The wheel has left the car: Picture extravaganza to make up for the lack of post!

Said in calm, heavily-accented English, it was the understatement of the century. About an hour into our class’ journey to the Shakavati region, we saw a wheel (axel and all) go careening past our own car. As the car ahead of us full of MSID (my program) students shot sparks and swerved to the side of the road to avoid flipping over, my teacher, seemingly unaffected by the immense possibility of the car actually flipping over, told us “the wheel has left the car”. If anything, this action sums up Indian driving completely. After pulling over, realizing people from the various roadside stands had already ran off with the tire, we embarked on a journey to acquire a replacement from an ironically placed tire stand 100 feet away. A large group of “able” village people ran over to offer their two cents in hopes for money in return and we were able to install a new tire, take the a lug nut from each of the remaining tires to replace the ones missing from the stolen tire, and head on our merry way within a half hour.

This last week was spent mostly away from my home in Jaipur, and so I really really apologize for my lack of posts (and also for my pathetic venting about the dog last week, but it was quite traumatic for me). My internet connection was also messed up, making it impossible to log onto the internet at all, but again, not really much of an excuse. You all deserve a little more attention! Definitely! If there are ever seemingly long pauses between the posts again, my family and probably Nathan are in “the know” so ask them for some info about my wanderings. But back to the stories… lots to tell this week!

For those of you following at home, you may now cross off tiger safari from the India Bingo Game. This past weekend was a whirlwind of oddity. Everything that happened seemed to occur in a way completely in opposition to what we had originally planned, yet it was a weekend I will never forget. Saturday morning, four other students and I boarded a rickshaw headed towards the Jaipur train station in pursuit of going on a Tiger safari. Yes, five students in the back of a very small rickshaw does in fact work; however, it means hanging your feet out the back window while clinging to the ceiling. A month ago, I probably would have considered other modes of transportation before jumping into the back of a speeding, mini rickshaw driving with compressed natural gas in a tank located below my seat, yet India has definitely lowered my standards of safety (perhaps not for the better).

I have a sweet video of this ride; however, in the two hours it has taken me to publish this post, it still hasn't finished uploading. Perhaps later, with faster internet!

Indian trains are a mess. Even with my medium ability to understand and speak Hindi, we still stood in 3 wrong lines, each one instructing us to go to a different place which then proceeded to tell us once again we were in the wrong place. The concept of line, much like the concept of traffic laws, seems to be nonexistent in India. As we neared the front of the “line”, a massive mob would surround us, cut us off, and then proceed to buy tickets before us. I would never picture tiny old women in bright blue saris to elbow like that, but my goodness, I still today, a week later, have a bruise on my hip from an 80 year old woman in a sari. Indian women are tough cookies (or should I say biscuits, yes yes, biscuits). In the end, we learned to form a half circle around the person purchasing tickets by standing shoulder to shoulder and sticking our elbows back behind us. Besides the lack of lines and traffic laws, India is also not very clear with directions. The tickets told us when the train would depart, however failed to mention the important detail of which platform it would be departing from. Jaipur, being the capitol of Rajasthan, has one of the largest stations so we wandered about, asking random people and receiving very different information. Our teachers told us the first day that whenever you ask for directions, you must ask at least four people before proceeding as Indians will always give an answer, even if it is wrong. After finding the platform, we learned another lesson about Indian trains: they are late, very very late.


Although our train was supposed to depart at 10 am, it didn’t arrive in Jaipur until 1:00. We for sure thought we had missed the train or that we were in the wrong place. People around us kept insuring us that we were correct and so we sat on the floor of the station and ate biscuits. Once the train did arrive, I again witnessed a fury of men and women in traditional dress shoving, pulling, throwing, and kicking their way onto the general admission train cars. These are a free for all, first come first serve style of riding and they do get packed. I found a place next to a nice cage of chickens, below two men sitting on top of the overhead luggage rack. Trains are busy, loud, and completely enthralling. I am a lover of people watching and this is 100 times better than any airplane. People bond on trains over a communal feeling of annoyance at various little things. Simple smiles and looks of understanding do wonders for making you feel part of something more than just a person chilling next to a chicken. At every stop, new people pile on, including various sellers of fruit, newspapers, nuts, and a tomato/onion/cilantro/lentil salad like thing that really looked amazing…. And a few people vacate. (sorry, but no pictures of the chickens. If I would have stood up to get my camera, I would have lost my chiken seat. Can't have that now after we bonded so well!)

After a 3 hour train ride (which was definitely long enough for me), we arrived in the little town of Sawai Modphur which is the closet city to Rathambore national park. Because of the late train, we missed the afternoon safari and had to push our plans back to the morning. The guesthouse we found in our Lonely Planet guide seemed to exist in a vortex which took us an hour to find then was completely empty. After knocking on the door for a while and then almost giving up, a little smiling adorable old man in a plaid shirt came running out to greet us saying he was making us chai. Apparently no one had stayed in the guesthouse for the past 4 months and therefore he was quite excited to see us. Looking back on this, this could have been the beginning of an awesome yet cheesy horror film, but we were excited to be there and ignored the oddness of the situation.

Sawai Modhpur Temple

Street Vendors, Check out those movie posters!

Once settled in, we took a rickshaw out to where the park entrance was to scope it out for the next morning and to pick up some food. After dropping us off 5 km outside of Sawai Modphur and leaving, we realized that he was probably the only rickshaw we would see that night and we were quite a distance outside of the town. As it grew darker, we gave up looking for a rickshaw and started to walk back to the town. We had a guy with us so it wasn’t just a group of girls. Even then, it was probably not the best of situations. It was still kind of empowering, and the sunset was gorgeous. After 2 km or so, a massive tractor pulling an empty hay truck pulled over and asked us if we wanted a ride. Again, sticking with the whole bad horror movie theme, we thought what the heck, we don’t want to walk anymore and hopped into the back of the trailer. We bounced our way across the countryside, passing camel carts and motorcycles. He pulled over just outside of the city and we jumped off, thanked him, and walked the rest of the way. It was really one of those “only in India” moments and I completely loved it.

Dinner!

During dinner, we had found out that you could book Tiger safaris online before going into the park to make sure you would have a spot. We hurried to an internet café and found out all the safaris were totally booked. Really bummed out, we learned further that normally two jeeps are kept open for people to book the day of, you just have to get to the park right when it opens to reserve them. With some glimmer of hope, we walked back home, stopping along the way for a snack at a road side stall of fried green chilies and mango juice, watched part of a bollywood with a bunch of truckers while sitting in plastic folding chairs by the side of the road, and chilled on the roof of the guest house talking until late into the evening. Being somewhat of a morning person, I volunteered to wake up crazy early and Rachael and I left our hotel at 4:15 in the morning to walk to the train station to find a rickshaw driver, wake him from his slumber, and drive out to Rathambore. The gates open at 5am and we were the first ones in line. By the time 5am struck, there was a good sized mob of tourists and hotel workers purchasing tickets for their clients vying for the remaining two jeeps. Right at 5am, a man walked over and opened the gate. The second it was opened just barely enough, the mob of people started sprinting. Not knowing where we were going, we took off running and miraculously ended up second in a line of 30 or so people. The people ahead of us had been on a safari the morning prior and give us a heads up that we needed to fill out consent forms before they would even sell us tickets. I held our place in line and Rachael picked up the forms. We had everyone’s passports, but for the forms we had to make up each person’s parents’ names, addresses, and then sign saying they wouldn’t sue if they got eaten by a tiger or something. Completely illegally, we forged everything and waiting anxiously to see if we would get one of the coveted spots. In the end, our mad sprinting and early bird rising paid off and we got 5 of the 12 total spots available for the day.

Rathambore is beyond description. I rode in the back of an open top jeep, hair flying, weaving amongst mountains, streams, waterfalls, forest, and jungle. The immense beauty and complete peace is something I will hopefully be able to hold on to and return to when times are crazy. I really cannot do it justice with my words, nor can the millions of pictures I took before giving up to soak up the goodness around me.

Although our guide stopped for 10 minutes or so in multiple spots after hearing the panic calls of monkeys and watching herds of deer flee from some apparent danger, we were unable to see an actual tiger. We did, however, see numerous deer, gorgeous birds, mongoose, and other small animals. Even without the tiger, the scenery and exhilaration alone experienced while riding in the back of a jeep during the early morning sunrise is worth hundreds of times more than admission (and India is cheap remember. For a private jeep safari through the park for four hours, we each paid 605 rupees or about $12.50 in US currency. Yes, be jealous all those who went to London or France!).

We saw mountains, hills, desert, everything!

Enjoying the peace

King Fisher

That little hump is an owl!

We returned on Sunday night by way of an even more packed train than before and went to normal classes on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday through Friday our class journeyed up to the Shakavati region to visit an NGO, Non-Governmental Organization, that works on organic farming methods at the village level as well as working with women crafters to manage small micro-businesses which sell crafts to the government run emporiums.

Indian Traffic Jam!

Traffic in Indian is a crazy mix of every mode of transportation possible (car, cycle, rickshaw, camel, donkey...)

Oh yes, and sheep!

We toured an agricultural research center which specializes in organic methods for pesticides and fertilizers. One of the many brews being tested right now is a combination of cow urine, water, bark from a particular tree and leaves from a different one. For fertilizers, they are incorporating vermin-composting (with worms) into the normal lives of the village farmers. The Rajasthan government will pay for 75% of the costs of a vermin-compost system for any village farmer as it reduces the need for harsh chemicals as well as increasing the output of crops.

Cow Urine Pesticides

Solar drying systems for tomatos (delicious!)

Another system being used in the regions is a type of watering system known as Boond-Boond or a drip irrigation system. Because of its location in the desert, Rajasthan farmers have trouble with extreme water shortages and fast evaporation. To resolve this, they burry below the ground before putting in their crops a small thin tube with holes in it which is hooked up to a water pump. This system delivers water directly to the roots of the plants without the excess water being evaporated off so in the end, it uses significantly less water. We also visited both a small and “large” (large for India, small for the United States) farm that utilize various things being researched at the station. Both farmers were so proud and overly excited to show us everything.

I love these things so much.

Papaya tree

Mustard

One very proud farmer in his field

The area is also quite famous for its painted Havelis, or mansions. About 120 years ago, people started to paint the outside of their houses to show off their wealth. Once one person started to paint, everyone sought to outdo their neighbor. This led to the creation of an entire city filled with extravagantly painted mansions. Completely wonderful.

The car ride back home was uneventful (no tires vacating the cars) and I’m currently sitting in the dinning room with my host brother Akshay, working on homework. Tomorrow night, Saturday, I will be dressing in my finest, getting Henna painted all over myself, and head off to a wedding with my host family. There will definitely be immense picture taking!

One last Bingo check off before I sign off: get picture publish in an Indian newspaper. Yes, in all its glory, Ben and I had our picture in the Daily News of Jaipur taken during our visit to the Jaipur foot factory. Again, yes you did read that correctly. Picture in newspaper and Jaipur foot factory; weird, I know. Our class took a field trip last Friday to a place where they make artificial feet for people who lack a foot or feet completely free of cost. Anyone can come from anywhere in India and they are fitted with a new foot that matches their skin color and is shaped just for them within a few hours. The NGO’s goal is for the person to be up and walking before the end of the day. The organization pays for their stay in Jaipur and feeds them, as well as giving them a foot and paying for their return trip back to wherever they came from. Anyways, there just happened to be a photographer for the newspaper in the vicinity who then proceeded to make up an “interview” with a fictional girl by the name of Julia who is definitely not a part of my study abroad program and place it under my picture claiming that “Indians work very hard”. India is so weird.

Thanks again for everything, especially your patience with my lack of blogging! India is so intense yet utterly wonderful and I want so badly to share it with you all. I will talk to you soon!

PS. I’m currently experiencing my first Indian rainstorm. So pretty.