Intro

Greetings, dear friends & family! Many of you have asked about being in contact during our time in India, and so I've decided, a bit belatedly, to start a blog. I have some reservations about blogging, in particular the time it can take away from other things, so we will see how things go and I make no promises as to frequency. But it seems that I will have some downtime during the days so I will try to post items of interest when I have the chance.

We are now in Vellore, settling in though still figuring out our routine here. We are currently staying at the CHTC (Community Health Training Center) guest house, one of the more modest accommodations of the Christian Medical College. We have two twin beds in a sizable room with a private bathroom, which has occasional hot water from the shower and continuous hot water (after flipping a switch) from a faucet. Tap water is treated and probably usually fine but, to be safe, not recommended for drinking, so we bought a stash of 5-L bottles of water, which we use for drinking, making baby food, sterilizing bottles and baby spoons, and doing a final rinse after disinfecting produce. Meals are in an attached "Mess," a Dickens-esque dining hall which offers quite good Indian food on steel plates under dim lighting. There are enough mosquitoes there in the evening that we have been avoiding it for dinner and either bringing food into our room or (on one unfortunate night) making do with our stash of curry-flavored Ramen, fruit, and peanut butter.

Vellore itself is actually a rather lovely town. We have been told that it doesn't have much to recommend it but from our perspective it is friendly, colorful, and easily navigable. For sightseeing there is a grand fort which we have driven through but not explored, and a "golden temple" which looks stunning in photos but which we also have not yet visited. Christian Medical College is Vellore's main attraction, and after five days in & around the endocrinology department there it seems to live up to its reputation as an amazing place. CMC really deserves its own post, so I'll refrain from saying much more for now.

And, what most of you have been waiting to hear about: Thomas!! The little guy has been an amazing traveler: full of smiles, content to be passed around, patient with the constant cheek-pinching he receives. At the moment he is sitting up, playing with the tape we used to tape bathmats to the marble floor to provide some cushion, and growling at us, his newest vocalization. I hope to post more info (and photos, perhaps video) as we go. He has had a bit of sickness in the past week (upper respiratory infection, then a come-and-go diarrhea in the past few days) but appears completely healthy and happy today, aside from a lingering cough.

I hope to fill in many more details along the way, but there's a start, at least.