Feel-Good Video For the Day

Old Delhi - Red Fort where we were photo celebrities

Two weekends ago, we spent Friday morning (holiday) touring Old Delhi.
Red Fort The Red Fort was completed in 1639 by the 5th Mogul emperor Shah Jahan. It was the main residence of the Mogul emperors for 200 years.

Photo Celebrities
Besides the incredible history, culture, and architecture it was interesting how many people wanted to have their picture taken with us. We could have been there all day taking photos with people. We took a few photos with groups but kindly said "no thanks" to most requests. At one point, a gentleman grabbed Aidan by the arm and tried to drag him into a photo. That was a definite and not so polite "no!" I am sure that he meant no harm but he freaked Aidan out.

Here's a video of our rickshaw (auto) ride from the Red Fort to Jama Masjid.

Jain Temple outside the Red Fort
2 Guys, 2 Sledgehammers, and 1 post to pound through pavement
The Fort wall and moat, which used to be home to crocodiles
Beautiful architecture and design

Our first a…

The Trifecta of Illnesses

The Full Derwin A colleague is recovering from the trifecta of illnesses combination of Dengue, H1N1, and Bird Flu. When some colleagues found out that he had all three, they called it the "Full Derwin." I'm flattered to have the combination of three illnesses named after me. 😀

We're thinking of having a "I survived Dengue, H1N1, and Bird Flu" t-shirt made up.
The Bad The pain from the Trifecta is excruciating. You can literally feel every joint in your body; every vertebrae, every knuckle, every tendon and the entire eye socket. To roll over in bed was an agonizing process where the pain flared up and down my spine.

The fever closed in on 40 Celsius or 104 Fahrenheit. Food tasted horrible. Drinking fluids only made a trip to the bathroom necessary. And perhaps most painful of all was the slow, burning flow of urine.

One of the remedies is to drink Papaya leaf juice, which is a bitter, sour leaf juiced up. I drank as everyone told me it would help but I h…

Monkey attack, Maid & hired help, Food, and Day 1 in the Books

Dhobi
The doorbell rang this morning and a very shy, humble young man in his 20s introduced himself as Vineet. Vineet is our dhobi.

Every Monday and Thursday morning, we leave our laundry outside our door. Vineet takes and washes, irons, and folds the laundry and returns it to us by the end of the day.

Kirsi, Aidan, and I are having him do our laundry. Dana is doing her own. This service costs us $70 CDN/month.

For all of the sweating that we're going to do here, we feel it's worth it.

Sujata
This afternoon, we met Sujata, who will be our maid. We had phoned her months ago while still living in Canada and arranged to hire her when we arrived in New Delhi.

She seems very nice and the family took to her immediately. She has worked for AES staff before so she knows the ins and outs of campus life.

Her main duties will be cooking and cleaning. She took cooking classes in Vietnamese, Thai, and Mediterranean cooking. She, of course, can cook Indian food as well. We gave her some rupe…

The Kitchs

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