If it’s Sunday afternoon, it must be time
to blog. I ’m flying solo today, Rae has gone back to the US for a month to sit
Ben and Becca’s kids and to see family and friends. So, you are left with me
for the next few weeks. I’ll try not to let down the team.
If you are on Facebook with Rae, you read about a huge storm we had on
Wednesday and the personal aftermath of that storm. If you aren’t on FB with
Rae, Here’s the 411. We had a storm. On Wednesday. That is all.
OK, that’s not quite all. The storm was a doozey: lightening, thunder, torrential
rain. The whole nine yards. Oh, yeah, huge limb breaking off of a tree and
falling on our car? Yes, we’ve got that. The limb crashing onto our car occurred
whilst I was in Branch Presidency meeting. I didn’t get a picture of the limb
because it was dark. By the time I went back the next morning, the limb had
been removed. Probably hauled off to build a house. That’s how big it was.
Okay, maybe not quite THAT big, but it was probably 10 feet long (not including
the smaller offshoots) and 18” across at the thickest part. As you can see from
the pictures below, it dented in the hood, the roof, the passenger front door,
and knocked off the mirror on the passenger side. We are now without a car for
a week to ten days whilst we check off “try out body work in New Delhi” from
our bucket list. In this regard Rae picked a great time to be gone.
We are always open to address topics of interest in our blog. We’ve
been asked about toilet facilities, particularly public ones. As with much of
the physical infrastructure, this is an area of great change and great
variation, at least in urban centers. India has been called the world’s largest
outdoor toilet. Historically, the side of any road, or any available wall has
been all the toilet needed. It is still a very common site to see a car or bike
pulled to side of the road and the driver standing with his back to the road “watering
the roses”.
There are a few public toilets provided here and there, for instance in
areas like markets or stations, but not many. They tend not to be particularly clean.
Oh, it’s also a good idea to follow the old Boy Scout motto and “be prepared”
with your own paper. Of course, in new modern facilities such as the mall or
the airport the toilets are clean and modern. Well at least some of the facilities
are. In a typical bank of, say, six commodes, four will be new, western style
and two will be “squatters” instead of “sitters” like this:
In general, it’s best to relieve one’s self before heading out, always
carry paper, have a large bladder, and excellent control.
A word about effluent: yuck. Having made that point, please allow me to
elaborate. In Delhi, It is not common to find totally open sewers (though they
do exist). On the other hand it is not at all UNcommon to find a sewer that
would be open if it wasn’t for 3” cement slabs that have been laid over the top
of the sewer. These slabs don’t seal the sewers but mostly cover them so people
won’t just stumble into one accidently. They definitely don’t contain the
smell. You add these quasi open sewers to those who “pisseth against the wall”
(see 1 Samuel 25), and the various dogs, cows, goats, elephants, and other
animals who wander about and there are some really, umm, “interesting” smells.
With that, “Smell you later. (I can’t believe that caught on).” Reference,
anyone?
Namaste.
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