Ages without an update

I know it has been ages.  I update the blog regularly as I walk around, though only in my head, neither on computer or paper.  Unfortunately, when I might have time on the computer, I have too many other pressures on me.  Plus, computer time is limited.  Limited by electricity, heat, my own stamina, hours and hours waiting around town for various people and things, Internet connectivity (and you know you don't want me to start on that topic), and my attempt to refrain from posting when I'm too, too frustrated and feeling glum.  This is all furthered by the fact that all the other obstacles seem to be high around the time I'm feeling up and ready to post the many positive developments.  In summation, here's another short, not-entirely-informative, not-very-detailed post.

Again, for timely posting see C's blog.  For less-entertaining, delayed stuff about work and travel, continue reading.s

Villages

After a very slow start, I have begun to visit villages and I did one portrait session in one of them.  The visiting is fascinating and I have a real fondness for the Santal tribal people - their villages are the ones I've spent time in so far.  They are peaceful, warm-spirited, terribly poor, welcoming to me (in spite of my poor communication and general oddness), and unbelievably clean.  This is most striking in light of significant water shortages, of which I will write when time allows.

The one photo shoot was fun, with many children participating.  Particularly enjoyable was the reaction of two men who were initially quite negative - they've seen plenty of westerners come in, observe, and leave - but after about an hour, they were not only setting up poses for the children and women, but also for themselves.  Unfortunately, most of the images are pretty poor.  A few please me, but most are poorly lit due to all wanting to remain in the patchy shade.  Still, I hope they will enjoy them.  I had planned to deliver the prints this morning, but need to remain here to work on Friday's course. (See below.)

Internet

Aaaarrrrggg!  (Translation: Spent lots more money, tried multiple services and Internet cafes, interacted with young men that showed that special combination of inefficiency, laziness, outrageous rudeness, arrogance, stupidity and (my favorite) that unique power to know and not know the English language from moment to moment... enough said.)

On the other hand, should this continue to be one of my greatest difficulties, I'm getting off pretty easy, eh?

Travel

We will be on the road for +/- 3 weeks beginning Thursday morning. 

(Note: If you want to reach us, please use the mobile number rather than email.  I do hope it will work outside West Bengal.  If mine doesn't, perhaps C's will as it is another carrier.  If neither, I will let Steve, Bill and B&L know how to get in touch with us, plus they have all the 'only-in-a-really-awful-emergency' contacts.)

Thursday, we take the train to Kolkata.  Lucky us!  This time, we are VIPs and will be picked up by a car because we're there only to do the course on Friday.  No insanity of the Howrah taxi stand.  (It's scary how much this pleases me.)

All day Friday we will be at the American Center. Me: trying to convey worthwhile info, demonstrate how American university faculty teach (that part I'm pretty confident about) and, hopefully, not seeming too awkward or illprepared.  C: Not sure.  She's offered to assist, and I will take her up on that eagerly, but I also hope she can escape for something more fun for part of the day.

Early to bed, because at +/- 4 am, we head to the airport for the earliest flight to Chennai.  (Why earliest flight?  After endless battles trying to use my credit cards - which both banks insist are just fine for India - and the ATMs had several days to dispense enough cash for the now-greatly-increased ticket fees, the travel agent could only get us on this one.)

Sleepily, we will arrive and - in the unlikely event that all goes according to plan - we will be whisked off to Tiruvanamali.  We will stay there until May 11th with the plan of visiting villages there, doing my photo thing, and perhaps will make a short stop in Ponduchery for sun, surf, tourism and all things Indian in French.

We should be back in our rooms in Santiniketan by the night of the 11th.

Money

Credit cards aren't working.  Not that we need them much, but for travel or anything over the internet, it sure would help.  Happily, the ATM card is still working.  (And I really hope it won't follow the example of the electricity which fails each time I observe that is has not.)

While the credit card failures are frustrating, there are (though cumbersome) ways around.  What I haven't mastered, and what seems to have grown enormously worse in the past week, are grossly increasing expectations of my wealth and resulting personal hyper-inflation.  Suddenly, nearly everyone with whom I interact - from rickshaw drivers to translators - has requested double-or-more fees. I suspect encouragement in this may be centralized, but I hesitate to point fingers... yet.  I am glad to be leaving town for a bit as it gives me time to gather my wits and plan how to deal with all this.  Fortunately, out of sight means out of reach of requests to quadruple fees.  Perhaps things will return to a reasonable state in a few weeks.  Unlikely, but perhaps.

Terror Alerts

For those of you who follow such things, please know that I do also.  I've seen them and am staying on top of all available info.  More importantly, the State Department - the same folks who send monitor threats and send the alerts - knows where I am, my phone number, address, travel plans, etc.  Further, they can change my plans any time if they think it necessary.  I promise not to do anything foolish, to be careful always and to be even more so for C.

Were there anything to fret over, I guarantee I'd do it myself.  After all, I'm hours ahead of most of you, so I can worry all day before you even have your morning coffee.  And if you're really worried, call us.  We'll reassure you.  And we'll be happy to hear from you.

Course in Kolkata

Friday I am to run an all-day workshop on Self-portraiture.  Because I'm some kind of expert on the topic?  Nope. (Impostor syndrome!)  I had to come up with a topic that met a ton of criteria the toughest of which are filling a whole day, including both lecture and hands-on components, and culminating in a contest to be judged by internationally renowned, multi-media artist, Rathin Kanji, former Fulbrighter, currently exhibiting in a one-man show in London, (Did he ever suffer from imposer syndrome, I wonder?)  So, I will end here and return to preparing.

Thanks to you all for staying with me in spite of these long silences.