transmissions from a satellite heart

Confession:

I’m having somewhat of a terrible time in Chennai.

So far, I love my work, and the people in my office are young, energetic, fun, funny, and passionate about public health. I love coming into the office. I feel safe and happy here.

It’s when I leave the office that things go wrong.

I’ve been here less than three weeks, and I’ve already lived in four places.

• My first two nights in India were spent sleeping on a train, going to-and-from a site visit in a village 8 hours from Chennai.
• On my third night in the country, my first night sleeping in Chennai, I woke in the middle of the night when a strange man was trying to CRAWL UNDER MY BED. I screamed, he ran off. The night guard and our household caretaker woke up to my screaming, didn’t catch the guy who had entered our apartment, and then spent the next three hours trying to insist that the house was safe and there has never been a break-in before.
• My company moved me to a hotel the next day while they made other living arrangements.
• On my sixth day in India, I was moved into a flat with 7 other interns. Eight of us, sharing a three-bedroom apartment. The place didn’t have enough beds for all of those people, so four of us have been sharing two beds. I’ve been there for almost two weeks now, and because of the space constraints, I haven’t been able to fully unpack my suitcase.

The crowding of the newest apartment is not even the real problem.

The real problem is the Landlord. He actually owns a number of properties around the city - including the first apartment I stayed in, which had a break in on my first night, AND the new, crowded apartment.

Since the break-in, man-crawling-under-my-bed incident from my first week, the Landlord has denied that there is a security problem at any of his properties.

Last week, at the new, crowded apartment, some contractors came in to fix a broken air conditioner, and a lot of stuff went missing, including food, clothing, small electronics, and a bottle of whiskey.

When we brought it up with the Landlord, he again denied that there was any security issue at his properties. He insisted that the missing items were not taken by his contractors. When we pressed him for an explaination, he replied “there is no explaination.” Then he reminded us that the name of his company, when translated into English, means “Trustworthy.”

So NOTHING has been resolved after the two security incidents. Even worse, the Landlord - henceforth refered to as “Evil Landlord” - has begun a silent campaign to make our apartment completely unlivable.

Our lease is with the Evil Landlord is supposed to cover a fully furnished apartment, including a working kitchen and a supply of fresh drinking water. Also built in to the cost of the lease is a “caretaker” who, according to the contract we have with Evil Landlord, stays at the apartment every day. This caretaker is supposed to clean the apartment daily. For an extra charge, the caretaker is supposted to be available to cook food for the residents.

The company I work for has been paying what is, for local standards, a large amount of money for these services.

However, at the direction of the fucking THEIVERY of our Evil Landlord, in the past week and a half:

• The caretaker has been instructed not to show up. The flat hasn’t been cleaned in over a week (even though our company is paying for this service). The garbage has not been removed, and the Evil Landlord hasn’t shown us where to put the garbage.
• The caretaker was instructed to remove plates, dishes, cups, and cooking utensils from the kitchen. He was also instructed to take away the lighter for the stove. Essentially, we are not able to use our kitchen.
• Even if we had the proper equiptment in the kitchen, we hesitate to use it: The place is CRAWLING with cockroaches. We’ve bought insecticide, and even with daily sprayings, a fresh supply of cockroaches greets us every morning.
• The Evil Landlord has cut off delivery of fresh water to the apartment - even though, once again, we are still paying for it.
• We tried to contact the Evil Landlord to discuss these serious issues, and he screamed at my roommate and HUNG UP ON HER.

We’ve talked to a lot of people at our company about the issues, but no one is taking it seriously.

Last night, after the caretaker came over at night to take away our kitchen supplies, we decided we’d had enough.

Because no one in our office seems to listen to what you have to say unless you put it on a powerpoint slide, we actually made a powerpoint presentation.

It includes photos of the piles of trash on our porch, the cabinents crawling with cockroaches, the empty water jug that hasn’t been filled in a week, the items that have gone missing.

We’re presenting it this afternoon to our bosses.

If it doesn’t convince them that something needs to be done, that they’re getting TOTALLY ripped off AND we’re being targeted by the Evil Landlord…

Well, I don’t know what will happen.

Most of us want to come home.

We sure as hell can’t continue living here.