The last few days have been a complete whirlwind with the arrival of the students and other faculty.
The first day was pretty rough. The hotel was not nearly as clean as it was supposed to be and there was an amazing inability to procure one towel per person. I grew increasingly frustrated with my inability to communicate directly with the staff, who do not speak English. My anger was more at my lack of Hindi knowledge then their lack of English though. After all, I am in their country...
The students were worn out after a very long journey and the initial adjustments were a bit challenging.
Most of them were real troopers, but we were all so overtired and short-tempered at that point, that it was not the most pleasant of evenings. The worst was when Sunny and I went to see the room that two of the boys were sharing to find the bathroom floor covered in 3 inches of water and reeking of various unpleasant scents. Of course the power proceeded to go out while we were examining the bathroom, making that little adventure all the more fun.
However, Sunny worked his magic yet again and within 30 minutes had the students in a new "family suite" which is really quite lovely... Im frankly jealous of the luxury :)
Friday proceeded a bit more smoothly, and everyone was in a much better mood after a good night's sleep. Yet, this inability to come up with a single towel or extra sheet, continued to irk me. I am used to asking for something and having it be done. When I ask that there be one towel per person each day, I expect to see a towel in the room, and not to have to ask for it 6 more times in order for it to appear. My frustration also with the frequent power outages and even more frequent inability to connect to the WiFi we installed did not improve my disposition.
We spent most of the day Friday out with the students, picking up more essentials. Getting SIM cards in India is ridiculously tedious. Passport photos, copies of visas, the works... multiplied by 15! But we got through it.
However, by Friday night I was completely fed up with the lack of responsiveness to our requests. I came to find that the hotel did not possess enough towels for each of our group to have one. Given that they had known for the past 9 months that there were 20 of us coming, this seemed inexcusable. We are paying a hefty sum for their services, and while I don't mind simple accommodations, I had been very explicit that I expected the rooms to be clean and there to be basic amenities (e.g. towels, clean sheets. etc.).
I was speaking to Sunny about the continuing problems when I spotted his uncle (who has leased the hotel) go into the guesthouse at the front gate. I decided I would convey through body language what I was unable to convey through words given our language differences.
I took off for the guest house, with Sunny racing ahead of me to warn his uncle and Bimsim, the manager. Sunny's uncle jumped up from his seat and through up his hands in front of his face as if I was going to hit him! I started yelling and pounding on the front desk with Sunny trying to translate as best he could. Much head-bobbing ensued, but after about an hour we seemed to have reached a resolution.
It seems that much of the problem was a cultural misunderstanding of expectations (as well as Sunny's uncle's attempts to not spend a penny more than he has to). While I expected that the things I asked for be done on a daily basis, the staff expected me to ask every time we wanted these things done.
Sunny and I proceeded to create a detailed checklist for the staff to complete each day. Clean the rooms; sweep the floors; mop the bathroom; pick the hair out of the drain; make the bed; provide a clean towel; etc. etc. Then he and I went to the market in the night to buy hand towels and bath mats (things one would generally think a hotel would possess).
I went to bed and crossed all of my fingers and toes that it would be better the next day...
The first day was pretty rough. The hotel was not nearly as clean as it was supposed to be and there was an amazing inability to procure one towel per person. I grew increasingly frustrated with my inability to communicate directly with the staff, who do not speak English. My anger was more at my lack of Hindi knowledge then their lack of English though. After all, I am in their country...
The students were worn out after a very long journey and the initial adjustments were a bit challenging.
Most of them were real troopers, but we were all so overtired and short-tempered at that point, that it was not the most pleasant of evenings. The worst was when Sunny and I went to see the room that two of the boys were sharing to find the bathroom floor covered in 3 inches of water and reeking of various unpleasant scents. Of course the power proceeded to go out while we were examining the bathroom, making that little adventure all the more fun.
However, Sunny worked his magic yet again and within 30 minutes had the students in a new "family suite" which is really quite lovely... Im frankly jealous of the luxury :)
Friday proceeded a bit more smoothly, and everyone was in a much better mood after a good night's sleep. Yet, this inability to come up with a single towel or extra sheet, continued to irk me. I am used to asking for something and having it be done. When I ask that there be one towel per person each day, I expect to see a towel in the room, and not to have to ask for it 6 more times in order for it to appear. My frustration also with the frequent power outages and even more frequent inability to connect to the WiFi we installed did not improve my disposition.
We spent most of the day Friday out with the students, picking up more essentials. Getting SIM cards in India is ridiculously tedious. Passport photos, copies of visas, the works... multiplied by 15! But we got through it.
However, by Friday night I was completely fed up with the lack of responsiveness to our requests. I came to find that the hotel did not possess enough towels for each of our group to have one. Given that they had known for the past 9 months that there were 20 of us coming, this seemed inexcusable. We are paying a hefty sum for their services, and while I don't mind simple accommodations, I had been very explicit that I expected the rooms to be clean and there to be basic amenities (e.g. towels, clean sheets. etc.).
I was speaking to Sunny about the continuing problems when I spotted his uncle (who has leased the hotel) go into the guesthouse at the front gate. I decided I would convey through body language what I was unable to convey through words given our language differences.
I took off for the guest house, with Sunny racing ahead of me to warn his uncle and Bimsim, the manager. Sunny's uncle jumped up from his seat and through up his hands in front of his face as if I was going to hit him! I started yelling and pounding on the front desk with Sunny trying to translate as best he could. Much head-bobbing ensued, but after about an hour we seemed to have reached a resolution.
It seems that much of the problem was a cultural misunderstanding of expectations (as well as Sunny's uncle's attempts to not spend a penny more than he has to). While I expected that the things I asked for be done on a daily basis, the staff expected me to ask every time we wanted these things done.
Sunny and I proceeded to create a detailed checklist for the staff to complete each day. Clean the rooms; sweep the floors; mop the bathroom; pick the hair out of the drain; make the bed; provide a clean towel; etc. etc. Then he and I went to the market in the night to buy hand towels and bath mats (things one would generally think a hotel would possess).
I went to bed and crossed all of my fingers and toes that it would be better the next day...
Oh Heather. I wish I was there to help translate.
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