Saturday, May 30, 2009

Saturday, May 29-2009--Day 17

17 days without chocolate!--AND I have even had access to chocolate every single one of those days!

I was basted like a turkey this morning in Treatment. I make this sound easy, but it has resulted in a lot of consternation on my part and a great deal of mirth on the part of the technicians when they want me to turn over or sit up. Rather difficult to get a grip on anything.
And it makes me sweat during and afterward because the oil is hot. I guess that's good as it probably means the toxins are leaving my body.

This morning on my walk I actually found a piece of FLAT land. On either side of the road were rice fields after rice fields. Some aren't doing so well--hasn't rained enough. Others have water in them (For those of you who don't know rice fields, they are probably 20 feet by 20 feet and have earthen boundaries. It doesn't look like they are tilled by hand anymore as I could see furrows like tractors make for corn.). Even though there is standing water, the earth beneath still has huge cracks in it from lack of water.

Thought we were going to get a nice storm earlier, but it must have gone around us. The humidity last night and today was really high, and at least that has lessened.
The baby next door to us has been crying A Lot today. Normally, we only hear him once or twice, but he is crying like he is sick. Our Yoga Master, Anil, told us that high humidity might cause the baby to be sick and then brought up the happy thought of cholera. There is cholera due to flooding where the last storm hit in the area near Bangladesh and in Bangladesh itself.

BTW: the student from Indiana University did NOT have swine flu. They have reported several incidences of taking people to the hospital from the airport to be tested. They also report when they test negative. So far I've only seen the negative results. Maybe they don't follow up in the newspaper on the ones who test positive. Regardless, I feel certain that Dr. Baji and Colonel Babu are keeping us as safe as possible. That is one reason why we haven't been allowed to go anywhere without Francis or Colonel Babu with us. I suspect that if we were to go alone that people would gather closely around us, and they don't want that.

Colonel Babu usually comes between 4 and 5, and we talk. He shares a great deal of Indian culture with us. It's great. Dr. Baji may come any time during the day for medical stuff and usually spends time with us in the late afternoon--sometimes staying through dinner although he hasn't eaten with us. Last night's major topic of discussion was marriage in India. I keep hearing the same thing, "Marriage in India is forever". So, no matter how bad it may be, you are stuck. They have set up hotlines for abused women and abused children. However, I am sure that when the women or children return home, they are beaten or worse. It happens in the States. I am sure India is no different. There is a lot of pride here. And a lot of concern about what the neighbors think. Also, this is not to say that these arranged marriages are necessarily happy on the men's side either. Dr. Baji doesn't think there is really happy marriage. He feels like he has raised his wife and is raising his children now. His wife was shipped off to boarding school (Catholic, although I believe they are Hindu) at a very young age and her parents would visit once or twice a year. So she didn't know how to parent (at least we saw how our parents parented.), didn't know how to make a cup of tea or clean or cook. He spent 14 years in Chennai going to school so he had to learn a lot of things that most Indian men don't have to deal with. His mother-in-law was in contact with his wife every day for four years after the marriage telling her she had to stay with him. He told us previously that he couldn't tolerate the mother-in-law. He hasn't had contact with his in-laws for ten years as a result. Trust me when I say that the Dr. Baji who presents himself to us would be a catch for any woman. He is a doctor in medicine and an Ayurvedic doctor. He is very well-read, very articulate, very bright, and has a good sense of humor not to mention tall and very good-looking. I guess those things might not appeal to some people, but they would appeal to me.

On the time zone thing: If you go east, there is a 14 1/2 hour different between here and the east coast. If, however, you go west, which is what I was doing with Raechel, it is 10 1/2 hours. I have no idea where the extra hour came from. Even with only 10 1/2 hours different, it took David about 36 hours to get to Raleigh.

I'm going to start reading David's blog now to see if there's anything to add. I'm also going to have to start making a list of things I want to tell you--my mind goes over things during the day, and then, when I am typing, I forget them. Such is life.

Take care.

Love,
Mom/Peggy/Granny/ friend/ relative/ stranger