mangoes in may

it is not may, but mangoes in april does not sound as good. It is hot before monsoons and mangoes are the only saving grace.

so before I leave for my annual visit to the states, I can share my last few weeks. danced with wyclef and band. only in India, would i get this chance. A friend is working with a music director who has brought wyclef to India, so a few days before his show in Mumbai there was a private party and concert. really fun. I don't have a small camera, so do not have photos. But was amazing.

I took some photos with someone's camera! we even had Australian wine.

back to mangoes, I am on my one a day diet. trying to beat this heat, humidity whatever you call it - i am red, sweaty and need multiple showers.

Just to illustrate the contrast I live in here in India, I dance with Wyclef and the next day drive 3 hours outside mumbai to oversee a dental camp for the school I work with - for 4 days I was hauling my own water (thankfully we had water at all, the government has not repaired a transformer and the supply of power to the farm and residential school campus is not powerful enough to power up the pump to pull water from the well. some donors came thru quickly and a hand pump was installed. )

I know this is how about 70% of India lives, in rural areas - with regular power cuts and no indoor plumbing. I forget living in Mumbai sometimes, with the malls, multiplexes, and international musicians. Rough out there. As it is in so many other developing countries with basic resources of electricity and water.

Sitting by the beach drinking mojitos on the deck of a lounge bar with people from probably 15 or 20 different countries - to village life with women walking for 5 to 10 miles to collect and carry water to use at home for baths and cooking, in a matter of an hour or so outside the power hungry and supplied mumbai.

Side by side - $8000 dollar a month rent flats to slums with plasitic sheets for roofs and partially bricked walls - and shared toilets, meaning the street. That is the India I see. A growing middle class and they (economists) say that more people are coming out of extreme poverty - not as noticeable as the growing middle class.

I will be in the states for the first time in about a year and out of India, hmm must be Singapore last fall? wish I could bring some mangoes to you folks, I don't think that is legal.

Whoever does read the blog still and wants something from India, let me know!

see you soon!