thank you!

I was under no small amount of stress regarding where The Mothers would be housed. Our place is too small and the very nice hotels here are pretty expensive. I found a hotel that was perfectly clean and cheap and delightfully Indian, but I wasn't sure what they were expecting or prepared for, so it was causing me some amount of consternation. Add to that the five long and involved conversations it took to make proper reservations (again, I can't stress this enough, the most common form of communication in this country is miscommunication), and I was really not sure what to expect.

And then . . .

In the midst of my frustrations, in the elevator one day, my friend Ania asked me what was wrong. And I told her. And she very quickly said “Well, Chris is going to Hyderabad for POTUS and I'm going back to the States with the kids for a vacation. Why don't they just stay at our house?”.

I was stunned, and very grateful, but thought that this was a very nice idea that would never come to fruition. The kind of thing that one says in passing in the elevator. You know.

Lo and behold, The Mothers stayed at Christopher and Ania's house for the vast majority of the time that they were here. They had their own bedrooms, a kitchen, a safe place to keep their stuff, a nice yard and neighborhood to walk in, and cable TV. And even staff to keep them tidy. It was a far better solution than I ever could have come up with on my own and we are all very grateful to Christopher and Ania for being so generous.

Thank you Christopher and Ania, and may your karma bring your good deeds back to you tenfold. We owe you!