India

Posted on 05. Dec, 2006 by Rob in Uncategorized

Sorry again for the delay getting a meaningful posting up. We’ve had our hands full gearing up for the Christmas season and unexpected trips to the U.S., but here we are.

The Habitat for Humanity Jimmy Carter Work Project was a great success. All the goals that were made for the week were met and the experience was nothing less than amazing.
I did most of my travelling with our friends Sarvin and Meha. They are also American expats and Sarvin works in Christina’s office here in Singapore. You’ll see lots of pictures of them in the gallery.
Here are the highlights:

• Arrived on Friday night. Spent Saturday in Pune with a former colleague of Sarvin’s. Did some shoppping and took a tour of the Osho ashram. Rumor has it that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie tried to visit the ashram to do some meditating , but were turned away because they wouldn’t take a certain medical test that is required. The ashram was a suprisingly peaceful little oasis in what is a generally chaotic place.
• Sunday did some local sightseeing with the Singapore H4H crew. Visited the Karla Caves which used to be a Buddhist temple carved out of a mountain.
• Sunday night – Opening ceremonies for the build, and we meet our house team… only our house leader doesn’t show. We find out later that he is ill. Turns out that Meha is on my team which proves to be a huge help because she speaks Hindi and can translate between the locals and the rest of the team.
• Monday – Friday… Build, Build Build.
• Brad Pitt shows up on Tues.-Weds. and works with Jimmy Carter on the house across the street from us. His presence may be a plus from a P.R. aspect, but is certainly a net minus from a productivity standpoint due to the gawker factor.
• We finish off our house on Friday and enjoy the closing ceremonies.
• 3am Saturday morning, we catch a shuttle to the Bus which is going to take us to the airport in Mumbai. We’re late, the Bus is gone. A driver is hired to drive the 5 of us to the airport. He gets on the highway going in the wrong direction. There are no exits for about 40 miles. But there are occasional gaps in the center barrier for rescue vehicles which we instruct the driver to use. He misses about 3 of them. We start yelling at him. He stops the car on the highway. Sitting in the back with the luggage, I see big trucks bearing down on us. He puts the car in reverse. Louder yelling and threats of physical harm. The driver manages to get us turned around and everyone cools off. We fly back to Singapore.
  By the way, I never realized how lousy Northwest Airlines was until I had the chance to fly Singapore Air. It just needs to be said.

Of course there are many, many details that I’m leaving out, but I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Also, here’s a little video the Habitat people whipped together to show at the closing ceremonies. I’m not in it, but it’s still worth watching. (ha ha)

Thanks again to everyone who helped sponsor this event. Your support was invaluable.