The office of my NGO is not actually in Shimla, as the title of this blog suggests. It is actually in a cluster of buildings on a truck bypass road in a place called Shanan (but Shanan is located in Shimla District, so I'm not a total liar). People call Shanan a village, but don't be fooled. It is no village. I'm fairly certain it only exists because this bypass road was built here to accommodate the hundreds of trucks that pick up apples from Shimla (apples = Himachal's biggest source of income). Aside from my NGO's office, a couple of houses, and two tiny shops that carry so few items they don't even have bottled water, there is nothing here. A village has history, has traditions, has people who have been rooted there for decades if not centuries, has a real sense of community (and that's why I love villages). Shanan has none of that; it was probably built 3 years ago when the road was.
The closest market is in Sanjauli, 30 minutes away by bus, and Shimla is another 30 minutes away. But the bus from Shanan actually stops on the opposite end of Sanjauli than the bus to Shimla, so it's a 20 minute walk between buses. So without waiting time, that's 1 hour 20 minutes to get to Shimla. But last week I had to wait quite a bit for each bus, and it took me 2 hours to get to Shimla from Shanan!
So obviously this truck stop isn't a place I want to live. I want to live in Sanjauli, the closest town with a market. A 30 minute commute to work wouldn't be terrible, and a 30 minute bus ride to Shimla isn't bad either.
But alas, there are no vacant apartments in Sanjauli. I have been looking for two weeks, and there is nothing. NOTHING. I'm extremely stressed out because (1) living and working in the same building is driving me stir crazy (I'm staying in a guest room here), (2) I can't even get basic groceries here, and I'm getting sick of the cook's diarrhea-inducing food, (3) I can't open a bank account until I have a signed lease to show for proof of address, (4) I can't start volunteering, taking Hindi lessons, taking cooking classes, etc until I know where I'm living and the commute from Shanan takes too long anyway, (5) there is no way to meet people outside of work in Shanan, and (6) there are no laundry facilities here, if I bucket-wash my clothes they'll never dry because of the monsoon humidity* (usually if you take stuff to a "press" (guy who does ironing), the clothes will be dry), and I'm running out of clean underwear. Basically, my entire life is on hold until I find a place to live.
And I don't know what to do. I've tried everything. I've asked my coworkers for help, bothered shopkeepers, even gone door-to-door. I'm at a complete loss. I feel hopeless. SOMEONE PLEASE FIND ME AN APARTMENT IN SANJAULI SO I CAN BE A REAL PERSON AGAIN. Thanks.
*to clarify: it's not hot at all, and this humidity isn't going to make you sweat. In fact, you don't even feel that it's humid. But there is definitely moisture in the air, because everything I own is slightly damp!
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