November Update 2007

September 15th we moved from the apartment to our house in Palm Meadows! We were so happy! So much earlier then expected. Shell rents the house from an Indian guy whose daughter lives across the street with her family. She has been very helpfull so far. When we got the key, about 10 days before we moved in, I came to the house almost every day to clean. It was supposed to be clean but that was sort of difficult to see.......even now I have not done everything really well but I am making progress. The 14th Bastian took the day off, we brought Tim to the school bus and drove to the house to wait for the movers. They came around 11 am with 4 small trucks loaded with our stuff. We were wondering how it all would look like when it would come out of the boxes........Piece by piece was transported inside to the different rooms. We tried to direct it all as good as possible. Most of it was okay but we have found kitchen stuff in the garage after days........Tim's desk was broken and also a few small things were good to be thrown away.

The crew of movers worked very hard, they were 14 in total.

After lunch they unpacked most of the big things like the couch, the beds and the table/chairs. that helped a lot to get rid of piles of plastic and carton already. In fact they wanted to unpack everything but we did not want that.............please, let me do my own stuff and put it in the cupboards and closets! Also all the books from the bookcase we'd rather did that ourselves. Bastian put the bookcase in order the next day and most of the books were on their place a few days later.

We love the house a lot. The quality is not that of Lakes on Eldridge in Houston but for here it is a palace compared to where lots of people live. We see many tents built of leaves and plastic were people live in.

Our house has a small terrace at the front and a garage where we have plenty of space for folding chairs, coolers, christmas decorations and so on. The car will be outside so this garage is really luxurious; to have this extra space.

When you enter the house you step into the dining room straight away. There is a small living room, kitchen, laundry place, one guestroom downstairs with lots of closets, no walk in closet that we were spoiled with! Also a small bathroom with sink and shower. Upstairs 2 bedrooms, both with the same bathroom/shower. There is also a study room. All floors in the house are grey/white/greenish marble. The walls are painted in a soft yellow colour. All the windows in the house have small glasspanels and iron bars everywhere. Outside colour is white, red tile roof. Two balconies upstairs. Around the house is a small pathway and on one side is grass with different plants. On all sides are creepers on the white stone fences around the house and also bamboo and palmtrees. Very colourful plants. I need to buy some huge plants to have a more private terrace. Tomorrow I am going to try again..........have been to some nurseries already but two were not much at all and one was good but we saw nobody there.........

Something we really have to get used to is that people walk around the house all the time........a gardener, sometimes two, who sweeps, picks dead leaves, gives water to the plants..........Because of leaks (the rains have been very heavy sometimes, now it seems to be over, end of the rainy season) in the house people came to check, sometimes there were three men. Then there was a temporary fix of this problem, they will come back soon and take the tiles of the balcony, put new ones in............will be dusty and noisy, I expect.

Then there is our housemaid, she comes three afternoons a week to do floors, bathrooms, ironing and she loves to do dishes...........so I keep as much as possible for her to do...........but then we must be careful not to attract ants and cockroaches!

Also because of the rain we had water almost coming into the house at the back. So over the last two weeks there have been countless guys and girls(!) to work on a drainage pipe that hopefully directs the water to the road or so.

Then the door bell rings because of delivering of some not so important mail........needs signature.

What else..........sometimes we have a crew of 6 or so sweeping, cutting grass and bushes........

With Diwali we got ladies at the door who asked for money.........well, so it goes on and on.........there is always someone coming! Maybe it will get better when all the work is done at the back of the house and when we are not so new anymore.........I bet they tell each other that there are some new white dummies around who know nothing about life in India...........so they give it a try to bother and ask for money!

Trouble...........Oktober 20th Bastian moved around some of the last boxes in our maidsroom. In this small room with shower/bathroom housemaids can live with families. We use it for storage. Old schoolstuff, childrens vcr's, Shellpapers, and so on..........I repacked it over the weeks, wrote on the boxes what is in which box and Bastian piled them up so that our driver would have a place in that room for a nap or just to relax if he would want to. Well, picking up the last box went wrong......something in Bastian's back did not feel right and the poor guy almost fainted. He sat down and was quit pale for a while. So there was pain but not too bad. That Sunday night he flew to Kuala Lumpur and from there to Miri on Monday. The pain was still there and had not really become less! Monday night was really bad, Tuesday he saw a doctor there, got pain killers and some vitamines. Well, the whole week was not so pleasant during the course. He came back Friday night and, like almost all the nights before, did not really sleep well and on Saturday morning we called a Shell doctor and told him the story. He told him to go for an MRI scan. He had twisted a disc. After a long day (gone from 11 till 7.30 in the night) he came home with the message that he was supposed to check in at the hospital the next evening. Monday: surgery! He needed a microlumbar discectomy. His left upper leg had become numb for almost the whole week already and the doctors did not want to take any risk by waiting longer to 'release' the nerves. So there we went on Sunday, end of the afternoon, to the Wockhardt Hospital, almost an hour south from our house. Sitting such a long time in the car was not a real pleasure for him but what could we do about that. The hospital is one and a half years old and is proud to have Harvard connections. At the check in desk Bastian could make a choice in whatever room he would like to have, varying from 800 rupees to 5500 rupees(800 rupees is almost 14 Euro's and 20 US Dollars). And this is for one day + night, food and care. Interesting rates! Well, Bastian will tell more in detail, I am sure, because it was all quite an experience. Anyhow, when he finally laid down on his bed he was glad to be there. That night was the worst so we were happy the next morning that he was taken to the operation unit for the surgery. I was not there, by the way, had gone home straight away. Later on we understood that it is very common to stay and take care of the sick loved one. Well, they must have thought that I was a monster because I only came again on Tuesday afternoon to pick the poor guy up! Anyhow, they removed the soft stuff (have no idea what it is called) that pushed against the nerves in his back and leg. Later on he could take it with him in a plastic container. Now we are almost two weeks further. The pain is much less thanks to a huge pile of pills! Last week he went to the office a few times and this week he hopes to be there again sort of full time. All our 'new' friends here tell him: be careful, take the time te recover............and of course I am the one who tells him most of all................The doctor has told him that the pain will be there at least three weeks, so another week to go now. And total recovery should be in three months. It was amazing to see how people here stand around us. Prayers, phone calls, flowers from two couples that we know from the home group, flowers brought by his boss with cards signed by collegues. Also emails. We were touched (even Bastian!!!) by this a lot!