| | Hello from KolkataSo sometime in the early morning a steady (no big gusts, etc.) and pretty heavy rain set in, which is normal I think this time of year, but it kept going for hours. By when I woke up at 5:30 AM half of our very big lawn had turned into shallow lakes. Our parking lot was also several inches deep, with ripples and waves. Some birds I hadn't seen before (small herons?) were wading around in the lawn. I called the sisters and mass was cancelled, didn't wake up again until after nine. The rain was tapering off, but even more of the lawn was submerged. Around eleven I went out, just across the street to buy drinking water and soap, and that involved wading through a foot deep lake just outside our driveway, the street is completely submerged there. It would (have been) really fun to spend go downtown at the height of the rain and see how bad it got there - here I'm in a fairly ritzy neighborhood.
The other big news is that from Wednesday 12 July until last Monday Monday 17 July I was in the hospital for something involving high fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. The onset was sudden - within a few hours I was in the emergency room. It could have been the food, it could have been the water, it could have been a random virus, it could have been anything. That's why I'm buying my water now instead of using the stuff filtered by machines at my work. Today should be my first real day at work, if I can get and keep my focus. The stay at the hospital was fine, it's one of Kolkata's best and I could have been in the first world, and I got in a lot of sleep. The staff at my Institute were incredibly supportive on the day I went in, and also coming out. They are still asking how I am every time I turn around.
I was wondering where the smoky smell was comign from, and realized that my cleaner had not only washed, dried, and ironed my T-shirt, but also smoked it! In Manila the cleaners are very like what you would find at a U.S. dry cleaners. Here they do their ironing with irons warmed over charcoal (home-made charcoal! smells nice but very smoky!) fires. The store is outside, made out of branches, tarps, and a couple makeshift wooden counters. I haven't seen the washing, but I'm sure it's by hand.
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| | Posted 7/19/2006 2:55 AM - 0 comments
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