Pictures from India

We've been having problems with our computer at home (go figure) so I couldn't post the pictures. These will give you an idea of what India looks like.

Street scene in Delhi - they live here.

Scooting down the street - I gave him money.

Scene from a village on the way to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

Snake charmers.

Another street scene on way to the Taj.

Street where we stopped for shopping. Arrey was concerned that the elephant's skin was dried out so he gave the guy money and told him to put water on the elephant.

And another...

The Taj Mahal.

Kids in Delhi performing acrobatics & contortionist moves - at the bottom of the picture there was a little kid in a "monkey suit" jerking around and the kids' faces had creepy make-up.

Me & Pedro riding the elephant.

Back in the Good Old USA!

To expand on my experience in India, let me tell you that there is no way in hell I’d ever go back to that poverty-stricken, trash-strewn, polluted country. As I said in my earlier blog, New Delhi has a population of 15 million and I learned that 5% are homeless which is a whopping 750,000 people living on the streets. Our Congress was in the “government enclave” area of New Delhi which is the equivalent of the Washington, DC area. I saw people living in tents, lean-tos, and any shack they could construct. I saw people sleeping right out in the open in parks and on sidewalks, sometimes laying directly on the ground and other times on a piece of cardboard. When I go camping I live in better conditions. I saw barefoot, filthy children performing acrobatics and contortionist moves on the streets with their mother sitting on the curb, hands held out for money. I saw an old man with his sandals on his hands moving down the street on his butt as he couldn’t stand up.

Just when I thought I had seen the lowest of the low, we started our journey to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We drove through numerous villages where the conditions were even worse. There was trash everywhere with people & animals rummaging through it and standing water that was horribly contaminated and the cows & dogs were drinking from it. Every village we passed seemed to be crumbling and there were tons of people everywhere. I guess this is what you see when a country has a population of over one billion people. Our tour guide was quite open and we asked many questions and found out that India still practices the caste system. When I asked him if he felt sorry for the poor people, I was glad to hear him say yes. I have seen poor Mayan people in Mexico but I have never seen poverty in this magnitude. There were some children in school uniforms that looked happy but for the most part, the poor people would stare at our bus and they looked anything but happy. I told my co-workers that I’d probably have nightmares with their pathetic, staring eyes in it. If the bus stopped for any reason, we were rushed by hawkers trying to sell their wares. They were smothering and quite scary at times.

As we passed through these villages the traffic was horrendous. There were tons of cars, buses, bicycles, rickshaws, auto-rickshaws and bull-, horse-, camel- or donkey-drawn carts hauling unrecognizable loads. There were goats and even elephants walking in the street! I saw buses filled to the brim with people and then more people riding on top. At one point as we passed through a village about a mile or two further down the road was a huge, beautiful mall. I wondered who the heck shops there-maybe the tourists on their way to Agra. We stopped at what would be the equivalent of a truck stop to use the restroom and get a drink when we came upon a snake charmer. We took several pictures before realizing we’d have to pay so we bargained and the charmer wasn’t very happy with the result.

It was getting dark by the time we got to the Jaypee Hotel in Agra and we passed villages with no electricity. Some of the vendors had oil lanterns to light up their wares. We decided to get to the Taj Mahal at dawn in order to see the sun rising and reflecting off the Taj. It’s supposed to be a beautiful sight as the sun reflects through the white marble. Unfortunately, the fog & smog were so bad when we arrived that we couldn’t even see the Taj until we got right up on it. It was very impressive and we were able to get half-way decent pictures after being there for over an hour. I can’t say it’s the most beautiful historical site I’ve seen because I saw spectacular mosques, temples and palaces in Istanbul last year but it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. . On our way back from seeing the Taj Mahal we stopped at MacDonald’s out in the middle of nowhere. Let me assure you, they didn’t sell Big Macs or Quarter Pounders because you can’t find beef anywhere in India. They sold veggie burgers, chicken nuggets and fish. I had a fish & fries and they tasted great which made me wish I had ordered more.

There were several people who got sick during Congress, including our President who ended up in the hospital. I don’t think there was ever a diagnosis but he said the hospital was very clean, inexpensive and the doctors very good. He had a consultation with a specialist and it only cost 5 Euros. He said there is free medical care for all the citizens. I’ve been sick since I got back which is unusual for me because besides a cold, I hardly ever get sick. At the Presidential Gala which is the closing of Congress there were mosquitoes in the hall and I was bitten. Materne, our Area Director for Africa and the Middle East who lives in Togo told me I should get a malaria shot when I got home. When I mentioned this to Arrey who is another co-worker from Cameroon and quite familiar with malaria, he said that he has some pills I can take if I come down with it.

Welcome to Incredible India!

Incredible is right! Incredibly polluted, littered, crowded, stinky, traffic-jammed, horn-honking, ugly city (at lease New Delhi) that I’ve ever seen. There are over a billion people in India with 15 million in the New Delhi area and incompetence is the norm that I’ve witnessed. Needless to say, the JCI 63rd World Congress in Incredible India is not going well. We at JCI Headquarters knew beforehand that our work was cut out for us but we never imagined how difficult it would be to get simple cooperation from the JCI India Congress Organizing Committee (COC) who had pledged to put on the most magnificent Congress ever since they won the bid 2 years ago. There has been one problem after another causing JCI HQ team unbelievable stress because although it is being hosted by JCI India who is supposed to provide all the logistics, transportation, meals, etc., when things go wrong, we take the flak.

When I arrived after almost 24 hours of travel time and walked out of the airport to catch our van, the first thing that hit me was the smog. At first I thought it was fog and I didn’t realize what it was because I have never experienced anything like it before. Now I truly understand the meaning of the word acrid because that’s the only way to describe it. India used to be a British territory so they drive very fast on the opposite side of the road in three lanes weaving in out of traffic and honk and weave and honk and weave. It’s really very scary but I experienced this type of driving last year in Istanbul. We got here at night and since I find it difficult to sleep on airplanes, I was tired enough to go to bed. There is an 11-1/2 hour time difference so I thought I could just go to sleep and nip the jet lag in the bud. We checked into the Parkland Safdarjung Hotel and I was exhausted so I just about collapsed in the hard bed ready to sleep for the night. I was asleep within minutes and awakened soon after by a loud clang that seemed to be coming through the ceiling. As I was trying to get back to sleep I heard all the traffic & horn-honking. The periodic clang & horns continued throughout the night which made for a miserable night’s rest for me. When the same clanging happened the next night, I called the desk & demanded it stop so the guy came to my room to figure out what the noise was and come to find it was the boiler. I’m not sure I even know what the heck a boiler is. At the least, I though they were something out of the distant past!

I was pretty impressed with the first meal I had because it was really quite tasty. Famous last words. I’m so sick of Indian food that I’ve skipped several meals and you all know that is very unusual for me! We were able to get someone to bring us KFC into the office one night and you would’ve thought we all died and gone to heaven. Even all my foreign co-workers were in ecstasy! There was one day when Zsolt, who is our employee in Budapest told me the club sandwich & French fries at our hotel were very good and I was quite skeptical because this is the same guy who ate raw octopus with the tentacles hanging out of his mouth when we were in Japan. But I trusted him & ordered it and was happy that it was excellent – maybe the best club sandwich I’ve ever had.

I’ve been working long hours, getting little sleep and it finally caught up with me the other day when I was really emotional and on the verge of tears all day long. I was working registration and you’d think there was a big sign in front of my spot marked “Complaint Department” because a lot of members were bitching about one thing or another. I don’t know why they come to me because there is a help desk right across from me & others around but it may be that since I don’t look Indian they think I might be able to do something for them. Either that or they recognize me from year-to-year but I’m not sure why they choose me. Finally, when I closed registration and went back up to the office, our Audit Committee Chairman, Jun Takahashi was there to count & sign off on the cash. He said I looked like I needed a hug and that’s all it took – I was in tears. After I complained about the complainers I calmed down and was able to laugh about it. Jun suggested that next year we have a “Complaint Counter” and man it with a deaf person.

I’m writing this blog a little each day as registration slows down but it could be pages and pages so I will cut it off. The only fun thing I’ve done in the week that I’ve been here is to ride an elephant. We are all going to take a bus trip to the Taj Mahal on Monday which will be a good way to end this horrendous Congress. I can’t wait to get home to my soft bed, quiet house, clean air, and, of course, Jim.

P.S. The Congress site is voted on two years before the actual date and last year in Turkey, Tunisia and Quebec were the contenders. Unfortunately, there are politics in JCI and “the family” instructed their National Organizations how to vote so next year it will be in Tunisia which is destined to be worse. Needless to say, I was rooting for Quebec….