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We got to sleep in until 0900 which was nice and then we met with one of the Indian GSE team members, Ragini, who lives here in Goa and she took us around to different places. We went to see the ocean up on a lookout and it was beautiful. There was a little puppy there, about 5 weeks old and Ragini bought a pack of biscuits and fed them to the puppy which was starving. It was the first I’ve seen anyone here in India show any compassion to a stray dog and then she fed the rest of the pack of biscuits to several other dogs on our way back to the car. She is really an animal lover like me and over lunch we talked a lot about pets and animals in general. She said she has never seen a domestic cat before so she is in for a treat when the team goes to New Jersey. She has a 1 ½ year female yellow lab, Rebecca, whom we will get to meet later. We find it humorous how the Indians name their dogs with American-type names; Jenny, Scoofy, John, Bruno, Rebecca.
We went to visit a Roman Catholic church which was quite elaborate inside. I felt like there was something missing on the outside though based on all the temples we’ve been visiting for the last 3 weeks. The design seemed too simple. Up until now, nothing has been simple. I can’t believe we’ve been here 3 weeks already! Time really is flying.
Ragina took us to the Superior Court where she works as a lawyer and we were able to briefly observe a trial in session. We were kind of squished in a smallish room with standing room only and no photography was allowed, of course. It was a bit different than an American court room. They had two judges listening to the case and no jury. The judges are addressed as “My Lord”. They do not use juries at any level in Goa and the lower levels of court use only one judge. There were about six lawyers lined up for the defense and as many for the prosecution. The lawyers all wore black cloaks and I would have mistaken them for the judges. The defendants for the one case filled half of the room and the same for the prosecution. There were a lot of papers and huge rows of books in use in front of the row of lawyers. English is the language used in the court rather than Hindi, Portuguese, or Konkani, the state language. Apparently the case had to do with some kind of traffic offence. I heard one of the prosecuting lawyers arguing to the judges that “that kind of vehicle isn’t meant for rural roads!” The court apparently follows the Portuguese rules yet.
We stopped at an ATM to get some rupees for spending money and the machine ate Jennifer’s card. The bank wouldn’t give it back to her until tomorrow after they review the recording to see why it retained the card.
Goa is beautiful! It’s much nicer than the interior of India. The first thing I noticed is the humidity. It blows in off the ocean and makes everything feel hotter. Next thing is that there is no dust, the roads are better and most are paved, and there are hills, mountains, and trees, and wild-looking areas that aren’t yet developed. So far, everywhere we have been, every square acre of land has been developed and not one inch is untouched by humans. I woke up this morning and heard a bird outside singing, “ïdely, ïdely, ïdely,chrup”. The waters look clean and there is little trash on the streets. There are less cattle roaming around, no ox carts, plenty of motorcycles, lots of boats, less poor people visible, and less stray dogs. Also the architecture and designs are very different. They are definitely of a Portuguese style and seem simpler. I do vaguely remember coming through check points and gates as we entered Goa last night but I’m not sure exactly what that was all about. Perhaps a left-over from when Goa was ruled by the Portuguese while the remainder of India was under British rule.
We stopped and visited another Catholic church that was beautiful but there was a first communion service going on and we couldn’t really see the altar or photograph it. Ragini said the percentages of religions in Goa are about 50% Hindu and 50% Christians with a few other religions present of course.
We visited briefly at Ragini’s home and met her parents and Rebecca. Rebecca is a really sweet lab that is spoiled to death! She is just a bit chunky, carries her comb around waiting to get butt scritches, and has a huge bean bag sack for a bed! She licked me and asked for a belly rub. Very sweet dog. Unfortunately her mother served some kind of crunchy foam chips that tasted really nasty. I ate one to be polite then found out it was shrimp flavored. They apologized that they forgot I am vegetarian but I knew it was bound to happen eventually. Unfortunately shrimp ranks higher than cucumbers and zucchini on my dislike-list and I never ever ate them before I was veg. L
In the evening we went to Baga Beach and looked at all the vendors’ wares. Then we just relaxed on the beach with drinks and lime sodas. The beach was beautiful in the dark and peaceful with the waves rolling in. Today was a scheduled rest day and that we did. From there we went to a “lounge” where I had an interesting conversation with our host’s son (an ortho-doctor) about American EMS and our 911 system. Unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I should have because of abdominal pains, increasingly bad cough and return of the chills indicating a fever. We were there until quite late (2400) before everyone was done eating and drinking and dancing. I was getting a little miserable. As soon as we got back here to my host’s home I took the Dolo for fever and Advil for the aches. I will see another doctor in the morning to get more antibiotics. I really think the problem is that here in India they only give antibiotics for 4-5 days and it isn’t long enough. In America the trend is to take them for 7-10 days, even if the patient feels better, just to make sure everything is killed off and whatever it is doesn’t flare up again.
Not only does this host home have toilet paper, it has a wireless internet connection that won’t cost them anything if I use it. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to use it but they gave me the password for it. Maybe tomorrow if I get told to rest again. I really don’t want to miss tomorrow though. We are supposed to go visit a YMCA and some other vocational activities. Elizabeth manages a YMCA in Berkeley Heights. Unfortunately, and I feel really bad, she had to move in to sleep with the servants so she doesn’t get sick too.
We went to visit a Roman Catholic church which was quite elaborate inside. I felt like there was something missing on the outside though based on all the temples we’ve been visiting for the last 3 weeks. The design seemed too simple. Up until now, nothing has been simple. I can’t believe we’ve been here 3 weeks already! Time really is flying.
Ragina took us to the Superior Court where she works as a lawyer and we were able to briefly observe a trial in session. We were kind of squished in a smallish room with standing room only and no photography was allowed, of course. It was a bit different than an American court room. They had two judges listening to the case and no jury. The judges are addressed as “My Lord”. They do not use juries at any level in Goa and the lower levels of court use only one judge. There were about six lawyers lined up for the defense and as many for the prosecution. The lawyers all wore black cloaks and I would have mistaken them for the judges. The defendants for the one case filled half of the room and the same for the prosecution. There were a lot of papers and huge rows of books in use in front of the row of lawyers. English is the language used in the court rather than Hindi, Portuguese, or Konkani, the state language. Apparently the case had to do with some kind of traffic offence. I heard one of the prosecuting lawyers arguing to the judges that “that kind of vehicle isn’t meant for rural roads!” The court apparently follows the Portuguese rules yet.
We stopped at an ATM to get some rupees for spending money and the machine ate Jennifer’s card. The bank wouldn’t give it back to her until tomorrow after they review the recording to see why it retained the card.
Goa is beautiful! It’s much nicer than the interior of India. The first thing I noticed is the humidity. It blows in off the ocean and makes everything feel hotter. Next thing is that there is no dust, the roads are better and most are paved, and there are hills, mountains, and trees, and wild-looking areas that aren’t yet developed. So far, everywhere we have been, every square acre of land has been developed and not one inch is untouched by humans. I woke up this morning and heard a bird outside singing, “ïdely, ïdely, ïdely,chrup”. The waters look clean and there is little trash on the streets. There are less cattle roaming around, no ox carts, plenty of motorcycles, lots of boats, less poor people visible, and less stray dogs. Also the architecture and designs are very different. They are definitely of a Portuguese style and seem simpler. I do vaguely remember coming through check points and gates as we entered Goa last night but I’m not sure exactly what that was all about. Perhaps a left-over from when Goa was ruled by the Portuguese while the remainder of India was under British rule.
We stopped and visited another Catholic church that was beautiful but there was a first communion service going on and we couldn’t really see the altar or photograph it. Ragini said the percentages of religions in Goa are about 50% Hindu and 50% Christians with a few other religions present of course.
We visited briefly at Ragini’s home and met her parents and Rebecca. Rebecca is a really sweet lab that is spoiled to death! She is just a bit chunky, carries her comb around waiting to get butt scritches, and has a huge bean bag sack for a bed! She licked me and asked for a belly rub. Very sweet dog. Unfortunately her mother served some kind of crunchy foam chips that tasted really nasty. I ate one to be polite then found out it was shrimp flavored. They apologized that they forgot I am vegetarian but I knew it was bound to happen eventually. Unfortunately shrimp ranks higher than cucumbers and zucchini on my dislike-list and I never ever ate them before I was veg. L
In the evening we went to Baga Beach and looked at all the vendors’ wares. Then we just relaxed on the beach with drinks and lime sodas. The beach was beautiful in the dark and peaceful with the waves rolling in. Today was a scheduled rest day and that we did. From there we went to a “lounge” where I had an interesting conversation with our host’s son (an ortho-doctor) about American EMS and our 911 system. Unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I should have because of abdominal pains, increasingly bad cough and return of the chills indicating a fever. We were there until quite late (2400) before everyone was done eating and drinking and dancing. I was getting a little miserable. As soon as we got back here to my host’s home I took the Dolo for fever and Advil for the aches. I will see another doctor in the morning to get more antibiotics. I really think the problem is that here in India they only give antibiotics for 4-5 days and it isn’t long enough. In America the trend is to take them for 7-10 days, even if the patient feels better, just to make sure everything is killed off and whatever it is doesn’t flare up again.
Not only does this host home have toilet paper, it has a wireless internet connection that won’t cost them anything if I use it. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to use it but they gave me the password for it. Maybe tomorrow if I get told to rest again. I really don’t want to miss tomorrow though. We are supposed to go visit a YMCA and some other vocational activities. Elizabeth manages a YMCA in Berkeley Heights. Unfortunately, and I feel really bad, she had to move in to sleep with the servants so she doesn’t get sick too.
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