Ahmedabad part one

Being with Alana in her new city was a wonderful introduction to this foreign culture, both fruitful and relaxing. After we returned from Bhuj on Tuesday morning we took a day off, got some much needed rest, attempted cooking with the pressure cooker (with some success), did a first batch of laundry, and sat down to plan the rest of our trip in India. It was great staying in one place for a week, we were able to familiarize ourselves with Alana's neighborhood (in Ahmedabad's "new city"). We got to know the fruit wala, drink wala, ironing wala, tailoring wala, and her bread wala...all on one corner. In India there is a guy for everything, regardless of how small the task.

That evening we took yet another bus, shorter and far more rickety (an inner city bus) to another of Alana's friend's home in Baroda, a smaller version of Ahmedabad about an hour and a half away, just for some company and a few drinks. Back on the bus at 7am just in time for Alana to be late to work...she is already on Indian time (everyone in India is at least thirty minutes late, and that is on time).

Wednesday was yet another day of unsuccessful planning and several trips to the nearby interenet cafe. Alana had meetings all day with her fellowship leaders, evaluating her performance thus far at Drishti (the NGO she works for that develops community media). She passed the test, and the only complaint they had was that she was too friendly to strangers...and if you know Alana this makes perfect sense. That night another delicious feast on her living room floor, another mix of vegetarian foods, all communally shared. Unfortunately Alana's "no boy in the apartment policy" was a more serious restriction than we had thought, so we went back to our A/C hotel room, watched a few english TV shows, and had a great nights sleep.