RandomStance

First Day at the Facility

sreisinger — Tue, 15 May 2007 04:03:00 GMT

Woke up at 5 a.m. after only 4 hours of sleep... The time change continues to haunt me. Apparently I am not alone as one member of the client took an ambien yet nevertheless woke up 4 hours later a bit dazed and the other member of the client still can't fall asleep before 5 a.m. Regardless of time it was time to work. We took a car arranged by the client to the facility. Because this site does not manufacture any actual products it is located in a nice office building, a far cry from the typical client facility. We were greeted by the very affable general manager and proceeded to conduct a full day audit interrupted only by a 1 1/2 hour lunch at a nice Indian restaurant for our share of rice, tandoor and various other Indian dishes. All this Indian food is creating havoc with my digestive system.

Thank God I really enjoy the people from the client, they are from the U.S. and Singapore but are just generally great people... It is actually really enjoyable to spend several weeks with them. As you can tell from the picture, they also enjoy my dry wit.

Given our lack of sleep and a tremendous traffic jam on the way home (apparently when they work on a bridge in India, they don't make alternative travel arrangements resulting in a 20 min drive taking over an hour!), we decided to call it a relatively early night and go attempt to pass out. Rumor has it we will finish up a week early in which case one of the client and I have decided to travel around India during that week. What a great opportunity that would be.

Second Impressions

sreisinger — Sun, 13 May 2007 22:23:00 GMT

After passing out at 5 a.m. I did not again open my eyes until around 1:30 p.m. and my first thoughts about my first trip to Asia was that the 9.5 hr time change is brutal... I was exhausted but excited to see this new country for the first time in the daylight. Having heard there was no update on the location of my bag and given I had no clothes I threw on the same clothes I had worn for the prior 30 hrs and headed out with my colleague to wander the city. I was immediately struck by the entirely different world I had entered into (reminded me much of my trip to Mozambique 5 yrs earlier). The roads were congested and filthy and the first impression I had was why does everyone honk their horn every 2-3 seconds regardless of need? The sound was deafening and the smog and dirt were overwhelming. Trash was strewn all over the streets and within several steps I encounted the abject poverty that is a major part of India's identity despite the fact that India is tagged as the next major economic powerhouse in the world. What a contrast from the oppulence of the Leela Palace to encounter people living in shanty towns a 5 minute walk away. We wandered the streets, visited a couple temples and appreciated the fact there were cows in the middle of the sidewalk and trash everywhere. Three little girls came up to me at one point and held out their hands begging for money. One of the little girls then pointed at a coke bottle I was holding that was almost completely empty. I gave it to her thinking she might want to return the bottle for a few cents or something. Instead, she and her two friends proceeded to fight over who got to drink the final few sips of warm mostly backwash left in the bottle. I was struck with the immediate thought that I have no concept of what true poverty is and yet there it was right in front of me. What an incredible reminder to me of how lucky I am and a humbling statement that we Americans spend way too much time stressing over NOTHING in comparison to the real troubles people face around the world. Those three little girls will be in my mind for quite some time and I hope I can retain the lesson they gave me in how I live my life.

The rest of the day was spent meeting up with another employee of the client, and then heading to MG Road a trendy road full of restaurants and clubs to eat an incredible Indian dinner and drink a couple beers before heading back to the Leela Palace for a couple more drinks in the hotel bar ($19 for a single martini) and then to bed around 2 with hopes of sleeping which didn't happen for several more hours.

I went to sleep thinking alot about those three girls and the contrast between the Leela and their existence mere feet away. I felt almost guilty for indulging in such a spectacular hotel and spending more money on a drink than those girls probably see in a month. I had to accept that despite my perceived problems, I am incredibly lucky to be where I am in life.

Gallery: India

sreisinger — Sun, 13 May 2007 08:09:00 GMT

First impressions of India

sreisinger — Sat, 12 May 2007 21:52:00 GMT

Thursday, May 10, 2006.

The trip began with arrival at Dulles around 4 p.m. for a 6:40 p.m. flight... Having frantically packed for the two hours prior I was in little mood to encounter any of the typical obstacles at the airport but, Dulles being Dulles, the woman at the United counter chose to give me attitude claiming that there were no flights on United to Bangalore. I incredulously responded that on the contrary there was a flight to Bangalore but it involved a code share flight on Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Bangalore. Seemed simple enough however the woman gave me a blank stare and simply reiterated that she saw no united flight to bangalore in her computer. Being in the mood I was, I responded with mild sarcasm and a bit of petulance and told her that I was sure there was a code share flight and even offered to show her my e-ticket itinerary. Anyway, long story short the woman clearly did not appreciate my attitude but nonetheless accepted with some disdain that there was indeed a flight on to Bangalore. The relevance of this tidbit story becomes clear later.

After boarding the plane I settled in for my grueling 18+hr jaunt to India with a 2 hour layover in Frankfurt where I met up with a guy from the client. I did not manage to sleep on either flight.

We arrived in Bangalore at midnight Bangalore time (10.5 hrs ahead) on Saturday, May 12th after a 9.5 hr flight with no video entertainment and a meal they claimed was chicken but had the mysterious texture of beef. I did not eat it. After going through customs, we then waited patiently at the ONE luggage belt (not too impressive for an international airport trying to supply luggage to the 200+ people on the plane). After an hour of waiting, it became clear that my luggage was not included. Images of the disdain on the United woman's face in D.C. popped into my head and I realized that she did, in fact, have the last laugh... In a way I congratulate her as I would have likely done the same thing if faced with an obnoxious washington D.C. attorney such as myself. After getting a toiletry bag and 4,000 rupees ($100) from Lufthansa we took the hotel car to the infamous Leela Palace.

Upon arrival at the Leela Palace I was struck by the blatant oppulence of the place. There were Indians dressed in traditional attire to help with luggage, there were rose petals in the many pools of water inside and there was incense in the air. The lobby was tremendous and people were there to service our every need. In a way, I felt how royalty must feel upon arrival anywhere. It was also a far cry from the typical accomodations the client offered (can we say Best Western in Roosendaal?). The room in which I would be staying for three weeks was equally impressive, huge, with a balcony and replete with fantastic bedding and a marble bathroom. After speaking to my girlfriend briefly at 3 a.m. I finally managed to pass out around 5 a.m. India time or 7 p.m. in the United States.

Gallery: Prague

sreisinger — Fri, 11 May 2007 04:45:00 GMT

Gallery: France

sreisinger — Sun, 1 Apr 2007 13:33:00 GMT

randomstansical musings in the romance of France

Gallery: Costa Rica

sreisinger — Thu, 1 Feb 2007 13:32:00 GMT

Abandonment

sreisinger — Mon, 1 Jan 2007 12:27:00 GMT

My brother, partially in an effort to avoid the craziness of being home during his college breaks, took up volunteering in New Orleans and stumbled across one of the most strikingly complex yet simple dilemmas of humanity. When do you give up? Having grown wary of my overextravagent ideas of what winter breaks and new years should be like, I decided to join him and try to start the year off right. We traveled together to New Orleans 15 months after Hurricaine Katrina. How could I describe to you what I saw...I wouldn't know where to begin. Broken toilets on the street strewn admist trash, pieces of roofs, piping, old newspapers, rotting cloths, burnt skeletons of shops, a foundation of a house, steps leading to nothing...pleas in graffiti saying "help us, please donate," one wall, blown out signs, traffic lights that don't work anymore, no street signs, graffiti on abandoned homes stating the number of human and animal bodies found in that residence, abandoned schools, abandoned churches, abandonment. High crime, empty wastelands, stretches of trailer homes, Wall-Mart, the nicest McDonald's I have seen. Believe it or not, this is the story of an American city in the 21st century 15 months after a natural disaster. America is known as the capitol of the free world. America has the capacity to build and destroy nations at will. America sends people to outer space and contributes to the advancement of science, health and economic development. Most importantly, America advances the idea of democracy, free of speech and the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. People all over the globe dream of stepping foot in this great nation so that they can have a chance to realize their dreams. Yet on the ground, 600,000 people remain internally displaced. That is almost as many internally displaced persons (IDPs) as there are in Uganda right now...a country witness to great atrocities and unspeakable devastation, seemingly incomprable to America in any way. But like Uganda, we seem unable to take care of our own people. The difference is that our failure stems from a lack of will while Uganda's stems from a lack of capability. In America, the people can act. There are so many avenues to effectuate positive change. You can contribute any resource you like - money, time, ideas, skills - to advancing what you believe in. You can act as an individual or you can act in accordance with an organization. You can choose between governmental or non-governmental organizations. You can even choose anarchy. There is no where else on earth where you can do all of this. With this great luxury, however, comes even greater responsibility. Every day we live our lives and ignore this reality, we abandon our people and contribute to the degradation of our people. As I walked around the lower 9th ward and wondered how I could be a part of this abandonment. How could anyone? My brother and I had gone down there to help a legal clinic with its daily issues which ranged from helping people obtain benefits for which they were entitled, to protecting the rights of people getting evicted, to negotiating between contractors and devastated home owners, to supporting class action suits by interviewing former tenants of public housing and conducting research. The more little projects we did in that short week, the more overwhelmed I became at the magnitude of the problem. I felt like a hamster in a wheel spinning and spinning with no end in site. No matter how hard I spun I would never move forward. My first instrinct was to stop. Returning to DC, it was easier to have a more removed view of the situation. Perhaps impact litigation was the way to go, that way, you would build more structural justice and protect the abdanoned. But how would enforce these rights, make sure the people that needed help got it? The problem with rebuilding New Orleans is not the lack of money and benefits available to the people, rather, it is the paralyzing bureaucracy and lack of effective implementation that causes the people to suffer. Why is this happening? The families of the vicitims of 9/11 got an average of $200 million in relief funds from the US government. I believe the average relief pay out for victims of Hurricaine Katrina was $200. Food for thought. What do we do? Can you believe how much time has passed? No matter what is in the works, the present physical situation of NewOrleans and the spirit of the people who have suffered are testament to the fact that the government has failed its people. It makes me wonder, how does positive societal change occur? What I did see that was positive were the grass roots efforts underway. There is tremendous will and energy among certain people to relieve short term needs and work towards bettering longer term systemic problems. It's fascinating to observe and assess the impact of this grass roots culture. Who are the volunteers? They are students, foreigners, professionals, but interestingly enough mostly from outside of NewOrleans and mostly affiliated with the left rather than the right. I don't know what to make of it.