Thursday, May 28, 2009

Thursday, May 28, 2009--Day 15

David left this morning. Colonel Babu, Sibien, and Kirish were here to see him off at 4:30. Fortunately, his taxi was more comfortable than the ones we use around here. He said he had a tee time in Dubai. Colonel Babu actually had on shorts!

Have to take back what I said about the clothing. We went to see the elephants yesterday, and everyone was dressed in traditional garb. However, we did see two girls in western-type dresses and a few men in slacks. I'm sure that as a person gets into larger cities there are more people dressed in western garb. David said he even saw a white man.

Our trip to see the elephants was awesome. There are 60-70 elephants in an area set aside for them in 1975. There was one baby who was 'dancing' holding a palm branch in his trunk. I would like to think he was dancing instead of being highly anxious. We got within spitting distance of him. (No, we didn't spit at him.) The sad thing is that all the elephants are chained to at least one tree. However, we did get within ten feet of one just by walking on the path. Two were being given baths--one in a smallish pond; the other was being hosed down and getting his nails done (That one was rather small.) It's incredible. You pay to drive in, and there are the elephants right next to the parking lot. Then there were a ton more further in. We also had to pay a camera fee. Just think about how much food has to be brought in to feed 60-70 elephants!!!!! What we saw them eating was leaves from palm trees. I sincerely doubt that they get any other kind of food. They were all separated from each other so I'm not sure how the baby came about, but... Lots of pictures. After I put the pictures on Picasa, I will make a list of what each picture is about and send that to you so you have some idea of what's going on. If you specifically want the pictures and I don't have your e-mail, please send it to me via Bob, Kevin, or David. I was going to put my email address on here, but anyone in the world can read this.

David has pictures with his blog.

I should tell you that the sun was out when we went on our little excursion so it was rather hot.

Next we went to the market for shopping. The only place we stopped was at a clothing store (a smaller version of something like Lord & Taylor) where David got me two of the outfits Michelle mentioned. There is a long tunic, pants, and a scarf to each one. Very attractive, I think. If we had not had Francis with us, we would still be trying to effect the sale in December. Francis' comprehension of English isn't great, but there apparently was only one sales person who spoke English. (David made the comment at the elephant farm that he didn't know if the elephants or the Americans were the attraction. But no one stopped to ask us for a picture. The adults are pretty reserved.) Anyway, the store was full of people--many, many salespeople, but also customers. I scared a little kid by saying, 'hi' to him. Older children came to look at us after we got in the 'lift'. These are little people so I asked them for the largest size they had. Not quite, but I'm sure they will fit in two weeks. There was some kind of detector and a guard at the front door. Everyone was very nice and tried to be helpful. And it worked as I came away with two Indian outfits.

We elected not to go anywhere else due to the heat, but also these excursions wear me out. This has to do with the treatment. Ordinarily they don't let you go on excursions until the end of your treatment, but because David was leaving they let me go as well. Three excursions in one week!

The treatment has a definite effect on your body, otherwise there would be no improvement in your disease. I think it temporarily weakens the immune system and the muscles in the beginning. There is a woman here with lung cancer who is doing Ayurveda for six weeks. The Dr. has said that Ayurveda can cure cancer. I hope so as Amelia is a wonderful lady. Since meeting her her color has gotten better and she seems to have more energy. Chemotherapy and radiation destroy parts of the body according to Dr. Baji. I have no reason to disbelieve him. However, it is out of the realm of what we have grown up with all our lives. If he can cure psoriasis, he can cure cancer. Amazing.

Dr. Baji and Colonel Babu wanted to know if there were any special instructions from David in regard to me. Now I wouldn't have anyone to take care of things for me. Oh, please.

They said this in front of me so I am thinking at least part of it was joking. I assured them that I am very competent. I didn't say in what.

Tomorrow I will tell you about the newspaper. It's great.

Love,

Mom/Peggy/Granny