June 17
My birthday and Father’s day. At morning prayers (arti) someone who knew invited every one to sing happy birthday to me. It was nice and it was very joyous and peaceful afterwards as we all remembered the Father to us all on this Father’s day. During breakfast I got a call from the cyber-café as my friend James had made the contact for me to set up a cell phone and they needed me to come down to fill out the paper work. Getting it set up and ordered in such quick measure here is amazing. Years ago, when I set about to get a motor scooter, for weeks all I heard was ‘Sorry sir , not today, tomorrow.’ Also so far we have been unable to use the local line service as the line for local calls and we hope calling card calls requires one rupee coins and they are not available, come back tomorrow! And the line that is set up for direct international calls is only open here between the hours of what is midnight and 6am back home – useless except for emergencies.
No clinic today as it is Sunday. Nice birthday present. I can rest, I only have a little jet lag but it is good to have time to adjust. Late this afternoon I will go to meet the physician from town (Ahmednagar) that runs a Sunday and Wednesday evening clinic in Lower Meherabad. (I cover the clinic in upper Meherabad) The clinics are on the same property but at different ends and about a mile an a half apart. She provides the clinic for the huge number of pilgrims from all over India that stay in Lower Meherabad during their visit. There is also a very active clinic just outside of lower Meherabad for the villagers of Arrangaon.
As it turned out the phone was ready for me at 6pm and also worked properly! It is amazing in that in so many third world countries there are large regions with horrible land line service but very good cell phone service. The infra-structure is no much easier and cheaper to set up.
Dee arranged for a surprise birthday dinner at our good old friend Alan’s house. It was quite a treat and Alan is so happy in his new house. He has been the resident volunteer chief for the pilgrim center for thirty years and until this past year lived in an approximately 15 by 15 foot room with a shared bath/toilet. His new place is about 1500 square feet with incredible views and all his. We’re very happy for him. The only problem is Alan cut off the tip of his finger preparing dinner, saying he had not messed up anything like this in many, many years.
