Our first day in Chennai

As we head into our first full night in Chennai we are EXHAUSTED. Jet lag seems to have hit us full force and we are attempting to remain up until 8pm so that we can sleep all night and be on schedule (13 ½ hours ahead) in the morning. Today we had a great day of meeting friends and relatives. After starting the day with a cold shower, the day began with meeting Philip’s mom’s eldest sister who strongly chided us for not sending her an invitation to our wedding in Woodinville 2 years ago and attempted to make Philip feel guilty for not calling her on her birthday. I wasn’t sure about her reaction as I opened the door of the house—she was “hard to read” to say the least. After a deliciously spicy breakfast of rice pancakes, and goat curry we headed out to meet the Achen (priest) at the church. Philip’s parents are very involved in their church and so we spent some time getting to know the Achen and his wife. It was great to chat with them for a bit. He had spent some time as a priest in Philadelphia, so we made food and traffic comparisons and Philip discovered that he had met him previously when he attended a service he hosted with a cousin in Philadelphia.Philip’s dad drove us around the city this morning. On our way to the church, I got my second India traffic experience and my first experience with sharing a street with casual livestock--a water buffalo walked along side us on the road for a time and we also had to honk the horn quite aggressively to move a cow out of the middle of the street. Honking is a different notion here. It is not reserved for emergencies or when someone has dozed off at a red light. We hear horns honking through the day and night. Horns let others using the road that you are within 3 inches of bumping their “bumper” in whatever form this may be—remembering that we are sharing a road with pedestrians (many barefoot-walking in the middle of the road—no sidewalk); school aged children (some in uniforms and just released from school and others assisting at rode-side markets or chatting up friends as they saunter down the center of the road); bicyclists; many, many motorcycles and scooters; buses; auto and bicycle rickshaws and, of course, the livestock mentioned above. You also use your horn to signify that you are crossing an intersection. It can take anywhere between 5 seconds and 10 minutes to pass between intersections depending on what gets in your way. I witnessed the truth behind the following saying: “in the hierarchy of Indian traffic, buses come first followed by: SUV’s, cars, auto rickshaws, motorcycles, scooters, bicyclists, livestock and THEN pedestrians. We also met our friend Deepak’s mom this afternoon. We listened to her woes about how her only son, who is now well into his 30’s, has not yet settled down with a wife. She is very concerned about this and enlisted Philip’s help to find him a suitable bride and get him hitched A.S.A.P. She was not so subtle about the fact that Deepak’s wife should be Indian. Before leaving she offered us a very sweet rice treat and water. I was glad I had been warned about drinking water here because when we left I was asked, “you didn’t drink the water she offered, did you?” Because I’m not so fond of the “sanitary” conditions, and nervous about having to spend a significant amount of time in the w/c I have avoided anything the least bit questionable and never try anything first.Judy is the downstairs renter here and I was taken to meet her when we got back to the house. She is a very kind soul and has been hearing from Philip’s mom for quite some time that we are coming for a visit. She was a bit embarrassed when Philip joined our conversation because of her modest dress which I envied as my long-sleeved t has kept me adequately covered, but very warm.