As I've mentioned before, our mantra at the beginning was to just survive the first month. Here we are, one month in, and we've survived. The boys are going to school without too much complaint. Mike is playing soccer and having a blast and Jameson is about to start with a film making club at school. I went to bed last night thinking about writing this blog post and how they've shown resiliency and truly adapted to being in a foreign city. They've risen to the challenge of living in a foreign country and even though Bangalore is a dirty and crowded place with many challenges, we have all managed find a way to fit here.
Jameson wants to get a group of friends together to pick up all of the trash on the streets and rescue all of the street dogs - there are a lot of both here. Mike wants to get a group of friends together and start a baseball team - because of course every place is better off with a baseball team. I'm not sure this will happen because he is too busy playing soccer and learning cricket and generally creating havoc everywhere he goes. I am hanging out with friends and looking at different volunteer opportunities. There are so many people in need here - another blog post in and of itself.
At the start of this adventure I was concerned that I would be bored. Seriously, I have a housekeeper that works all day, 5 days a week cleaning and doing laundry and ironing our clothes. And, I have a cook who makes us delicious dinners every night. What else is there to do? But I've actually been really busy with different activities and meeting friends - Kyle often comments about my "tough" life of friendly lunches and meetings of the Overseas Women's Club. I tell Kyle all the time that as an HR professional responsible for bringing expats and their families into new and sometimes difficult living situations that I am doing exactly what he wants the spouses of all of his employees doing. Keep us busy and happily involved in various activities and life will be much easier and work more productive for your employees. If we are bored, lonely and miserable your employees will be miserable.
In addition to the adjustments we've all made over the past month, I was thinking about how pleased I am that we've managed to get through the month relatively unscathed. We've all been relatively healthy, no mishaps in a country that I've heard many people refer to as a US lawyer's dream for all of the potential hazards. That is until midnight when Michael fell into my bed with a high fever and feeling nauseous. He and I spent the night on the bathroom floor waiting for him to throw up - he never did. ...on a side note here, my mom is totally getting payback through Michael. He is as dramatic and needy as I ever was as a sick child!... But his fever did get as high as 102.5, and, since we had an evening of misapplied bug spray resulting in several mosquito bites earlier in the week I naturally got a bit concerned. I looked up his symptoms on webmd.com (my favorite reference for all self-diagnosis opportunities!) I was pretty sure that he had a standard virus and possibly the flu but that he was ok. Even still, I thought he should go to the doctor. Of course, that meant waiting for our driver to get back to the house after dropping Kyle off at work. With the bad traffic he didn't get there until 10:15. We went right to the clinic - luckily a new neighbor is a pediatrician at the clinic and she told me to come right in even without an appointment. The clinic is only about 5 miles away - but given Bangalore road conditions and traffic that was a 50 minute drive. Ravenna, our driver, was so worried about Mike that he drove the wrong way down the street for the last 3 blocks because the traffic on the other side of the road was open and he wanted to get there! Surviving Bangalore driving is another blog post...stay tuned.
We got there and I wasn't sure what to expect. Most of my previous healthcare related situations have occurred in the US. US healthcare is considered the best in the world - at least by everyone in the US. But everyone I have talked to here has told me that healthcare in India, at least for people who can afford it, is very good. They were right. I went into the clinic. Paid 450 Rupees for an appointment (that is the total cost, not an insurance co-pay cost). Mike was seen quickly and Dr. Sonal assured me that he has a virus. If he is not better in 3 days we will go back for additional testing, but there is a virus going around and his symptoms are classic. She prescribed 3 different medications - Motrin for the fever and two different stomach medicines for his upset stomach. I picked them up at the onsite pharmacy for a total of 512 rupees. Again that is total cost, not an insurance co-pay cost. The doctors here don't take the insurance information. Patients pay out of pocket and submit the records to the insurance company for repayment. Most people don't even have insurance. The entire visit cost me 962 Rupees. At today's exchange rate, that is a cost of $15.40. Unbelievable! And this was a private clinic without government funding. I received top notch care (this doctor friend of mine studied in India and trained and worked in the US for many years before returning to India about a year ago) for under the co-pay cost of a visit in the US.
There are many things that I was unsure about in terms of the move. All of the worries that a mother is going to have...what if my kids hate it, what if someone gets really sick, what if I get bored of perfect weather all the time (ok, I made that one up :)). And of course I am still worried about the kids and the potential for illness, but I am no longer worried about their ability to adjust and fit in. They still talk about their friends at home and keep in touch via email and FaceTime, but they also are finding friends here and having fun. And I am no longer worried about the quality of care. When I return in two years I think I will have a very different view of the healthcare system in the US. One where patients are rushed in and out of appointments, medications are prescribed based on what the pharmaceutical companies are marketing rather than what the patient truly needs, and one where there is so little transparency that patients have no idea of the cost of anything until the insurance company denies a claim and makes it so cumbersome for the average person with responsibilities and busy schedules to fight for coverage that they just give up.
Jameson wants to get a group of friends together to pick up all of the trash on the streets and rescue all of the street dogs - there are a lot of both here. Mike wants to get a group of friends together and start a baseball team - because of course every place is better off with a baseball team. I'm not sure this will happen because he is too busy playing soccer and learning cricket and generally creating havoc everywhere he goes. I am hanging out with friends and looking at different volunteer opportunities. There are so many people in need here - another blog post in and of itself.
At the start of this adventure I was concerned that I would be bored. Seriously, I have a housekeeper that works all day, 5 days a week cleaning and doing laundry and ironing our clothes. And, I have a cook who makes us delicious dinners every night. What else is there to do? But I've actually been really busy with different activities and meeting friends - Kyle often comments about my "tough" life of friendly lunches and meetings of the Overseas Women's Club. I tell Kyle all the time that as an HR professional responsible for bringing expats and their families into new and sometimes difficult living situations that I am doing exactly what he wants the spouses of all of his employees doing. Keep us busy and happily involved in various activities and life will be much easier and work more productive for your employees. If we are bored, lonely and miserable your employees will be miserable.
In addition to the adjustments we've all made over the past month, I was thinking about how pleased I am that we've managed to get through the month relatively unscathed. We've all been relatively healthy, no mishaps in a country that I've heard many people refer to as a US lawyer's dream for all of the potential hazards. That is until midnight when Michael fell into my bed with a high fever and feeling nauseous. He and I spent the night on the bathroom floor waiting for him to throw up - he never did. ...on a side note here, my mom is totally getting payback through Michael. He is as dramatic and needy as I ever was as a sick child!... But his fever did get as high as 102.5, and, since we had an evening of misapplied bug spray resulting in several mosquito bites earlier in the week I naturally got a bit concerned. I looked up his symptoms on webmd.com (my favorite reference for all self-diagnosis opportunities!) I was pretty sure that he had a standard virus and possibly the flu but that he was ok. Even still, I thought he should go to the doctor. Of course, that meant waiting for our driver to get back to the house after dropping Kyle off at work. With the bad traffic he didn't get there until 10:15. We went right to the clinic - luckily a new neighbor is a pediatrician at the clinic and she told me to come right in even without an appointment. The clinic is only about 5 miles away - but given Bangalore road conditions and traffic that was a 50 minute drive. Ravenna, our driver, was so worried about Mike that he drove the wrong way down the street for the last 3 blocks because the traffic on the other side of the road was open and he wanted to get there! Surviving Bangalore driving is another blog post...stay tuned.
We got there and I wasn't sure what to expect. Most of my previous healthcare related situations have occurred in the US. US healthcare is considered the best in the world - at least by everyone in the US. But everyone I have talked to here has told me that healthcare in India, at least for people who can afford it, is very good. They were right. I went into the clinic. Paid 450 Rupees for an appointment (that is the total cost, not an insurance co-pay cost). Mike was seen quickly and Dr. Sonal assured me that he has a virus. If he is not better in 3 days we will go back for additional testing, but there is a virus going around and his symptoms are classic. She prescribed 3 different medications - Motrin for the fever and two different stomach medicines for his upset stomach. I picked them up at the onsite pharmacy for a total of 512 rupees. Again that is total cost, not an insurance co-pay cost. The doctors here don't take the insurance information. Patients pay out of pocket and submit the records to the insurance company for repayment. Most people don't even have insurance. The entire visit cost me 962 Rupees. At today's exchange rate, that is a cost of $15.40. Unbelievable! And this was a private clinic without government funding. I received top notch care (this doctor friend of mine studied in India and trained and worked in the US for many years before returning to India about a year ago) for under the co-pay cost of a visit in the US.
There are many things that I was unsure about in terms of the move. All of the worries that a mother is going to have...what if my kids hate it, what if someone gets really sick, what if I get bored of perfect weather all the time (ok, I made that one up :)). And of course I am still worried about the kids and the potential for illness, but I am no longer worried about their ability to adjust and fit in. They still talk about their friends at home and keep in touch via email and FaceTime, but they also are finding friends here and having fun. And I am no longer worried about the quality of care. When I return in two years I think I will have a very different view of the healthcare system in the US. One where patients are rushed in and out of appointments, medications are prescribed based on what the pharmaceutical companies are marketing rather than what the patient truly needs, and one where there is so little transparency that patients have no idea of the cost of anything until the insurance company denies a claim and makes it so cumbersome for the average person with responsibilities and busy schedules to fight for coverage that they just give up.
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