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So after yet more writing of first aid presentations and sessions the week ended. People keep apporaching RedR for training, I get busy writting proposals and then they decide against it. Its very frustrating. Anyway after a slow week I went to CHabad for Shabbos which as always was fun! On Saturday I spent the day in the office doing not much before I ended up going out with Bharam. It was great I didnt pay for a single drink but had lots of fun doing silly things!!
However the next day I regretted it (I got woken at 5am by the doctors picking up equiptment, i seem to rembemebr not being very nice to them!). With a steaming hangover I went ont he bus to Mumbai, the way Indias drive it was a miricle my stomach survived. I was heading to Bombay for a metting with an NGO that wanted risk modeling done on some schools in Gujurat. I have a basic grasp of the subject from uni and SArbjit said they were desperate so off I went. The meeting was Monday but I decided to crash with someone form couch surfing to allow my self some sleep.
I stayed with Nickhil, his family are Sindhi (Hindus from Packistan) they are generally well off, his family being no exception! He took me first to the Mumbai festival, where inevtiably I did some shopping. Then we went to Macdonalds for dinner (their veggie burgers are to die for!) then we went to his club. This is a relic of the colonial times. Pretty much any expat in Bombay is a member of a club where they can paly tennis, watch the football, drink and eat. Brits get priority followed by Europens, Ozies, Americans and finally Indias. There is 25yr waiting list for indian memebrship! I didnt like this side of India and it reminded me that parts are very western and while i like visiting them I am glad I am in PUne and have a bit more of an indian life style!
After staying up late to watch con air I headed off to my meeting. I got the bus there and was 45 mins early. It was in a Muslim area of Mumbai so imagine my suprise when next door was the Jewish school and synagogue. Ma'ariv was still going on when I went in to explore! I could not help but imagine Gods sence of humor sending me for a meeting and ending up in Shul! After having tea with the men, and discovering a Kosher hotel on site, I headed next door for my meeting. It was a bit of a waste of time as they wanted a numerical model making which I am massivly underqualified for. They would have let me be involved in the project but didnt like how long I am around for. So that was that.
After the meeting I went to the tea rooms (which mum and laura will rembember fondly). I sat there from 11-4. I was meeting some people form couch surfing for luch and was 3 hours early. However I enjoyed my book (I finally got round to reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin). Eventually I met people for lunch and Anglekia and I sat there for a while before I decided it was time to head back.
Tuesday I was in the office for a few hours, where I was being asked to develop more first aid courses. But I was without a computer as it was in Assam so I just pottered round the office moving from computer to computer checking my mail! For luch I was going with Bharam to meet an environmental NGO about starting a protection society up in the hills. It was plesent and the possibility of yet more first aid came up, working with some womens empowerment groups. It was a nice break form the office at the most amazing house in a part of Pune that was green and peaceful!
That night, without my computer and nothing better to do I joined the gym across the road! It fills my evenoings and is constructive, I enjoy going and everyone rembemebrs me! With not much to do until my computers return I spent wednesday annoying everyone in the office! and then got my computer back at 11pm!
Friday we had a meeting with the Red Cross which was massivly dissapointing, it dosent look like they will back my course so thats that plan out the window. I had planned to go to Nasik for the weekend ot stay with someone i met through training. But at the last minute he had to cancel. SO with nothing planned I look forward to a boring weekend. But that didnt happen! Through the wonders of facebook I noticed an old school friend was In India, and i knew her family was form Pune so I sent her a message, only to get a reply to come to her cousins wedding in Bombay. With no better offer I headed off to Bombay. It so happened that some of the COuch Surfer women were meeting saturday afternoon, so i timed my arrival with that and then headed off to meet Devina (who I hant seen in 5 years!). AAfter some break deowns in communication which resulted in me eating cake with Shailja. I got to Devina's cousins which was manick as the mehendi painting was going on. I got intoduced to most ppl there, alot from Birmingham and Slough. And enjoyed the atmosphere. It was hard to sit still for the 10 minutes that it took to paint my hands. But the bride, Preeti, had to sit still for 4 hours while her arms and legs and feet were painted, then after that she had to apply a sugar solution to make the coulor darker. I am NEVER having full mendhi. After messing around and chatting until2 am we slept in a refugee camp of the front room with 8 of us on 5 matresses!
We got woken in the night by grandmas great escapes and then got moved as more people were comming for variuos things. At this point it was decided I should make myself scarse to relive some stress. So I went over to Powai to crash at Sailja's. Her family were great she managed to get me a last minute ticket to a gig she and her husband were going to. We had a great time acting like students sneaking in whisky and enjoying hte music. After rendomly seeing the lead singer of the death metal band i had seen 2 weeks before and chatting to the band Goldspot (very good) we went home to a bottle of wine and pizza (very civilised!).