Sushi Moshi is a tiny woman, I believe in her seventies who has been assigned to take care of me-- a very big task.
She brings tea twice a day and food from the cafeteria for meals. (Since this is a boarding school for some students,
the food situtation has worked well. I have an all Indian diet and although I don't know what I am eating, it is
tasty and I am healthy.) Sushi Moshi talks to me constantly in rapid Bengali to which I alternately reply, "Dhonyobad,"
thank- you or ""Ami Jani na," I don't know!
This morning we plugged in the new toaster I purchased yesterday along with a small refrigerator for the room.
Sushi Moshi put in the bread and the next thing I knew there was a fire under the toaster! After we put the fire out,
she patiently scraped the burnt bread and we went on with breakfast.
When the two electricians for the school came to put in a plug for the refrigerator, they told me I had plugged the toaster
into a DC current. It is lucky that I didn't blow up my cell phone as well.
Anyway, the appliance shop that sold me the toaster and refrigerator also sold me an adapter that they assured my would
work. So far we have burned out three!
These gentlemen have very gracioiusly replaced the imploded toaster and are continuing to work on the adapter problem.
Craig can tell you that the only melt down I have had on this trip was because I couldn't connect to e-mail, recharge
my camera, or call the U.S. on my cell phone. Living in the middle of a city with 14 million people has given me
periods of anxiety to get in touch with people at home-- now!!
What I am learning-- patience, flexibility, how to walk purposefully down a city street, step into oncoming traffic
(driving on the left side of the road) without crosswalks and survive, and to appreciate the basic goodness of people
who are willing to go out of their way to help.
