I'm in India right now!
Wednesday Cindy came down and picked up Becky and me and all of our stuff. She is storing our things during our trip. Russell and Jen are are also storing some things for a week or two. Cindy made us a delicious dinner and strawberry waffles for breakfast and took us to the airport. She also packed us a really good lunch, which lasted us until we arrived. Thanks so much guys! Thanks also to Celeste for the amazing chocolate cookies.
Our travel went well. Several of our flights were slightly delayed, but it didn't seem to matter very much. We got to the airport at 8:30 am on Thursday, and arrived in Vizag at 1:00 pm on Saturday. Five other members of our group also traveled with us. I think Becky was a bit worried about our twelve hour layover in Mumbai, but it ended up being only ten hours there, four of which were taken up by security and baggage checks. It was cleaner and nicer than we expected, too. We even found some nice reclining chairs to sleep on. No one lost any luggage, except for the water bottles that the Belgians confiscated in Brussels.
Vizag is very hot and humid, but if you're under a fan it isn't bad at all. We were met at the airport by our program director, Dr. Nuckolls, and by Krishnayya, who is our site director and professor. They took us to our apartments and the program house and got us some food there. They were worried that we would be totally exhausted and kept telling us that we could go crash anytime we wanted, but everything was so interesting that we stayed up. Sudha, Krishnayya's sister-in-law, and Rajulakshmi took us to a store in an autorickshaw, where we each bought a ready-made salwar kameez. We'll get some more soon. We had dinner and went to bed after that. I had been worried that it would be too hot and humid to sleep well, but it was very cool and comfortable under the fan, and I slept excellently. We're both feeling very well.
Becky and I are in an apartment with one other girl, Jain, that is down the street from the program house and between the program house and the other house people are staying in. It is at the top of a building, and is bigger than I expected, much bigger than my apartment in Provo. The toilet is just a hole, and we're not permitted to use toilet paper, because it blocks the drains. I'm still struggling to figure out exactly how to use the bucket and dipper to wash. The shower room has two buckets and a dipper, and I'm not sure exactly how to use that either. Hopefully sometime soon I'll post a few pictures.
Everything is different and interesting. I think the weirdest thing, however, is getting stared at. I've never been something that people looked at before--I could easily blend into the woodwork--but here we create traffic jams. It's a little embarrassing and a little flattering and a little scary.
The food is really good. The people here are really nice, and I like my group, too. I hope to write again something soon.
Love you all!
