दय तो दय इंडिया

I haven't been writing as much as I was while in China because most of my days are the same.

4:30-6:30am wake up to the noise of people sweeping cement outside, or watering plants, or the bicycle man selling something and yelling the same thing over and over as he rides by the houses
7:55am wake up for real and get dressed
8am breakfast downstairs of dosai or yet-unidentified brown flakes in goat's or coconut milk laced with sugar. and a banana.
8:45am bike or walk to work. Say "Hi" to about 20 people on the way.
9am to 1pm work, or pretend to work. This involves researching, thinking and messing around on the internet. And emailing people at home.
1pm go home for lunch
1:30pm eat lunch, usually some kind of very thin, flat, round bread or rice with chutney or mashed beet stuff or mashed cauliflower stuff, mashed potato stuff or mashed spinach stuff, all with other stuff mixed in. I think of it as red, bright yellow, lighter yellow and green. Also, grapes.
1:50pm go upstairs and sleep till the cleaning lady comes and knocks on the door. Madly throw a T-shirt on over tank top and a long skirt on over shorts so as to avoid embarrassing her. I'm sure she can hear me thrashing about. Sleep when she's done sweeping around. She really does come everyday, I don't know why.
3pm to 7pm same work as morning. Wonder why no one else seems to mind the air conditioner being off. Sweat.
7pm bike home and attempt to avoid potholes and not fall off the road when there is no traffic coming because it's so dark without another vehicle's headlights
7:30pm home for dinner which is similar to lunch but a different dish. With a banana. And tea with sugar afterwards.
8pm to 9pm sit on the roof with roommates while they secretly smoke. Can only be done in the dark.
9pm to 11pm shower if the water isn't out for the day (usually not), read if the electricity isn't out (usually isn't at night and usually only out for a few minutes at a time during the day) or chat or whatever

So, overall, it's really not such an exciting existence. We can't go out at night. I see the house and the office and it's the same everyday.

Along the roads, there are sandpiles everywhere. Seems like there's a new one everyday. Sometimes they are for construction... sometimes they seem to be for nothing. This morning, one of the stray dogs was sleeping in one. There are a lot of strays here; about 4000. They survive by foraging from the trash that's all around the sides of the roads.


Here's a shoe repairman. His shop is wherever he sits but he's usually in this spot. A little ways down from him is the bike repairman.


This is a road off of a main road. One paved strip in the middle and two dirt strips on each side.


I've been doing some conversions ever since I found out there are 3.78 liters in a gallon. Gas in China is only slightly cheaper than it is in Michigan right now; it was 4.50RMB/liter when I left, equating to around $2.45/gallon. India is significantly cheaper, converting to about $0.42/gallon.