Day 2 - Delhi, India

On the way to the foundation India office today I noticed a few things about the driving here.  It seems as though stop lights and traffic lanes are more of a suggestion than a law.  People merge constantly and are often driving between lanes or in the right lane (they drive on the left here).  When the light turns at the intersections those with the green have to claim it.  You must start driving into the oncoming traffic to strongly 'suggest' that those with the red light stop.

It's craziness, the foundaiton office here looks JUST like the office in Seattle.  It's just a lot smaller. They even have the same light fixtures.

The staff here are extremely awesome!  They kept asking me what my plan was for my two days off this week and I didn't have a concrete answer.  They convinced me that I HAD to take the two hour trip out to see the Taj Mahal.  After I agreed they asked the travel agent here to find me a ticket on the train and coordinate everything.  WOAH!  Now I'm going to the Taj Mahal...that was completely unexpected.

The meetings here are done but I get to stay in Delhi for a couple extra days because I need to be in Geneva next week for more meetings and it doesn't make sense to go all the way back to Seattle before the Geneva meetings.

WOOHOO, I'm soooo excited!!

Day 1 - Delhi, India

The city of Delhi is split up into two main parts, old Delhi and New Delhi.  The hotel I'm staying in is located in New Delhi. It's surrounded by beautiful trees and I see flocks of green parrots fly by my window often.

Today 43 people gathered in Delhi, India to discuss how to change lives through health interventions in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. When you think about changing lives do you think of people sitting in a room all day long talking back and forth? Before I started at the Gates Foundation I definitely didn't think of action as taking place in a meeting room.

Nothing in particular struck me as interesting or touching today.  It really just seemed like a day of meeting in a different country. The grantees here are quite amazing and thought provoking.  Their passion and expertise in the work they do is inspiring.
As the meeting coordinator I was asked a question about ever 10-15 minutes. I think I did an okay job with keeping my patience, but it was a close call a couple of time. 'Excuse me ma'am is eveything okay?', 'Excuse me ma'am, could you sign this?', 'Excuse me ma'am, could you fill out this third review card of the day', 'Excuse me ma'am, excuse me ma'am, excuse me ma'am'.

It was a little much and by the end of the day I wanted to tell the hotel staff what my mom would tell me when I was younger, 'I'm sorry, but you've used up all of your questions for the day.'
Also, just in case you were wondering:

• The warm towels they provide before meals on business class flights usually smell like Fruit Loops.
• Taxis in Delhi are old looking cars with yellow tops and green stripes.  They make me happy.

I'll update more once I get a chance for some site seeing.

Upcoming travel - woohoo!

I haven't been so excited to travel in a really long time!!!  I leave on Friday for a 2 week trip which will be super duper awesome and will update you via my blog!

Delhi, India: Jan 28-Feb 3
Paris, France: Feb 3-5 for a girl's weekend with Jónína Campbell!!
Geneva, Switzerland: Feb 6-11