The Turning Point

This past week marked the middle of my stay in Bangalore. My ill health, long work hours, and friends going home turned this week into an emotional roller coaster for me.

Bryn, Liz, Caitlin, and Raf left on the weekend or early in the week, Joe wasn't back yet from Delhi. There was a general atmosphere of "I just want to go home" in the apartment. 

I spent Monday through Thursday in the office, finishing Mr. Masagi's book, Bhageeratha. It was exhausting. With commute included, my workdays began to stretch out to 11-12 hours and I was upset and exhausted in the evenings. Furthermore, traffic in the late afternoons is absolutely horrendous. On Thursday afternoon finally the book was 'finished,' or at least enough so that Mr. Masagi decided to send it to the publisher for a hard copy that he could look over. 

In the span of two weeks I had food poisoning, a high fever and symptoms of a cold, an allergic reaction to some spices, a bacterial skin infection, ulcers in my mouth, and a terrible migraine. 

After seriously thinking my situation through, on Friday I decided to go to the doctor with Anu. I received antibiotics for the infection but no medication for my other issues. I was glad that I went to the doctor because it gave me a sense of comfort about my skin infection at least, but man I was very thankful that Anu came with me- I couldn't have navigated the Indian public hospital system without her. 

Our party of six (Anu, Benoit, Bertina, Diamond, Emma, me) left for Kerala in the early afternoon on Friday, but our bus didn't actually leave Bangalore until about 7 pm, so we were quite annoyed about communication failures there. We had neither lunch nor dinner! Luckily the seats weren't uncomfortable at least. 

Unfortunately for me, a terrible headache struck me again and I was unable to even barely move my head without searing pain cutting through my skull. It felt as if I needed an iron brace around my head if I wanted to keep it from splitting. This pain lasted through the night and most of the next day. I took more ibuprofen pills than I can remember, but nothing seemed to abate the pain. When we got off the bus in Aleppy to look for a houseboat to rent, I was offered some water but I threw it all straight up. It was a good thing that I didn't have food in my stomach. 

After sleeping for a couple of ours on the boat my headache became more manageable and I could begin to to enjoy the backwaters of Kerala. Our houseboat was large and spacious and the crew cooked a delicious meal for us. At this point the ulcers and swollen glands in my mouth have finally receded enough to allow me to eat something. I ate the fish they prepared with plain rice. (I wasn't ready for some crazy indian gravy yet). It was really quite tasty! 

We spent our evening with drinking tea and having intellectually stimulating conversations. We drifted from topics of how multinational corporations harm agriculture to gender dynamics in different cultures to differences in educational systems to the legacy of colonialism. These were great conversations to have with a highly diverse group of openminded people. And by diverse, I mean REALLY diverse. Anu is an Indian girl who grew up in Zimbabwe, Benoit is a French guy whose first international experience is this trip, Bertina is a Caribbean girl who grew up in and lives in France, Diamond is a southern black American, Emma is Scottish and I am me. It's a pity that we were missing Nadia, since she could have chimed in with her Italian experiences. 

We slept on the boat and spent most of Sunday on it as well, continuing our conversations and eating more good food. The only damper on our mood was the constant rain that just wouldn't cease falling. 

Visiting Cochin on Sunday was part of our original plan, but we decided against it when we realized how short our time on the boat would be otherwise. After several travel hiccups that are common for us at this point, we managed to get back on a bus going to Bangalore. We were wet and smelly and hungry, but at least no headache haunted me this time.

the fish I ate on the houseboat

very practical oarsman

 a houseboat

the steering wheel of our houseboat