Where are we going ?

Saturday morning at 10am the hotel advises us that our tickets on the 1:35pm train are confirmed and the travel agent is bringing us our tickets. He should be here about 10:30. 12 noon and we still have no tickets, but not to worry he is on his way, the hotel staff tell us and at 12:30 he shows up. Sigh. OK now a short taxi ride to the train station and we should be fine. After driving for about fifteen minutes I notice road signs the say "Airport". This seems a bit weird and i get nervous again. We go a bit farther and it becomes clear the driver is taking us to the airport. It is 1 pm. We communicate to the driver we need to go to the train station not the airport. I am just a little panicked. Will we make it? Lucky for us the train station is only a short drive away and at 1:10 we arrive at the station. Heading out to the platform we know we need to be on track 3. It quickly becomes apparent we have no idea where to find track 3. Not seeing a policeman ( who are usually very good at helping us out) we head back into the station to find someone who can help us. I get in the "enquiry" line, quickly make it to the front and try to communicate that we need directions. The agent keeps saying Jharsugada track three. I say yes but where is track three? It is obvious he doesn't understand me and I turn around to the lineup that has formed behind me and ask/beg "does anyone speak English?". A young man steps up and says track 3, I indicate I know but can he show me where to find track 3. He steps out of line and takes us back out of the station indicating there is a bridge about half way down the platform that will lead us over to track 3. We thanked him and make our way to our train. I just hope that someone let this nice young fellow back into line at the Enquiry line-up and that he made his train on time. I promise to pay it forward as soon as I can!!There was nothing more comforting than seeing our names on the passenger list outside the train! Seats 31 and 32 are ours for the next six hours. I had the list of scheduled stops in my hot little hand this time so I could monitor where we were and when we should expect to be getting off.The gentleman sitting next to me in seat 30 saw that we were reading annual reports for several Microfinance organizations in India and asked me if we were doing some type of project here in India. While I had difficulty understanding his English we proceeded to have the most interesting conversation. He was working on a government funded project to bring one connection of electricity to over 60,000 households in rural villages this year. So far they brought one single lightbulb to 45,000 homes this year, but it wasn't an easy task. People wanted the access but didn't want the power post in their front yard, Workers didn't get the job done on time and the equipment was stolen, people didn't trust or want change in their community, etc. etc. The village needed to have a minimum of 100 residents to qualify for the project. The residents received one free connection and a light bulb as part of the project, with no monthly fee. If they wanted more than one connection they would have to pay for the service. He told us there are three scenarios; villages that never had electricity, villages that had electricity brought to town but not everyone had connection and villages that once had electricity but for some reason had it turned off. It is hard for me to imagine what life without electricity would be like. No hair dryer, no Light after dark, no heaters for when it gets cold out, no Internet to keep in contact with friends, no computers, no TV, no dishwashers or washer and dryer. Life would certainly be different than we know. Camping wouldn't just be a weekend adventure but probably an unglorified way of life.Our traveling campanion was going to the end of the line and travelled this route at least once a month so he assured me he would make sure we got off at the right stop. All along the train had been running about 15-30 minutes late so I figured we still had a half hour to go when I spotted what appeared to be our hotel out the window. Were we there already? Yes, this is Jharsugada we were told so we prepared to disembark. When I stepped off the train the sign said "Ash" and I started to get back on when a man on the platform said Jharsugada. So off we got, headed up the stairs to the bridge and crossed over to the main station which we recognized. Yes we were indeed at Jharsugada. There was so many people milling around at the station that we had no way of finding our ride. We were quickly approached by the taxi driver we used on our first visit to town. He remembered us and what hotel we had originally stayed at. After some discussion on where we wanted to go we were on our way back to the Utkal hotel. A huge Ganesh celebration was taking place on main street and we really wanted to get out and join the festivities but we didn't as our cab took a detour to our hotel. Arriving at the hotel it felt like we had come back home and we settled in for the evening. All the stress of the day disappeared in a flash and I finally had access to the Internet again!