beginning of the end of november

The end of November was quite a ride. Luckily I was chosen for quite a few opportunities. I got to help with a Foreign Commercial Service trade tour for energy efficiency products companies. I also got to go to Kerala with Natalie. Originally I was sent there to do a welfare and whereabouts visit, which is when a consular officer visits an american citizen child who has been abducted, in many cases by one of the parents, to ensure that the child is safe and accounted for. Kerala is beautiful, tons of palm trees all over and beautiful temples and the ocean and gorgeous light. We had to take a pretty long car ride inland up into the hills for the visit. Our driver did not speak much English and I didn't really know where I was going. After many stops to ask random people directions, the car stopped in front of a house. A very nice older lady beckoned for me to come into the house. She apparently spoke no English but smiled a lot and kept waving me in. She sat me down and looked expectantly at me. "Tea?" "Tea?" "Tea?" she kept asking quizzically. "Sure, thank you" I replied. Then I saw out the window that people were surrounding Natalie and it appeared she was motioning for me to go outside. So outside I went. Down the lane and behind the car a woman and a kid were seemingly conversing with Natalie and I thought maybe these were the people I came to visit. But no. They were just curious about the redhead in their lane. And it quickly became obvious that this was in fact not the house that I was supposed to be going to. Another man came down the lane. He got in the front seat of the car and drove with us to make sure we made it where we had in fact been heading. The visit was fine and Natalie had a nice time wandering around the village during it. Once we were back at the hotel we decided to try the other mission: figure out if an american citizen woman who was reported dead was in fact deceased and if so and if possible to get a copy of the death certificate. I had only a vague address but I found a tuck-tuck and took off for the general area. Thankfully I found the woman alive and she was a lovely lady. Unfortunately the power was out and so she had to go looking for I.D. by candlelight. It simply added to the strangeness of the day, which would only get stranger. On the way back to the hotel my phone rang, starting the really strange journey that was to occupy the rest of our Kerala trip.