New adress- finally

ANke
B1- 902, Rose Parade
Salunke Vihar Rd
Kondhwa
Pune- 411048
Maharashtra, INDIA

Link on HIV in India

For all of you that have wondered why HIV and Aids is such a big problem in India:
http://www.avert.org/aidsindia.htm

Take care!

Indian people are NICE!!!!!

This time just one short incident from yesterday evening.

Me and my flatmates went to a birthday party of some guy we know. We had some drinks, danced and than -of course- had to try and find a rikshaw that was willing to bring us home for a reasonable price (which is always kinda difficult). I bargained with one rik-driver and he took the four of us (micha, sebastian, frits and me) for a good price. I have to say, that it is not allowed to go by 4 in a rik, so that's even harder to find a rik at nighthours.... wel, anyways. We got in the rik, drove home, got out of it, payed and walked home, one of the guys was not feeling well, so I walked with him. That was when I realized, that I had left my laundry bag with ALL my cloths (except for 2 t-shirts and some underwear) in the back of the rik. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! It was awefull! I coudln't believe it. I had washed them at my friends place and wanted to take them home, and now everything was gone. Horrible. Me and Micha ran back, but the rik was gone, incl. my bag of course! We walked down to the main street to get a rik and go back to the place where he had picked us up at the party, but no rik was there. F*ck! Than 2 men on a bike stopped and talked to us (well, actually to micha, coz I was to worried to chat). one turned out to be a cop and said he would try everything in his power. I have to admitt I was not really convinced. By that time I was crying, because micha kept repeating that ALL my cloth were in there and I didn't earn any money here....... I also called someone at the party and sent him to find the rik, but no chance. Well, and now comes the best part. After standing there for 30 min THE RIK CAME BACK with all my cloths!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was soooooooooo happy! Gave him money and thanked him a thousand times.
I'm never ever gonna complain about rikshawdrivers anymore, I swear!

Pics from beautiful Goa

me on the street

Me, Micha, Vince, Sarah, Tanja and Martin on Baga beach

The sunset seen from our restaurant

Me and Martin-great shot, I think

Me and Micha in the local bus to Baga beach

Somebody jealous?? hihihiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. luv! A

Goa.......

First of all I want to say, that I´m trying to put some more pics on my site, hope it´ll work this time......

Well, what did I do the last weeks?
After having moved to the new flat things have changed drastically. I mean, it is not bad to live here, but it is much more expensive to go into town, coz father away. And at night there are only few rikshaw drivers that want to bring us home, which means even more money. Bargaining ("handeln") is not an option if you really depend on these guys :-( And all my flatmates come home even later, because of the longer distance and the traffic jams...... don´t like that. BUt -hold on- still having a good time here!

Last thursday was the farewell of Vince (the Dutch guy that I hang around with a lot, especially on the trip to Hampi). Great party! Came home at 6 am, getting to work at 8 am; two hours of sleep is simply not enough........ At night me and Micha took the bus to GOA. Vince and his girlfriend Sarah and Martin (D) and his girl where already there. The bustrip was horrible, coz we didn´t sleep much the night before due to the party and it took 10 hrs to get there. When we finally arrived early in the morning my legs and feet were totally swallen (at least now I now what they mean by thromboses........ I was really scared when I saw it; buy the end of the day it was over). Well, than we arranged a bungalow for the two of us, and me, Micha and Vince went to the beach. The weather was sunny and we chilled the whole day ->great!!! The water was refreshing and we had lots of fun. Martin (he had stayed in Pune as an trainee as well, he left 2 weeks after I arrived) and his girlfriend from Germany arrived and so did Sarah. The 6 of us did nothing, except for lying in the shadow (well, Micha was lying in the sun...... totally burned!), going into the water and relaxing. Nice talks as well. At night we had a cocktail and watched the sunset, beautiful, but too short. We were all really tired so no wicked Goa-beach-party. Yesterday was even more relaxing, went bodyboarding. In the evening me and Micha had to leave and say our final good-bye to Vince :-(. while the others went on travelling we had to travel back, coz today we had to work. Really unfair, because 2 days and only 1 night in Goa is just not enough........... we had booked a sleeperbus, which means that you have a bed- kind of. There are two layer and each compartment has two places. At first we thought it was really funny and chill, to ly there and talk, but when you really want to sleep.......... we got the worst places: last row upper bench. We bounced and rolled around the whole night, hit my head a couple of times. Good thing was that there was not much space, so on the one site I rolled 5 cm against the window, on the other 5 cm against Micha. It was good that we are such good friends, otherwise I wouldn´t have slept at all. Oh ja, and for Micha it was even worse because he was severly sunburned.....well finally we arrived (having slept only little) at 8 am in the morning- 12 hrs in the bus. We rushed home, took a shower and both went to work.
Now i am really tired, but the weekend was totally worth it!!!!!

This week now big plans, hope to see my other flatmates tonight, try to have dinner together, because some of them went to another place and I am curious about what they have to say.
On thursday and friday again farewell-parties. Laure (F) and Fernando (Colombia) are both leaving. I hope there will be more girls coming soon, when Laure leaves I´m only with guys. Of course I´m not really complaining as they are all really nice, but......, hey,...... shopping, beauty parlour (yep, girlz, I went there, 1 Euro 50 cent to wax your legs, really cheap but unfortunately it hurts as much as back home),..... well, i´ll see.

Okay, babas,
that was it for today.
Enjoy the pics.

Salam namaste.

x.
ANke

small note on indian psychiatry and more

yes, I am still alive, but vey busy. the new place is father away from our old place and we stil keep hanging around here, which makes me have little time to keep u all up to date.
well, the new flat has indeed a swimmingpool and forunately the indians are not so great sporters (I haven't seen ANYONE in the pool yet). At the end of our housewarming-party me and Micha (guy from poland) tested the pool, great. I thought to go swimming every morning, but didnt make it there yet (Joerg, wie schafst du das bloss immer??).
Well, for the rest we have been busy with the festival of Ganapati. It was crazy. Yesterday the Ganesha (the elephantgod) was put into the river. Every family as one, the put it on a truck, than they make music, dance like crazy (only guys dance, girls aren't really alowed to do so..... except when they are foreigners ;-)) and SLOWLY (come on, we are in india! nothing goes fast except for the traffic) move to the river. It is a huge ceremony and we were covered in glitter-stuff and red powder. Again another long night. But great!(pixx are at home, I'll post them soon)

Today one of my colleauges went with me to another hospital, which is funded by the government. There I had the chance to talk to two psychiatric social workers in the day-care center. They told me about their system, which sounded surprisingly similar to the one in Germany or Holland. They also have daily activities (I bought two self-made candles from them) and are seen reguarly by the psychiatrists. There are also follow-up visits where the social workers check on the condition of the patients. Grouptherapie is there and family counselling. Mainly men are there, only few female patients, due to cutural reasons. Most of the patients get the diagnosis of schizophrenia. Second most is mania-depression. I will go back there some time in the morning hours to take part in the activities for the patients.

This weekend I hope to travel with one of my flat mates to GOA! Yes, indeed. Chill at the beaches and have a good time.

Tonight is the farewell of Vince (the dutch guy from Rotterdam), which sucks, coz he is a great guy. Well, we'll just have a great party,.... and I haven't been to Rotterdam yet......

New adress? Well, I can't remember. But I'll tell you soon.

That's it for today.
Next time more pictures, I promise!

Luv. ANke

New appartement

...... yes, we have to move. We found out about it 2 days ago and today we have to move. I'm not happy about it. The area we live in now is great and besides having a lot of clubs and restaurants it's close to my work. But apparently they increased the rent and so we have to move. The new place will be somewhere else, seems to be quite far from here, which sucks.
For e it'll mean taking the heavily crowded local buses to work everyday, coz I can't afford o pay a rikshaw every day.
Well, I'll try to be openminded though. We'll definetely move into a more indian area (as this one is quite european) which could be cool. And they said there was a swimmingpool and sports fascilities..... :-)

Well, I'll let u know how it is there asap.
Meanwhile I hope you have a good time.

Special beijos to my BRAS-friends. It's sooooo good to hear from u all again. Abracos!!

u alles liebe an meine familie. ich denke an euch.

Tata (byebye in hindi) ANke