Paranoia Undergarments

In the past three days, we have essentially stocked our apartment, in a flurry of activity before most of our professors (i.e. bosses) arrive on Thursday. I'm sitting here in the common space of our new apartment while two guys build our bed and dresser (no IKEA here…).  We got some really great stuff, some of it way nicer than we had in Cambridge. There were some things that are a little different here, as you might expect. For one, people don't appear to have ovens. Instead, they have convection ovens that look like microwaves (basically, microwave-sized real ovens). Which is AWESOME. This means that when we cook stuff in the microwave, we are actually cooking it, not turning it into gooey, spongy, post-microwave blobs. However, it also means that when I bake cookies (which I obviously plan on doing soon), I'll have to bake four at a time.

We also have all the normal stuff - fridge, blender, table and chairs, living room couch, bed, dresser, etc. An astonishing amount of stuff to buy in just three days. As soon as we've got it all in place (and I remember to bring my camera), I'll definitely take some photos.

I just spent the past 45 minutes reading through the "India's No. 1? Washing Machine" manual, which was unbelievably detailed.  Unlike in the U.S., washing machines are extremely customizable, so you can determine the temperature, water level, etc. to a much greater degree of specificity. I think that our washing machine may be a bit snazzier than most, because the manual made a great to-do of the "washing algorithm" which controls the relationship between the water level and temperature. I'm not always 100% clear on the nature of this algorithm, however, and apparently neither were the manual writers, who inform us that: "The standard detected by the sensor changing the algorithm is set by the normal standard. It may not be the same to the washing habit of a specific user. So, it does not matter that the user uses it according to his/her washing habit."

Also, the standard wash cycle here is called "fuzzy" (they have an additional setting called "smart cleaning" which apparently is not the customary option…). One other difference is that included with our machine was an "anti-rat cover." I'm a little perplexed why we only had to install that on our washing machine, not our fridge, which presumably would be of greater interest to a rat.  I shudder to think what a rat would make of an operational washing machine.

But before I could have the luxury of carefully reading through the abundance of owners manuals that we now possess, we had to actually buy our stuff and get it into the apartment. Which has basically meant dragging Prabhat and his lovely wife Rim Jhim all over Patna with us to buy nearly everything we need. Of course, we probably could have found all of this on our own, eventually, but they are tough negotiators and we have benefitted so much both from their recommendations of which stores to go to and their expertise with haggling.

Since we finally have the keys to our apartment (!), however, we got a jump-start on the morning by heading to the Mega Mart that Jeff and I found (the one Walmart-type place we've discovered in Patna) and bought a zillion little things (dish scrubbers, mops, soap, etc.) that ending up filling two carts. Now, that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do in the U.S. when you hit up the BB&B (Bed Bath and Beyond, to those of you who need translating) and then cruise back to the parking lot where you've parked your sparkling Prius. However, we bought an absolute ton of stuff, without really paying attention to the fact that because we went without Prabhat or Rim Jhim, we didn't have access to a car. So we got out on the street and tried to beg a few auto drivers to take us, but they clearly thought we were too much trouble. A number of cycle rickshaw drivers had approached us early on, but Jeff and I were both highly skeptical that a rickshaw driver could handle the amount of crap that we'd bought, in addition to us. Finally, though, we gave in, and jumped into three rickshaws (one for each of us - me, Jeff and mom) and stuffed the bags in next to us. And then rode for 4ish kilometers with our bodies in weird, strained positions so that we could hold the bags in place and not fall off into the street. How I wish that we'd had the camera with us, because we looked quite a sight.

Oh, and the title of this post is the name of a prominent company that sells stuff at the Mega Mart, which sells both underwear (which we didn't get) and kitchen towels (which we bought 20 of). Not my choice for a family-friend brand name.

So we did eventually unload all of our bags from the rickshaws and headed up to the apartment to clean for a few hours before we met up with Rim Jhim. There's still a lot more to do, but we did clean some windows, counters and walls. Much to our surprise, however, it turns out that the paint rubs off with even the slightest contact with water. So we have to be really careful to keep the windows closed when it rains (remember, it is the monsoon season), or else all the paint will run down to the floor.

After spending so much time and effort acquiring and moving into our new place, it's a bit of a shock to realize that the rest of our bosses will be here in two days for a very intense 5 day period of meetings and field visits. It's a bit of a relief that we'll already have established our base here, so that when my mom leaves (on Saturday), and kicks us out of her hotel, we won't be scrambling for a place to stay, in addition to all of our JPAL responsibilities.

Tomorrow early morning, Jeff and I are going with one of our professors who's already here to a neighboring district to meet with the District Magistrate. We've done a smattering of JPAL work here and there, but tomorrow will be our first really full day (it's about a 4-6hr drive each way to Gopalganj). That should be really cool - we'll get his perspective on the political structure in Bihar, and hopefully meet a few other kinds of officials as well. Jeff arranged for a driver and translator, so keep your fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly!