Day 79 – Office Day

Today was the one day that the band didn’t have a performance scheduled. As such, I decided to go into the office and work with some of the volunteers who are here on 2-year assignments. Tina is a retired programmer here from Dallas who is porting a couple of old websites into one new one and Dave is a college intern who is working on some photography for the group this summer. Needless to say, I was able to pick up a couple of web assignments to help the team out as well as teach a couple of new tricks… Before the day was over, I was gifted with a job offer : )

Around 1:00 pm, we headed down town for some lunch. This was really exciting because it was our first adventure on the “auto-rickshaws”. Though these vehicles are only meant to hold two adults comfortably, we’ve seen up to seven people packed into one! Which is astounding since they have about the same power as a crappy golf cart… Top speed is probably around 40 mph, but that feels really fast considering you are inches way from cars, scooters, and other rickshaws at all times. While I’m at it, we saw four people riding on a Vespa Scooter (3 adults, 1 child) the other day and today I saw two guys on a scooter, with the guy on the back was carrying a big microwave!!!

Anyhow, three of us pilled in to a rickshaw for our journey downtown. For the 10 km ride, we were charged 70 rupees which equates to approximately $1.75. (Can you believe these things have meters in them!)

After lunch, we hung out at a coffee shop and then toured around the city. While cruising around, we stopped by the largest Mosque in Bangalore. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go in because the guys were wearing shorts and women aren’t allowed in. So we took some pictures from outside and called it a day.

On our way home, we saw our craziest traffic yet… At one point, we were stopped in the middle of an intersection, face to face with with two rickshaws, with hundreds of vehicles zipping around us in every direction, and everyone honking! No stress though… Nobody wears seat belts here as none of the vehicles I’ve been in have ones that are functional! I think the best description of Bangalore traffic is to think of a “bumper car rink” where nobody ever crashes… but with random cows walking around. It really is amazing.

God is good.

Until next time,
Omar