Ta Ta!

This may be my last post for some time. It is my last day or work (yippee) and I am leaving tomorrow morning for my two week, world wind tour of northern India and Nepal. My two friends Y & S arrived Wednesday and have been hanging around the happening town while I finish up at work. It has been interesting to watch them see things for the first time that I have gotten used to…like the bullock carts pulling loads of hay, the wild pigs, and the little children using the side of the road as their bathroom. I arranged for them to stay in really the only ‘hotel’ option in town, an ashram. I have called it basically fat camp for grown ups. It is a place people come to ‘cleanse’ ie eat bland boiled food, do yoga, see doctors, and walk around the 2 acre campus. They have been good sports about the strange accommodation, which have included quiet hours, optional 5am yoga sessions, an hour long meeting with the doctor, and of course being offered various health and body ‘treatments’. Im surprised they are continuing to let me make the hotel reservations.

Im a little sad to have my time here end, but mostly Im excited to be moving on. Im not ready to leave India, but I am ready to leave this campus and the small town. I’ve finished my report and am ready to leave the bureaucratic part of my internship behind. It’s been a frustrating last week as far as organization politics go, so Im not sad to see that part of my adventure end. Hopefully I will be able to post a few times in the next few weeks…since I have to lug around my computer I might was well make use of it if possible. For those of you interested, here is a brief run down of my next two weeks:

Tomorrow we fly from Mumbai to Udaipur in Rajasthan, India. After two days we travel to Jodhpur, then Jaipur (also in Rajasthan). Next Friday we will travel to Jaipur to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, then onto Varanasi (a city on the Ganges river) for two days. Next Monday we fly to Nepal where we will be staying with a friend of ours in Katmandu for one week. From Katmandu we are planning on taking day trips and maybe a short 1-2 day trek in the mountains…who knows. We haven’t finished all of the planning, so we are planning on winging a lot of it. I’ll let you know how that works out!

Hopefully all of my dedicated readers (i.e. my 3 family members) will be able to find another hobby to fill their hours of free time while Im traveling and can't post.

street food helps you forget your worries

On Sunday I was planning on spending my day off in Pune running a few errands that I needed to get done before my trip and then the evening relaxing (as apposed to all of the relaxing I do during the week). But Saturday night one of my roommates invited herself along. I was looking forward to a day on my own, but I politely said no problem. We took the train into Pune in the morning and I was done with my errands by 1130am. So my roommate (Devi) suggested we take a trip to a hill station near by. She had been there last weekend with three friends and kept talking about how much I would love the scenery and how I can’t miss the experience. So off we went.

It was a 45 minute rickshaw ride outside of Pune to the bottom of the mountain. Then it was about a 45 minute jeep ride up the rough switch back road. Even on the way up the views were amazing. Just before the top of the mountain there was a traffic jam b/c cars were parked on both side of the skinny road. There are no restrictions or fees for cars or bikes, so you can imagine it gets pretty crowded on a sunny Sunday afternoon. So we ditched the jeep and walked the rest of the way. At some point there was a large fort on the top of the mountain, but all that remains are some scattered arches and remnants of walls. But it was nice that there wasn’t an imposing fort, but instead dirt trails that lead all around the top of the mountain which was mostly flat and grassy. From all sides the views were awesome! Everything was covered with vegetation and there were 20 different shades of green. There was a huge mountain range that stretched out on one side. The experience could have only been better had there been a couple restrooms and a few less people. But the place was big enough that it didn’t feel completely over crowded. We hiked around for about 2 hours (although that includes the many sitting breaks my roommates kept insisting on we take). After, we sat and had a cup of chai at one of the makeshift restaurant shacks. On our way back to the parking lot we came upon two monkeys on the trail. I was able to snap a few pictures before my roommate teased one of them into attack mode and we had to go running (people got a good laugh at that scene). The monkeys and lack of bathrooms were long forgotten when we came upon a stand selling roasted sweet corn coated with salt and chili powder. They sell them all over on the street and Im in love with them. It is the perfect street food in my opinion; with the roasted nuts a close second.

On the way back we were able to hitch a ride from a nice family to a nearby damn. It wasn’t that exciting, but my roommate really wanted to go. I found the cloudy brown water and dirt beach next to the trash lined highway a little unappealing, but to each is own. The buffalos seemed to like it. There were also tons of people swimming and even a couple camel rides for the kids. It was my first time to a ‘beach’ in India, so seeing the boys strip down to their tiny skivvies to go swimming while the girls swim fully clothed was a bit maddening. I will be happy to return home where you don’t have to have a mustache in order to wear shorts. Although Im not sure my friends and family will share my joy once they see my pasty ‘Indian tan”. I think it may rival my sister’s Minnesota tan she’s always flaunting.

Ups & Downs.

This past week has been quite a rollercoaster of happiness and frustration. It started off on a high with my fantastic trip to Bangalore. My friend Rushi lives there and had graciously invited me down to visit. I definitely made the right move taking him up on his offer, and did it at the right time. I was hitting a sort of slump here at work and was getting a little bored with the Urulikanchan social scene. Things were no longer new and I was spending all of my days in my dingy office writing my report. So the four days I spent eating out, watching bad 80’s movies, surfing the web on high speed internet, and sightseeing with my personal tour guide in his air conditioned car were just what the doctor ordered!! Soon after arriving at Rushi’s fancy apartment (where I had my own room and bathroom complete with hot water and a SHOWER) I came to find out that Rushi and I have the same priorities in a vacation, and really in life: food. I hadn’t been there an hour and Rushi had already called two restaurants to make reservations. One wasn’t open when we could go and the other was booked, so he made a reservation for dinner three days away. I knew I came to the right place. We then went out to lunch. We arrived a half an hour before the restaurant opened, so we went grocery shopping in the mean time….ahh, eating out and grocery shopping, two of my favorite things.

In addition to eating we also saw some awesome palaces and a temple or two. I did some shopping and a tiny bit of work. All and all I really liked Bangalore. Im sure it had a lot to do with my accommodations and Rushi’s hospitality, but also since it is a city of about 7million people, me walking down the street is not front page news. Although I obviously couldn’t blend completely, I didn’t feel like the main attraction. Bangalore also has some really nice parks and it seems a little more structured and organized than Pune. There is actually a law requiring motorbike drivers to wear helmets! Of course passengers aren’t required to do so and a lot of people don’t use the strap of the helmet, but baby steps I guess. One of my favorite and least favorite parts about my trip was a ‘secret road’ we took to get to Mysore. Rushi said he had found this four lane highway that was just built that no one knew about yet, so it was very empty. And he was right. The very few people know about it is b/c they haven’t built any exit or entrance ramps to it yet. In order to get on the highway we had to turn off the city street and drive through a dirt field for about half a kilometer going over hills with the other cars coming from all sides of the field. Then you go around a huge dirt pile and a four land highway appears! On the other end it stops as abruptly as it starts, so I can imagine it would cause trouble if you don’t know that it ends and you are cruising along at 60mph. My least favorite part of this road was the oncoming traffic. On the way to Mysore all of a sudden we were in the passing lane and there were huge trucks coming at us on our side of the highway! We swerved out of the way and it turned out they had diverted the traffic to fix the road. But of course there were no signs, cones, or warnings. On the way home, at night, the same thing happened. Only it was clearly just one truck that had gotten on the wrong side of the road not knowing it was a divided. Maybe he thought it was a two lane highway b/c he almost hit us too. I took a little comfort in thinking this stuff happens all the time and im sure people know how to handle it, but the next morning in the paper it said that a family of 14 was killed by a bus going the wrong way on a divided highway (a different highway, but still scary). I think highway driving is one thing I will not get used to. It is a regular occurrence that trucks, buses and cars drive on the wrong side of the road going 50mph…and it’s just scary.

Returning from my mini vacation I was feeling good. I only had 1.5 weeks left of work and only one week until my two friends arrive. I was looking forward to having the house to myself (my frenchies are on vacation and only one returns next week)and plowing through the work that I have left to do. Upon arriving at home my dreams of quiet, alone time were dashed. While away my organization took it upon themselves to enter my house, pack up all of my things and throw them in my former roommates bed. They decided to move all of my stuff so two college girls could move into my room for the week! Errr….my good mood quickly vanished. I felt a little violated having all of my things moved around while I was away. On top of that I had two new roommates that I have to make small talk with. And unfortunately my house is no longer a safe haven from the staring. They quite regularly sit and watch me eat, follow me outside to watch me on the phone, and are constantly asking curious questions about what im doing and why. They are very nice, but it’s just a little tiring.

My frustration was elevated yesterday morning when my boss sprung a surprise day of interviews on me. I have written 3/4ths of my report and he arranged for me to make three more interviews in remote villages. His intensions were good. He wanted to expose me to a more diverse array of farmers, but the timing and lack of warning made me a slightly grouchy. But my mood was brought full circle by the time the day was over. The two villages we went to were the furthest from my town and most remote. One of the villages took about 2hrs to get to and was very different from the other’s I had seen. We drove over a small mountain range to get there so the landscape was even different. And the women I interviewed were so enthusiastic about the program and their new vermicomposting system our organization had facilitated that I couldn’t keep my grouchy face on for long. We even stopped at a quail farm (of all things) in one of the villages. The farmer had received a low interest loan from my organization to buy quails from Japan. For the past two years he has successfully sold the eggs and meat to people in his village. Pretty unusual, but they seem to be successful. By the end of the day I felt really lucky to be able to see the things I did. It would be pretty hard to see and experience these things on a just vacation to India. Unless you have a purpose to visit these villages they wouldn’t make any site seeing itineraries. I think I smiled the whole way home—partly from the awesome scenery and partly in anticipation of my quail egg omelet Im going to make for Sunday dinner!

My town

This is the market on Sundays. Monday - Saturday usually only have a few veg and fruit vendors, but on Sundays it is huge. The goats and pigs really enjoy it.

More Pics

Here are some pictures from the road into my town from my organization.

I am spending four days visiting my friend in Bangalore. So since I have high speed internet for the next couple of days, i figured i would skip writing a post and try to post a few pics. Here are two of my house. The first one is from when i just arrived
and the second one is from last week. It's quite a difference.







More to come....but Im going to bed. We are heading to the city of Mysore tomorrow bright and early.

Delicious Treats.

A lot of people ask me about the food I’ve been eating. And as I’ve probably said in past entries, I can’t complaint…I mean aside from too much oil, carbs and salt that is. But since I like Indian food and I have a resident mother cooking for me every lunch and dinner, it’s a pretty good situation. There are few things I don’t eat. Since Mrs M doesn’t eat or cook meat or eggs I never hesitate to try anything new. I have no fear of strange vegetables. But this outlook doesn’t necessarily hold true for Mrs. Moule’s dairy dishes—usually served in the form of sweets. During the first week she served me delicious rice pudding that really got me excited for the dessert to come. A few weeks later she handed over a bowl of what I thought was the same rice pudding and I exclaimed my excitement to my roommates. I didn’t understand their lack of enthusiasm for such a yummy treat…but I quickly came to find out. Although it looked and smelled like rice pudding, it was in fact a milky ‘pudding’ made with gee and what seem to be rice noodles. We have been given this gee and noodle pudding several times and each time I try it thinking I may like it, but never do. I just can’t warm up to the mixture of noodles, sweet warm milk, and the layer of oil that covers the top.

Today my roommates and I went to pick up our lunch and were met at the door by Mrs. M holding a dish of white squares we had never seen before. Every time Mrs. M gives us our food she lists off what it is. If it is common, like rice, dal, or cauliflower, we can understand, but anytime something new is introduced we have no idea what she is saying. Of course we all nod like we understand, but usually have no idea. Sometimes she makes us try it in front of her so she can see if we like it. We all agree this is not our favorite tactic b/c of course we have to pretend we like everything even if we don’t. My roommates have an especially hard time taste testing food Mrs. M gives them to see if it’s too spicy. This afternoon played out in a similar manner. Mrs. M came out of the house with a dish of white cubes. She was telling us the name, why it was special, and insisted on us all trying it on her front stoop. Of course we didn’t understand what it was, but I nodded in comprehension when I thought I understood she was telling me it was made from the milk of a baby cow—like veal, but in milk form. When she went inside to get her husband, who speaks a lot more English, I realized I clearly hadn’t understood b/c that would be impossible. When her husband came outside I came to find out I wasn’t completely off the mark. He explained this ‘special,’ expensive milk was the first milk of the cow after it gives birth and it has special properties. It took me a little while, but I realized walking back to the house that it was in fact sweetened colostrum curd. It didn’t taste bad, but I couldn’t bring myself to think about anything else than the fact that it was colostrum and all of the highly scientific things I have learned in my nutrition classes about human colostrum. As it turns out there is a bit of a colostrum frenzy around the campus today. My roommates returned from visiting their boss’s home this evening and informed me they were offered colostrum koa (a sweet dairy cookie-like treat). Apparently this milk fetches higher prices than regular milk and is often sold for that reason. Our organization discourages this practice because the colostrum is beneficial to the newborn calves. But when several cows calve at once there is an abundance of this ‘special treat’ and it is sold to the residents along side the regular milk—at a higher cost of course. Im just sad we missed the run on colostrum at the daily milk wagon! It must have been like a blue light special…unless you’re paying attention and willing to throw elbows, you will miss out on this one day sale. We were brought a second, very sugary, colostrum treat for dinner too. Maybe we will be able to sell our now stockpiled colostrum treats on the black market once the milk wagon runs dry. We’re going to make a killing!

I believe, I believe!!

So a few of you may remember a couple of entries back when I may have questioned the existence and strength of the monsoons…well, maybe I take that back. If the monsoon gods are reading this, let it be known that I was wrong, I believe the monsoons exist and I realize they are a bid deal. So you can stop trying to prove it to me. Even though the past two days have been mild, with just a sprinkle here and there with really strong winds, the weekend was a different story. It didn’t stop raining for at least 48 hours and on Sunday (my only precious day off) it poured buckets all day. My roommates and I still trudged into Pune on the train as we always do, only to walk around soaking wet all morning and afternoon. After a certain point you can’t care anymore and you give up trying to be dry, but it was pretty uncomfortable up until that point.
It rained so much and so hard that even my supposed ‘waterproof’ bag malfunctioned and my cell phone was put out of commission for 2 days until it dried out. In Pune we ate lunch at a coffee house/bakery with covered and enclosed seating, but my roommate still had to sit under her umbrella b/c rain was coming in the gap between the wall and the roof. No wonder everyone keeps all their possessions covered in plastic (furniture, cell phones, computers..). The first few weeks I was here everything was covered in dust, now it’s hard to keep anything dry.

Happy 4th of July to everyone! While you are all watching fireworks and eating hot dogs, I will be showing my patriotic colors by eating rice with curried vegetable, and watching the neighborhood cats eat out of the trash pit in front of my house. Maybe if Im inspired I will perform a musical montage of patriotic songs for my French roommates. Not that Im particularly patriotic, but it is the only way I can think to repay them for making me listen to their French show tunes all the time.

I will probably keep my opinion of their music to myself since I will be spending a lot of time with them over the next week and a half. I have finished my interviews, so I will be spending a lot of time in the office at my computer. Since I share an office with them, live with them, and eat with them, I suppose I can grin a bare the show tunes for another 10 days to keep the peace. Otherwise they may not offer their canned pate and processed cheese cubes to me. That would be a shame.