Arrival in Delhi

We arrived in Dehli after midnight. I was a little tired. Vindya slept on the flight, but was so thrilled to be in an airport that I wished there was a way of tying her to me. She just darted from one spot to the next, not waiting for me, not wanting to wait for the luggage, laughing and shouting "airplane!" while pointing out the window. The other passengers all stared at her, and I finally grabbed her by the arm as she shot past me. She didn't like it, but I managed to get "Stay By Mama" into her head very clearly.

After collecting the bags, we went to the pre-paid taxi stand. I showed them the address of 11, and they cheerfully confirmed that they knew it. I paid them, and they gave me a piece of paper with the address and told me to head over to slot #4. As I was walking up, the driver from slot #5 popped up and started putting my luggage in his car. Driver #4 came over, and they got into a big argument. The clerk from the prepaid kiosk came over to mediate, and all my stuff was transferred to taxi #4. Then, we set off.

At the gate to leave, he turned around and asked a question. I didn't understand him, but I showed him the piece of paper from the kiosk. He nodded and we set off. We kept going and going. It was late, Vindya fell asleep again, and I was staring blankly out the window. Suddenly, I saw the big tomb near 11 and roused myself. On the left, I saw the sign pointing to the road, but we whizzed past it. "Hey! That was our turn!" The driver just looked at me, and kept going. I thought that maybe he wanted to come around from the back or something, so I sat back, no longer zoning out. We drove around the other side of the tomb, and then started going down streets that were getting darker and darker. Finally, we got to a place that looked like a train station. It was however, very dark. We were in a parking place on the far side of a big lot. There were several fires lit, and a lot of men standing around, and a general feel of a hobo camp. "Not safe" was in flashing neon. The driver turned to me and gestured that I should get out.

I refused. "No! This is not the right place! Go back! Turn where I told you to turn!" As I kept talking, clearly not happy, he got visibly angry, and started gesturing to the door and yelling at me. It dawned on me that he spoke absolutely no English. One of the shaddowy figures from outside came over and started talking to him. I dug into my travel notes and found the address again. I handed it to the driver, pointing at it, and he showed it to the guy standing outside. As they discussed it, I could hear them reading the address, spelling it out letter by letter. Great, not only could he not speak English, he couldn't read. I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed behind us. "Go back!" The guy standing outside spoke a little English, and between us, we convinced the driver to go back the way we came.

He was clearly angry about this, but we started out. As he drove, he started talking to me. I have no idea what he was saying, but his tone was angry. I ignored all this, and interrupted him to point off to the side. "Turn there! Right turn there! At the signal!" He jerked the steering wheel, and we made the turn. There was a little roadblock set up, and the guard wanted to know where we were going. The driver started in, but I leaned out the back windown and told him we wanted 11. This was enough, and he waved to the guys behind him to move the gate. The driver asked something (I think directions) and got some instructions, and we went in.

The next step was a roundabout, and he headed off it. "No, not here, the next one!" The driver ignored me and started turning down smaller and smaller streets, until we were somewhere completely wrong, where he stopped the car again. "No, this is not right." At this point he really started yelling at me. I got out of the car. I was, for the first time since I've been in India, scared for my physical safely. However, this is New Delhi, and even though it was after 1am in a posh neighborhood, there were lots of people around. Cars drove by, pedestrians stopped to look at us, a bicycle rider passed us, and someone came up to the gate we were next to to see what was up. The driver also got out of the car and kept yelling at me. I ignored him, and called Ajay on my cell phone. I woke him up, but explained that the driver was really lost, and handed over the phone. The driver yelled a little, then stopped talking, and after a minute or so, handed me the phone again. Ajay said that we were pretty close, and they would open up for us. The driver and I got back in the car, and he started backing up the way we came. This struck me as really unsafe, but I didn't say anything. I didn't have to. The onlookers agreed with me, and there was a fair amount of shouting at him. He got out to tell them that there wasn't room to turn around, and after some discussion, one of the gates onto the street was opened up for him to do a three point turn, and we headed back to the roundabout.

In less then 2 minutes, we were at the gate of 11, and the watchman was standing outside waiting for us. We got out and the driver and the watchman unloaded our luggage. We started to go in, and the driver started yelling again. The watchman said that he wanted me to give him money, since the trip had taken much longer than he was going to be paid for. I said no, that if he didn't know where he was going, he should have asked at the kiosk rather than just rushing off. This made him really angry, but the watchman spoke to him fairly sharply, and he got into his cab, slammed the doors, and left.

We went inside, shoved our bags into the corner, and went to sleep, exhausted.

Wendesday morning, we woke up early. I was able to connect to the internet and check with Google maps. Indeed, the clinic where we had an appointment in a few hours was several hours north of Delhi. I was able to call up the page for the Delhi clinic, and found a contact number. I called and asked about an adoption physical. I got transferred around departments, and then humg up on, so I tried again. It wasn't until my third call that I managed to find someone who was willing to make an appointment. He offered August 8. I said no, it needed to be today or tomorrow. They looked again, and decided that they could fit me in on Saturday at noon. I took it.

Then I sent a e-mail to the Embassy, again. I explained that I had an appointment tomorrow, Thursday, but that the medical clinic couldn't get me in until Saturday. Would it be best to come tomorrow morning, or to reschedule for next week? They replied that I should come in tomorrow, and gave me the number of a doctor at the clinic to call directly. I did so, and after some conversation, they said that I should come in tomorrow, as soon as I was finished with the Embassy appointment.

I was actually fairly calm about all this. Rightly or wrongly, it felt to me as though the US process was going to work. There might be a few bumps, but it would work in a clear and understandable way.