It's A GIRL!!!!

Birth date: May 10, 2007
Weight: 1 pound 3 ounces
Length: 8 inches plus tail
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Green
Name: We affectionately call her Charlene Darwin

Okay, so obviously this isn't OUR baby, (although she does look a little like Aaron) but she's still cute! We went to Help in Suffering (HIS) on Sunday to see this adorable little girl. She's a 10 day old Rhesus Macaque monkey. The Rhesus Macaque is the most commonly found monkey in North India. Her mom died and she is being raised at HIS. She was very friendly and loved anything shiny (and her bottle of course!). It was a great experience as we see these monkeys all the time running wild in the city but we've not been able to see one so closely.

"If you take my bottle I'll scream!" She would literally scream and jump around if we took her bottle away from her.

She really liked my ring.

Proud Papa!

This is great practice for me.

When we finally got the bottle away from her, she started snacking on her toe.

A Doctor Visit

I was telling Aaron last night that we've obviously been here too long. So many things don't even phase me anymore and I consider them normal...for example: going to the doctor. I was talking to my brother last night and telling him that I had to get off the phone because it was time for me to go to the doctor for a prenatal checkup. Greg wanted to know what time it was here, so I told him it was 5:45 PM. He then wanted to know why I was going so late in the evening. Well, that's because I was going to the doctor's home clinic instead of the hospital and her home clinic doesn't open until 7:00...of course, I had to be there by 6:00 to grab a token (piece of paper with a number on it) so I wouldn't have to wait forever to see her. (And by "home clinic" I mean it's literally at her house. The bottom part has been turned into an office.) As my brother started laughing, it suddenly hit me that "yeah, this isn't normal." I began to tell Greg that she has a little doohickey where she can listen to the baby's heart and she also has a man that comes in to do ultrasounds. The more I thought about it, the weirder it suddenly became to me.
So we were at the doctor's house by 6:00 to get a token (we got #3) but we knew that although the clinic "opens" at 7 the doctor wouldn't show up until at least 7:30. So we decided to go get dinner and just kill some time before 7:30. We arrived back at the doctor's house at 7:30 and proceeded to wait and wait and wait...there was an emergency at the hospital so she didn't show up until almost 8:30 - but that is just the "norm" here. We had an ultrasound and everything is fine with the baby. We were able to see the heartbeat, the spine, the little legs and the foot kicking me. By the time we finally left, it was 9:30 and time for a shower and bed. I guess you could say that life just takes a lot more time here!

Oasis

We've recently found a way to beat the heat of summer here - a pool! The pool is located at the Raj Mahal Hotel ("Raj Mahal" means Kings Palace) and is within an eight to ten minute walk of our flat.

The Raj Mahal was built in 1729 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Sing II for his favorite wife, Maharani (Queen) Chandra Kumar Ranawatiji, daughter of the Maharaja of Udaipur. It has served as the home for many of the Maharajas (Kings) until the 1970's. It has hosted kings, queens and dignitaries; Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, Prince Charles and Lady Diana to name a few. Although it is still owned by the royal family, it has been used as a hotel since 1979.

Since finding this place, we go every Wednesday evening and Saturday morning to swim for a few hours. Since this is the hottest part of the summer, there are rarely any tourists staying in the hotel and we usually have the whole thing to ourselves.

Last week the Maharaja of our city and his four year old grandson (the prince) came by to walk through the garden. This past Saturday the palace was being used to film part of a Bollywood movie - we even recognized the leading lady!

Needless to say, we look forward to Wednesday and Saturday so we can get away to our own little oasis.

Doesn't that water look great?

That's the palace/hotel behind the pool...very fancy!

There are showers and changing rooms in this building. This is one of the original guard stations; it is in the corner of one wall which surrounds the palace compound.

Aaron enjoying the cool water and a book.

So, so hot!

While you're enjoying the "warm" weather back home in the good old USA, be sure to remember us. It's been so miserably hot here and from what we've been told it's only going to get worse this month!! This coming week is supposed to bring temperatures of 115 or more! I guess that's what you get when you move to the outskirts of the desert. We've been coping with the heat pretty well, using our AC quite a bit and drinking a ton of water. I've never looked so forward to "winter" in my whole life. Yesterday evening we had a 20 minute rain storm and it felt so good. It was so fun to see all the Indians on their roofs and out in the street with big smiles on their faces as they enjoyed the cool water; even the animals were enjoying it. If only it would rain every evening...