We made it to India!

DAY ONE - We arrived in Delhi this am at 6:50am…it was a long trip and one with only 6 hours collectively of sleep in the 2 days of travel. At 7am it was already 27 degrees and the humidity was off the scale (this is not going to be a good time for my hair)!

Sameera was at the airport to greet us and had her family’s driver to help us to the apartment. Funny thing is…the car only held the luggage! Then Wolfgang (senior) squeezed into the front seat. Fun little fact: you only need to wear a seat beat in the front seat of a vehicle and you can shove as many people into the back seat. I can now add human seatbelt to the list of roles and responsibilities to my repertoire. We jumped into what looks like a 1950’s mini van…and it drove like it hasn’t been serviced since then too.

Sameera’s family live in a complex a few km’s from the airport. We are forever grateful for the accommodations that they have given us the first few days in India. They have wonderful support staffs that have made our stay comfortable. When we arrived to the apartments we rested in the living room sipping on tea and took some time to catch up with our friend and stretch our legs. I wish I took a picture of Corine’s kankles because I have never seen swollen like that before…looked kinda painful!

The housekeeper made us breakfast…western style! There was yummy fresh fruit, eggs (fresh cilantro and other herbs in it), bread and homemade jam. Apparently Sameera’s Grandmother has made ice cream…hope we get to try that out…yum yum in our tums!

After lunch we decided to head to the mall…we thought it would be a nice way to get out of the apartment and see Delhi , but in an air condition and western way haha!   We drove about 20 minutes, some nice roads some not so nice roads, and arrived to the mall we had to go through a check stop where some official looking men checked the bottom of the car and the trunk for explosives and other dangerous weapons...I think my Mom’s heart stopped for a moment in time! Once we got to the mall we all had to walk through a security gate and out bags on a belt to get checked. The women had a lil privacy booth to get checked in.

It was interesting to see Gucci on one side of the street and a slum community on the other. There was a Harley Davidson store that made me think of and miss Mike. Who would have ever thought that a Harley store would make me well up. We spent a few hours checking out the stores, both Indian style and western style, I didn’t end up getting anything (which is a surprise for me).

We did actually have a purpose at the mall – not just girls spending money…haha. We needed to get some rupies to pay for some of the services we booked for the team . Unfortunately, I was not able to get enough money and my credit card was not working. Not sure what we are going to do now…maybe try find a bank…cause we have lots of things to pay for with the team.

To fill up our day a little more and to ensure that we don’t just sleep away the day to better get over the jet leg we decided to treat ourselves with a pedicure! When I looked in the mirror I noticed that my grey and new mom hair was quite a disgrace so I also crossed my fingers and had my hair dyed. I was a little worried I am not going to lie…but they set me up in a chair and touched up my hair and toes at the same time!

Alas, we headed home to rest and dinner. Dinner tonight was AMAZING! The house keeper is from Nepal so the dinner wa her tradition…which included a yummy corn soup, a vegie plate, noodles and dumplings.

We have a lot of exciting things coming up…check in for more updates!