Life in India isn’t so bad!!

Yesterday Sunil and I returned from Gokarna Beach. It was an amazing time, and badly needed! Gokarna beach is 7 hours further of Arambol, and is located in the state of Karnatika, not Goa. This beach has a much more tropical climate, you can see camels walking up and down the beach daily, and the beach is extremely big! Too big actually, you must walk at least 30 min to get to the town where you can buy fruits and vegetables, and at least 20 min just to get to the main road to catch a taxi. But, you can imagine it was very quiet, relaxing, and just what the doctor ordered! We also returned, after being away for 4 days, to everything running smoothly at our little coffee house. Sunil’s Dai (an older very respected friend of Sunils) ran the shop for us, and took great care of everything. I couldn’t be more grateful to him for offering to watch the shop for us, and giving Sunil and I the opportunity to get away for a bit of a vacation. We really needed it!! Here is a couple pictures of our trip. One is of me passed out in a hammock, one of Sunil walking out to the beautiful sunset, and one of us waiting at the train station on our way back. I included this one so that everyone could see my baby bump. J




Speaking of baby bump, I went to the doctor today! It was very good! The doctor did an ultrasound, and wants me to go to the lab to get a couple tests done. He is having me redo some tests because I don’t have the test results from when I saw the doctor in California, so I will have to go get some lab work done. But otherwise, he says the baby looks great, she is right on target, and is looking about 28-29 weeks along! Indian doctors are funny though! They are very simple, direct, listen very well, but don’t talk much. The doctor told me to get my lab work done, and come back in a couple weeks. I will be delivering at the hospital opposite his clinic named Ramesoy Hospital. I felt very comfortable with this doctor, he does not see many foreigners, but is a highly recommended doctor by the local women I know who have babies. AND my doctor visit, ultrasound, and medicine only cost me about $10! I am told I need to budget around $300-$500 for cost of delivery (that includes you and the baby staying in the hospital for 2 days!). Anyway, it was really good to see the doctor today, and I am happy to know who is delivering my baby, and where she is going to be born.

As far as business goes, everything is going well. I am baking 2 loafs of Dad’s Wheat bread every 2 days, and testing out which baked goods are favored by people. I will be making chocolate chip cookies tomorrow, and testing out a brownie recipe as well. Anyhow things are kinda slow right now because there aren’t very many people here. This time of the season is expected to be very busy, but I think the word has gotten out about how high prices get around this time, and so people are waiting to come until after the New Year. At least that is what we are hoping. Either way, we are doing just fine as is, but would like to see more business come our way. We are continuing to make improvements to the coffee house everyday, and so I have added a couple pictures to show some of our new changes. A couple things we did was bring sand from the beach to put in our outside seating area. It makes it look much cleaner, but actually makes it much harder to keep things clean. I also painted the front bar area with our sign that reads “Junu’s Coffee House.” And, Sunil’s Dai built us a couple tables from slabs of a Mango Tree, AND we added cushions to the tire chairs! Let me know what you think.




I have to admit, I looked at the calendar today and realized Christmas is in one week!! I was shocked! Time is flying by, and I am missing the holiday season so much!! I missed Christmas last year, and thinking about family getting together, all the delicious food, and all the fun everyone is going to have is making me very very homesick! OHHH, I have been meaning to say thank you to my family for the wonderful package you sent me in June. I finally got it when I arrived here, and it was a wonderful surprise to have all the nice things they sent me 5 months before. J I also am anxiously awaiting the packages recently sent by Jeanine and Melody! I hope they get here before Christmas so I have something to open! I check with Silvia (our landlady) everyday to see if something came, but nothing yet. Maybe this next week!!