Hi Everyone --

Everyone is feeling better and back to work and school and regular activities.

We got an SMS from Feroz our driver on Thursday evening -- his father-in-law had "expired" and he was leaving for the village that night. He had arranged a driver for Friday, but there were still a few bugs to be worked out. John and his driver Zopher came at 8:10 a.m. to pick up Doug and take him to work. They also had to stop and pick up Heather's husband Chris and take him to work. Then Zopher was going to drive to Feroz' house and get the key to the car and bring that to me. Then Sandeep could drive Hannah and I for geometry and then go take Doug to the factory. Flawless plan! Flawless in execution! Amazing!

Thursday afternoon I got a call from John Deere HR asking if the owner of the house could come in 1/2 hour to show his friends visiting from out of town, his house. I asked if this was normal and was told that it was in our contract with the owner. We have never met him and all our dealings with him have been like a brick wall. So he came and brought his "friends" from Holland. I was sure he was trying to rent the house out from under us. So they prowled around the house and finally I asked if they were moving to Pune. They said, "yes." I asked if they had a place to live yet. They said, "yes, in Waterfront." That was a relief. That is where my friend lives that tutors Hannah in geometry. It's a nice and new place. The owner asked if there were any problems, so I showed him all the leakage and the problems from that. He said he would have his man come next week. I asked his name and found it was the man who had been here a year ago and done nothing. The owner said he had given him money. I told the owner that if he had given his agent money, then he had absconded, because absolutely nothing has been done on this house in the year since he had been here. He wasn't very happy to hear this, but then asked if I knew anyone that could come and do the waterproofing. So, maybe the waterproofing will get done this season -- after it stops raining! The owner was so happy with the condition of the house (except the leaking and molding walls) that he wants to bring his mother over to meet me. He told me that we could stay in the house as long as we wanted to because we did such a nice job of keeping it up. By the way, rent is $3,000 US a month!

Another exciting thing happened this week -- I had to buy a new toaster! The one that came with the house finally exploded and took the main breaker in the house with it. It was amazing! I took the toaster in to see if it could be repaired. The guy told me that if the toaster was less than 2 years old, they would replace it. If not, it couldn not be repaired and would need to be replaced. So I threw it away and went toaster shopping the next day. When I walked into another shop, the first thing the guy asked was could he see the old toaster. I think toasters are extremely expensive here. It was 1500 rupees = $35. My housekeeper told me I did a bad job bargaining, even though the shopkeeper did take 45 rupees off the price. Frankly, I'd had enough with bargaining, fighting with people whether to repair or throw away the old one, trying to get the driver to take me to get a new one, etc. It was a relief to have a new toaster. It works fine and should be still making fine toast long after we leave India.

There was a line from a movie this week that caught my attention: You know what "India" means don't you? It means -- I'll Never Do It Again!

I hope everyone has a good week!
Love, Lucinda