Day 5 ---
We really got some good stuff today. My producer, Prithvi, set up a "trucker intervention" shoot with an NGO that is working to educate truck drivers about AIDS/HIV.

I'm working on a piece for next week about AIDS in India -- following the UNAIDS finding this week that India now ranks #1 for HIV/AIDS cases in the world. My look at this crisis is from the prevention end of two of the most high-risk groups; truckers and commerical sex workers.

This picture is of some of the trucks with shipping containers in the background. This depot sees hundreds of truckers every day. There are more than 5,000,000 truckers across India and the infection rate among truck drivers is somewhere between 11% - 16%. At this truck stop, NGO workers educate truckers on HIV/AIDS, condom use, and they offer testing as well. We got some great stuff of truckers sitting around listening to these prevention talks and practicing putting a condom on a stick. I hope it'll make for part of a good story.

This picture is of Sanjiv, who is one of the cameramen at the bureau. His dad was a cameraman and Sanjiv used to shoot film. He would shoot it, send it to London to be developed, and, as his family didn't have a TV, he'd never even get to see what he had shot. He's quite talented.

You can't really tell from this photo -- but this kid was trying to fly a kite from the roof of his house. There really wasn't much wind -- but he tried and tried to make the kite fly.

In a week I'm almost getting used to the surroundings. I'll be driving and talking with my colleagues and then I'll look out the window and see trash, slums, beggers tapping on the windows... and I'll remember where I am.

I've been sleeping well at night but most every morning I'll wake up and it'll take me a second to remember where I am and what I'm doing. I wake up and I'll feel like I'm on a story and just staying in a hotel. Then I'll remember that I'm in India and that I'm LIVING here now.

I don't know why I'm including this photo -- it's of the bathroom off of my office. I guess it gives a little color... or taste of the surroudings. When I first went into it I remember thinking it was quite dingy and hot (no a/c). Now I don't even think twice. It's amazing how quickly one can adapt to new surroundings.

I'm having some visa issues. I'm here on a "business" visa and we're trying to convert it to a "journalist" visa. We haven't exactly had much luck so far. I may have to leave the country, visit and Indian embassy, and return with the new visa. I've got to go to "war-school" anyway in either London or Australia... so I might do that soon. I've also got to make a trip to Hong Kong to meet the editorial staff there. The Hong Kong office manages us during the day.

It's kind of wierd to have left a very comfortable, well-developed social life and now be here... alone. I have a nice little routine during the morning. I get up at 7a, go to the gym, have a nice breakfast, read the paper and check my email. A driver from the bureau gets me around 10a and I go to work. I've been eating alone and working on my blog most nights... it's fine... not wildly exciting... but a change.

Ok, long day ahead tomorrow -- I'm shooting some stuff on "GB Road" -- the heart of the red light district with commerical sex workers (I hope).

Thanks for reading...
xx