Just another short update of what we've been experiencing in the last week

• Our broker is a funny woman who comes by every now and then
  People here are as curious to us as we're to them, or even more: she will literally inspect every room, including the fridge, asking questions about our life;
• Getting gas and a stove can be complicated
  Maybe that's because of the funny broker again, she would arrange the gas cylinder for us, but then it turned out that she'd gotten a "black" one, saying we couldn't have one from the government, now it turned out we paid too much and getting a government one wouldn't be a problem, still waiting for her to take it back...;
• Shopping... 
  Yesterday we went to BigBazaar which is quite a good and big grocery store, once you get over the point that everyone is looking at you, it's actually not bad. Until you get to the check-out: I'm the kind of person that's get cranky at Albert Heijn when there are more than 3 persons at each row. Yesterday I knew I had to change, getting through our row took about 45 minutes, while there were only 3 customers in front of us... They're just slow, not used to supermarkets, or credit cards yet. I guess (and hope) it will be much different in only a few years...
• Painting
  Before we came there had been some leaking in our appartment. They had already fixed it (leaving everything dirty), and would come back one time to do the painting. That 'one time' happens in the middle of a day, funny lady broker calls me up shouting at me that I've got to come home, which I couldn't immediately. Anyways, she'd found her way and when I arrived home the owner was sitting at our table looking at two funny guys doing painting. After a while also their bosses appear, so there's a team of 4 guys taking care of just a few square meters of painting, two working, two talking... Quite soon you understand why they need more than a billion people in this country.
• FRO
  If one would ever complain about Dutch bureaucracy I would take him here straight away. The most hated words here by foreigners is probably the FRO or Foreigners Registration Office. You need to have yourself registered there if you plan to stay more than 180 days. And you need to have that done within 15 days after arrival. And you need a document from the police which you have to get within 24 hours after arrival (which is impossible because for example your lease agreement and other documents are required, which you will never get within that time). Anyways, we're very lucky to have friends here who have gone through all kinds of time-consuming processes already. Tomorrow is the big day; according to the lists we have all our documents prepared and we're going there. Funny broker + old lady the house owner are coming too, which is required :).
• Police
  So, a little bit later than 24 hours, I made it to the police station today. Our friend Daniel had a name of a local angel, Mr. Aiwade. Most governmental things in India are (at least) in English. Except for the police station, where you can't even make up that you're at the police station because even the police logo doesn't contain any latin letters. Anyways, somehow I got to Mr. Angel within 2 minutes and within another 10 minutes I was on the back of his motorbike (without a helmet, oh well it's a cop guy). He spoke English, was quickly OK with the documents, asked me all kind of weird questions and then wanted to see my house. I was happy for it, saved me from getting a rickshaw home! And on the way back he even paid at the Xerox (where I had to make photo copies of our passports).
• Internet
  There is this guy in town who does "Internet". It's the Indian version of the Dutch person that drives a leased Seat Leon and installs networks at people's homes in the evenings for black money. The Indian version has fast hair, but still comes in on bare feet. And he always takes an extra guy to unwrap devices and tools. Few days ago he came, went to have a look at the balcony, then the roof of our building. 30 minutes later he comes back, there is a black network cable coming from the roof of the building through our bedroom window and somehow... there's Internet. Well, on a wire in the bedroom which would stop working every minute. (Tonight he came back and now it just works fine, wirelessly). Still a bit slow though, but well, it's coming from the roof...

Oh, we forgot the cable to download the pictures from the camera, we're working on it :)

(This all happening in our private life, working-life is going very well, I hired some good people who will start in a few weeks, and the office is running like it should. Paula is really enjoying her days in the school and at House of Hope, I'll make her write something this weekend!)