Jan 14, 15 (Bareilly, Kashipur)

(Post by Kristie)

We had a fun time at the District Conference dinner on Saturday night - the highlight for me were all of the kids who ended up surrounding us at the end, asking us questions and teaching us new words in Hindi (turns out we had been using some of them incorrectly - go figure). At the end, we gave them all "Change Your View" Des Moines promotional CDs that have songs from Jason's band, so I am predicting the Nadas will have to do a tour here before too long. Ha ha!

Jan 14
After breakfast in our rooms, we headed back to the conference where we gave a short presentation about ourselves and our professions. Then we went back to the hotel for lunch. There was some sort of a communication breakdown because we only got about 2 of the 6 things we ordered, and were given other meals instead -- the good news is that it was all excellent. We have been mostly eating vegetarian (and that it was we ordered), but this meal consisted of tikka chicken and fried chicken and chicken spring rolls ... it ended up being a nice change of flavors.

A word about the food - it's a common assumption that (a) we want the non-veg and (b) we don't want it spicy. We've tried to communicate that this isn't necessarily the case, but to no avail. It's okay though, as I've mentioned the food continues to be fabulous - we haven't had a bad meal the entire time.

After lunch we went to an internet cafe for a short while just to check emails, then shopped around the area nearby our hotel for a while. For dinner, we ventured out to a restaurant that initially looked like a scary bar, but ended up being very cozy and delicious.

Jan 15
This morning we packed up our things and checked out of the lovely hotel Uberoi Anand. We headed off for a 3 hour trek to Kashipur where we are now. We are staying at an even lovelier hotel that only opened recently (Jan 1 or Dec 8 depending on who you talk to). After tea and then an excellent lunch (have I mentioned how good the food is?) we set off to see some industry in town.

Our first stop was at a paper mill which was fascinating. One of the owners is a Rotarian, and he walked us through from start to finish explaining the process. They make paper from sugar cane. (Dad, I saw a few pallet jacks and asked about forklifts - he said they have them but there weren't any around. Toyotas. Proud of me?)

After the paper mill, we went to India Glycols Limited - a huge biorefinery that starts with sugar cane. Their products end up in just about everything, including cosmetics, fertilizers, fabrics, you name it. They have some clients you'll recognize - BASF, Monsanto, Dupont. Amy was the group representative in that she asked the intelligent questions so that the rest of us looked like we understood what it all meant. :)

Now we're checking email, then off to find an ISD for phone calls home. Then dinner back at the hotel, and a quiet evening in. We are going on safari tomorrow at Jim Corbett park! Wish us luck in seeing some tigers!