Back again in Pune.....

Scott here: I arrived in Mumbai on schedule Sunday evening. There was a mix up in the booking of the hotel as there are two Hyatt hotels in town here. I asked for the airport hotel (the Hyatt Regency, evidently), but got put up in the Grand Hyatt. The domestic flight from Mumbai to Pune is a very short affair (less than 1/2 hour). I actually spent at least as much time in the air terminal as on the plane. It is hotter outside during the day than it has been at home, but not unbearable yet.

Not much has changed in a year, but you do see some new shops (including the Papa John's pizza that was under construction last year) open. India has very much maintained it's shocking mix of prosperity and poverty mixed with the tangled mass of humanity. I am still dumbfounded at the practices on the various construction sites. On the way to the office, yesterday, I caught site of a man standing on about a 7 - 8 in ledge on the third (or is that second) floor of a building. No rail, no safety straps of any kind. Reaching over his head to his full extension, white washing the trim of the building he was in. The tin shacks, the stray dogs, beggars and children, all of it is still here.

I got to go look at housing today. All seemed like nice places in their own rights, however, no one wants to provide a full power back up, so this is making me nervous regarding frozen and refrigerated goods. So goes the conventional experience here in India. They say the power cut offs are getting fewer and fewer, but in this new hotel I am staying in, I counted at least 6 times the lights dimmed out until the back up engaged.

About the hotel, this time I am staying in a new place called the "O". Very modern feel, very abstract artish. The room is comfortable (nice bath tub). They have ok broadband (only 256kbs :-( ), which is good enough for Skype. They have 2 restaurants (I have only so far eaten at the breakfast buffet and then a couple of meals all from the main one. The other is a Japanese themed place that I have yet to explore.

I got in contact with the same missionaries that we visited with last time. They have a church picnic planned for this Sunday, so I will be trying to join them if I can (kind of depends on the driver).

Unfortunately, the one expat couple whom we met last year is currently on vacation, but will return before I have to leave, so they did invite me for dinner on Oct. 9. I have a bunch of stuff we plan to leave with them in preparation to our landing with the kids.

That's all for now. My wife and I will be discussing the housing options this evening.

Halloween is IT!

Scott's official start date is November 3rd. We will most likely travel on Halloween and be in Pune on November 1st. Scott leaves for a combination house hunting/orientation trip September 27th (or close to it - plane ticket still has to be bought).

Lot's to do in the next 6 weeks.

I'll post more as we know it.

Dawn

Visa's Come Tomorrow!

The visa's have been our biggest obstacle so far. They should be overnighted and arrive tomorrow. Scott is having a teleconference tomorrow to determine our initial itinerary. We also found a possible buyer for our cars (an Indian doing an Ex-pat assignment here).

We are planning on doing much of our communication via Skype - an internet phone company. If anyone would like to install the program and contact us - email me and if we like you :) we'll let you know our user name. Our phone number will also work - just double check the time before you call :)

There is also a way that we can get mail and small packages - I will let you know more details as they become available.

I'll update again tomorrw.

Dawn

Update: finally!

We finally talked to the move coordinator last night. She is in Shanghai, China - so we are working with a 12 hour time difference. As I was expecting, we got our first curve-ball. A major gut-wrenching curve-ball. Our shipping allowance was changed between the initial contract and the one Scott signed. It's just over 1/3 of what I was planning on. Needless to say this has me scrambling to figure out how in the world I'm going to do this. Scott found out this morning that we can appeal this amount and we are going to try to exclude the baby supplies and homeschooling supplies from this amount.

We discussed the rest of the contract and we will hopefully be setting a date as soon as the visa's come back (in about 10-14 days). So it looks like mid -late October is when the kids and I are going. Scott is going to try to do a combined house-hunting/work trip the beginning of October.

I'll post more as we know it.

Dawn