Monthiverssary in Mumbai

Alas, I have been in Navi Mumbai for a month, in India for two months and I’m starting to feel a little homesick. Specifically I miss meat and the suburbs. And I’m surprised at both of those. I’m not a huge meat eater by American standards, but I am a HUGE meat eater compared to any vegetarian standards. I realized I usually had meat for at least two meals a day, and I’ve been feeling the effects of going vegetarian. Firstly, I eat and eat but I’m always hungry. It’s like being on a diet but not losing weight. Especially considering my very protein-heavy eating pattern before leaving for India, my body is craving some amino acids. So now I am able to work either chicken or fish into my dinners, and having eggs in the morning has curbed most of my hunger. But I really miss beef. I miss tacos, steaks, and sushi. A lot. Thankfully, my dear Robert has shipped two boxes of beef jerky and tuna and protein shakes so I will get my protein fill for the next couple months. And yes I miss the suburbs. I’m not a huge fan of having to own a car and the need for driving to get anywhere. I’m a huge fan of good public transport, and being completely self-sufficient without a car. I might be eating my words now. We have to go grocery shopping at least twice a week because we can only buy how much we can carry home. And it’s not a lot. Walking home from the grocery store while dodging unpredictable traffic and cows, carrying about 7 pounds for a ½ mile in each hand can get a little heavy. Oh yea, and it’s been getting hotter. May is the hottest month in Mumbai, before we get hit with torrential rain starting in mid-June. I’ve been told that walking around in the monsoon is the equivalent of standing in the shower for a minute with all your clothes on. Not to complain, but I’m guessing grocery shopping will become a little more difficult. So I miss cars and huge supermarkets and Costco where you can stock up on food for a month. A nice air-conditioned ride from Costco with the trunk full of meat and eggs sounds pretty marvelous. I remember putting off running errands because it required so much energy. I really get a workout now getting my food for the next three days.

Other than that rant, I’ve started to settle into work here. Over the weekend I actually got to do some field work, in a tribal area about an hour from where I live. I took some great video of my transportation experience, but for some reason my computer garbled it. I’m actually pretty sad about that, this video was a true once in a lifetime experience. It was the most perilous car ride I have ever experienced. Until now, my experience of dangerous car rides includes throttling down unpaved hills in Mexico with a notoriously daring driver, and circling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris with a cab driver who was in a hurry during rush hour. I love roller coasters and thrilling experiences, but I actually felt fear for my safety with this driver. The road to our destination mainly consisted of a two lane highway. There was pretty heavy traffic, and we later found out there was an accident. You would think that would make us think to be more careful, but not really. Any time there was a break in the oncoming traffic, and I mean even for a second, he would swerve into the opposite lane to hopefully pass one or two cars before swerving back into the correct lane. This would consist of three opportunities for a horrible accident to happen. The first is when the driver pulls into the opposite lane, more than once he did this even if there was a curve or when the next car coming down the lane happened to be about three seconds behind the previous car. On the times it was safe to continue in this lane, he would wait until the absolute last possible fraction of a second to get back in the correct lane. With his hand out the window he would often graze his fingers against the car that we narrowly missed as it sped past us. This also meant that we would need to be able to fit back into the correct lane. This wasn’t always possible so the driver would simply squeeze in so there would be two cars, or possibly a truck and a car side-by-side where there should have only been one car. When I was filming my video, my boss in the seat next to me warned me to be very careful. We arrived safely and I had a great time talking to the volunteers with the organization.