Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

Wednesday the 20th and we are on the way to work!!!

Even though I am normally a very early riser, the rest of the team seemed a bit draggy when we all gathered in the hotel lobby to check out and then take three vans to the railway station.  That train experience was to be about a four hour ride to the pink city of Jaipur, but this was not the entire trip - not by any stretch of the imagination.  When we arrived at the train station, we then had to cross to the other side, and exit to the street, where a few blocks away, our original bus was awaiting our arrival.  We recognized our porter, but the driver was a man we had not previously seen.  He was hired to drive unto the outskirts of the city and then we would be met by our regular driver who would drive us to the dam site. We would be driving for at least six hours and manyof the roads would be considered not much better than wood roads. 

Bani asked me about when we might consider taking lunch and we discussed the various options available to us: we could drive for two hours and the take a lunch, and then have four or five more hours to reach our destination OR we could "push on through" and only stop for "potty" breaks, and perhaps long enough to buy some snacks. Discussion ensued and a vote was called and unanimously, it was decided to push on through, in hopes of reaching the campsite before sundown. 

For some reason, most of India was on the road that day, and all traveling between Jaipur and Sohna. Even once we would arrive in Sohna, we would still have about an hour to drive on to the campsite. Well, technically speaking, anyway! Once again, our driver more or less glided in and around huge trucks loaded with stone or men on motorcycles, with the greatest of agility. Our porter was very attentive and skilled at directing the driver what lay ahead, but might not be within his view. 

At about five o'clock, we were approaching the turn off toward Mewat, where we would follow that road until we reached a few crowded villages, strewn with produce carts, chicken cages, tire carts, carpenters planing down teak wood doors, children pushing along their wheeled carts, little girls wearing their school uniforms and walking hand in hand. Folks in our group remarked about the prevalence of bright (safety) orange saris. Slowly, members of the team began to bond, learning more about each other and individual Rotary Clubs, families, previous "mission" trips, etc.

THEN, we arrived in the nearby town to the damsite and began looking for signs directing us to the road which passed by our destination.