Our tickets to Hyderabad were waitlist status. I had been told by some well meaning people that so long as the waitlist number was less than fifty we would be fine and have no trouble getting confirmed seats on the train. Our waitlist numbers were in the twenties. My ticket was the only one that was confirmed. The others didn’t make it. The line at the train station to find that out was not all that long but incredibly slow. Sara and I spent what seemed like hours there trying to get a refund. It was painful.

Rao was expecting us in Hyderabad in the morning. We were anxious to get

there. We called Jet Airways and found out we could get a flight that night. We had to be at their office before their 6:30 pm closing time. It was a crazy, nerve racking, mad rush, but we made it.

That began a very long night. We flew out at 9:30 pm, then had a layover in Bombay until 3:15 am. The airline staff was phenomenal. I’ve never had such good customer service. They went out of their way to be helpful. One young man from Goa, Jayson, ordered Pizza Hut to be delivered to us. We were ready for a little taste of home. Austin ate his while sleeping. I’m not sure he remembered it the next day.

Poor Rao was woken up by the telephone that night. He was so sweet and met us personally at the airport at 4 am instead of just sending a car. He had planned to pick us up at the train station at nine and had rooms in a guesthouse prepared for then. They weren’t ready, but everything worked out okay after the initial confusion.

I took a brief nap and then Rao came back for Patti and me so that we could go to the station to pick up the luggage that had be so frustrating to get on the train from Delhi. Everything made it, all intact as those burlap Christmas presents. They were so much easier to find then they were to send since we were with someone who speaks Telugu, the primary language in Andhra Pradesh. The only one of the suitcases that we planned to return home to the States was the one that belonged to Alex. It was the only one that rats had chewed a large hole through the cloth to get at some food tucked away inside.