So I’m back from Kohima the state capital of Nagaland, though from the amount of it I saw it may as well of been anywhere else in the world. The drive winding up and back through the hills was stunning I am going to blog some photos in a day or two.
I’ve decided that meetings like the ones I listened in on can be both extremely dull and also quite fascinating at the same time. Occasionally people engage in quite subtle manipulation, and other times not so subtle.
The food in the hotel we were staying at was ok. The speed of service was pitiful though. This morning it took me 30 minutes to get 4 particularly cooked slices of toast and a cup of tea. Latter on it took me 5 minutes to get a bottle of water.
I did during meal times get the chance to meet some VIP’s, which was interesting. I always find power relationships weird. I find it odd trying to work out how to present myself and in what ways to humble myself in front of those with power. There were also some quite fun people along from the ride. Tonight whilst waiting for food the discussion descended into one of the doctors talking about eating monkey’s brains in Singapore and various other interesting food stories revolving around weird meats.
It’s been a great here meeting some of the people involved in the project at various levels. There are definitely many obstacles but I feel like we are going to get there anyway. Also good was seeing the site first hand as well.
God willing I shall be living Dimapur tomorrow and be back in Delhi tomorrow evening. We shall see what happens, if the flight doesn’t come tomorrow then I am stuck in Dimapur until Sunday as the flights aren’t operating on Friday and Saturday due to a pilot shortage.
About stuff
Well I am back from Kohima after my overnight trip there. I was pretty much in the hotel the whole time, I am looking forward to recovering autonomy when I arrive back in Delhi which if the plane comes and deposits me at Kolkota in a reasonable time should be tomorrow. Once back in Delhi with my broadband I will post some photos to satisfy Ryan.
About stuff
Blogging in Kohima from the hotel where we are staying. I am waiting for their meeting to finish so I can eat. I can’t leave the hotel and even if I did everything would be closed. Stupid security.
About stuff
I can’t use my Delhi pre-paid account because of the “insurgency” for some stupid security reason. Which means I can’t receive or make calls anymore. But if I had a post paid account it would of been totally fine, and I could of roamed here without any issues. India’s mobile networks really are silly.
Anyway this makes me sad, but I should be back in Delhi on Thursday Night so then things will be OK.
About stuff
I am off to the states capital today for the night. There are some big meeting tonight and tomorrow there.
It should be fun. We shall see anyway.
About stuff
Sunday often brings me a sense of peace. The place where I am staying in Dimapur is certainly more peaceful then my home in Delhi. As I was making myself breakfast this morning I could hear the singing of Western Contemporary Praise and Worship songs.
I went to the morning service at the Ao church 50 meters down the road. Ao is a major tribe of Nagaland. The service was all in Ao, and they sung Ao version of Great Is Thy Faithfulness. It was a nice experience, they had lots of prayer, a few songs and a rather long sermon. The preacher was kind and took pity on me and the two other foreigners in the service, and gave brief summaries of what he was saying in English every so often. I had the problem of feeling rather dehydrated and sleepy during the service. I almost fell asleep a number of times during the service.
At the end of the service even during the closing prayer people started leaving. Few of them stayed around for even a few minutes. It seemed to be a very much worship and then go home affair.
Not sure what I am doing today I’ll have to wait and see.
Dimapur
So I am in Dimapur now haven’t worked out how to get on the net yet. That will come soon.
It’s great to finally be here. The plane trip was quite scenic I like prop driven planes except it made me feel a little sick. The area is quite tropical with a humidity to match. It was fantastic to finally see the hospital site. Lots of activity going on with 100’s of people working. Roads are being built/widened, foundations are being made for staff housing, trenches are being dug for the sewerage, walls are being knocked down, walls are being built, so many other things too.
It’s good to meet a few more of the people working on the project as well. That’s about all I have to say for now.
I am connected using the dial up account they have here at CIHSR.
About stuff, Dimapur
I am sitting here at Kolkota airport waiting for my net flight onto Dimapur. It’s been delayed and is currently scheduled to leave 2 hours late. I am feeling pretty tired as we had some guests arrive late last night and I had to wake up at about 4.30am this morning.
The Indian Airlines flight between Delhi and Kolkota was surprisingly pleasant. They didn’t have any inflight entertainment, but they did give us a pre-takeoff moist towel and apple juice. Those who have not flown much may not understand how refreshing a moist towel can be on your face. Better are the heated moist towels, unfortunately they didn’t have these on my flight but hey you get that.
After arriving in Kolkota we had to go and check in again because the Indian Airlines couldn’t give us our boarding pass for our Kolkota Dimapur leg. Thankfully I am flying with my boss who knows the ins and outs of it all.
Indian domestic airports I have seen thus far (all two of them) are pretty thoroughly stuck in the seventies and the architecture seems Soviet inspired. They really need to be rebuilt pretty badly, and Delhi is in the process of being rebuilt right now.
I just got asked to move to a special lounge. It’s behind one of those nice posh executive lounges and it looks kind of like an 80’s cafeteria. There is no wifi internet here or internet café’s so I am just going to try sending using my mobile phone. Ten retries latter and I have a connection that works. I am going to try and post now.
About stuff
Well tomorrow morning at 5.15am I am off to Nagaland. My first flight is to Kolkota and then from there onto Dimapur. I am looking forward to seeing the progress on the project, meeting more of the people who are involved in it, and seeing the people who will hopefully benefit from it. In addition I should get a better idea as to when I’ll be moving there, timelines and some of the requirements.
My stomach is behaving a lot better since the I started taking drugs, hopefully it will cope with Naga food. Hopefully I won’t end up eating any dog. We shall see.
I have to warn you all that my blog fequency may drop until Thursday night when I should get back to Delhi. I really don’t know when I’ll be able to blog in Nagaland. On the plus side I should have some new exciting pictures to put up when I return.
Delhi, Dimapur
Today I saw a man beating a boy(who looked very poor) with a stick and yelling at him. I wondered if it was my place to do anything. I couldn’t think of any sane course of action so I kept walking.
Seeing it really disturbed and shocked me I guess that’s a good thing. God protect me from become hard hearted about the suffering of others. I don’t want to be desensitised but after just a few months in Delhi I can feel it happening.
Delhi, Poverty Sucks
So they joy of loose motions and other joys of Gastroenteritis have not yet past and it has been over a week since my birthday when it started. Whilst I have still been able to more or less continue living life it is a pain, and I am meant to be travelling this weekend(more on that another day). So today I summonded the courage to face the Indian medical system. I asked someone I new where I could go for a GP and was told to try the Max Mediclinic which is about 10-15 minutes autorickshaw ride from my house. I called up to book my appointment before I went, they asked me to spell out my name. When I got there I noticed that the place was pretty posh, much posher then my GP back home. Then again it was a full mini hospital. I went to reception and they didn’t have an appointment listed under my name, but they did have an appointment with my mobile number under the name TRIVIT or something weird like that. I have no idea how they got that, but DAVID is a very hard name for people to understand.
I then went to registration across the hall and filled in my details and payed my 400Rs consultation fee(about $12). I was then told where to go to see my doctor. I waited about 20 minutes, thankfully I had my iPod until the doctor was free to see me. Then when I got in there we started talking for a few minutes then he was on the phone. We said a few words then another phone call. It was quite bad because I could hear the other side of the conversatations because his volume was so high. There really is no such thing as privacy in India. Anyway things continued like that for a while and I got to ask a few questions he prescribed some medications. He did manage to get the very basics of my patient history and told me basically what he was prescribing and when to take them (though no reference to with or without food). Then whilst on yet another call he waved me out of his office.
Went to the pharmacy downstairs and got my drugs 416Rs worth. I have to take 3 different capsules, I did a good little google on the drugs to find out when to take them with regards to food. Of interest to me was a new drug instead of imodium which is called Racecadotril under the brand name Redotil. It’s meant to be better for you but also it’s more expensive. Also of interest was “good bacteria” tablets I was prescribed as well. Anyway hopefully these drugs will help me be better nice and quickly.
Delhi
Wes said “The power hasn’t gone out yet today”, me I said “Don’t say that!” half a second latter the power went out.. Thanks Wes.
About stuff
Recently in India a teenager killed himself by setting himself alight. Both his parents had HIV/AIDS and it appears the stigma related to the humilation of having HIV positive parents. Pretty devasting. Just goes to show how important work on fighting stigma and descrimination is. You can read more here at BBC News or here.
HIV/AIDS and TB
It feels like for the past while that I have been running my life pretty close to empty. The thing though that is amazing me thinking back tonight is how I always find refreshment right at the moment I most need it. God really is good.
Delhi
Tonight I went out for dinner with some friends to celebrate my birthday, it ended up being 5 Australian’s and 1 Canadian. Which was nice. We went to a themed resturant called piccadelhi which was made to look a bit like London and Piccadilli. It had Italian, contential and Indian food. Anyway to celebrate the occasion, I decided to be patriotic and buy an Australian white wine. My first problem was the though they had a comprehensive drinks list from their bar called the Drunken Duck, including a range of spirits, cocktails, shooters and even mocktails, it was missing even a single mention of wine.
I asked the waiter for the wine list. Now Indian wine lists are quite unique in that they don’t mention what winery or year of the wines. So we then asked the waiter to bring out the bottle of wine for us to examine. It was a bottle from the Adelaide Hills that I’d never heard of, but it looked alright. So I said we’d have it even though the price was ghastly, and asked for 5 glasses(only 5 people were there at that time). So that took a while. Then they decided that we needed an ice bucket and towel. Then the waiter tried opening the bottle with a knife and was having quite some difficulty opening the screw top bottle that way. I tried to get his attention and get him to let me open the bottle. Eventually he listened to me and let me have a try, with one quick twist I opened the bottle to the shock of the waiter. We explained to the waiter that many Australian wines used screw tops. The waiter actually managed to do the give me the sample correctly, however he failed misserably at pouring even roughly equal glasses of the wine for people. Then they quickly removed the bottle of wine and the ice bucket.
The wine was fairly good and the food I ordered later was pretty good too. After dinner we went out for coffee which was also fun. So a good evening, much much nicer then my actual birthday.
Delhi