Hubli Day 2 - Settling I

First, some pics I had left out from Mumbai! The city skyline from the water side and a big building somewhere in the middle of the city.

I woke up yesterday at 8am hoping to be ready by nine. I had woken up much earlier, like around 5 am because a bug bite on my foot had been bothering me. (I think the only reason i had a bug bite on my foot was because it was hanging off the bed) I'm so glad that my aunt bought me so much stuff because I searched for the anti-itch cream she had given me and it worked like magic. I took my bucket bath from the questionable bucket that had been left in my bathroom ( a squatting toilet and a faucet with no sink or mirror) but found myself with more time. I used the toilet, which made me rather proud of myself because it was my first time using that kind of toilet. But that ended up making me late for the 9 oclock meetup time.

The whole group then went to this small restaurant, which I think is called a canteen, and had a small breakfast with some chai. The canteen was right across from the BVB campus and we walked out there for the first time to meet with Dev in the HMS office. It's a nice room shared by a couple of different NGO's ( one woman worked on a project known as "safe hands" which trains women to be security guards and housekeepers as a form of employment. Come to think of it, I'm not sure what the unemployment rate is among women in India. I'm sure they're doing good work though because the security guards at the Deshpande Foundation were from their organization.) After the meeting with Dev, we met for a short planning meeting and acquainted ourselves with the only room in the city that we know of that has wifi.


Right across the street from the school, the whole gang got passport photos and cellphones (my number is +91 973 816 9761) and had a late lunch around 4. Then it was back to the Deshpande Center to meet with one of the fellows and give him our welcoming present: Ghirardelli Chocolates! Zach then left to pick up one more Berkeley student who will be staying with us (a girl named Anu) while I discovered that there are western style toilets at the Deshpande Center =]


Doug, Jasmine and I searched around for necessities and found many small shops. I had some really good cold apple drink and then we went out to dinner at around 8pm. But dinner lasted until 10 and we had to rush back to get home before the hostels locked up for the night. I realized I had fotgotten my wallet at the restaurant and jumped off the rickshaw I was on and ran back to grab it. Then I found another rickshaw and asked the driver to take me to some hotel. He dropped me off there and I was like wtf? But I was supposed to tell him to take me BEHIND the hotel, so I got directions from zach and ran home. Barely made it alive because I had just had dinner, but now I'm safe and sound at home. Love home... Miss Carolyn!