Wilderness in my bathroom

On Monday, I was in the kitchen cleaning the oil lamp on our home shrine when I heard this loud crashing noise coming from the bathroom which is right next to the kitchen. I thought our landlord was doing some work either on the corrugated tin roof of the bathroom or threading plastic plumbing through one of the two small (12" x 5") openings in the concrete up by the roof that serve as windows (open to the outside), because I thought I saw some rather dirty, dark tubing lowering down the wall in there. Well, all of a sudden I realized I was looking at a four-foot snake in my bathroom! The poor thing. I screamed; I was a little hysterical. I closed the bathroom door so he wouldn't come into the house. God! Gopal came down, saw the snake and went to round up re-enforcements among the neighbors. All the men came in with long stakes (every time I saw one of those big sticks, I screamed), but fortunately the snake was gone. I kept saying "Gopal, tell them not to kill the snake!"

The longer story is that the poor snake was being chased by a dog. It was a water snake that probably came from the creek right by our house. The snake must have jumped from the hillside that is about even with our roof, about 4 feet. From there, she threw herself willy-nilly through the hole in the wall (which put her right in my bathroom). With me screaming and men descending on my bathroom, she must have high-tailed it out one of those windows and leaped across to the hillside again. It wasn't long before one of the neighbors found her being eaten by the dogs.

Needless to say, I don't feel very good about that experience. I feel somewhat responsible for the snake's demise but am not sure what I could have done. The dog I saw by the house then was a female who looked like she was either pregnant or nursing puppies, so she needed that nutrition. The dogs don't eat well here. One of the neighbor ladies (before we knew the snake was dead) said it was good luck to be visited by a snake. I would like to think I have curbed by terror with reminders that most snakes are harmless and hope I won't panic quite so badly the next time I am confronted unexpectedly with a snake like that. I also want to keep snakes in my consciousness as special creatures. I did a kolam of a snake on Tuesday. Maybe I'll do that every week, or every day.

Healthcare notes

Gopal and I are trying to get up earlier to walk. Yesterday, we got up early and took a walk along a path in our village. Because it'a been so rainy, the stone and concrete stairs and pathways were slippery. I fell, scraping myself minorly on both hands and my knee. I am so grateful I did not injure the knee itself. The cut on my right hand looked too inflamed later in the day. I was concerned about the filthy mud that was in the cut after my fall. (I say filthy because the sewage system consists of trenches that carry all waste downhill, probably to a creek or river. The trench ran along this walkway, and the smell of shit there was strong. And I'm sure the various animals that roam loose walk through that trench, ya know?) So Gopal and I walked into Boys Company to see the doctor there. He wasn't in, but our friend the pharmacist was. He sold me an antibiotic, an antiinflammatory, and Betadine cream for $2. Earlier that day I had renewed 4 prescriptions for two months for $48.

Coonoor Apartment

Our apartment is on the left end.

Lingama Colony (6 homes)

Our living room (with Atul and Shriya)

Bedroom

Kitchen

Shemi , Janaki, Carolyn in the kitchen

We have an upstairs bedroom, which we decided not to use as a bedroom because the stairs going up and down are so steep we were afraid we'd kill ourselves getting up to go to the bathroom in the night! But we have the computer there and hang our clothes up there. We're thinking about creating a cozy private space up there. Life in India is very sociable, ya know?

Misc. re living in The Nilgiris

Gopal and Shriya (6-yr.-old next door neighbor)

Shriya

Gopal and I on a tour of The Nilgiri mountains

Misty mountains

I hope you can read this. It's very Indian.

Kolam in front of my door.
Kolam is a design in rice flour laid out in front of a doorway, traditional in South India

Gopal and Mariama, neighbors.
Mariama is my kolam mentor, having won first prize in her village for her kolam art.

Mariama, Shemi (Shriya's mother), Carolyn

Fruit plate for afternoon snack.
Wanted to feature it because it's so beautiful.
Clockwise: Sweet lemon (orange), persimmon, sitaphal, koyya (green guava)
A woman comes with a big basket of fruit to our door.

We get photocopies and passport photos in this little alley in Upper Coonoor.
The mosque is right behind it. Isn't it pretty?

Just a quick note on healthcare. Here, they do not do preventative care, so getting a flu shot was sort of cumbersome. That cost me $30, including the medicine. So, I have to tell them what I need, requiring me to be pretty well-informed. People do not have primary-care physicians. I have one because I asked for one, and Dr. Prince understood the concept.

While we were looking for an apartment, we stayed in a hotel in Upper Coonoor. Right next door was Nankem Hospital which a friend highly recommended. So we walked over there to see if we could make an appointment with a primary-care physician, ya know? As we approached the front door of the hospital we passed this construction site there. I'm including this picture because you'll see a stuffed efigy hanging from the top of the construction. I see them all over the place. Gopal says it is to ward off evil spirits.

Hospital restaurant - very modest, but the dosa and tea are wonderful. It is staffed by one man who takes orders, cooks, and cleans up.

Dr. Prince - this is my new doctor - he's very knowledgeable, speaks great English, and seems to be the ER doc here. Prince is his first name. Gopal said it would be culturally insensitive of me to list his last name here. They really do avoid using their last names. My patient file in Gynecology says "Mrs. Caroline."

My patient visits cost $2; my pap smear cost $11; medicines are very minimal. There is no medical insurance.

Gopal's first haircut in a barber shop in 15 years

Rita, Krishna, R.K., Carolyn, Gopal, Tilak

On October 18th, Tilak and friends passed through Delhi en route to Nepal. Tilak graciously hosted a breakfast for us all. It was wonderful to see all of them!

Dexter, here are a couple pictures of autorickshaws:

Coonoor Apartment

Well, I finally just got tired of waiting for our faster internet connection and decided to tough it out and see how long it would take to upload some photos. Although it took close to an hour just to get on the internet and then onto the blog, it only took 3-4 minutes for each picture to load. Under the circumstances, that's not bad. So, here are a couple of "before" shots of our new apartment in Coonoor.

Front Room

Bedroom (between front room and kitchen/bath)

Kitchen (scary, huh?)

Jaynti (landlady), Gopal, Albert (who showed us the apt.)

Bathroom

For those of you who love me, please don't be upset by these pictures. This is a very basic Indian apartment, and we have been fixing it up. We added sinks in the bath and kitchen, western toilet, hot water heater, new elevated (to improve water pressure) water tank out back, etc. The only thing we're waiting for now is our bed, so we're still on the floor. I'll post pictures as soon as we get the bed. It's really cozy and pleasant. And the little colony is like a family, so we have people coming in and out, which I like. Today I put out a kolam in front of my door (rice flour decoration on the ground in front of your door). Actually, my neighbor Mariama did it for me since I had bought the wrong flour and wasn't very proficient at putting down my design. I have to practice.
Here's a picture of our view from the front door.

Returning to Coonoor

This post is coming to you from Coonoor! Gopal and I arrived here Thursday, October 23rd. There will be pictures of many things when we get internet installed in our new Coonoor apartment. We move in November 1st! We found a very small, very inexpensive, very basic apartment on the road from Coonoor to Ooty (not very far outside Coonoor). While we wait, plumbers are installing a western toilet and a hot-water heater. Unfortunately, there is not enough water pressure to put in a shower, which I really wanted. AND, there's not even enough pressure to support a hot-water heater in the bathroom!! Our little hot-water heater is going in the kitchen. Sigh. We will definitely be living like our neighbors, which is something we don't mind at all. Our neighbors in our colony are Badaga tribal people and very friendly. I'll post before and after pictures when I can.

The drive up the hill to Coonoor this time was not only the same gorgeous, forested slopes, but this time peppered with waterfalls everywhere we looked. So incredibly beautiful. The downside is that their monsoon has decided to come now, rather than in June/July like it normally would. It had rained for a full month before we arrived, and it is expected to keep raining until mid-December. Ugh. So, the cool weather I longed for is actually pretty cold and very damp. Laundry takes days to dry, ya know? We are having trouble adjusting to cold and damp, particularly Gopal. We bought a heater for the new apartment today. That should help. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

We arrived Thursday, Friday morning was sunny, Saturday and Sunday it rained all day, and today it was sunny and clear all day long. Heaven!