7/2/06

Sunday, 1:00 PM, Hyderabad.

This week has been incredibly busy for me, with long hours at work. We spent a lot of time solidifying an organization structure and communicating it to employees, which took a lot of mental and emotional energy. Hopefully the org structure we chose will enable the organization to achieve its strategic growth goals. That is the aim. A huge challenge has been figuring out how to coach leadership to effectively implement the change and deal with the fallout from a few employees who were not given the positions they were expecting / hoping for because their bosses don't think they are ready yet.

This has been a really good growth experience for me.

Rock is here in Hyderabad with me over the weekend, as he will be in town for his research next week. It has been fun to introduce him to my coworkers and the city. Yesterday we went on a company outing, where we rode go-karts , tried our hand at archery and shooting, roller skated (just me, for about 2 minutes), and ate lots of yummy Indian food. It was a lot of fun and I was glad Rock could be there and get to know the people in my Monday-to-Thursday / Tuesday-to-Friday world. And now we can say we've been go-karting in India.

One of the employees told me last night that if I have only been to the metro areas of Chennai, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, I have not seen the real India. I think he is probably right. Rock has seen much more of that than I have.

Unfortunately, Rock got a bug in his travels in Maharastra earlier this week. It took a turn for the worse last night so he is taking medication and resting today. I got a bug when I was in Mumbai two weeks ago. It was not a fun experience. On my last night there (a Sunday night), I threw caution to the wind, caved to a craving and ordered a Caesar Salad at an unknown but reasonable-looking restaurant. Salads are a big no-no here and I knew better. (The Caesar Salad, it turns out, did not taste at all like Caesar Salad, but I love salads and hadn't had one in so long that I ate it anyway.) I started getting cramps that night. When I woke up to catch my 6 AM flight to Hyderabad, I threw up. I felt better after that and went to the airport, but just as the plane was on the runway taking off, the urge was overwhelming. I can now say I have used a “barf bag” on a plane and I am glad they are there. When I arrived to work, I was still a little queasy but not bad, but within in a couple of hours I had thrown up again and was using the bathroom every 20 minutes. The consistency of everything was like water. I was quickly dehydrating and reached the point where I could not stand up without fainting.

Happily, at that point one of my close co-workers had and gave me water with a special powder mix to restore the necessary nutrients my body had lost, contacted her father (who is a doctor), and got me the appropriate medication. I was feeling much better by the end of the day, and was completely myself within 2-3 days. When you get really sick with a bug, you quickly understand how people and especially children die from diarrhea / dehydration in developing countries if they don't have access to proper water and health care. Rock has not gotten that bad. We recognized that he had a bug so he started taking the medication before getting super bad. But he is not feeling well at the moment. So we will have to wait to see some of the mosques and Hindu temples we were hoping to visit until later this week, in the evenings. I am excited to be together during the week, as that has not happened for 6 weeks now.