Getting Settled

Thursday Night

I had a pretty good day today! Being busy is definitely good for me. Today I spent most of the day in the office, after my annoyingly long and paranoid morning alone in my room. I’m still pretty unclear on how to get around here, but I can tell it will start getting better very soon. Today Anand, Satish’s (who has been organizing my internship, but whom I have yet to meet) son, told me about all of the programs NBJK is working on in all the different regions where they operate. It took hours.

I’m excited about this internship, though. They want me to have a large part in putting together their annual report, where they summarize what they’re working on and what successes or struggles they’ve been having. We had lunch at NBJK (which will be standard), and it was delicious.

Anand and Girija took me out to get a bunch of things I needed (in particular, insecticide!). When I got home, the first thing I did was to commit a mass killing of cockroaches. As I suspected, my fridge was completely disgusting. I didn't count, but I think I got about a dozen large ones. It was stressful and cathartic all at once.

I still don’t have internet at my house, and it looks like, if it works at all, it will take about a week for us to work it out. I really want to be able to use internet at home because my late night/early morning are friend/family’s early morning/evening. The main issue we’re facing is that the portable 3G “internet dongles” that you can hook up to your computer require that you have a subscription with a phone provider. I, obviously, don’t have one. They have the equivalent of track plans for some of them, but they’re pretty expensive. I care a lot about having internet at home, but I’m not sure I care $90 worth. There must be a better way.

Anand thinks he found me an answer, so I’m hoping he will present it to me (along with a cell phone, I hope!) tomorrow. I’m feeling very isolated at home, with no way to text, call, or Facebook stalk anyone from home. Or anyone in general. I have phone numbers for Anand, Girija, and my landlord, but I don’t have any friends here yet. Anand would certainly become one of my friends, but he is headed back to Ranchi on Saturday.

I’m off to bed for now. Here’s hoping for internet in the morning!

Friday Morning:

I suck at sleeping. I felt pretty good most of yesterday, despite having very disrupted sleep the night before last. Last night I slept much better, but I was still awake at 2 AM wondering how soon I could get up. The heat, the uncomfortable bed, the unfamiliar noises, and my general stress keep me up a lot.

I’m really frustrated at how little I’ve been able to talk to my friends and family. They at least know I’m here and safe, but I thought I would be able to talk to people pretty much every day, and so far that has not been the case. I feel like I misled Jeff, talking to him about things we could do to keep in touch and make the distance feel smaller. In reality, I haven’t been able to talk to him since I was at the airport in Delhi on Wednesday, and even that was just instant messages, not real talking or video. I have had even less contact with my parents, and pretty much none with anyone else. The time difference is challenging, but the lack of internet or cell phone is making me pretty crazy.

Anyways, I just took a shower, so it’s time for me to get dressed and have some breakfast, so by 7 I will be ready to talk to Girija and see if he is still willing to let me use the wifi at his house this morning. It would be SO nice if I could Skype with someone…