Animals in Mumbai

Mumbai is such an urban place, you wouldn't think there would be many animals around, but there are :)


Cows - I come across a lot of cows during my walk/runs.  Usually they are just sitting on the side of the street or wandering in between cars.

Ox Carts - The streets are loud and crazy with a lot of traffic - buses, cars, trucks, rickshaws. Among all that  - you will see a cart loaded down with stuff being pulled by two oxen

Goats - In other cities of India, I've seen goats wandering around the streets.  In Mumbai, I just see them near Mutton shops.  Then a few hours later, I don't see them  :)  dinner!

Roosters - They aren't too common, but you do see them on the streets sometimes.  I was walking the other day and I heard a little boy scream - I looked up and saw a rooster biting a chunk out of his thigh! by the time I got there, adults had run out of shops to help him.  poor thing.  I walked a very wide arc around those roosters!!!

Dogs - I used to be terrified of dogs, but that has abated a lot.  There are a lot of wealthy people in my neighborhood that have cute little pure breed dogs they walk around on leashes.  There are a ton of street dogs everywhere!!    I also work at a dog shelter with the 6th graders as our Community Service.  Can you believe I help at a dog shelter??  Washing and walking dogs.  ME!!  

Cats - Cats are much rarer than dogs on the street.  Mostly just abandoned kittens. Except for "cat lady".  This street lady a few blocks from my house that always has about 5 cats with her when she is lighting fires on the street to cook - hopefully not the cats!!  Her corner always smells like cat pee!

Rats - Sometimes I have to dodge a rate that jumps out while I'm running.  Or jump over dead rats in the street.

Crows - In my mathematical estimation, 99% of the world's crow population lives in Mumbai.  They are everywhere.  I think I had been pooped on by a bird a total of 2 times in my whole life.  I moved to Mumbai and I think I have been pooped on 6 or 7 times - in 18 months!!!

Horses - I don't know why I start laughing every time I see someone riding a horse in the streets of Mumbai!  I've seen elephants in the streets, but that is rare.  Horses are more common, but for some reason, elephants don't phase me, but seeing a horse cracks me up.  I guess because it just seems so NORMAL.  and I am not used to seeing normal here.

Miserable but counting my blessings :)

I woke up and felt really tired today.  I finally got out of bed, showered, got dressed and felt fine.  I cut up strawberries to put in my dahi and sat down to eat it.  I couldn't even get it to my mouth - the thought of eating it was repulsive.  But I still didn't feel sick.  I didn't have a first block class so I decided to wait a bit before I left for school.  10 minutes later I was throwing up!  I still didn't feel sick until that moment. So weird.

So even though I was miserably sick all day - here are some positives.

1) All my kids have computers so it is really easy to email to tell them what I wanted them to do today.
The substitute emailed me to tell me the kids were good for her and several students emailed me to wish me well and to tell me how they did today.

2) I TEXTED my doctor to and he replied in 5 minutes.  Last year I had 4 vomiting incidents.  This is my 7th one this school year.  In December I was sick and the doctor came over - it was the 5th day in two months that I had vomited.  Sometimes it is so bad, a doctor has to come over and give me a shot to get it to stop. It is so easy for people to chalk it up to food poisoning because, well, we are in India.   :) But it was happening so often, I was convinced there was another cause.  He said I could be producing too much stomach acid so he told me to limit my intake of tea, coffee, and alcohol.  EASY.  I never ever drink alcohol or coffee and I have green tea maybe two or three times a month.  He also gave me meds to take each night to see if that helped.  I haven't been sick for 6 weeks - until today :(  So I texted him to see if I should continue the meds or if we should look into another cause.  He said to give it 3 more weeks.  BAM.  Got my answer - Didn't have to go to a doctor's office or pay a single rupee!!

3) The school office told the school nurse I was sick so she called!  and asked how I was feeling and if I'd seen a doctor. etc.  Told me to call her if I got sicker or needed anything. awesome!

4) in the US If I was sick I couldn't drive to go get medicine and the thought of leaving home to go see a doctor was horrible.  Here, the doctor will come to me.  You can get medicine delivered.  If I choose to walk to the chemist and I get tired or need to throw up - I can just rest on the curb and no one cares :)

I was wondering how long I can be on these meds so I looked up side effects.  It is likely I would get a false positive for TCH!!  HA!  luckily my school doesn't do drug testing otherwise I'd be labeled a pot head even though I have never touch the stuff!   It also says that using the medicine can make you more likely to develop food and drug allergies.  great!!  that is another possibility of why I get sick.  The doctor says it could be something they cook with here.  so even if I wasn't allergic to something before, I might become allergic with this medicine.  Nice.

I was thankful for all the positive things in the midst of a day of illness.  Hopefully I will be better tomorrow :)

People Always ask me....

Since I moved to Mumbai, many people ask if I feel safe here.  The gang rape case in Delhi has been international news and more people have been asking me about my safety.  I generally feel safe in Mumbai and many parts of India. The only place I didn't feel as safe was in Delhi - I've been there twice and I didn't like it much either time.

In the US, I felt like I always had to have my guard up - if a car was following me when I was walking,  if I was in an elevator alone with several men, at crowded movies theaters, dark parking lots - always the possibility someone is dangerous. I don't feel that way here.  I walk on the street even at night without a second thought.  

But, feeling safe doesn't mean I'm always comfortable.  Beggars harass me on the street and they reach inside rickshaws to grab at me.  I get stared at so much I think I have holes bored into me!  I get harassed, grabbed, yelled at when I don't talk to men who think it is my duty to speak to them.  

Other kinds of safety are a different story!!  In the states, I wear a seatbelt - ALWAYS.  I have never had a traffic ticket or accident (besides sliding on ice when I was 16 and taking out a fence).  I follow basic safety precautions in every area of life.  Here, there aren't a lot of rules and regulations.  Most vehicles don't have seat belts - rickshaws don't even have doors or sides!!  It unnerved me when I got here.  Traffic laws are loosely held here so driving in general is scary and it  felt so dangerous to sit in that thing with nothing holding me in!!  But you can't be anxious and scared all the time.  It is amazing to me how calm I can be now.  There will be three lanes of traffic painted on a road, but cars, rickshaws, busses, and motorcycles will form SEVEN lanes across!  they go whichever way they want, at whatever speed they want etc.  I have to just put my mind somewhere else and pretend it isn't happening - It helps to have someone in the rickshaw with you to talk to!  Crossing the street is a exercise in agility and speed :)  You can't ever take a leisurely walk here.  You have to be "ON" constantly looking for bicycles, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, busses, ox carts, people pulled carts, dogs, goats, cows, roosters, crows, people,  garbage in the street, holes in the sidewalk - the list goes on :) 

At school I always feel safe!  We have amazing guards and security precautions.  I feel far safer there than than in crowded US schools with kids who are a little nuts.  My kids here are basically sweet and fun :) 

So don't worry about me - I'm safe in India :)  

Exciting Epiphany Day in Rome

My Last day in Rome was January 6th, which is the Epiphany - the day celebrating the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus.  Christmas is Celebrated until then so all the decorations were still up in Rome :)  My family often tried to do this, but because we had a live tree, it didn't always survive until the 6th.

I scheduled a Crypt and Catacomb tour for the afternoon.  In the morning I decided to walk to the Vatican.  There is a Castle near there, on the Tiber River that I wanted to take pictures of.  On my way there I noticed some roads were closed, I saw a lot of bicyclists - I thought maybe there was a race.  As I got closer to the Castle, I heard drumming.  I wandered into a great Epiphany Day Parade.  They were dressed in crazy costumes and walking straight to St. Peter's Basilica.  Some were dressed as witches. La Befana is an old woman in Italian folklore who delivers gifts to kids in Italy on Epiphany Eve - similar to Santa Claus.  There are icecream shops everywhere in Rome, but I hadn't had any - until today.  I got some near St. Peter's and ate it with my gloves on at the parade - it was so cold.

In the afternoon I went on a Crypt and Catacomb Tour with Dark Rome Tours (the same company that I joined for Pompeii and the Vatican) We went to one of the Roman Catacombs.  We went through the winding tunnels and learned all the history.  We weren't allowed to take pictures :( They call Rome an Archeological Lasagna - there are layers of history.  We went to Basillica San Clemente where the sound of running water drove a clergyman to dig through the tiles.  Layers of history were discovered.  You start in a 12th Century church then walk down to where remains of a 4th century church were,  a 2nd century church remains of a Mithraic temple, and 1st century Roman Street.  (57 feet below the surface)  Then we went to the Capuchin Crypt and Museum where the remains of 4,000 Capuchin monks rest.  Their remains were used to decorate - vertebrae chandeliers etc..  Again, we were not allowed to take pictures - so I looked up some on the internet.   It was so cool the way the bones were laid out.  There are laws now that you cannot decorate with human parts anymore so if a piece of bone falls of, no one is allowed to put it back up.

As I was walking back to my hotel -The Mecenate Palace (next to the Santa maria Basilica)  I saw another parade - it was quieter, solemn, and more religious.

A great way to end my trip to Rome :)

Naples, Herculaneum ruins and Pompeii

The last port on the cruise was Naples.  I took a half day tour of the ruins of Herculaneum.  It was a small town nearer to Vesuvius than Pompeii - They were found with their mouths open - the gas killed them immediately - whereas the bodies were curled up in Pompeii because they were trying to protect themselves from ash.  Our tour guide was an archeologist. At one point she bent down and told us she had something brand new to show us.  She picked up a leaf that was covering an ancient coin.  She had found it the previous day, but NYE and New Years day are bank holidays in Italy and she couldn't formally report the coin until the next day - so she was hiding it so others wouldn't find it.

People say the ruins of Herculaneum are better preserved and nicer than Pompeii.  I had planned to go to Pompeii a few days later and almost cancelled - I'm glad I didn't :)

After the ruins we went back to Naples - the area near the port is nice.  Many things were closed since it was New Years Day.  There were four ships in port but they were probably there as a last resort like us because of problems with Egypt and Israel.   I wandered around and got some Napoli pizza :)  and went back on the ship.

The next day we arrived in Civitavecchia and I took a NCL bus to Rome.  Instead of dropping us at the Coloseum like he was supposed to the driver took us to our hotels for 10 Euro which was better than finding a cab etc.  It was nice to drive all around Rome since the hotels were all over.  We passed a Fab India!!! I met a couple on the bus that has what I feared would happen to me happen to them.  They were delayed due to weather in chicago and missed the ship leaving and had to fly to turkey to meet it at the next port.

I spent the afternoon wandering around and just looking at the wonder that is Rome.  My tour to Pompeii the next day left from Piazza de Popolo and the hotel said it was too far to walk, but I scouted it out and it was 40 minutes and I got to see a lot of things along the way.  I wandered to the this place that had over 100 creches on display.  I wasn't allowed to take pictures but they were amazing.  People made Nativity scenes reflecting different cultures.  Some were just Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.  Some had a few more pieces and some had 100s of pieces - a whole town.  Some were made of wood, wire, paper, pinecones, ceramic etc.  They were beautiful.

The next morning I walked to the Piazza and joined others for a 3 hour bus drive to Pompeii.  We I told them my name was Staley, they couldn't find my reservation.  Then I saw it listed as "jo Bobbi"  ha!  no Staley at all!  Jo was the last name.  This happens often in foreign countries.  I was so glad I didn't cancel!!  Pompeii was awesome!  Our guide told us lots of things about the areas we drove through.  Italy is famous for its wine of course. One kind is translates as the Tears of Christ.  When Lucifer fell he brought a piece of Heaven with him - it was Vesuvius.  When Jesus saw Vesuvius He recognized it and wept.  The tears made grapes grow and this kind of wine can only come from grapes that actually grow on the sides of the volcano.

It has taken 200 years for them to dig out what they have of Pompeii.  Our guide was really knowledgeable and funny especially when it came to the brothels :)  After Pompeii we went to Naples to the Archeologial museum that has most of the Pompeii artifacts.  People say Naples is sketchy, but it wasn't by the port.  We drove through it to get to the museum and it was bad!!  It is definitely a poor city and it shows.  The guides told us not to leave the safety of the museum for any reason.  I obeyed :)

Vatican and 4 papal Basilicas

I booked an all day tour of the Vatican.  I walked for an hour to get to the Vatican at 8:30 and we spent 3 hours going through the Vatican museums and St. Peter's Basilica.  Then we got some time to get lunch on our own then in the afternoon we went to the other three Papal Basilicas.   Long day but great! I learned so much and tried to take notes on my phone, but there was just so much!  I will do my best to give you important information.

So Vatican city is the 13th country I've been to!  It is also the smallest country in the world. You can walk around it quickly. 0.44 K  It has 900 citizens - all people who work for the pope or who are diplomats etc.  The military- they basically just guard the pope -  is Swiss guards - they have to be Catholic and really tall.  They wear the same uniforms they did 500 years ago.  About 2000 Italians work for the Vatican and it is a coveted job.  Italians pay 55% tax plus sales tax etc.  If they work for the Vatican - which is another country - they don't have to pay Italian taxes.  Much like me working overseas.  Vatican City has no income tax or Sales tax.  They make 65 million Euro in money from museum tickets - they also get a lot of money in donations.  The US catholic church give 30% of the donations.  Souveneirs were cheaper in VC because of no sales tax.



 It is a monarchy - the pope is king, but he is a king that is elected.  When the current pope dies a group of cardinals lock themselves up in the Sistine Chapel to elect the next pope out of a pool of candidates.  They cannot leave until one is elected.  I guess sometimes it would take weeks or months, so now they only give them enough food for 8 or so days.  When I mean locked in, I mean locked in.  Absolutely no contact with the outside world.  If a cardinal has a hear attack or something in there, the room cannot be opened for medical care unless a pope has been elected.   I guess there is a short list of people and they know who they are.  Once they are elected they cannot turn it down because it is God ordained. Only one man in history refused to be put in the pool of candidates.  There is a room off the side of the chapel called the "room of tears".  I guess every pope has cried when he was elected because this is the job he will have until the day of his death - there is no hope for any other life. The emerge from there and have to go to the San Giovanni in Laterano Basilica/Cathedral and sit on the seat and conduct Mass there.  THEN he is pope.  I always thought the words Basilica and Cathedral were synonyms for church.  Not true.  Basilica is just a certain shape of building - many other types of buildings were basilicas in ancient times. Cathedrals are churches that are the seat of the bishop in a diocese.  So there is one cathedral in each diocese. The pope is also the Bishop of Rome and this St. John church is the Cathedral of the diocese.  Interesting.

We went to all the Vatican museums - it would probably mean a lot more to an art major or architecture person - me I just looked at all the pretty things and said wow and then went on with my day :)  The guide explained all kinds of things about the art, artists, styles, architecture etc.  It was really fascinating.  There were paintings, sculptures, frescos, tapestries etc.  Each time a pope came in they would bring in different art and make new rules etc.  Pope Pius is the one responsible for saying that Mary was born without original sin.  He also had a problem with all the naked statutes other popes had allowed.  He took a hammer and broke all the Penises off the statues.  Then he kept them in boxes!!!  The penises have not been reattached because it is difficult to tell which belongs to whom :) We could take pictures of everything but the Sistine Chapel.  Apparently a Japanese company paid for the cleaning of the art in 1980 or something $100 million or so.  In return they wanted the rights to the art - which they have for 10 more years.  So if you go back after 2023 you can take pictures.  It was horrible the way people were taking pictures anyway and getting yelled at by the guards and ruining the peaceful atmosphere.  It was fascinating they way he depicted all the Bible stories. It was smaller than I thought it would be.

We went to St. Peter's Basilica and saw St. Peter's Square.  No building in Rome can be taller than St. Peter's dome.  Only the pope can give Mass in the center with the big alter.  There are chapels off to the side where regular Masses can be given.  They were preparing the big part for Mass on Sunday Jan 6th - the Epiphany.  Just like the other three papal basilicas I will tell you about later, this one has a papal door in the center that only the pope can go through so it is closed most of the time.  and on the right is the holy door (on the Mary church it is on the left).  These doors are only open once every 25 years.  So they will be open on Christmas eve 2024 and will close on Christmas Eve 2025. They are open for a year and pilgrims from all over the world come.  If you walk through the holy doors on all four papal basilicas your sins will be forgiven.  Um.  Isn't the whole point of being a Christian and following Christ is that He forgives your sins?  This kind of craziness is why I left the Catholic church.  Anyway the doors are beautiful albeit weird.  The church is built over st. Peter's grave - he was the first pope.  The church started out well - we know Peter loved Jesus and founded the church on good status.  It was the weird power they gave popes later and how they were allowed to just decide things whether it said so in the Bible or not.

We went to "st. Paul's outside the walls"  San Paolo Fuori le Mura  - the church was build outside Roman City walls.  It was less ornate than the others - quiet and beautiful.  Most on the tour loved this one more than the others.  We learned that when you see statutes Peter is always the one with keys in his hand - gold the key to Heaven and Silver the key to Earth.  Paul always has a sword.

The we went to St. John's.  San Giovanni in Laterano - most important church in Catholocism because this is the seat of the Bishop and sitting her is what makes him pope.

The oldest obelisque in the world sits outside this church - 36 centuries old.  It was brought over from Egypt.  The Holy Stairs are in a building nearby the church.  They are the marble stairs that used to lead to Pontious Pilate.  You have to climb them on your knees and the guide said they are covered with different material and you can see the original marble through slats.  she said no one is Holy enough to walk on the stairs He walked on.  Weird.  I've been to Jerusalem twice and you can walk all over where He walked, touch stones and trees that He probably touched.  Walk the Via Dolorosa.  It doesn't get much more holy ground than that.

The last church we went to was Santa Maria Maggiore - a papal church dedicated to Mary.  It's holy door is on the left and they actually had to label it.   People that come on the Jubilee year to walk through the doors to get their sins forgiven were walking through the right door - which is the holy door in the other three basilicas and were *gasp*  not getting their sins removed.

This church is right next to my hotel so it was great to end there :)