Home in the USA

Hello from Portland, Oregon, USA. After a 15 hour flight from Delhi to Chicago, a four flight from Chicago to Los Angeles and a two hour flight from LAX to Portland, I am finally here. It took about 26 hours to get here, including the short layovers. As one older lady that used to fly on my charter jet all the time used to say, these jets are SLOW!!! It's all true, if the astronauts can get from one side of the world to the other in 45 minutes, why can't I? At first I took exception with her, but in the perspective of our world and universe, our jets are pretty slow. But, they can seemingly fly forever now. 15 hours is a long time to sit in an economy seat in the back but it's all worth it.

First impressions as I hit America for the first time in 7 months - 1. Everything is so clean. 2. I can drink the water out of the fountains and sinks. 3. People are driving on the wrong side of the road here. 4. I know what the value of my money is without doing mathematical calculations. 5. People in the hallways and airport lobbies are talking my language and look like me. 6. Almost all the TV channels can be understood and appreciated. 7. The roads are SO SMOOTH and you can drive at high speeds without destroying your car. 8. Even though it's cool outside, the house is WARM!! 9. I am seeing people that I know or am related to instead of every person you meet being someone new. 10. The bathroom has paper products instead of a sprayer.

Those are just the first things that come to mind that I especially appreciate after doing without for awhile. But, I know it will be a short visit and then Karen and I will return to Delhi together.

My company has asked me to get some checkrides that are required out of the way while here so I have extended my stay by a couple of days and will be in Dallas for that part. But, we will still be home in Delhi by the 8th of February.

Will be going to church with Keith and Shayna this weekend and spending a lovely Sunday with them before heading down to Southern California to meet the newest love of my life, my granddaughter, Sadie. I cannot wait for this!!

Since I am on the wrong side of our round planet, sleep evades me and I decided to get up and get my blog up to date.

The kids and I went to Shayna's school where I submitted to an eye exam for her benefit and then we went down to the optician at the school to get my glasses adjusted. While there the kids were trying on different glasses and I asked for the "Gangsta Look". Ask your kids or grand-kids, they will know what it means. Then we went out to some awesome Mexican food, always a dad favorite. Playing the piano, flute and guitar at home with the kids was a special treat. I have missed my piano!!

I hope your 2010 is going well.

Thought for the day: If your life seems like one, long air-raid drill, then Live to Give. It will make a difference.

Dan

Skiing in Tblisi, Georgia (former USSR)

Hello from the base of Mt. Sadzele (3340 meters above sea level) in the Kazbegi region of the EEU state of Georgia at a ski resort called Gudauri (goo-dowery).

I have to say that this might be an undiscovered paradise. The drive up from Tblisi, Georgia was an absolutely gorgeous 90 minute drive that reminded me of driving from Denver to Vail, only the road isn't an interstate all the way like Vail. The terrain is constantly rising and follows a beautiful river with a nice lake and takes you into some historic and locked in time areas of our world. We were so lucky. I talked to the very helpful concierge lady at our hotel about a ski trip. She put me in touch with a ski shop in Tblisi and I went there the night before to get all my gear and to arrange for transportation to the mountain. The ski shop introduced us to a wonderful young man named Andro (Andrew) and he became our guide for two whole days of fun around here. He picked us up in his Audi station wagon and we headed up the mountain. I wasn't prepared for the completely amazing sights that my eyes would take in for the next few hours. After Delhi's limited 3-4 mile visibility all the time it was such a luxury to see clear skies and blue and mountain tops many miles away while we were driving on relatively smooth roads at highway speeds. I had forgotten what this is like.

It turns out that Andro is a year round nature and outdoor guide. Since we found out that our company is going to be flying here about every other month now that they have a regular business here I have already planned a white-water rafting tour this summer and possibly a mountain climb (rapelling) with Andro. He, in turn, wants to fly to Delhi with us and promote his business in Delhi with some travel agents, of which we know several. He can then fly home commercially. I believe I had previously reported that our business here was coal mines. It turns out that I had received bad information and we are actually developing oil wells here and have got one already producing many barrels per day, while we are attending meetings to get more leases and get seriously involved in that aspect. So, we will be coming here a lot and it will be a regular destination.

I have gotten very fascinated with this part of the world for it's beauty and history and for it's amazingly good food. Now, with all this outdoor recreation available, it's going to be a seriously fun destination and Karen is going to have to come with us sometime and do some antique shopping. These people have some valuable stuff just sitting by the edge of the curb while they sell off grandma's estate. Today I bought a bag full of Russian Army medals that are seriously heavy and authentic. It was retired military guys out selling their old stuff to get something for it. You can pick it up and feel that these are authentic, they have serial numbers on them and the ribbons are very WW2. Since you only see stuff like this in collector's shops I was amazed to see it streetside and went a little crazy. I should make many times my investment on ebay.

My copilot got a Russian WW2 army helmet and gas mask for less than $30 US. They had a large, old camera that was a complete piece of art alone, to say nothing of a collector's item, I just had no place to put it. There are old china sets and authentic antique silver ware that must be worth a fortune. I wish I was an expert, I think this must be a gold mine.

Anyway, the skiing was fantastic powder just like you would find in Colorado or Utah this time of year. The day was not cold or windy although the mountain was foggy. I would ski again tomorrow and it was offered but it is snowing heavily and I don't like to ski when it's snowing like that. It rained here all day so it makes sense.

Any of you that know me know how much I love to go to new places and see new things so you can probably tell it doesn't get much better than this for me.

Let's see, we flew from Delhi to Masshad, Iran, refueled with like the nicest guys ever and their jet fuel was less than $2 a gallon, about half of US prices, so that's a nice stop. I had just flown over Pakistan and Afghanistan, haven't done any of this before and what a buzz I was getting just from seeing Kandahar on my navigation map going right under the nose of the plane. I have only heard about it in the news that usually involves bad things happening in this part of the world. The air traffic controller spoke perfect American English so I spoke to him and asked where he was from. He replied St. Louis and said he was retired from American ATC and had been in Afghanistan for 6 years. He said, I control the whole country and have not one single radar scope available." That's got to be an interesting job. Made me feel good to have that good American accent and expertise when I was in such a foreign part of my world.

Since I am heading for America in less than a week, my personal excitement about my new granddaughter and seeing both of my children is really starting to build now. And, the grand finale will be when Karen and I board the airplane together in Los Angeles on Feb 5 to come back to Delhi where my company has offered me another year, and now we just found out that the DGCA has approved extending the expat pilots until at least July of 2011. Another year or two and I could retire so we'll see how it goes.

The Christmas lights are on all over this town until the end of January. I love it because it helps ease that let down feeling of the after Christmas blues.

Thanks for all your notes of encouragement and concern. I love you all,

Dan

Big Changes at work

Hi from cool Delhi,

The weather here lately has been hanging around 50-55 degrees F in the daytime (10-15C) and a little cooler at night, not a lot. With no heat in the buildings it gets cool unless you wear lots of layers or head for the blankets and covers when you are home. I tend to just keep my jacket on and then have a blanket handy for watching TV or laying around the apartment. Everyone says it will warm right back up again by the time I get back from Los Angeles in three weeks. I cannot wait to see my new granddaughter and have been so buzzed by this great event. I went back to the Sadie pictures post and put up a couple of pics of my son Brad when he was a newborn so you can all see how much he looked like his daughter when he was born. There is definitely a huge family resemblance. One of Brad's friends from Academy days says that all of her guys are married and having baby girls that look just like them so she is freaking out. But, I just can't wait to meet the little lady and try to keep Brad from making her into a Tennessee Vols fan before she has a chance to make her own choices - ha!!

I have been alluding to our work scenario all along and this week our American CEO, who came after I did last summer, was just let go. He tried to make too many changes too quickly and ended up creating a lot of bad will. He also was trying to completely revamp the way we did business and ended up making the DGCA angry at him (and us) so we were effectively grounded for a couple of months with our two Citations and several of the helicopters. In the end, after poor cash flow in the charter department for a couple of months, that ended up costing him his job. There will be an adjustment period and we all move on. There were certain things he did get accomplished for me but overall I am going to be a more relaxed camper now.

I think I mentioned in my weekly letter that the company called me last week and asked me to renew my contract for a year so that really made me feel good and it confirms that we like each other enough to keep it going. The Indian people are really starting to grow on me and they treat me so well that it's hard not to like this place, plus you have someone to do almost everything for you. Karen thinks it will take years to get my head screwed back on straight after this stint.

Today I was walking back to the mall again and came across my cute puppy family. They are getting bigger and I know now that it would not be a good thing to have one of these dogs couped up in my apartment no matter how irresistible they are at the moment. They were huddled up with each other in the security guard's shack so I snapped the photo of the day. I walked to the mall to buy cat food so my cat doesn't disown me but much to my disappointment both malls that are withing walking distance were out of cat food. Cats don't get nearly as much attention here as dogs and there are piles of dog food in every store. My store usually has just a bag or two of cat food but didn't this time. So, I bought puppy chow and when the cat gets hungry enough, she will eat puppy chow until I can get to the store and get her food. I believe she has already gone to the kitchen and eaten so I haven't heard too much complaining. Maybe she likes the variety and will do okay. I got the chicken and milk flavored puppy chow so she should be good with that. If not, she can go hunt small rodents and birds like her ancestors.

Since some of you may have discarded the link to the baby Sadie photo album already I will send a separate email to you with that link just so you can see baby Brad and Baby Sadie come from the same gene pool. If I had a digital picture of myself at that age, it would be a threesome of familiar baby faces.

Thanks to all of you who write and send just a note now and then letting me know these are getting to you. I will take my camera out again and take it on my next trip so that I have a fresh set of pics for you guys. I haven't really done anything new lately so there hasn't been anything new to photograph. I do want to go outside my apartment complex when it warms up just a little and get some photos from these construction villages that just spring up in the middle of a field next to the highrise that is being built. I am sure there are some interesting stories to be found there. I was walking by a professional ironing place today and watching as they filled this HUGE iron with charcoal from the fire and then ironed many clothes with this thing. It must weigh a ton and I don't even know how they do it. I've got to get pics of that for you ladies who think your iron is heavy. And, you don't have to stop every hour and refresh the charcoal either. Non-stick surface? What's that??

As I was walking back from the mall tonight I was in the little village that is outside my gate and my housekeeper/cook named Meva saw me and came running over to say hi, although since she doesn't talk English it was more like this: Her - Dinner? Me - no, breakfast. Good-bye. That's about the extent of our verbal communication. Most of what I show her is by example. Yesterday at the mall in Delhi after Sunday church I finally found some Macaroni and Cheese Dinners from Kraft. Whopee! My kids and I could probably survive for a few months on these and just some bread or something. So, today I got one out and showed her how to cook it. She was arguing with me at critical points. She thought I put too much water in the pan when I was boiling the macaroni. She didn't realize I was going to dump it out later. She screamed when I put the milk into the cheese and macaroni mix in the pan. After I had a pretty good mix going, I put some on her plate (you feed your help here, it's one of their perks) and made her taste it. At first she wrinkled her nose and acted like she didn't like it but I kept after her to eat a few more bites and soon she was scarfing it down. By the end, she had eaten well and indicated that she liked it - so I feel good that I have a new convert to mac and cheese, one of the staples of life. I told her she could take the chili powder that I keep in the kitchen and pour some on hers to make it more like Indian mac and cheese but she shook her head no, much to my surprise. I like Indian food pretty well, if they will just leave the chili powder out or cut down on it, I could really get into it. But, at the guesthouse last summer they were cooling it off for me and the customers started complaining that the food wasn't spicy enough. Rats!! Oh yeah, I forgot to remind you all that my bachelor kitchen is filled with convenience foods like pancake mix and cold cereal and lots of bread for toast and french toast and sandwiches and now mac and cheese. Of course there is frozen pizza and you can call out for pizza if you wish. I have lots of fresh fruit in the form of oranges, grapes, apples, bananas, and now Karen's favorite - pomegranites. I had never opened one up but now I have and they are really good when they are fresh. The mangos and papayas are tremendous here, I just haven't brought one home yet, but I get them at the restaurants and at people's houses. Yum. Some of the curries are made with lentils and I love those. Dal can be good if it isn't too spicy and what they call salad here is really just sliced cucmber and carrots and onions. I spoil myself with several bags of fresh nuts to munch on as a snack. I have pistachios and almonds and peanuts at the moment. They aren't too expensive and I learned to use them as snacks from my marriage counselor, who snacked on nuts so he could counsel all day long without more than a few minutes break.

Feeling good, getting ready for my trip to America. Karen has now received her passport back from the Indian consulate and she has her visa. They are done by handlers and the outsourcing company keeps the change if your visa isn't approved as you requested. We wanted her to have a 5 year visa . They approved only a 6 month visa to match the expiration date on my employment visa and kept the couple of hundred dollars difference. Oh well, now all she has to do is get on the plane and she will be with me in LA and after also seeing the new granddaughter, she will be traveling with me back to Delhi on Feb 4 and 5. Fun!

Kitty is under the covers keeping warm on me and keeping me warm so we help each other. It's time to tuck myself in. Have a great week. My inspirational saying for this week is: Remember, happiness is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the ride. It will be over before you know it.

Visitors from America

As you can see from the picture, I recently had company come to visit. When you are 10,000 miles away from home this is great fun. Paul and Hillary Madden from Spokane and Kati from Northern Idaho had all come to the New Delhi SDA church a couple of weeks ago. I always try to meet expats who come by the church so we chatted briefly and I had invited them to come stay with me if they ever needed. Paul is Hillary's father and he had left his organic apple growing business long enough to come visit his daughter who, with her friend Kati Winkle, had taken a student missionary year to come to Southern India and help teach at an SDA school there. Since I had taken a student missionary year to Botswana when I was exactly their age (37 years ago) I was really excited to see some kids still going for that big adventure and trying to expand their own personal horizons a little bit. Both ladies had attended Walla Walla University in Walla Walla, Washington last year and that is how they got hooked up with the SM program. Kati is going to be attending Pacific University in Portland, OR next year and that is where my very own daughter, Shayna Bowman, is in her second year of Optometry right now. So, we all had something to talk about. Dad (Paul) is just here to explore India with daughter and friend and to keep them safe as they toured to Nepal and on to Thailand for a New Year's celebration. When they flew back into Delhi they needed a place to stay for a couple of nights and so I managed to get my company driver to come pick me up and then go the the airport and pick them up. We have eaten good American food, gone to the Avatar movie, made pancakes, called out for pizza, etc. and they are telling me that they really have enjoyed getting back into civilization, of sorts. I also had my personal computer available for them to Skype with their families and I just am amazed at how technology has improved communication since I was alone in Africa all those years ago. I would write a letter that took 10-14 days to get to the states. Friends or family would answer and send it back and a month later I would have my answers to questions I had long ago forgotten. Now these kids can talk with mom and dad and siblings and in an hour you almost feel like you still know your family again. I still think about my folks going to South America in the mid-1940's and not only riding a freight ship to get there with nothing to eat but having the threat of being sunk by u-boats the whole time. Then, they were on a 6 year promise before they would get to come back to the states. Now that was true sacrifice. I am still in awe of those kinds of sacrifices.

Anyway, it was fun having the company and it seems that just as they came the Delhi winter set in for some serious cold. It has always been heating up in the daytime with bright sunshine but today (Saturday) the sun never came out. It was foggy and cool all day and without any central heat in the buildings it is up to your clothes, whatever heat you have brought into your place and whatever solace you can find under blankets and quilts. We were all kind of shivering all day long. The cat even buried herself under the heavy comforter on my bed and didn't come out all day. I never thought I would be cool in Delhi after arriving last summer in late June, but today it was actually a little cool. Temps were probably near 50 for a high today and low in the mid 40's last night but with no heat in the buildings and the sun not coming out it just feels chilly. January they promised it would be cool and then by February it's warming right back up again so I guess I need to soak up this cool weather and store it somewhere.

I was just really lifted in my personal spirits by having social contact with Americans for parts of 3 days. It was so hilarious watching the girls tell stories to their families back home and of course making it as funny as possible. The topper was dad trapped on his elephant ride while the elephant guide left them unattended to look for a camera case for a moment and dad's elephant deciding to go get some tree leaves to eat. Dad is hollering that his head is in a tree and the girls cannot contain their laughter as dad is truly an unwilling passenger on this tree eating elephant. You just cannot get good stories like this back home. And watching the girls make the story better with each telling was half the fun.

No flying this weekend so I am headed out for the Sunday church tomorrow since my company has a taxi picking them up at 4 a.m. to catch an early flight. The American pastor is still visiting his kids in the states so this will be the first time I have heard a guest speaker. They took the same flight from Delhi to Chicago that I will be on in about 3 weeks. It's one of those 16 hour killers. I wonder if you can run laps in the aisles of a Boeing 777? Everyone I have talked to tries different ways to beat jet lag and I haven't met anybody that says that it really doesn't affect them. Since I am only in America for about a week this time I plan to stay jet lagged the whole time. No way around it.

My upcoming trip in the Citation to Tblisi, Georgia is now coming up on the 8th so I am really looking forward to this adventure. I was working with dispatch on the flight planning the other day and I will be making a fuel stop in Iran. Fuel is cheap (imagine that). But, this is all so far off my radar map it just seems like its a dream. If we stay in Tblisi long enough I am told that it is surrounded by mountains and that there would be snow skiing near by. Now skiing in the former USSR would be a cool logbook entry. I also have skiing in a beautiful resort in Northern India on my list of things to do, along with Scuba diving in India, Australia's Barrier Reef and golfing where ever I get a chance. Got to do these things while I am on this side of the world. And, just for grins I will go home to meet my first grandchild, Sadie, who will be born any day now. I thought life would slow down and get boring about this point but I am just holding on for dear life and watching God's blessings pile up. Then, Karen will be coming back with me in early February and that's going to be so much fun!!

Have a great new year! I got a Holiday text from someone in our Indian company. They got Santa Claus and God all mixed up and I just really got a kick out the text. It was to the effect of may Santa Claus bring you all the blessings and happiness and good things in the next year. I appreciated the sentiment.

It only took us three attempts at the box office to get tickets and timings right to go see the Avatar movie. It was just such a classic Hindi-English mis-communication situation. They go on a daily basis over here. The good part was in this very nice, new theater a premium seat was only $3 US and the meal deal was a (vege) burger, large drink and huge popcorn for another $3. It would have been closer to $10 for the movie at home and $15-20 for the food. And there were no trailers to sit through. They seat you and boom, the next thing you know the movie is running. There is a forced intermission but it isn't ever long enough to go pick out another snack, make the purchase and get back so I guess it's just for a very quick potty break. Most of the theater staff and box office people couldn't understand our requests or communication issues but Indians who came to the English movie understood enough to help us get our times and tickets changed and to figure out which actual theater our movie was showing in (is it behind door number 1, 2 or 3)? Staff had a blank stare and were of that we don't know but we will not admit that we don't understand variety of answer that you so often get over here. Have you ever called for technical help on your computer or something and ended up talking to someone in India for 30 minutes and you aren't sure what has been said or what the actual answers that they are trying to give are?? There you go.

My life is easy compared to many here. No complaints. And, after a week I got my hot water heater back in the main bathroom so life is good.....a hot shower just cures so many ills....Dan