This is really a follow up on the Setting up your life in India.
Today I realized that the "setting up your life" phase never seems to end. This is because things break constantly here. Just last week, my 12 year old went to shut his door but the door would not close. The bottom of the door jam basically popped off the wall. In the USA this would be a minor inconvenience that we could get fixed in a day or two but here, we don't know if anyone will ever show up to fix the problem. This is also the case for the holes in the mesh of the screen door. We believe the holes were caused by a rat chewing through the screen. We also found these holes in the mesh of 2 of the bathroom windows. It was an annoyance for the screen door because we could just shut the sliding glass door and keep the mosquitoes, bees and rats out. However, the bathrooms do not have proper windows so those rooms keep getting bugs in them. We have contacted multiple people to fix the problem and no one ever comes. We literally called multiple people for a month straight before we finally got someone to come out to repair the windows and door. People say they will come and do not even have the courtesy to call and tell you that the plans have changed. You just sit and wait and no one comes.
Today is the 4th day someone has said they will come to repair my 12 year olds computer and still no one has shown up. Today is the 12th day someone from the phone company has said they will come and we have yet to see anyone. I have been trying to get foreign currency, yet days later I still do not have the currency. I am so frustrated that I threatened someone with bodily harm if they don't show up tomorrow. I have no idea if that made it more or less likely to happen but it made me feel better.
In addition, most of you know I require a monthly medication to be administered through an IV. I have a contact person at the hospital that I call the day before to arrange for my visit. I called and talked to her like normal but when I showed up at the hospital I was told she was on vacation and did not inform anyone I was coming. I did not leave her a message, I actually spoke to her and she did not tell me she was not working and did not call anyone to ask them to do the job she normally does. When I arrived they informed me there was no bed available for at least 5 hours. That was the last straw for me and I completely let loose on the manager when she showed up. I was in a bed and hooked to my IV in record time. Somehow a bed opened up within 20 mins of the scene I made in the waiting room. I think they just wanted to get the crazy foreigner out of sight.
So I am planning my trip back to the US and what I am most looking forward to at this moment is people who show up on time. This has to be my biggest problem in India. People never show up when they say they will. Never is a bit of an exaggeration but in all honesty I will say people do not show up when they say 70% of the time. At this point, I don't even count it as late if people show up on the right day.
I am now looking forward to visiting Europe and the USA for 6 weeks. Just the fact that people tend to show up when they say will be such a nice change. So please forgive me in advance if I get very upset with you if you are late for a meet up with me this summer. At this moment, being late or a no show is something I can not handle.
Today I realized that the "setting up your life" phase never seems to end. This is because things break constantly here. Just last week, my 12 year old went to shut his door but the door would not close. The bottom of the door jam basically popped off the wall. In the USA this would be a minor inconvenience that we could get fixed in a day or two but here, we don't know if anyone will ever show up to fix the problem. This is also the case for the holes in the mesh of the screen door. We believe the holes were caused by a rat chewing through the screen. We also found these holes in the mesh of 2 of the bathroom windows. It was an annoyance for the screen door because we could just shut the sliding glass door and keep the mosquitoes, bees and rats out. However, the bathrooms do not have proper windows so those rooms keep getting bugs in them. We have contacted multiple people to fix the problem and no one ever comes. We literally called multiple people for a month straight before we finally got someone to come out to repair the windows and door. People say they will come and do not even have the courtesy to call and tell you that the plans have changed. You just sit and wait and no one comes.
Today is the 4th day someone has said they will come to repair my 12 year olds computer and still no one has shown up. Today is the 12th day someone from the phone company has said they will come and we have yet to see anyone. I have been trying to get foreign currency, yet days later I still do not have the currency. I am so frustrated that I threatened someone with bodily harm if they don't show up tomorrow. I have no idea if that made it more or less likely to happen but it made me feel better.
In addition, most of you know I require a monthly medication to be administered through an IV. I have a contact person at the hospital that I call the day before to arrange for my visit. I called and talked to her like normal but when I showed up at the hospital I was told she was on vacation and did not inform anyone I was coming. I did not leave her a message, I actually spoke to her and she did not tell me she was not working and did not call anyone to ask them to do the job she normally does. When I arrived they informed me there was no bed available for at least 5 hours. That was the last straw for me and I completely let loose on the manager when she showed up. I was in a bed and hooked to my IV in record time. Somehow a bed opened up within 20 mins of the scene I made in the waiting room. I think they just wanted to get the crazy foreigner out of sight.
So I am planning my trip back to the US and what I am most looking forward to at this moment is people who show up on time. This has to be my biggest problem in India. People never show up when they say they will. Never is a bit of an exaggeration but in all honesty I will say people do not show up when they say 70% of the time. At this point, I don't even count it as late if people show up on the right day.
Wow, that's kind of amazing. Would you still go to India if you knew then what you do now?
ReplyDeleteI asked B the question and his reply was "Yes,I wanted an adventure by coming to India and that is what I am getting." N replied "Maybe" he needs to think on it.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time we enjoy learning about the culture, meeting new people from around the world and really understanding world issues from a different perspective. It is also enlightening to hear others opinions of the USA. However, everyone does say that doing your first International Assignment in India is like jumping in the deep end of the pool when you are learning to swim. Either you will be figure out how to survive quickly and can then do an assignment just about anywhere in the world or you will sink and never want to try it again. Most days we are doing great but every once in a while it is completely overwhelming. We have known a few families who were suppose to be here for 2 years and left after 6 months. One family had been to 5 different countries as expats but could not handle India. We even had a two teachers who were married leave after 3 weeks with only a text message saying India was more than they could handle. So, yes we would do it all again but it is definitely not for everyone.