This was the second time it happened.

On the way back from North Carolina, I simply set the GPS in van and told it to take me home.  I didn’t even bother to take the map along.  It wasn’t until we were in Delaware at the Cape May ferry, that I realized it had taken me, not on roads, but to the Delaware – New Jersey ferry.  Crazy!  In fact, it was a 45 minute wait until the ferry got there and then it was going to take $50 and an hour to cross.  It was faster to turn around and drive around through Philadelphia.

So this time I set the GPS on my BlackBerry and headed for Lake Placid.  You know where I ended up?  At the Vermont – New York State ferry.  You would think that you need to opt in to such craziness and that you would explicitly say that you were wanting to take a ferry.  But NO.  Anyway, a simple and fun $4 and 10 minute ferry ride broke up the 5 hour trip to Lake Placid.

The roads?  Not quite the 299 in California or the Blue Ridge, but a great trip anyway.  I forgot what a 10 hour bike day can feel like … not to mention the mornings starting out a few degrees below freezing.  A great reason to smile and a birthday gift from my wonderful wife.  🙂

The numbers are incredible.  While I was visiting in Mumbai last week, The Times of India ran a front page story on poverty within India.  Did you know that one third of the people defined as poor by the World Bank, live in India.  The means that 456 million (42%) of the population lives on less than $1.25 per day.  If you take the look at the percentage of people living on less than $2.00 per day, 76% of the population meets this criteria – more than sub-Saharan Africa where only 72% of the population live on this little.  Mumbai has become such an incredibly divided city between rich and poor with an explosion of the latter, that many people now refer to it as Slumbai.  The slums of the city are exploding …

But numbers don’t do it justice.  You have to experience it.  I’m not sure where the wealthy are in Mumbai, but I felt that I never really left the slums as I shuttled from location to location in my chauffered and air conditioned car.  It was one sprawling mass of poverty.  I can’t even describe the scene of miles and miles of tin shacks and cardboard boxes that people called home – lice infected huts without running water, open sewage, and where people sleep in shifts because a bed is far too valuable to be used by only one person.  It is a maze of open sewers, electrical wires dangling dangerously at eye level, and garbage piles.  Diseases such as AIDS, leprosy, dengue fever and malaria are rampant … with little or few medical facilities.  The cows that wander the streets and highways are afforded more attention and respect than these souls.

I was speaking with someone from work in Delhi one evening and expressing my astonishment at the little value that was placed on human life.  Consider the transportation system if nothing else.  Buses don’t even stop to pick up people who jumped aboarding running death machines and hung out doors and windows by the smallest of threads.  He told me that 3500 people die each year on the metro system alone.  They are dragged along after falling from cars, they are beheaded by power poles as they lean out the windows seeking fresh air, or entangled in power lines and crash into overpasses as they sit on the roof.  It is beyond our comprehension..

I expressed how awful it must be to my colleague – to be met with disagreement.  "Most of these people had a guru, or shwami, who offered them hope and optimism among such surroundings.  The guru would tell them what to do and helped them."  I don’t know who these gurus are, but I certainly saw lots of nicely decorated and colorful billboards advocating one person or another …

It is a people in desperate need of a Saviour.

Do you imagine for a moment that those we meet each day are in any less need?  Are any less poor?  The only difference is that in our materially wealthy countries, we are blind to the poverty.

Have you ever eaten a lone green bean?

So this update comes from India where I’ve been bouncing around between Bombay, Delhi and Bangalore.  Next to Thai food, I probably have to put Indian near the top of the list.  The type of food is very different between the south (where it tends to be VERY spicy) and the north (where it is less spicy, but more oily).  All of it is incredible – especially to someone who loves curry – me.

Anyway, with my fish curry meal on Tuesday night, there was a single green bean sitting on top of my rice.  You know what I mean?  I think they call them haricot beans back home.  It’s about an inch long and cut at both ends.  I have to admit that I thought it was a little strange that they serve one lone green bean with the meal, but when in India … As soon as I put it into my mouth and crunched down, my Indian colleague remarked on how brave I was.  I think his exact words were, "Wow.  I don’t think I’ve eaten one of them since I was 12 years old."

It wasn’t a green bean.  And I can still feel it burning a hole through my intestine two days later.  🙂

Eating here is a bit of an adventure!  You don’t realize how inept you are at eating until you try to eat all the food with only your right hand and your left hand in your lap.  Pity the poor person who is left handed.  It is considered very bad taste to touch food with the left hand (or to accept business cards or anything else for that matter).  Regardless, the flavors are fantastic and I highly recommend the … things that I’ve eaten this week.  Just watch out for the lone green bean.