About one hour ago, I woke up and decided to switch on the WEATHER CHANNEL. Probably would have been better off to pull a pillow and the comforter over my head and go back to sleep! The "LOCAL ON THE 8s" happy voice came on to announce that it was currently 20 DEGREES BELOW ZERO (Fahrenheit) with light winds! Are you kidding????
A short while later, I braved the elements, walked across the driveway to the garage, was pleased to see the automatic door opener was working, got into my car and drove the one mile to my office. When I started the engine of the car, the temperature reading was 18 degrees ABOVE zero. However, within less than the one mile journey, the indicator showed the temperature plummeting to MINUS TWENTY.
Out of curiosity, I went to the search engine and typed in CURRENT TEMPERATURE IN DELHI, INDIA. Are you ready for this??? PLUS 73 degrees (Fahrenheit). I realize that that reading was not necessarily "current", as it was the reading from noon, when in actuality it is about 3:00 p.m. local time, but a differential of ONE-HUNDRED-AND-ONE DEGREES???
With the countdown of only one week remaining before the members of Group A wend our ways to our local airports to converge later on in the day in Newark, New Jersey, to then fly out on the evening of January 23, I can assure you that the temperature difference must be bringing smiles to more than my face!
As we do the last minute packing (or in my case, decide which bags I will be packing) we are calling friends, business associates and local newspapers and radio and television stations to put the final touches on our preparations. Just yesterday, I received a call from Krista at Winter People in Freeport, Maine (that's right, the home of the world famous L.L. Bean's) and we discussed the fine details of the embroidery work being done on our official shirts for the ROTARY DREAM TEAM - INDIA 2009. I will be picking up the shirts in a few days. Next, I received a telephone call from the assistant general manager of the local Red Sox Baseball Team affiliate, and was pleased to have him tell me he had about one hundred soft baseballs I could take along for the children of the village. A while later, I was thrilled to receive an Email from one of last year's team members, Shirley McCaughey, who had arranged with the PURELL company to provide us with sample sized bottles of PURELL, the wonderful hand sanitizer, along with a handy-dandy belt clip, so each of us will have our own supply close at hand (no pun intended) on an elasticized pull-out string. Guess you have to see it to appreciate it.
At any rate, with one hundred degrees warmer climate, gifts for the children of the village, hearing from past and present members of our team, I guess I must confess I am sort of leaning toward where I will be in a little more than a week. Watched an amazing movie last evening, too. The title of the film is WATER, and for anyone even remotely interested in India and its rich culture, it is a must-see.
In about five hours, I will have the pleasure of going to visit the first grade at my grandson's school - ST. THOMAS SCHOOL in Sanford, Maine, where I will sit down with the kids and explain a little bit about where I am going and how they can follow our trip on this BLOG. More about my class experience, later!!!
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