Bidar to Gulbarga

January11,2008 We travel to Gulbarga.

A little after 10:40 this morning we left Bidar by road for Gulbarga. We are told from this point on, the temps will be 40-45 degrees Celsius or over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It would appear that there is more infrastructure where we are headed as roads are paved and often have paved shoulders for cattle and pedestrians to use. At one point we came upon a truck on its side, contorted with cargo strewn in the road. We were told that the accident had happened 2 days prior and two persons were dead. The vehicle will remain at the scene until all of the investigation is complete and the cause of the accident is determined then it will be removed .
We were actually almost on schedule arriving in Gulbarga and had a very warm welcome by the Rotarians from the three Clubs here, many of whom we had me at District Conference in Raichur our first weekend here. They are, in every way I can see, a fun loving group of people who truly care for and about each other. Many are US educated or have family living in the US.

First stop was the University of Gulbarga with a student body of about 3000.…all post graduate master’s or Doctoral students. The director of the library was a funny and excited little man who was so pleased with what he had been able to accomplish in his time there as far as setting up a network based library system that will allow for e-conferencing and long distance learning. He had just received an award from the Indian government proclaiming his facility the best of its kind in the entire country and you can certainly see how much he loves his work and how proud he was of it.


The team is scheduled to visit a couple of ancient temples and a fort today as well as one of the rarer pre 1000AD Buddhist temples then at 6PM they are being taken to a theater to see a recent Ballywood film. At 8:30 we are being hosted for dinner again by one of the clubs. Tomorrow is Sunday and our hosts have made arrangements for me to go to mass. I feel so blest to have such sensitive and accommodating people seeing to our needs.
If I am up to it tomorrow or Monday before we leave, I have been asked to meet with the Medical staff (Cardiology, Urology, OB/GYN, neurology, dermatology, ophthalmology) and speak to them on how MS needs to be handled differently than other illnesses that have similar symptoms. In particular, I’ve been asked to talk with them on the use of steroids and benefits or drawbacks. We went to visit my host’s brother in the hospital last evening as he was three days post MI. He was experiencing confusion and his oxygen sats were low so I got him to do some deep breathing with me. “Ah, like yoga”, he said. I nodded and asked him if he could do that several times an hour. He said yes and his wife agreed to prompt him. It helped bring sats up. Them my host told me he was a smoker. I looked at him, scowled, tsked at him and he laughed. The family and the cardiologist who were in the room at the time said it was the first time since the event that they’d even gotten a smile out of him.
My hostess speaks very little English but last evening insisted I wear one of her Saris to dinner with the Rotary. I wore my blouse and her sari was more of a complementary color on me than mine. The team said they had not seen me look so nice in anything since we’d been together, I do not have the right camera cable to download photos from my camera and will try and get my computer to Rebecca to load them on with her camera.

There is no Internet access here but I am assured that a tenant of the family has it and I should be able to be online within a few hours to post this. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers for safe travel. Blessings to you all.