Saved by a preacher

Day 3&4: June 3^rd 2007

Thank you to everyone for the birthday emails! It was nice to have some birthday wishes. If you were feeling bad about not being able to give me a present, no worries. A neighbor and co-worker of mine happened to notice on my passport the day before that it was going to be my birthday and picked a flower for me. It was very nice considering I he didn’t know me at all, and I still am not sure what his name is.

Dr. K and I had a meeting Saturday afternoon about the project Im going to be working on. It’s a little overwhelming at this point. The good news is the previous intern had conducted interviews with farmers in an area that was far enough away from her house that required her to stay for several nights at a time in a paper factory hostel. I assumed I would be in the same area, but I wont be. The villages where I am doing field work are all within 20Km of my village, so Im hoping to have no overnights, but maybe Im wrong. We’ll also have to organize a meeting with all of the head women in the 11 different villages to tell them what I will be doing and ask them to spread the word about what im going to ask the different women. My project is specifically interviewing women that took part in a micro-financed wheat program. The women paid a reduced rate for seeds and biofertilizer (produced here where im living) a year ago and I am supposed to interview them to evaluate the success and their thoughts. I am also supposed to develop a way to measure a change in the women’s family status as a result of this project. Not quite sure how to do that yet.

After work yesterday I went into UK to finally get some more water. I was down to the last drop. The town is not that big, but seems to have enough stores once I find them all. My favorite part about the town is the strange rodent problem. I’ve heard of rats, mice, raccoons, but this town has a problem with wild boars. They are all over, rooting in trash piles and walking around. I was trying to get out of the way of a bike and was forced to step uncomfortably close to a HUGE mother boar next to the road. I used to have a fear of strange dogs, but I think this is worse.

I considered that trip a warm up to my trip today into Pune on my day off. I needed to get some things that my village doesn’t have (like clothes and a cell phone). It is about a 3-4km walk into town to catch the bus which I was prepared to walk, but about 500m into it one of my neighbors picked me up on his motor bike and gave me a ride. Then when I got on the bus my other neighbor (who gave me the flower) was sitting there too! So things were off to a good start. Well…they quickly deteriorated when I stepped off the bus in Pune. I had no idea where to go and how I would find my way back to the bus station if I wandered too far. The tiny city map in my travel book was useless. Even if it was right, no signs were in English, so how would I know what street im on. I ended up doing a lot of wandering and not much shopping. I failed at buying a cell phone (sorry mom & dad) because I had forgotten my ATM card and didn’t have enough cash. I could only take about 3 hrs of this because it was exhausting. Its tiring to have everyone staring at you everywhere you go and to not have any point of reference or anything familiar. Nothing is in English and people speak very little, so everything is a bit of a struggle. Including finding my bus home which was my next task. I knew I was in trouble when the rickshaw driver dropped me back off at the bus station. Of course I couldn’t read any of the bus signs and it is such a busy place there is no where to even stop and breath. The first attendant told me I needed to catch my bus on the road and it’s the 7 bus. After 30 min. of me running up to each bus and yelling the name of my town at the driver, I was told I was on the wrong side of the road. That meant I had to cross the street—no easy task, but I dodged and weaved with the best of them. After waiting at another bus stop I was told I was at the wrong stop again and had to go 50 yards down the road. That’s where I preceded to wait for 2 hrs for the bus. Of course I went up to every bus that drove by and tried to ask if it was mine, but most of them don’t even stop, you just have to jump on with the other 30 people trying to do it, so asking the driver a question was a little difficult. After an hour and half or so I asked a man sitting next to me if he was going to my town and luckily (in his very little English) he said he was. So I followed his lead. It was pretty funny b/c when the bus pulled up the tea vendor and about three other people yelled at me to get on. (I guess I wasn’t subtle about being lost) When I tried to buy my ticket on the bus the driver started telling me something in Hindi and waving at me to get off. I just pointed to my new found friend and he said “ok, lets get off.” After we got off the guy said it wasn’t a direct bus and would stop somewhere else first. So we waited for another 45 min. That gave us a chance to talk. He introduced himself as Robert Jones, a catholic preacher. Hmmm…ok. Finally when I got on the bus it was so crowded I had to put on my game face and employ the Disney world stance of holding my ground and looking tough (which I think I pulled off quite well). After I got off the bus I decided to splurge the $1 for a rickshaw to take me home the 4km. The best move I made all day.

It was so nice to get back to my quiet house and neighborhood. I am so glad Im not staying in the city and I can imagine if you only visited cities how traveling here could wear you down. I only had one day and I felt completely worn out. I had to come home and take a nap.