Forget Waldo, where's Roger?

The flight over was long and the days on the ground are short. I left Orlando Tuesday afternoon at 2:35 p.m. (not even a week ago really) and arrived (via Detroit and Mumbai, formerly Bombay) the next day, though it was really 4:15 a.m. Thursday by the calendar. And, yes, the bed did feel nice.

On the last leg of my journey I remembered that there were four BellSouth employees on my plane too, so I made sure to look out for them when we got to the baggage claim area. As I walked up I saw three women and two guys with American accents, dressed like Americans. I was right! It was Team Lead Jim and his folks Jason, Valerie, Sherrie, and Debra. We traded stories, retrieved our luggage (my nice new bags were pretty well scuffed up and dirty, with one piece broken off already) and headed off to find the unknown and faceless person who was to be waiting for us. "Goodbye Dr. and Mrs. Reddy. Thank you for being my friends!"

As we walked outside into the darkness of pre-dawnHyderabad, we were greeted by a sea of smiling brown faces... and one smiling white face. It turned out to be Susan, the BellSouth manager in charge of this project. She had three drivers and their cars waiting for us, so we all piled in and headed off to the hotel.

It was a very nice hotel, not that I cared at that time of the morning. All I wanted was a bed where I could stretch out longer (and straighter) than an airline seat. I waved goodbye to my new friend Susan, the porter carried my bags upstairs, and I fell into bed... sound asleep.

Right now it is actually Monday night, very soon to be Tuesday morning and I need to get ready for the day. We have already had one class graduate and tomorrow starts a new class. The first days here were so very busy I did not get a chance to update this blog like I wanted to, so in the next few days (now that we know what is going on) I hope to tell you more about my first days here, going for a walk who-knows-where through the teeming streets of Hyderabad, meeting new friends at the BellSouth call center, teaching Siebel computer software, attending church with about 5000 English-speaking Indian Christians on Sunday morning, what happens when your "day off" is not really a day off, wandering through the bazaar/market in Old Hyderabad, and visiting the National Exhibition of India.

Till then, I posted a few pictures of my new friends.