Bring it, potholes!
So, what an adventure this past few days has been! I have officially managed to become quite a ‘roadie!’ Since the past week has been such a whirlwind- I think I will break this blog up into two sections- save you from reading a small novel.
So, Thursday I left Sooch to pick up Jasdeep at the Ranchi airport. Yay! I heard she was quite the travel partner so I was super excited to see her. I left Sooch- said my goodbye’s for the next 4 days- and headed to the airport. In typical fashion, I was told to get there and hour and a half too early. Oh well, made friends with the driver of my car via “English” music. Heard a little N’Sync, Backstreet Boys and various other “90’s Pop and Party Jam” music.
Jasdeep came in and we hustled to downtown Ranchi for a quick bite to eat and then boogied again to the Hatia Train Station. I was excited about this, first time on a train (really) not to mention an Indian train. I heard this would be quite the experience so I was pretty pumped to try it all out.
Whoa, there were hundreds of people floating around with luggage in tow, many people sprawled on the floor (I couldn’t tell if they were waiting, sleeping….or maybe that was home…), lots of carts selling newspapers, sweets, chips etc. I mean, this was people watching to the extreme. Jasdeep and I found out our train was on the other side of the tracks so we tried to find a porter or two to help carry our bags from one side of the stairs to the other. (We had our backpacks filled with electronics…purses…and three large duffel bags) Well, no luck. We toted our lugged up this massive set of stairs while the hundreds of bystanders looked at us like we were nuts…. (Hello, a little help would be fantastic?!) Whatever, we got a great workout. We found our train, our little cabin and plopped down for our ride to Rourkela.
We slept for most of the 4 ½ hour ride- not even noticing the other man in our cabin. He was nice and probably went through 2 bags of chips, 2 packages of cookies and a couple orange sodas. While in and out of my nap I continued to hear the ruffling of the plastic package of whatever snack he was enjoying at that moment…
We reached Rourkela by about 8 pm and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. Jasdeep was super prepared. She came stocked with multiple kinds of amazing cheeses, crackers, some dark chocolate, 2 bottles of amazing red wine AND (best part) homemade chocolate chip cookies. Can I get a hallelujah??
We nibbled on some of her munchies and happily called it a night. Oh, while we were snacking, there was some sort or rave/wedding/party (yes, on a Thursday night) occurring just feet behind our room. Punjabi music blaring like no other. It blended nicely with the extremely loud horns of the train another couple feel away from our back window. Regardless, it was a VERY soft bed, nice pillows and hot water. Score.
We spent the next three days with about the same routine. We would wake up pretty early, grab a little breakfast and head off to one of the children’s homes in Orissa. The first two days we tackled 70 videos at the home in Bhawani. It was an extremely warm, long, but very efficient two days. We took multiple videos, met with lots of the children, teachers, principals and staff…. we even had a cameo in an ‘intro video’ that we are sending back to Austin for a small movie on the home. I’m really a terrible actress but it was a hoot to have to keep retaking our movie because of our lack of skill in broadcast journalism. Guess you gotta be there…
The third day, we traveled to BRMP to quickly have breakfast, pick up two others, and head to Simdega (the baby home). We worked on more videos, pictures and staff updates. We finished quickly…got BACK in the car to drive back to BRMP and do the same there. Let me tell you, Jasdeep and I are professional backseat riders. Goats, cows, constant car horns and massive potholes have nothing on us. Regardless, we made it back to our hotel that night and spoiled ourselves with a little ice cream and crashed at about 8pm.
Monday we made the same train trip back to Ranchi. (This will be part II because this day was a whole blog in itself!) But yes, made it back safely to Sooch – even had a porter help us with our bags! I have about a day and a half till my “vacay” starts with Austin in Delhi, Agra, Jaipor and Ranthambhore. I feel like a little kid before Christmas.
With that and more blogs to come- MUCH love from India.
Katelyn
