Adventure begins with a delay....

Catalyst was in the process of purchasing a company in Trivandrum, India.  Some of his colleagues thought it might be helpful to have someone from the home office reside in India for 2 months to help with the transition.  They decided to ask Marshall and offered to send me with them.  We agreed to go and began the process of getting ready.  

We drove from Edisto Beach to the NHC Health Department on Friday, June 2 to begin getting immunizations for our trip.  On our initial visit, we both got the Typhoid vaccine and started other series.  We needed Hepatitis A and B, MMR, TDAP, and updated Covid boosters.  Vivian went back 3 times over the month of June and Marshall returned on June 30 for his final shot.  We visited our doctors to procure malaria prevention medications as well as an antibiotic (Z-pack) to have on hand.

Our first interruption....Catalyst did not purchase the company in India as quickly as planned so we rescheduled our flight from July 7 to July 13.  That allowed us to stay at Watauga Lake for 2 extra days.  We enjoyed time with the Skelton family over the July 4th weekend.

Our neighbor and good friend, Jeannine, drove us to the airport with all of our luggage.  Marshall and I left Wilmington at 6:00 pm and flew American Airlines from ILM to Philadelphia.  Then we boarded Qatar Airways for a direct flight from Philadelphia to Doha.


Qatar was top notch. We were in business class with two different flight attendants taking care of us. We were given a gift from diiptyque (Paris) that included body lotion, lip balm, hand lotion and eau de toilette.  They gave us blanket, mattress cover for our seat, pillow, and even pajamas.  We were able to lay flat and we both slept.  We landed in Doha, Qatar and had just enough time to get to our connection. We flew from Doha to Trivandrum. 


We landed at 2:20 AM on Friday, July 15.  A driver met us at the airport and drove us to our home.  The owners had all of the lights on, the front door open and they were standing out front in traditional Indian clothes including a dhoti, which is basically a towel wrapped around a man, essentially a skirt. They were very warm and friendly. They gave us a tour of the house.  We tried to go to sleep around 4:30 or 5:00 but struggled because of all the new sounds and many of the birds and animals were waking up then. We did finally sleep until 10:00 when our alarm went off….

Outside of our home
Main family room

Our bedroom


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