Now I am not one to travel during the week but an opportunity to meet a 2013 IDEX alumn got be out of Chandanagar last night. Before embarking on the bus ride I went in search of the post office. I found it after making one wrong turn and inquiring after it from a security guard. The post office is on the second floor and is marked by a sign that says post office. If i wasn't being overly observant I would not have found it. I bought stamps at R25 per postcard which breaks down to each postcard needs 2 R10 stamps 1 R3 stamp and 1 R2 stamp. My postcards are small that all 4 stamps don't fit at the top right corner of the postcard. The office is just a room with about 6 people in it. A woman just opened a book that had stamps in it and counted it out. No receipt given. They only sell the postage. I was told to sit and afix all the stamps using glue but since I was still heading to Banjara Hills. I only did 2 postcards before heading out. Tomorrow I will return to mail out the post cards.
On the walk back to the bus stop a young man stopped me. He just wanted my name and where I was from. He was with his friends so I think it was a dare. Who had the guts to approach the foreigner. I got on the bus and began the journey. It started pouring when I got to Banjara Hills. Thankfully I always have an umbrella in my bookbag. The bus had no windshield wipers which made it difficult for me to see where we were so I got scared when I thought I missed my stop. The ticket guy assured me that City Center was still ahead. I was not dressed for this type of rain. I had on my borrowed leather loafers that got soaked. Thankfully the bus driver didn't drop us off in the middle of a stream. The runoff from the rain is really dirty thanks to all the garbage in the streets, the dumps, animal droppings, men urinating on the streets, etc. It is not the best time to travel during the heavy rains but it must be done. Very few had umbrellas and I soon saw why. I was only able to keep my hair dry. I made the walk to the other fellows place and when I passed the huge garbage dump, took off my shoes and proceeded barefoot. My shoes were soaked and trying to avoid the puddles and streams proved futile as I kept stepping in what looked like shallow water but instead flooded my shoes. I almost fell a few times once I got to their place because the floors were slippery. I finished affixing the stamps on the postcards before I headed out with Okorite to meet Manvir who is from Kashmir. Since my loafers were soaked I wore my flip flops back out. I kept slipping and walking out of them that I took them off and carried them with me. I must have looked a mess when we showed up at Fremmy's. Me with slippers in hand since I have not mastered walking in slippers in the rain and looking like a wet dog. He is very kind and had a good experience at IDEX. He is well connected as he is now a consultant in Hyderabad. He told us about a 3day 50km hike around Andrah Pradesh next month that sounds really fun. He said IDEX is all about peer learning but feels the program is to short. By the time fellows got settled last year, the fellowship was over. He was placed in Mumbai I believe. Thankfully the rains reduced to a drizzle by the time we headed out. It is definitely nice to hear about previous fellows experience especially at different stages of IDEX since the program has changed in last 4 years. I need to work out what challenges I want to address and what types of projects I would like to work on with other fellows or alone. He has offered to connect us to networking events.
