Rain in Delhi (Shalini)

Monday July 7

Today was the typical day at work, except that during our hour and a half break between classes, we got to sit in on the visiting doctor. This was so great. She was administering pre-natal care, and we learned a lot. It was exactly like a case study right out of one of our global health classes.

The pregnant woman was currently in her third trimester and on her third child. However, she was very, very frail. Apparently, she told the doctor, by the time she finishes cooking for her other two baby children and her husband, there is either no food left for her, or she is too exhausted to cook for herself.

The doctor, who had just met this woman for the first time, urged her to eat and drink more, and to rest. The doctor tried her very best to relate to the woman on a level of humanity that transcended their different places in Indian society, so that the woman would listen to her and take care of herself. While this was all happening, I was holding the woman's youngest child. It was all an amazing experience to witness, and Cait and I felt very lucky to be granted permission to sit in the doctor's room.

Usually we teach two classes during the day: the boys in the morning and the girls in the afternoon, and we fill the rest of the time learning about India and Maya Puri from Thresi. Today, however, after the little girls, another group of older girls from 8th through 11th grade came to learn from us. This was really exciting for us because they know enough english to understand some of what we say!

After work, Cait and I went to pick up our saris and our blouses. Cait's wasn't tailored properly so hers will be dropped off tomorrow at our house (why couldn't they just drop it off in the first place instead of us spending an hour and a half by rickshaw to get to and fro Connaught place!!).

We then hopped into a rickshaw, but this guy was commissioned, and just took us to his store instead. We didn't buy anything, and Cait was really annoyed at the driver who kept asking us for "American or Canadian coins for his three daughters" haha.

So we got into a different auto to go back home. It was rush hour in Delhi. Cars everywhere.

However, this auto driver was awesome!! When we were stuck in traffic, he'd start teaching us hindi. His english was also fairly proficient, so we asked him to wait for us when we went to the grocery story to get food for dinner. And he did wait. He trusted us. That's sooo much more than we've learned to do for auto drivers.

For dinner, I taught Cait how to make egg curry. She also made some awesome raita. Felix also gets credit for chopping up tomatoes really finely to use in the sauce (no canned tomatoes in India...). This meal was delicious!

Also, in regards to the title of this post, Delhi has cooled down exponentially for a few days. It's only like 20-30 degrees (70-80 for the Americans). This is so nice! We feel so much cleaner when we're not sweating buckets!!