In a style befitting our whole India experience, my company has decided that they would rather have me back in Phoenix.    This has been brewing for a few months, since at least my trip to the US in April, but we had expected to lose a year, not be told to pack immediately and return.   The official word came a few days ago, and a few days before our summer trip home.   This has put us into a mode barely less frantic than evacuees.  

We leave for the US on the 12th and will cram in short vacation in north India the week before that.   Joshua, Ian and I will come back in July to wrap up the remainders of our time here.

The lack of posts on this blog are the best testament to the reason for sending us back.   Changes to my responsibilities require extensive interaction with business partners in the US, requiring me to be in meetings throughout the night.   This has resulted in endless alternation of sleeping and working, with little time for anything else.   Despite the long hours and constant exhaustion I still asked to stay in India, to no avail.

But British Airways returned by missing suitcase, 5 weeks after they took custody of it.   Nothing missing and just in time for the final trip.   Maybe this is the best of all possible worlds after all.

I upgraded my mobile phone on Friday to a new model (Motorola SLVR L9) that supports GPRS data connections.  This provides us with Internet access at home.   It works at speeds comparable to the modem connections I thought were slow 15 years ago.  But it is a connection.    Hopefully this will allow me to post more than I have been.   It will be a couple more months until BSNL (the government phone company) gets us setup with a high speed connection.

I have received some feedback that you would like me to post more about what is going on with Amy and the kids.   I will post more, especially about Abby and Max, since they can't form a coherent objection to my posts.  As for Joshua and Sarah, I defer to the old adage that "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all".  In short, they are not too happy here.   Especially Sarah.   I am truly realizing how much of her 11 year old outlook is based on friends, especially some very good friends she left back in Arizona.   From her perspective I have taken her away from everything important and taken her to a place that has absolutely nothing to offer her.  She is not interested in adventure or cultural experiences and does not appreciate the lessons in gratitude and service we are hoping for.   For Sarah, and to a bit lesser extent Joshua, India is nothing more than a bad experience that can't end soon enough.

Amy and I are trying really hard on our new tactic of making it seem more like home.   We are trying to make home more enjoyable and give them more positive experiences.  This means we are not pushing them to try Indian food or other experiences.  We just want them to be comfortable at home and school.   We know that this is a prerequisite to appreciating India and/or enjoying the experience.  

We did foresee this as a risk, and some of you may wonder how I could be oblivious to this being the biggest problem we would encounter.  Truth is I did think this would be our biggest problem.   I thought we would be over it by now.   We are each in our own way trying to make our way through this.   I know that each of the kids will look back and appreciate their time here.  For some it may be many years from now.   Even for me the career risks and opportunities are far from certain.   I have no promise of any promotion or advance as a result of this, I expect the benefits to be ammortized over the rest of my career, hoping for opportunities opening up somewhere in the future as a result of this.   I really hope the kids will look back on this episode of their lives and say "I really hated it at first, but I am really glad we did it." 

I know that I have many supporters who will read this and want to help make it better.   I appreciate your willingness to go to great effort on our behalf.   I am not writing this as an appeal for help, just a desire to share the various challenges and experiences of our time in India.

Thanks,

Shawn

 

One final note.   Some have requested our mailing address, it is:

No. 11 Sea Cliff Conclave
III Drive
Akkarai, ECR, Chennai 600 119
INDIA

My email is shawnswaner AT gmail dot com

It has been a while since I posted.   I spent a long week in the US, working in Los Angeles.   My last afternoon there was spent frantically filling my suitcases with things that are impossible to get in India.   7 bricks of Tillamook, wet-wipes, a new charger for my cordless drill and saw (to replace the one I fried by accidently plugging it into a 220v outlet), soup, weather strip, caulking and a multi-meter.

That was 8 days ago.  While I was away Amy and the kids were suffering through the latest round of Murphy's Law nightmare.   We have been here for about 75 days and it seems there have been 75 disasters or problems to deal with.   The latest happened on Friday as I was leaving the US.   The city power (called "EB Power", EB stands for Electrical Board) failed.   The generator was turned on and major problems ensued.   One third of the house went dark.   Equipment in the rest of the house started going up in smoke.   Over the next 72 hours the casualty list would total the following:

• Washing Machine - Dead.
• Microwave - Dead
• Power Cord/Brick for Josh's laptop - Dead
• Amy's Printer - Dead
• Speakers for my PC - Dead
• Fan in Josh's bathroom - Dead

 A number of lights also died.   Most of the items listed above were destroyed when we plugged them in not realizing there was a problem.   On Sunday night the lights in some parts of the house were dim, barely on.  In other parts the lights were brighter then they ever had been, the ceiling fans spinning madly as if they were about to tear themselves out of their sockets.

Sometime during the night we smelled the smoke of burning electrical wires and everything went dark.  At the time we were on generator power, the EB power had failed sometime before.   The next morning i called the landlord and was very emphatic that these problems needed to be fixed immediately or we would be leaving, regardless of the terms of the lease.   I wasn't angry or rude, but Josh remarked after that I "gave Reginald the beatdown".   It worked.  The next day a group of electicians showed up.  In addition to the normal losers who would show up without tools, stand around scratching themselves then leave, he sent a guy who was obviously "the man".   He had a box full of tools, carefully checked out each part of the electrical system, then gathered the rest around and issued instructions.   They pulled out and replaced meters of wires inside the walls, and meticulously tested each circuit.

At one point there was an argument outside the front door.  I went out and asked for a translation (which is one of the more futile requests to make in this country.  All you get is a very short synopsis that is mostly a suggestion from the translator to what you should say in response).   In short, the 2 electricians from the generator company were leaving, saying that the generator was working fine.   The main electrician was saying that it wasn't.   At that time we were on generator power.  I had bought a multi-meter while in the US.  I turned around and plugged it into the outlet by the front door.

 

It should read 220 volts.   The generator electricians don't understand much english, but the seemed to understand "Don't go, fix generator", or they could read the obvious anger on the faces of me and the master electrician.

Some hours later we had the generator fixed.  The problem is that 2 of the 3 circuits were getting crossed in the house, creating 330volts on some circuits and 65-100 volts on others.   Both conditions are very bad for electronics.    The generator had a similar problem in that one of the circuits wasn't properly grounded.

For good measure the EB sent out three men to redo the connection from our house wiring to the power pole on the street.   They were explaining how they would have to come back later in the week when the EB power went out.   They had a short conversation and decided that since the power was out they could do the work now.    I asked one of them how they knew the power wouldn't come back on.   He replied that he didn't think it would, but "that would be bad".

The EB man climbed the pole barefoot with a stick in is mouth.  Tied to the stick was a rope that he tied around the pole so that he could stand on the stick.   He then wrapped the rest of the rope around the pole and around his waist, leaning back to tension the line.

He then disconnected the wires connecting our house to each of the three circuits and replaced them by wrapping them with new aluminum wires, the wires were only new in this use, the other EB man stripped a scrap of wire to recycle the aluminum wire.  

That was 5 days ago.  Since all this activity the electricity has worked flawlessly.   Hopefully we are past that hurdle and ready for the inevitable next problem.  We have been without a washing machine for a week, that is the next goal, to get the repair man out to have a look at it.   We are running out of clean clothes....

In looking back through my last few posts, you may get the impression that I am frustrated, angry, or uncomfortable with India.   Rest assured that is not the case.   I learned a long time ago (back in Shiliguri) that you have to have plenty of patience or India will wear you down quickly.   So despite many problems and setbacks I and my family are doing very well and are very happy to be here.  In fact, India itself is causing far less stress than the Dilbertesque problems my wonderful employer is throwing at me.   I wish I felt comfortable relating these problems, because that would be more interesting than my tales of the mundane.

We are also very excited to be on the verge of two big milestones.   Tomorrow I expect to take a lease on a car, with a driver we are very comfortable with.   Also, tomorrow we start moving into the house.   Tomorrow night is our last night in the hotel.  

I have imagined various trips around India during the months leading up to our move to India.   Mahabalipuram is an ancient temple town about 45km south of Chennai and I had always planned to make that one of our first journeys outside of our Hilton cocoon.    As I had been there twice before, I thought I  had correctly imagined how the day would play out.   When I had been there in the past, it was as just another boring tourist.   This time it was with a couple of people charming enough to bring out the paparazzi.    Looks like we are not alone in this experience:

In South India, meanwhile, Sloane regularly caused uproars that verged on riots. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to travel as part of a rock star’s posse, take your grinning pink baby to a bustling temple complex in Mahabalipuram. For an Indian tourist, a 1,200-year-old stone carving of a reclining Vishnu is dullsville next to a real-life Canadian infant in a
baby backpack.

                From:   8 Essential Lessons We Learned About International Travel with an Infant
                           2: The Magazine for Couples



Abby and Max were clearly the star of the show.   As we pulled up to outside the Shore Temple they even managed to disarm the very persistent souvenir sellers that immediately swarmed around us.  

I had not adequately warned my family about this part of visiting a tourist attraction in India.  The touts were very persistent.   I had to stand between the touts and the kids, then back up to give them room to get out of the car.  

We made to the relative calm inside the gates of the shore temple and had fun climbing around on the temple and statues that are 1300 years old.  I don't think the kids have a concept of just how old that is.

We headed next over to the Five Rathas.   We only had our video camera, which doesn't take good still photos.  Rather than make this an entry about the wonderful sculptures and carvings of Mahabalipuram, I will focus on the paparazzi/Entourage like excitement that we (or accurately Abby and Max) caused. 

We had numerous people coming up to us and asking if they could have a picture of Abby and Max (sometimes they would ask for a picture with Joshua and Sarah, but the older kids were usually spared the crush of attention).    I would sometimes look around and see people taking pictures from a ways away.  Others would push in and setup the picture they wanted.
 

I can't imagine their description of these photos when they load them up to show relatives would be any better than "Here is a picture of our kids with some strange American kids ... No, we didn't even ask their names." 

It has been a long, exhausting 10 days, but I am somewhat hopeful the worst is over.  The kids are in school, we are looking for houses and I have started working at the office.  I have time to post this from my Blackberry because I am at the airport cargo terminal.  We are trying to find my air shipment (including my computer) at the customs holding area. This place is crazy typical of India.  The first stop was the "Entry Pass Counter". I had to stop there to get a pass to get past security, but I didn't have a bill of shipment to prove I should go through.  After a few minutes I just walked in without a pass and found my shipping agent (who had the bill).   Now, they are saying that they can't find my boxes but to not worry as this is normal.

On the wall at that counter they had the instructions for getting your shipment through custom painted in big letters, running from ceiling to floor.  I was able to follow the first half of the instructions, but the lower half was covered in a wainscotting of thick brown spit.  Standard interior decorating for public places.

Anyway, I have no cell phones, despite hours of effort. We have no house despite days of searching (but this may change today). We have no car (except for the $125/day rental at the hotel. But we are here and not complaining. 

One very big item crossed off the outstanding issues list:   Our passports arrived over the weekend while we were in Utah visiting family.   Now, I just need to get visa's of the kids.   The other big name items are:

Moving day week:  Starts on the 20th and runs all week.  

Immunizations: Wednesday

School Applications: Tonight, now that we have the passports.

Visa Applications: Tuesday.

Go crazy from the stress of it all: At any moment.