Day 9

Day 2 at The Embassy, The photo above is wrong

or

A 2 ½ Year Old's Meltdown

The only problem I see with our Visa is that instead of no last name the embassy has used her first name as her last name and for her first name they put down FNU (making a guess - first name unknown)

Tonight is filled with hindsight for what happened this afternoon. Camille has decided she does not like RN and has refused to go to her. In an “Ah Hah” moment I realized it is because it is RN who carried her to the car and held her as we drove to the next city where the hotel was. It was RN who took her away from her house mother and all her friends. After a nap camille was crying and could not be consoled. She stopped when I held her but then pointed to the outside. So we went out on a balcony and that held her attention for a5 minutes then she pointed farther out as if she wanted to go for a walk. The first time I took her in my arms and we went around the block. When we came back to our starting point she pointed in the opposite direction. Walking in the heat of the day, even if it is winter time, is not what I would call fun. So we went in for a while while I re-hydrated and cooled off. About an hour later the tears came and again she pointed outside. Thinking that she just loves the stimulation of the non-stop horn honking and hustle and bustle of the traffic I said ok let's go. this time though I pulled out “The ERGO Baby Carrier”. You can use this carrier as a back, side or front carrier. Again she pointed in the direction to go and off we went. About an hour later we came back. A short nap was taken. After she woke up and had a snack she started her crying again. RN tried to pick her up but Camille was having none of it. So I picked her up and again she pointed to outside. Makes sense now with hindsight doesn't it? We still had not figured out what was going on. So I loaded her up in the carrier and this time she pointed in another direction and off we went again. We saw many things on our trip. Dogs, cows, men getting a shave, hot cooked food, raw sewage, crows but no penguins. On our final trip today we went further out than before. I think we did about 4 or 5 trips today. It was getting to be 1800 hrs and the sun was going down and there was no way I was going out into the streets without another adult. RN was sleeping so I woke her up and said it was time for her to hold Camille as we had bonded all day. She just about flat out refused. I told her to take her as she needs to bond with both of us. RN was really hurt by Camille's action. It is then that I realized that Camille didn't want to necessarily go for a walk but was trying to find her way back to her old home. It has now been an hour and she is still crying but it is slowly getting better.

My Whole World Lies Waiting Behind Door Number 16

So we pays our $$, 4 nice crisp 100 bills large face. I find out that other countries do not charge for a Visa if you are adopting. I guess the embassy needed my $ to help finance the remodelling. Too bad that as a citizen of the US I couldn't even get a brief tour of the place. Let alone take a photo for posterity. So window 16 is 90 degrees from where we dropped off the I-600 yesterday. Today we drop off the sealed doctors envelope and our DS-230 Visa Application and again we kinda go to the head of the line. It is a bit like a jack in the box we go up to the window and then go back down to some chairs. Each time we go up we get a different agent. Finally they tell us to come back at 4pm. Gee I am thinking that is kinda late. If something is screwed up it means we will need that 3^rd day to get it fixed. Oh what joy.

Moto-Bikes

I took a few shots of various motorcycles. The current popular is a Bajaj, and HeroHonda which seems to be a brand of Honda that is only available in India. I also saw a few Royal Enfields, cool looking bikes very British. The typical size is 100 cc but there is a growing trend to something a little more sporty, 150 cc. Did not see any big bikes. Probably because the top speed between Delhi and Agra ( two large cities that we traversed a couple of times) is barely 100 kph. Get this it takes a minimum of 4 hours to go 125 miles. Talk about traffic jamb.

Three Wheelers

Most of the 3 wheelers aka rickshaws are either diesel powered or run on Compressed Natural Gas. Didn't get a real up close look at them but I did notice a fun way to shift. The left handlebar is similar to the right. The right is the throttle – no problem there. The left twists just like the right and is the gear selector.

Traffic Laws

I am sure there are some but I think they are mere suggestions. In one section there was clear markings for a 4 lane road (each way), I counted 8 vehicles abreast going the same direction. Clearance was usually 2 to 4 inches. Often times we had cars and moto-bikes coming the wrong direction. People ignored red lights. In fact if everyone went against the red then that the way things went. Oh, never mid that there was a traffic cop sitting at the intersection just watching the parade but not making an effort to lead it.

Embassy

We get back to the embassy at the appropriate time and go up to the window and they say, “Who told you to come back at 4 you should come back tomorrow” We politely tell the agent that the nice agent behind the window, you colleague, asked us to come back today at 4 to pick up our visa. “go sit on the chairs”. So we wait and a ½ hour later are called up to the window. we answer a few questions and viola before 5pm we have a visa.

You have got to be kidding me. As we are walking away I notice that Her passport clearly states she has no last/surname but has a first name. The bureaucracy that is the American Government has issued a visa with No First name but a Last/Surname of Anurita. I show this to our adoption representative and ask if I should get this corrected? He looks at me as if I asked him to fly to the moon. He says take the passport and run! Well as long as I get her into the US and get her adopted then I am not going to worry about it....... too much.

je