on December 18th). I told them that I would be more than willing to sacrifice and move up to First Class :) Hopefully they will figure it out... they've got two weeks to do so!!

India here I come!!!!! YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Urgent cares and no plane tickets?

And I haven't even left the country yet!!! Of course, this would not be a "Sheri-venture" without a little drama to get the ball rolling! I am hopping on a plane later today and am just about ready. Yesterday (well all week really) I'd been having trouble with my asthma. I was just dealing with it until yesterday it got pretty bad and I thought "hmmm... do I really want to have trouble breathing in India?" On second thought, let's go get it checked out (I know, I know, All my friends who constantly try to get me to go to the doctor are secretly cheering right now. The words of my friend Christina still ring in my ears from last November "Ok, so if you still can't breathe in two days you are going to the doctor then? Did you just hear yourself say that Sheri?!?!?!"). $80 later and armed with two inhalers and pills for a Steroid I headed home to go online and get some seats on the plane (you can only sign up for the seats within 24 hours of your flight). I was unable to log in so I called British Airways and was able to talk to the meanest lady on their staff. I'm not kidding, she answered the phone with "hello, how can I not help you, I want to be as difficult as possible eventhough you are freaking out about your ticket right now." Ok, well maybe not really :) Long story short, she tells me that the travel agent never booked my ticket. I have a reservation but not a ticket. What does this mean? IT means that when I go to the airport, I would have to buy another ticket!!!!! Awesome! I tried to call the travel agent but their customer service was closed for the night (darn living on the west coast and not EST!!!). I was able to speak to a n agent for "new travel" (hey, I was desperate here!). They gave me a ticket number so I called BA back and gave them the ticket #. They were able to find the ticket but for some reason I was booked in two classes (economy and business) and I would need to call my travel agent to have them fix it. I called the travel agent back but they couldn't help... my only option would be to call customer service in the morning. I headed to bed thinking "I am totally going to get stuck with the middle seat all the way to India because everyone else has already gotten their seats." I awoke this morning and spoke to a bright and cheerful woman named Sandy w/ my travel agent. She agreed to call BA and sort it all out and call me back within 15-20 minutes. She just called a moment ago (45 minutes later). I asked her how it was going and she said "really good but I am going to have to call you back again after I talk to a supervisor and a manager." Hmmmm.... what could that mean?!?!?! Really good implies that maybe I'll get lucky enough to get the seat in business class... however, talking to a manager could be a good or a bad thing. Keeping my fingers crossed!!!!! Maybe there will be a silver lining in all this! What a great story to start the trip with! :)

Gratitude...

I'd like to take a moment to process some of my feelings about this journey of getting to India. When I decided a year ago that I wanted to participate in a Global Village trip to India, I never could have imagined that I would be where I am today. It has been a long process but one that has humbled me tremendously. As most of you know, I am not normally one to ask for help...in fact, I am one of the least likely people to ask for help. Having been raised to always do things on my own... I learned not to rely on anyone but to make things happen on my own. After talking with a friend last year who said "you would be surprised at how many people would want to help you. What you are doing is noble and people want to give. Would you really rob them of that opportunity?" I tried to see things in a different light. Even with that advice, it was hard to ask you all for donations and support. This year has taught me much about the kindness of others. It has really shown me that people are not only invested in my life, but they are happy to help me and support me in my passions. Sometimes, being over 30 and childless, I envy friends and family that have had bridal showers, baby showers and the like because in those moments your friends gather together to celebrate a life event with you. Not having had any of those moments, this year has been my year to be "showered" by love and affection. Some people have given me money (often from people I never would have expected it to come from!), others have given me resources (laptops, clothes, etc) and others have given me emotional support and encouragement. Overall though, I feel the love in every bit of it. I absolutely could not have made it here on my own. To date... I fundraised almost half the total expenses and with the incredible donation from my mom, my trip is almost completely paid for! And my brother completely surprised me by giving me a laptop that I will be able to use in order to remain in contact with all of you... he gave me the gift of communication and connectedness... and for that I am seriously grateful! In addition to financial resources, I have received acknowledgement from my work and they just published a full two page article about my involvement with Habitat and my commitment to helping others... this is the second article written about my involvement (the other was in the HFH Orange County newsletter). I just can't believe that my story is touching people all over Orange County and Long Beach... and I hope that it will inspire others. With India looming just a few days away... friends have rallied to spend time with me and help decrease some of my anxiety about traveling.

In short... from the bottom of my heart, I am blessed to be blessed by all of you. This moment will be in my memory forever as the year that I allowed others to help me... and became all the better for it. I love you all. i leave for India in two days (arrive there in 4 days) and I can't wait to see how it all turns out. No matter what though, I will enjoy seeing a new country, serve a needy family and get to know new friends... oh yeah... and have the pleasure of jetlag,Delhi Belly and lots of other fun "memorable" moments:) Here's to another wild ride... stay tuned!!! :)

(oh yeah... if you would like, you can click on the link on the right hand side that says "followers"... this will update you each time I post something new).

Let's meet the team!

It's official, I am leaving in just over one month and just submitted the final payment to Habitat. No backing out now! I am REALLY excited to head to India and can't wait to see how this trip will unfold. In the recent few weeks, the team leader has been sending out a lot of emails about the culture and the build site. I am getting a bit nervous about the way he communicates but am hoping that once in the country everything will work out fine.

This is going to be a smaller team than I am used to and I think that there can be some positives and negatives to that. There is only 11 people going (including the team leader) which is different from Thailand (14 people) and Ghana (12 people). The makeup of the team is also going to be pretty different... 7 guys and 4 girls (it's normally about 2/3 or more female)... does this mean that I can opt out of all the heavy lifting, digging and lugging bricks? Oh wait... that's all we do on a Habitat build! :)

Here's the team:
1. Ray- team leader, from London, owns his own business, has been on/led 11 habitat trips
2. Martin- our host in India, been a social worker for 20+years, worked with Habitat India for 5 years
3. Ava- I don't know who she is, she never submitted a bio
4. Amy- lives in Florida, works as a Sign Language interpreter
5. Clinton- 36yrs, lives in TN, works for University of Tennessee
6. Chinmoy- 36yrs, from India but lives in Bahrain, works as a business analyst at a bank
7. Jerry- 40yrs, lives in WI, Works as a senior database developer at a financial services firm
8. Liam- 19yrs, lives in England, works as a sports coach
9. MAtt- 28yrs, lives in Oregon,
10. Sheri- the most awesome teammember there is! 31yrs and rock as a social worker :)
11. Daniel- from SEattle, a retired police officer
12. Natasha- 33yrs, lives in Canada, works in the Canadian forces

So that's it! It should be one heck of a ride!!! Hold onto your hats! (or should I say sari's?) :)

YEA!

YEA! I just received my final donation which brought it up to $1800 in donations! You guys are amazing!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!