Hello friends and family!

June 6th we completed our 1 year anniversary in India, where has the time gone? We are still working on packing things up and have sent 2 suitcases home with co-workers and one more on the way with Elaine next Tuesday. So the rest is up to us to get home. We found out that Kenexa is keeping our apartment as a guesthouse after we leave, so we’ll be leaving many of our daily items here for the next visitors, sheets, towels, dishes, etc. which lightens the load of needing to find new homes for those things.

Here’s a brief recap of the last week:

Friday afternoon Shah had his first interview; all went well until…they asked him if he liked dogs. Evidently he hates dogs. So they parted deciding that he should come to their house on Sunday to meet their dog. I asked Shah later on that day why he didn’t like dogs, he told me that when he was 10 he got bit by a dog with rabies and had to have 14 shots in his stomach. (If that happened to me, I probably wouldn’t like dogs either.) Then on Saturday I found out that he also doesn’t like dogs because in the Muslim religion if he touches or is touched by a dog on Friday’s he can’t attend mosque. So really it’s a double whammy for him.
So he had an interview with another family on Sunday, that went well and they want to hire him. Which is good because the meeting between Shah and the dog later on Sunday wasn’t exactly love at first site. However, the family with the dog does want to hire Bindu. So it looks like they both have new employment to go to, phew…we can check that off the list.

Mom headed off on Saturday to meet up with Elaine, she called on Sunday and they had arrived in Gujarat. They were on to Darjeeling on Monday, then to Aizwal, and finally in Kolkata before they return to Hyderabad next Monday.

Saturday night we went back out to Eat Street with our friends so that the kids could play on the rides. It rained, so it wasn't quite as much fun as last week, but the kids still had a good time.

Sunday our co-worker Scott arrived, he and Clay went down to the Charminar for a bit of shopping, then we went to Shilparamam in the afternoon to see the crafts. Clay bought himself a lungie which is a traditional long “man skirt” that can be worn in several different fashions. It’s quite typical to see India politicians wearing lungies and random people on the street. Side note, we had the lungie hemmed, a sheet hemmed, and 2 pillow cases made all for 100 rupees ($2.22), I love India!!!!

Today Deloitte’s employees were participating in a service day, they have a pretty big presence in Hyderabad, so there were hundreds of them out and about. They were all stationed at integral intersections throughout Hyderabad. Each employee was working on getting drivers to obey traffic rules, like staying behind the white line at a red light, not running red lights, etc. In my opinion, they were much more effective than the police. They did a great job, and I didn’t even see one of them hit a car or a person with a stick (I see police do this on a daily basis). Deloitte…you get an A for effort!

Reflection:
Do you remember this insert from one of our initial emails?
Quote from an anonymous Hyderbadian-
Clay Q: What is going on?
Anonymous A: Everything is as it is.

Well, if you ask that same Hyderbadi (I later learned that this is the correct way to refer to a person from Hyderabad) today, the answer is now:
Anonymous A: Everything is under my control.
(I think the Ehlers have rubbed off a littleJ)

See you in 10 days.

Sincerely,Julianna Ehlers