Authentic Indian Meal at Home!

Today Crystal and I made our first Indian meal. Cashew Nut Lemon Rice and Raita (Plain Yogurt with Fresh Vegatables: Tomatoes, Celantro/Coriander, Onions, Salt to taste). Getting all the ingredients was inexpensive, but preparation time is pretty long like most Indian dishes. Coriander in the U.S. may be expensive, but you can use other greens. The Green, White and Red colors may make this a new Christmas holiday favorite dip or side dish for us. We eat this dish regularly. The Kids can stomach this one as long as they don't get one of the curry leaves or peppers in their rice. They are still getting used to the Indian spicy foods (so is Crystal).

Logan Turn's 6 (In India). Happy Birthday Logan!!

Sept 4, 2010 - Logan's first birthday in India went great. We all had to improvise in wrapping the gifts because the grocery stores and department stores do not carry wrapping paper (Don't you just love the blue suitcases). Logan had a great time with our new friends the Coles.
I think Callen (4 yr old girl) was just as interested in playing with the Hot Wheels set as Logan (and William). The day before his birthday Logan got a huge fat lip, but that didn't dampen his spirit.












The Cake was great and everyone had a wonderful time at the party!!



















Aubrey, Logan, & William were happy to help make the cake.


































Logan's fat lip! (His sister gave it to him or the marble floor. Take your pick).




Logan Smiling with his fat lip!!

Mysterious Cell Phone Companies

So we had some issues with our Cell Phone service. (Nothing surprises us anymore when it comes to customer service, but at the time this took us by complete surprise). After about two weeks of using our cell phones we kept getting calls that we had to make a payment. I had recieved an SMS text that I had a bill due on Sept 9th, so I thought it was a reminder to pay. Each time we made a call we would get the same message. Then on Saturday at the end of August suddenly our phones would not work at all. Below is an email we sent to resolve the issue. All of the fuss was over some mistakes on our account when it was setup resulting in extra charges and our credit limit on the account being about $20.00 USD. After correcting the issues we get cell phone service and data on both our phones for about $18 per month (Cell phone minutes here are about $.01 USD per minute and incoming calls/texts are free. I wish it were that cheap in the US). They increased our credit limit to $200 USD after this incident so I doubt we will have the issue again, but you never know in India. The customer Service Mantra here seems to be "Overpromise to your customers and then underdeliver with no explanation and above all never appologize when things go wrong."


To Whom It May Concern:

We have some very serious issues with our vodafone account. Our numbers are 9581950999 and 9581960999. Our phones have been cutoff due to our charges going over our credit limit for the account of 1,200 Rs. We signed up for the Deloitte 199 NEW plan and the 500MB data plan for 199 RS (Total of 398 Rs/Month for each phone). This should have been around 800 Rs for both phones for the month of August. Additionally, Services were setup on the 9581960999 number that we did not sign up for and we do not want and this has caused us to go over our credit limit and lose the use of our phones for calls and data as of this Saturday.

Here is a list of the issues we have with our account that have cause the service to be stopped.

A) SLIR was added to 9581960999 with a charge of over 316 Rs. This has been a serious inconvience for us as we cannot see who is calling and people we are calling cannot see our caller ID. We have missed out on several social engagements becuase of this limit on the phone and because of this charge we have gone over the limit and cannot use our phones now. We did not sign up for this service and it has been a terrible inconvience.

B) Vodafone Mobile Connect on 9581960999 with charges of over 315 RS. What happend to the 199 Rs for 500MB of data?

C) SMS Charges on 9581950999 and 9581960999 of 3 Rs each when the SMS charges disclosed on your rate sheet shows 0.50 Rs per SMS to Local and National and 5 Rs to International. The line on the bill says SMS - Special Numbers. Why is this not 0.50 Rs per SMS?

D) Data Plan setup for 9581950999 (iPhone) are being charged at 200 Rs / Month and allowing only 100MB of free data limit each month. Why is this not 500MB of data for 199 Rs as stated on the fees sheet I received?

Below is a list of items I need resolved. Who is the appropriate party to resolve these issues as soon as possible so that we can continue our service?

1) We would like a refund/credit of the SLIR charges. We did not sign up for this and did not benefit from it at all.

2) We would like the SLIR service deactivated for 9581960999. I tried to do this online, but I am not sure if it worked.

3) We would like a refund/credit of the difference between the 315 Rs charged and the 199 Rs data plan we signed up for. this would be a Refund/credit of 116 Rs.

4) We would like the data plan for 9581960999 to be deactivated. I tried to do this through SMS but I am not sure if it worked.

5) We would like the proper iPhone plan with 500MB of data for 199 Rs/Month per your rate sheet to be activated for 9581950999 instead of the 100MB data plan for 200 Rs/Month currently on that phone

6) I would like an explanation for the 3 Rs charged per SMS noted in Item C) of our issues above and make sure that the proper 0.50 local/National and 5.0 RS International SMS rate is properly applied to both 9581950999 and 9581960999.

Thank you for your prompt response. We hope to be using our phones on Monday if possible upon resolution of these issues. In the meantime we have purchased a prepaid mobile phone and SIM Card to meet our communication needs. If these issues cannot be resolved quickly we may just cancel both or one of these postpaid plans and continue with the prepaid phone.

Finally Nintendo Wii

We finally got around to hooking up the wii for the kids to play this week. However; Spencer thought that the power adapter was both 110v and 220v. When he plugged it in "Pooofff" the breaker for the room tripped and the power adpater fuse was fried. We found a game store in the IMAX movie theathre here in Hyderabad and they had a universal power adapter for the Wii along with about 20-30 new games for the US version of the Wii. I guess Spencer's bad memory helped us find a place to buy new Wii games while were are here. It's funny how things work out in the end, despite our bad planning and tactics. Now the kids can play some games instead of watching movies and TV all day. We can't wait until our sea shipment gets here with the school supplies and toys.

What You Can Accomplish with Red Tape, A Wrench, & White String!

Our first week in our house brought us to realize a few things. 1) A wrench and a wad of white string (Optional) is the expanded version of the toolbox for a repairman in India. Batman would be jealous of what the repairman can fix here with such little gadgetry. 2) We'll be there tomorrow at 10:30 means you should expect someone to come sometime in the next three days (if you call to see where they are at) and 3) Just because something was delivered for installation doesn't mean the installer will figure out where you live. One installer didn't come because our phone number was wrong (It never occurred to him to come by the address on the paperwork to see if we were home).


When we rented our house we had two things we really wanted: power backup for the A/C and good hot water. So we pay an extra $500-600 a month for a house with a solar hot water tank and battery backup. The first few days we either took a cold shower or took an hour long shower because the water pressure was so low (it's really hard to rinse off one drop at a time). Little did we know that was all about to change.


We purchased some appliances for the house and when the items were delivered we expected someone to come by for installation the same day as the salesperson told us. However after two days of waiting around and being tired of being without filtered water I decided to install the water filter system I purchased for the house myself. After all an older system was already installed and it would be as easy as changing out the supply line to the new filter system. I looked at the ball valve on the supply line and easily turned it off by moving the lever a quarter turn. I double checked to make sure the water was not still flowing to the filter. And tripled checked just in case: Good to go! When I attempted to pull the supply line off of the ribbed fitting of the valve is when things really got interesting for us.


Just a simple tug at the plastic supply line and the whole metal 3/4" pipe broke off where the metal valve was attached. Water starting spewing everywhere. I tried to put the broken pipe back together but the water pressure was too much and it was spraying all over the kitchen. I yelled for Crystal and had her run to our neighbors house (Another Expat with Deloitte who has been here almost a year). Taking stock of the situation I realized how lucky I was. The pipe break was right over the kitchen sink so I could just funnel the water into the sink. Then I realized we didn't know where the water cutoff valve was and there's a 150 gallon tank on the top of our house that was going to spill into the kitchen after we got the valve turned off. As I tried to aim the gushing water into the sink Crystal and Terrence searched around the house and found the cutoff valve. That's when Terrence realized he should have brought a knife. One of our trees in the front yard was tied off to the supply valve shutoff wheel and the wheel couldn't turn off without getting the string loose. It is a good thing Terrance is a big guy (Think David Stockett or Chuck Pringle). He was able to rip the string in two with pure muscle and turn the valve off (Crystal didn't have a chance against the string). By this time we had sent Aubrey around the house to turn on the other faucets, but we still had to get to the roof to turn off the huge water tank.


Crystal took over funneling the water into the kitchen sink with a big bucket. That's when we discovered Hot Water! HOT, HOT Water!!. It's a good thing Crystal had the bucket and wasn't using her hands like I was to turn the water into the sink. Terrence and I ran up to the terrace on the top of our house. The water tank was on top of a 12 foot roof line and we only had a 6 foot ladder. Luckily there was a 2 foot overhang on top of the doorway; however the cement was cracked at the wall and when I put some of my weight on it the platform bent down several inches under the weight. This is where Terrance's size and strength came in handy again. He held the overhang up while I boosted up to the rooftop and turned off the valve to the water tank. That's when I saw it!! Perched atop the roof was a small water pump going into the 100 gallon solar hot water tank. Terrance later showed me where the switch to turn the pump on was inside the house and now we have hot showers everyday.


A few minutes later the neighborhood maintenance crew showed up and capped the pipe with just a wad of white string. The string was used to fill in the threads of the pipe so the cap would seal and not let water out. The next day they came with the plumber and he had string and a wrench and we installed the new pipe fitting, new valve and the new water filter. Safe drinking water is nice :-). Bottled water for everything was getting boring and expensive. We later found out that our garden hose is not screwed on to the hose bib. You guessed it. It is tied on with white string!


Sometimes in life a little "red tape" gives us a setback that opens doors to unlock the potential we didn't know we had. Truly you'll see this experience helped us turn lemons into: Well not lemonade, but something much better! Surveying our water logged kitchen we were not really prepared to try and cook dinner for the family on a Sunday evening without any running water. Luckily Terrence and Robin invited us over to their house for dinner. It was the family's first Indian meal: Lemon Rice. The meal was great and the support from our friends even better. Every time I take a hot shower I remember that Sunday evening and the miracles that good friendship brings. There is no better way to overcome your struggles than together with family, friends, and God helping out.

Pedersen's Storm the Novotel

July 2010 - Our stay at the Novotel was pretty good. The kids got antsy being stuck inside because of the rain (We arrived during the Monsoon season), which drove mom and dad nuts. I never thought that two weeks in a 4 star hotel's Jr Suite with a connecting deluxe room would be such an ordeal. The Security check for your vehicle at the entrance wasn't too bad: just a quick check with mirrors under the car and a quick opening of the trunk followed by a bomb residue screening by some machine that looked like an oversized dust buster then you were on your way to the main entrance. From there is was just a simple security check airport style. Hand over your bags for x-ray streening, step through the metal detector and then a quick pat down just for safe measure (even if the machine didn't go off). Crystal was lucky, she got her pat downs in a private booth where she couldn't see her infant sitting in the carseat outside the booth. At least these security checks eased us into the mall security, work security, neighborhood security and local park security which really are much easier. Some other fond memories of the Novotel are:

1) Breakfast every morning at the buffet (American food, yummy). William could never keep his shoes off of the table and Logan never walked out without a chocolate beard face.
This is one of Logan's better days.

2) Cheese pizza everyday for dinner for the kids. (Novotel Sundae's were another favorite)

3) Lexi's infant car seat being taken to the back of the car to be put in the trunk as if she was luggage (Don't worry this only happened twice and the bell hops were embarrased both times).

4) We enjoyed the beautiful grounds when it wasn't raining. The kids loved playing tag around the pool area.

5) Getting the Notice that we were getting kicked out of the hotel 2 days before our house was going to be ready. Luckily we talked them into two more days. We wanted 5 more, but they were completely booked after those two days. It is a good thing our house was ready on time or we would have been homeless although the fumes from fumagation were pretty strong our first day in the house.

Ahhh! The memories of our first few weeks in Hyderabad are so special.

Spencer's First Day at Deloitte India

My first day at the Deloitte Hyderabad office was great. The team had a big welcome sign for me and they had a big party to say farewell to Marilyn (The previous Expat I was replacing) and welcome me. They gave me a bouquet of flowers which made a great addition to our hotel room at the Novotel and which Crystal loved. It was great to see all of the Houston professionals again and meet all of the other professionals from Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Saint Louis, and the PCA practice for Mid-America. Everyone was very welcoming. It was a great day to start off my assignment here in India.