Some little accomplishments the past couple days ...

We have made it back to the area that we are staying in permanently now after traveling for a week and a half! It was great to get to see other parts of India so soon after coming here, but we are very glad to be back to some 'familiar' sights. From the train experience, to the womens conference, to getting to meet with other people in our organization, to experiencing 3 other major cities in India, it was a great and very useful trip. We are glad to be back though!

Right before we left, I needed to get some medicines because several of us were still coughing quite a bit and it wasn't going away. So, I set out from our hotel (on foot) to find medicine. It's a little daunting to need something like that and have NO IDEA where to go to get it, or if that is even something that is available.

I first went to a store that I had been in before that has a wide assortment of groceries, but no medicines. I was able to ask one of the girls there if they had a pharmacy. She said no. So I asked her where I would find one and she rattles off exactly where to go for one, but in a language I can't understand!

Through her hand gestures, I understood that it was somewhere a little farther down from the store.

"Ok" I thought, I'll just start walking. So I did.

I had to cross that crazy street again that about took our oldest from us a couple days ago, but believe it or not, I found a cross walk! HA Yep, on the other side of the bus station there is a 'cross walk.' Now, it's not yielded to by any oncoming traffic or anything like that, but at least there were those big wide white rectangles painted across the street to indicate that there might be people walking here ...



So, I stood at the side of the rode for several minutes while many, many people walked (zipped) back and forth across the road. Most of them men. I tried to kinda of mix myself in with a couple groups of people (and one family!) getting ready to cross, but each time they went, I just wasn't fast enough! I had lost them by the second step into the street, so I would have to retreat back and wait again!

Then all of the sudden I felt a little tap on my arm. I look over and the sweetest Indian lady is standing next to me, smiling at me. She was dressed in a mostly white sari, so she looked like an angel to me. I smiled back and proceeded to step about a half step behind her, and then she carefully crossed the street with me 'in tow' !!!! We got to the other side and she turned around and smiled at me again and went the other way. I had a visitation from an angel right then, I am sure of it. I was never so glad to get across a street in my entire life!

So, now that I had done that, I still was trying to find a 'pharmacy.' I walk a couple blocks and see a red cross and the word 'medical' on the side of a building. So I walk up and sure enough it's a pharmacy! I go up to the counter and say I need some cough medicine and they go and bring back a bottle that's dark brown and in another language.

hmpf. "now what?" I think. I don't even know what this is. So I asked them if they had it in a pill, hoping that it would be in English.

I get the 'picky American' look, and they go in the back and then several minutes later return with what looks like a half a package of pills that are sealed in foil.

But, still no English.

I had remembered a brand name of the antibiotic that we were taking, so I somehow asked if that had that brand of cough medicine. He points to what I have.

"Great!" I think, this is supposedly it ... but how do I know?

There are like 4 or 5 guys standing at this counter talking constantly. I notice that one of them just said a couple phrases in English. So I point at him and ask to speak with him. He kind of leans his head towards me and I muster up the courage to say, "I need English medicine." He looks at me like I am crazy (which that statement is) and then I clarify by saying, "I need medicine that has an English label." He looks at me and does the 'head bob' (instead of shaking your head up and down or side to side for yes and no here, everyone kind of bobbles their head and you have to determine if it's a yes or a no) and goes to the back of the store.

So I am not sure if I am getting that or what he is doing. But just in a couple minutes he returns with both medicines w/ English labels! I was so thrilled! I guess I just had to ask for it, who knew? HA

After I paid for it and got what I needed, I walked away (being so proud of myself for having what I needed in hand!) and thankfully thought, "I've got to have a picture of this place! My first pharmacy purchase ... with no help!" Believe it or not, this is the pharmacy:

Under that little striped awning is where you can get just about any medicine you need, prescription or not! Now that's not your neighborhood CVS!

It is nice to be able to go and get antibiotics without having to go the dr. first in a way. I always liked their confirmation of my self diagnosis or my diagnosis of others before putting medicine in me. But how many times did I go to the dr and know what I needed and could've just gone straight to the pharmacy? A bunch! Well, now I can. That's one crazy, but 'easy' part about India ... if you can get the medicine with English labels!

Also while we were traveling in Bangalore, we found the best restaurant with 'Continental' (better known as American!) food. It was called "The Only Place" interesting name for a restaurant, but it was 'the only place' my kids wanted to eat at after we went there once, that's for sure! They had giant (huge!) 'all-American' cheeseburgers that were wonderful for 80 rupees, which equals about $1.50, at the most! It was great.

Another accomplishment in the last couple days was finding our way back to a place, all by ourselves, that we had been once before with some friends. What kind of place?

DONUTS! Yes, for sure ... we found a donut place in Bangalore. Some friends took us there one of the first nights we were there and then when we were at "The Only Place" we saw some people walk in with a bag from the donut shop, so we figured it must be close by. We tried to ask them how to get there, but the explanation didn't help at all. We just started walking, and finally saw a couple familiar things and made our way back to it. We probably walked 20 minutes or more to get there ... a good donut is just too hard to pass up! It was so great to have those in the room for breakfast the next morning ... the easiest meal yet. We were all shocked that we actually found it!

Now tomorrow (Saturday) we are going to hopefully find our home. We really want to find a place and get moved in. We are really over-the-top ready to dive in and learn the language and begin to establish relationships with those around us ... but to do this we have to get ourselves settled first. So it would be so huge for us to find a place tomorrow that we can occupy immediately ... please lift us up as we will be searching all day. We don't have a lot of 'criteria' for what we want, we just mainly want it to be in an area that there a lots of people to speak the language we will be learning with and that it's 'safe.'

Hopefully my next post will be about the place that we found!






ha ha ha ha ha ... just kidding, not quite like that.

Take care!