I woke up feeling weak and wobbly, but got steadily better throughout the day. I had breakfast with my hosts, Sujit and Alpana, and Sujit recommended that I skip the team's activities for the day and rest up until I felt better. So I went back and chilled in my room for a couple hours.
It turns out that Misty and I have the same thing, although I have a considerably milder case. She came down with the fever the same night as me, but has been so sick that her hosts took her to the hospital. They diagnosed her with an intestinal infection and also gave her a chest X-ray, as her bronchitis is still pretty bad.
So I'm thinking it was something we both ate or drank at the conference. Misty does not drink alcohol, so perhaps it wasn't the crappy wine I drank Sunday after all. In fact, the booze may have saved me from getting sicker by killing off the bugs. Yay, alcohol!!
Around 11:00 AM, Sujit took me to their family farm (lots of people here seem to have family farms) where they grow bananas, mangoes, cashews and all kinds of other stuff.
Coconut trees.
Future cashew nut.
We ran a couple errands and stopped to visit Misty at the hospital. She was so dehydrated that she took 14 IV bags! We came back to the house around 12:30 and I took a small nap. Alpana came in around 1:30 and we sat and chatted for a while. She's really nice!
I had lunch with Alpana and her in-laws, who also live with them. They're in their 70's and very active. They also speak very good English. Their daughter lives in Boston, so they have been to the U.S. several times. I enjoyed talking with them, and had a very nice afternoon at home.
Around 4:00, Sujit took me to the bank to try and get my ATM card back. Once again, it was retained so they had to keep it and send it to some main branch for investigation or something. I don't know what or why it happened, and the beautiful thing is... I really don't care! It's out of my hands so it's not worth worrying about.
Sujit apologized, and I just smiled and said, "No problem!" He laughed and said he was glad to see I had adopted an Indian perspective on the situation.
After the bank, we got to see the entire Carnival parade... by walking down the inside of the parade route! It was quite memorable! As we were walking, Sujit turned to me and said, "I do not think we are supposed to be here. But no one has stopped us so they must think we belong here!" It was pretty funny.
Watching the parade...
... from the inside!
We bought some fruit at the market (mangoes and chickoo)
and then went over to Baga Beach and walked for a while. We talked about all sorts of great things - from religion and marriage, to morals and karma. Sujit is a very laid back, awesome guy. Very open, and he has a great laugh.
After talking with him about the GSE program, my thoughts were confirmed. It's not supposed to be a vacation - the whole point is to understand a different culture from the true, inside family point of view. All along on this trip, my favorite times have been spent getting to know my host families. It's not about shopping or sightseeing or clubbing at the beach.
All of a sudden, my JOY returned and I was back in India!
Sunset at Baga Beach.
When we got back home, Alpana taught me how to make paneer and it actually seems pretty easy! I am totally gonna try it when I get home. It's one of my new favorite foods.
I hung out a bunch with their kids. They have a 12 year-old daughter named Rujuta who is absolutely brilliant. She's a dancer and an artist. She also writes poetry and devours college-level literature, and her command of language and emotion is eons beyond any 12 year-old I have ever met.
They also have a 5 year-old son named Anuj, and he is hilarious. He reminds me of my nephew, Nick. And for as quiet and studious as Rujuta is, Anuj is goofy and rambunctious. He did sit and read me the story of The Elves and the Shoemaker, which was pretty awesome.
Rujuta and Anuj.
We all had dinner together and then later in the evening, Alpana did some incredible Mehendi on me. She said she loves to do it and has been practicing since she was a little girl.
When she finished, she let me do some on her, such a brave woman! Mine wasn't quite as good as hers, and it seemed to evolve from a sea monster, to a turkey and then a peacock. Alpana was a very good sport.
Guess who's who?
I finally got to bed around midnight, but it was so worth it. And for the first time in over a week, I slept through the night. Yesterday was the first day in over three weeks that I didn't see any of my team members (except for when we visited Misty) and the best part is, I felt totally safe, content and happy... surrounded by my newest family.
