October 27-29

Back on the airplane for a long journey. It takes exactly 24 hours from the takeoff in San Diego to the landing in Delhi, with two stops in Chicago and London. My frequent flyer status (over 1,000,000 miles) gave me access to the airline lounge in London, so I took a shower over there to freshen up a little bit. When I arrived in Delhi I was picked up by Mickey, a travel agent from Dharamsala who is giving me a ride up north. I spent a short night at Mickey's brother in law's house, and we still had 12 hours on the road to drive up to Dharamsala (see map on the right). There are only 350 miles to cover, but it takes 12 hours with the traffic and road conditions. India is the country with the craziest driving that I have ever seen, even worse than the place de l'etoile in Paris! Everybody drives with their horn here. They are not using it with anger, this is just telling: "be careful, I am coming, get out of my way!"

Well, I made it alive, and I arrived in Dharamsala on the Friday evening, 48 hours after leaving home.

Saturday October 30

On my first day in Dharamsala, I received a warm welcome by the local Rotary Club, and my good friend V.S. Parmar who coordinated the paperwork for my grant. V.S. Parmar is a past president and Assistant Governor. The Rotary Club meets on Saturday evenings and this day was the official visit of the District 3070 Governor. DG Beena Misra is from Pathankot, 3 hours away. I had met her in my previous trip when I went to an inner wheel conference, see the story on a previous page. She had also been to San Diego after the International Assembly in Anaheim. On my previous trip to India, I was also in Dharamsala for the official visit of the District Governor, which was also during a National Immunization Day. What a coincidence! See the story on a previous page.

At the meeting, I met Youth Exchange Student Arial Weaver from District 6110 USA. She is the first Youth Exchange Student to this district. She arrived last August and is staying here for one year, studying at the local Tibetan school. I also met Cristina Tejeda, who is also a Rotary Volunteer hosted by the Dharamsala Rotary Club. Cristina is the wife of a Rotarian of the Oceanside Rotary Club, and I have met her a few times before she left. She is staying for 2 months and teaching English at a local school. I will write more detailed stories on Arial and Cristina later.

Prior to the meeting I sat with V.S. Parmar to help him to fill some final reports for some matching grant projects his club had done in the past. He wanted to make good use of my matching grants expertise! All matching grant projects in India have been on hold until they all send their missing paperwork. The reports I helped V.S. Parmar to fill are some of the last reports needed for District 3070. We are hoping that the district will be cleared and able to do more projects within one or two weeks. This is good news because we started a project for a computer vocational center on my last trip to India, and the the payment was on hold at The Rotary Foundation. Once the district is cleared, the club should receive the money for the computers within 6 to 8 weeks. I will be gone by then, but at least I could see that the project is moving forward.

Monday November 1

I am settling down in Dharamsala. On my previous trip I was staying in McLoad Ganj, which is a few miles up the hill. I was doing most of the training at the Monastery over there, so I stayed nearby. This time, I am focusing on lower Dharamsala, and I am staying closer to the Rotary club members, so I should see them more often. I am staying at the Dhauladhar Hotel, which is the hotel where the Rotary Club meets. How convenient... The price of the room is an astronomical $17 per night. Quite astonishing when we think that two nights at the International Convention in Chicago next June will cost me more than my entire 3-week stay here in Dharamsala... They should consider moving the Convention over here... or maybe not...