Good News/Bad News

Good news - got tickets booked today.  Leaving from LAX July 2nd...

Bad news - on China Eastern Airlines (and I specifically said no Chinese airlines, please!!) with a stop in Shanghai.  This airline doesn't exactly get great reviews!!  If anybody has flown with them and had good experiences - please make me feel good and tell me about how great it is.  If you've had bad experiences with this airline - don't say anything!!

Good news - maybe they'll serve orange chicken for dinner...

Perhaps a Minor Sightseeing Diversion...

Attended a meeting of the North Coast Calvary Chapel short-term mission trip team last night.  About 6 or 7 people from this church are preparing to go to India for the first time, on what this church calls "short-term mission trips"  (2 weeks).  They will be primarily working at an orphanage supported by the Sangita Charitable Trust in Chennai.  I will be flying down there to spend some time with the group and then bringing back a few with me who want to do some service project works for the widows in Vrindavan.
Oh, and I'm sure a side trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal is in order.

Visa Interrupted

Around four o'clock last night (well, 4am this morning) I was attacked by a cat; I'm sure it was an accident, but the cats were racing around, jumped on my bed (the California King - and I was sleeping head towards the foot board, so really they weren't expecting my face to be at the foot of the bed, in their defense) and used my face as a spring board to rocket off the bed.  It happened to fast, and then they were gone (afraid of what they'd done) I don't even know which cat did it!!
However...to the point at hand...I was going to go get visa photos today, but now I have these huge, long scrapping claw marks down the side of my face and neck.  And I recall that one of the questions on the Indian visa application was..."Do you have any visible distinguishing marks?" to which I answered, "no".  So, I could hardly submit a photo with long, pronounced, parallel lines running down the side of my face like some tribal tattoos, now could I??  That would be an immediate...
...visa
...denied!!

Visa - And I'm Not Talkin' Credit Cards

Started my visa process - application is all online now and so far, it's been a very pleasant process.

Here's my last India visa...

The process to get this one was much more difficult.  I was living on a small Greek Island, Paros, and had to take a ferry boat to the mainland, then schlep into town (Athens) and find the India Embassy, fill out piles of paper work, pay big baksheesh and wait around for days hoping it would be approved.  Obviously, I got approval to enter India for the second time in my life on April 29, 1981--------------->
The passport with this India visa has more visas in it than any of my other passports.  With this now expired passport, I circumnavigated the globe.

(The first time I went to India was with my parents in 1968 - somewhere I have that visa, too.)

Marching Orders

I had lunch with my boss today.  It was Linda Mandrayar's birthday and I wanted to treat her to lunch and talk about my upcoming trip to India.  We talk for a long time and in great detail over steak fajitas and chicken relleno burrito in the fabulous Estrallas.  We talked about the personalities and players that were already in place throughout India as a solid, mostly dependable,  but scattered,  foundation for the White Rainbow Project.  My job was to gather all the pieces together into a cohesive functional team to support the social entrepreneurship know as the White Rainbow Collection.

As Linda said, "You're like the Marines hitting the beach...."

Leaving the first week in July, I'll be flying into New Delhi where I will spend the first week securing a stable and steady source of fabrics for one of our new line of clothing, "Cut From The Same Cloth" - can't really tell you all about that now; more on this exciting and innovative approach to retail sales that give back, in future blogs.  It's all about new fabric logistics in Delhi, and designing label tags from recycled card stock.

...and locating an accountant who can set up our business in India as a Limited.

After my work is done in New Delhi, I'm catching an early train to Mathura/Vrindavan area, where the remainder of my two months work will take place.  Vrindavan is known as the "City of Widows" and is the essential focus of the White Rainbow's mission to help ease the plight of Indian widows.  Oprah Winfrey was there this winter and it was an eye opener for her!

Overall mission in Vrindavan:

• Locate a female tailor to train the widows to sew.  Hopefully she could also manage the entire sewing center.
• Secure sewing center!  We have been in negotiations with the Methodist Church of India to rent a building in their compound that is centrally located in Vrindavan.  I need to check it out; see if it is indeed suitable for our purposes; sign contracts and get it set up to run.
• Get and apartment or house in Vrindavan that will essentially become our headquarters there.  Location is critical, so it's important for someone (me) to be on the ground and doing the leg work!   Hope to have our cozy little home all set up and ready for when Katie and Abbie arrive in August.  
• Photojournaling - getting the word out and education is a huge part of what I do.  I will be continuing to photograph and blog, and other social media marketing endeavors, hopefully on a daily basis.

Now, I'm just setting up blogs and making sure all the feeds are correct and links functioning properly.  

I hope you will continue to follow me as I travel and work throughout India.  I think it will be a very exciting time!!  Looking forward to the next chapter in my life!!

New Blog

Setting up a new blog for travels in India...about to begin very soon!!  Sorry about the name - IndiOdyssey, wanted Indian Odyssey, but of course, that was already taken.

Testing feed

IndiOdyssey