Life with Mortimer

In November, my shoulder started hurting when I woke up and sometimes during the day.  I have Lupus and Sjogrens though so I am used to all kinds of weird aches and pains.  I was careful with it, but kept doing my normal activities.  I went to the gym and did my normal arm weights with Nilendra.  I would make sure to reach really carefully for the weights, then I could lift them no problem.  I went home for Christmas and my shoulder bothered me and I remember one painful experience when I was dancing with Charlotte and Natalie to Taylor Swift's "Shake it off".  When I got back to India, Nilendra went on vacation and five weeks passed without me going to the gym and my shoulder got worse.  By the end of February, I was in agony and could barely move my left arm.

I went to the physical therapist and they diagnosed me with a frozen shoulder.  I had never heard of it before, but I now know of multiple people that have had one.  It takes 12 to 36 months to recover!!  I thought they were exaggerating!  But the process has been slow.  X-rays showed that my shoulder was a little out of socket, but no known injury.  When I traveled to Croatia for spring break and I got bumped on the airplane and it hurt like heck, but I think it popped it into socket because it hurt less for a few days.  Then I had an encounter with a rough security person and it hurt again.

I could barely move my arm.  Getting dressed was time consuming, I couldn't shampoo my hair, or hold a plate in my left arm.  My kids and I decided I was like a T-rex.

During the month of March, I went to Physical Therapy twice a week and it hurt sooooo bad and I gained little mobility.  I started acupuncture in addition to my regular physio three times a week in April and I seemed to gain more mobility.   I still can't do normal things and it hurt horribly at night, but I allow my Physical Therapist, Ridi, to torture me in the hopes that I will someday get to use my arm normally again!

It has been a humbling experience.  I am trapped by the limitations of this new "disability".  I panicked at first, because all I could think of was when I was trapped in my body when my Lupus was at its worst.  I can't really do any exercise but walk, so I do it as much as I possible can.

The limits my shoulder has imposed on me for month is such a big entity that I gave it a name.  MORTIMER.    The kids ask how mortimer is doing every day.   Mortimer wakes me up in the middle of the night like a toddler.

I'm going home this summer and it is going to be hard to love on all the babies waiting for me in the US without full use of my arm.

I have to keep believing it WILL get better and I will run, swim etc. again some day.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Today, I went to see Bosnia and Herzegovina

Dubrovnik used to be an independent republic and it is separated from the rest of Croatia by a 20km stretch of Bosnia and Herzegovina along the coast.  We drove up the coast and had to go through a border crossing out of Croatia, one into Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one back into Croatia.  We drove inland and admired views of the Adriatic Sea as we drove along the Croatia coast along the Adriatic Sea.

We drove through the Herzegovina part and headed to Medjugorje, which is known for a sighting of the virgin Mary by 6 girls in the 1980s.

We went to Mostar which was an amazing city.  It is known for its Old Bridge built in the 1500s  It was destroyed after three days of bombing in the 1990s during the war that separated Yugoslavia into six countries.  After the destruction of the bridge, the stone was dug out of the river and the new bridge was made with the old stone exactly the way it was so it could continue to be an UNESCO World Heritage site. .

We ended the day by driving down the Neretva River delta to the town of Pocitelj.  We saw the Haji-Ali Mosque and Sahat-kula, a silo-shaped fort on top of the hill above the town.  Everything was closed just as they were in many places we have been because it is not tourist season here yet.  

Montengro

Since I am on a quest to get to 50 countries before I am 50, I decided to hop over to Montenegro for a day while I was in Croatia. It was me and 8 other people with Super Tours.  We drove along the coast and stopped at the Croatia border check, then the Montenegro side.  It actually went pretty quickly.  Apparently it takes forever during the busy summer months.  We drove along the Konavla Valley and Bay of Kotor.  We stopped for lunch in Budva, went to Kotor and then stopped in Persat on our way back to Dubrovnik.  The drive was beautiful even though it was a cold, rainy day.

Small world story:  I had already started eating lunch when I saw one of our group come in and I invited her to sit with me.  Her name was Madeline and she was from New York.  She has friends that are living in Dubrovnik for awhile so she visited them.  I told her that I was here for a teacher conference at the end of the week.  She said the friends that she was staying with had a friend from Italy coming to that conference and she was going to stay with them too.  I asked if she was from Milan.  When she said yes, I asked if her name was Kira.  I totally think she was talking about one of the women in my math class!!!


Kotor had a lovely old town and we had plenty of time to explore it on our own.  I wandered around through the narrow alleys and heard laughter and smelled brownies baking.  The tourist season hasn't opened yet here and things were pretty dead so I was intrigued by the laughter.  I came across a group of young women in a little area with a sign that said "Shiloh Ministries"  I asked about it and had quite a lengthy conversation with them.  They were part of something called "world race"  where they do mission work in a country for a month, then move to another country and repeat that for 11 months.  I think they said it was a part of Adventure Missions.  They were sweet women and as I talked to them several people stopped by enticed by the smell of brownies and they got to share their ministry with them.  One of the women went to Illinois Wesleyan so we talked about Bloomington - Normal!!  The group and I prayed together before I left.  This encounter was a big bright spot in my day!!

Visitors in India

For some reason, not many people want to visit me in India!  Last Christmas two family members decided they would come and visit me this winter.  I went home for Christmas for 10 days then left to go back to Mumbai on Dec 31st with my Aunt Connie and her daughter -in-law (my cousin's wife) Christa in tow.  Here is a synopsis, but there are a lot more pictures on facebook if you want to see :)

We arrived at 1am on Jan 2nd.  We slept for a few hours then took a taxi to the Gateway of India where we caught a boat to Elephanta Island.

love the garbage by this sign!!

We did a little hiking and saw monkeys and explored the caves. I took Christa to the guy on my corner that is known for his hygiene with his street food and she loved his pani puri.  Connie and I had vegetarian chili that Jessie had made.

On the second day, we met Felix at the Bandra train station and he took us in a cab to tour Dharavi(a huge slum).  The girls got to try chai and we saw a lot of the Industries in Dharavi - leather, socks, clothes, purses, luggage, bread, etc.

Whenever I go through Dharavi it seems that one of the men ask about something someone is wearing and say that their company made it.  Christa had a purse from Kohls that the guy makes.  I have heard of several instances where items for Kohls have drawn attention.  Many of my clothes are from Kohls - I need to find where they make them here and buy them from the source!!  We also saw clothes being made for very expensive designers - especially Italian designers.   After Dharavi, we took a train to Crawford market and we shopped for spices and tea.  I ate a fruit I have never heard of - a chico - it had the consistency of a pear, but was firmer and sweeter.

We went to bed very early because we were being picked up at 3am to go to the airport.
We had a 5am flight to udaipur. We were met at the airport by our driver for the week, Ram.  He was excellent!! He was a safe driver, punctual, advised of great places to eat, etc.  I could understand about 75% of what he said and the others could understand a little less, but he had decent English.

Ram

He took us to our hotel - Jaiwana haveli (Haveli means courtyard - you see this word often in India). The hotel had hot water and a great rooftop restaurant where we had breakfast.  It looked over the lake and the people were super nice.  While we were eating, Ram arranged for a tour guide for the Jagdish Temple and the City Palace.  After exploring those, we went on a boat ride around the lake palace and went shopping.

We did a lot of shopping for textiles.

After breakfast the next day we set off on the day long drive to Jodhpur.  About two hours into the drive, we came to the Ranakpur Temple.  The girls got to experience Indian craziness.  We walked to the temple and after read the vast number of rules, decided to go back to the car to put away all of our stuff except our money.  We walked back and went to buy tickets only to discover that we needed our passports to get the audio tour headphones (which was mandatory for foreigners).  We went back to the car and by now, we are hot - we had to be covered neck to foot to go to the temple. Connie couldn't find her passport, so Christa and I went to get our tickets.  They have us three each.  One to give for the headphones, one for security at the temple, and one to keep.  Somehow when I got the temple, I didn't have my security ticket and of course they wouldn't take the third ticket!!  augh.  Christa was already in, but I went back to the counter.  They were not helpful - wouldn't give me a different ticket even though I just bought it 1 minute ago.  Another tourist was screaming at them because they stole 100 rupees from her.  Her husband had to drag her away while she was yelling at them to kiss her ass.  Ha!  I sat down on the curb in the shade refusing to pay again to get a new ticket.  They wouldn't give me my money back either!!  About 10 minutes later, the guy calmed down and asked me why I was mad.  Um.... because I paid to see the temple and you won't let me even though I bought a ticket!!!!!  augh.  stupid Indian rules just have rules.  I was not happy!

Ranakpur Jain Temple

The rest of the drive was uneventful.  We stayed at Hem guesthouse in Jodhpur.  I have stayed there before and it is in a family's house so the girls were sleeping next to the kitchen and I was sleeping downstairs next to rooms where the family slept.  It is a different kind of experience.  They said they had hot water, but we didn't experience it :), the streets were loud at night and it was truly an authentic Indian guesthouse experience.  The next day we explored Mehrangarh Fort and Jaswant Thada and went shopping.

view of mehrangarh fort from our guesthouse

 Ram suggested we eat at Pal Haveli and it was delicious and the rooftop restaurant had a great view of the clock tower.  We took a rickshaw back to the hotel and the they do not have meters like they do in Mumbai.  We drove about 5 minutes and the guy wanted 500 rupees apiece!!!  I refused and told him I lived in Mumbai and knew that was ridiculous - he immediately dropped it to 100 rupees apiece, but that was still too much.  Augh - they see white people and think they are stupid tourists they can cheat, but I was having none of it!!!


The next morning we drove the two hours to Manvar Desert Camp.  We took a nap, then Connie and Christa rode camels.  We went to the cultural show that night and had dinner.  It wasn't as cold at night in the desert as I thought it was going to be, but while we were eating they delivered hot water bottles to our beds and turned on heat blowers in our tents.



Transportation
They got to explore India by airplane, taxi, rickshaw, boat, train, motorcycle, and our feet!

Animals
They got to see lots of animals wandering all of the streets - dogs, cats, chipmunks, chickens, rats, goats, cows, water buffalo, oxen, monkeys, deer, and antelope

Food
Christa loved Indian food and tried everything she could and liked all of it.  She also liked the cheap, huge kingfisher beers!  Connie did not like curry, but liked many of the dishes we had that did not contain curry.  I can't eat Indian food and thought I'd have to spend days eating granola bars, but I was happy that we found plenty of things I could eat - naan, omelets, porridge, toast, and tomato soup.  I only had to resort to granola bars a few times :) They got to try chai and pani puri on the street.

Sights, sounds, and India chaos
They got to experience Bandra Gymkhana being really loud at night, honking, crazy traffic, walking through sewage water, using squat toilets, throwing used toilet paper into the rubbish bin instead of a toilet, my crazy titanic elevator, people peeing and pooping right in front of them on the street, people spitting everywhere, pushing and shoving, lack of hot water.

Country #25 Monaco

India was the 5th country I had every been to and now that I get to travel more, I have made a goal of getting to 50 countries by the time I am 50.  I am fortunate that I get to travel a lot for school.

I joined a Math Specialist program that requires us to meet 5 times in two years and I just had a meeting in Nice, France (country 24!).  My friends and I took a 40 minute bus ride that cost 1.50 Euros to go to Monaco.  It was dark so we didn't get to see much, but it is exactly like I pictured. A symbol of wealth.  We really didn't see any "normal" stores.  We did have a reasonable dinner there. Nice was nice  - My hotel was a tower - Villa la Tour.  It was very close to the Acropolis where our conference was.  It was also in the middle of the old town which consisted on wonderfully narrow, winding streets with cute shops.  The weather was perfect - bright sunny skies and cool temperatures.

So now I am halfway to my goal and should be to 30 by the end of this summer.
*plan to go before the end of July

1)  The US.
2) Canada (a cruise stop)  sad.  Will need to travel more there.
3) Mexico - a high school Spanish trip  It was my first flight!
4) Ecuador - 3 times for missionary work
5) Peru - Hiked the Inca trail to Machu Picchu

6) India - I live there!
7) The Maldives - a whole week basking in this paradise.
8) Thailand - went to visit friends
9) Hong Kong - went to visit a friend

10) Israel (3 times including the Jerusalem half marathon)
11) Jordan - Petra!
12) Oman - a school conference
*13) Bahrain - a school conference this January
*14) UAE - Math Counts competition this February

15) France - math conference
16) the Netherlands - one night layover
17) Austria - math conference
18) Poland - twice for a math conference
19) Greece - twice on Cruise stops
20) Cyprus - cruise
21) Italy - Venice, Rome, Pompeii
22) Vatican City - smallest country
23) Monaco
24) Croatia - cruise stop and a Math conference
*25) Bosnia - hoping to go when I go to Croatia for a math conference this spring
*26) Montenegro -  hoping to go when I go to Croatia for a math conference this spring
27) Turkey - 4 times cruise stops and visiting friends in Istanbul
28) Ireland - spent a total of 9 weeks there over 2 summers going to grad school.
29) England - spent a week in London, Bath, Stonehenge
*30) Spain - going on a cruise this summer with friends
*31) Andorra - hoping to visit this summer when I am in Barcelona

I am well on my way to my goal.

I am so blessed to see so much of the world!

Week Without Walls - Gujarat, India

Every year our students go on a week long field trip called Week Without Walls.  It is usually outdoor adventure stuff - zip lining, rappelling, rock climbing, etc.  Our 8th graders study the Indus Valley Civilization in Social Studies and our teachers wanted the kids to go see some ruins since we are in India.

On Monday morning we met the kids at the airport at 7:30 am and flew to Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat.  It is on the upper left corner of India, on the Pakistan border.

We had 53 students, 8 teachers, a teacher's wife, a nurse and 3 security guards.  We arrived in Ahmedabad (with all of our luggage!!)  and drove to the Ghandi's Ashram(Sabarmati Ashram)

After the Ashram we took half the kids to check in at the Novotel and half he kids got McDonalds for lunch (then we switched)  I am not fond of McDonalds in India because there is no beef - veg burgers and masala - yuck.  The Novotel was super nice with great bathrooms and comfy beds.  We gave the kids free time and they used the pool and gym.  We played some games, ordered dominos pizza, and started planning skits.

On Tuesday we loaded up 6 mini busses each with 9 kids, 2 adults and a driver and drove to the Adalaj Stepwell It is over 500 years old and is gorgeous.  Monsoon just ended and I assumed we would see some water in the well.  I thought all areas of India got monsoon every year, but this part of the country hasn't had ANY rain in 2 years.  It was soooo dusty.

We started on a LONG 7 hour drive to Dholavira.  On the way we went through the Wild Ass sanctuary.  Hunting for wild asses kept the kids busy for awhile.  We drove on a lot of dirt roads and got lost a few times so it took quite awhile to get there.  This is the first time I have ever driven straight across desert with no roads.

We stopped twice to use the "restroom"  The kids were not happy with squat toilets with no doors.  The camp at Dholavira was not as nice as the Novotel :) The huts held 6 kids and had a running tap for a bucket shower.  We stayed there two nights and as we were leaving we heard kids complain about no hot water.  I asked them if they had turned on the geezer.  In India we do not have automatic hot water.  Whenever you need hot water for dishes, laundry, or a shower, you have to flip a switch to heat the water 15-20 minutes before you need to use it.  NONE of the noticed the geezer and did not have hot water.  crazy!

On Wednesday, we split the kids into two groups and half went to the fossil park and half went to the excavation sites of Dholavira - a Harappan site.  I went to the archeological site first ( it is 30 miles from Pakistan) and the kids got to see all the ruins which were really cool.  We went back to the campsite for lunch then went to the fossil park.  

one of the cabins

We are looking at Pakistan in the distance!!

ancient seals

The kids found fossilized wood and shells etc in the fossil park.  The Rann of Kutch is where we were and the salt flats was the coolest part!  the kids LOVED it.  Salt as far as the eye could see and it crunched like we were walking on snow. It was sooo hot and the flies were bothering us, then 5 people got stung by bees so we hightailed it out of there.  The morning group had no problem so maybe the bees only come out in the afternoon?

some of the teachers - Aanchal (the second from the left was my roomie on the trip)  I am the second from the right

On Wednesday night they played man hunt in the dart and Kabaddi.  On Thursday, we drove back to Ahmedabad.  It was supposed to be a shorter drive because we skipped the ass sanctuary and drove all on highways.  Even though it was only 220 miles away, it took 7 hours because highways are not the same in India. I could have taken a thousand photos of when we had to stop/slow down/swerve due to animals on the road, but here are a few.

a camel hauling hay

goats

water buffalo?

cows

About two hours in the van in front of us blew a tire.  Thank goodness the driver maintained control of the vehicle, but the tire was shredded.  Two vans had already gone ahead, but the other three stopped with the disabled van.  I was torn apart by thorns trying to pee on the side of the road!  The spare was flat so we went a few km to pump it up, then we stopped at a "rest stop" and waited there for over an hour for all the tires to be filled/fixed and we went on our way.  the first vans got to ahmedabad a good hour before us.  We stayed at the YMCA and it was awesome!!  huge pool, volleyball, space to run around etc.  The kids love it!

I am allergic to Indian food so for pretty much every meal I had an apple or a banana, a handful of banana chips, and a granola bar.  I was hungry and ready to go home!

We got up Friday morning and flew to Mumbai.  We made it back safe a sound with lots of good memories. 

Disaster Averted

I taught all day yesterday and flew all night so I was a little tired when I got to Amsterdam.  I went to the transfer area to get my boarding card for Warsaw.  I went through passport control and security.  I only had about 45 minutes until my flight.  I was debating whether to get some Lindor chocolate. On the one had they are yummy and cheaper here than in India.  On the other hand I am fat and need to say no to chocolate!!

Fortunately in this case I lacked the willpower to say no to the chocolate.  When I went to pay for it, I realized my wallet was gone!!!  Did I lose it at Security?  Did it fall out of my bag on the plane?  As I started heading back to security, I remembered that I had it at the transfer kiosks when I got my boarding card.  I told security what had happened and they took me to passport control.  They were worried about how soon my flight was and since my passport had already been stamped, they had to get a security officer to take me to look for it because I was no longer allowed to roam the airport on my own.

Patrice was a very nice lady and took me to the transfer kiosks.  No wallet.  They asked what it looked like.  I told them it was garbage- literally - it was made of recycled milk cartons. The nice ladies there looked around and went to the nearby desks to check.  No wallet.  They felt terrible for me - they helped me dig through my backpack to make sure I didn't put it in there instead of my purse.  I tried to stay calm as Patrice walked me back.  I had an emergency $20 bill in my backpack, but I wasn't sure that was going to be enough to get me to my hotel once i got to Warsaw.   I didn't know if the hotel would let me check in if I had to credit card to verify.  I figured this was the modern version of survival of the fittest.  I was about to head to Poland with no cash and no credit cards. I had my passports and boarding card so I figured I could get on the flight and have that time to figure out a plan.

As we were running through the airport Patrice saw an information booth and suggested we stop there.  She rattled off my predicament in Dutch and the lady at the counter bent over and pulled out a plastic bag that had my wallet!!!!!  Patrice jumped for joy and hugged me!  I opened it and my Indian debit card, American credit card, US dollars, Euros, and rupees were all in there!!  My driver's license was not in there.  She said it is routine for the police to take it when there is a lost wallet.  Patrice and I went to a police counter - no license.  We went to the next one and she rattled off the information and I heard the (very handsome) Dutch police man said "Bobbi Jo - Texas??" Patrice and I both squealed and jumped for joy!  We took it and ran through the airport.  She breezed me through passport control.  They made me go through security again but they did it quick and the whole lot of them were cheering me on and having Patrice recount how we found my walled WITH ALL MY MONEY STILL IN IT!  She escorted me all the way to my gate and hugged me.   She was seriously an angel.

I travel through many airports and I will have to say that the people working at the Amsterdam airport at the nicest people ever!!!!

Imagine, if I wouldn't have gone to pay for the chocolate, I probably would not have noticed until I got to Warsaw that it was gone and I would have been up a creek!!

Moral of the story - Being a chocolate addict has its benefits.  and God is Good!