Finally, the field-trip post!!
Tuesday was up till now the longest trips I have made. About 350 km seperates Jaipur and the local office in Shahbad. It is not so much an office, but more a campus. On the way to this place I got a taste on how big India really is. I’m still in the state of Rajasthan, even after a trip of 11 hours. What I`ve seen along the way is simply amazing. Farmland, barren land, small secluded villages, buffalos, cows, dogs, pigs, camels and especially a lot of surprised faces when they saw my face passing them by. “Wow, a white man, what the hell is he doing here?”. We arrived around 21:30 and when I stepped out of the bumpy city bus and looked up, I saw something beautiful. I`ve never seen so many starts in my life. High concentrations of them almost seem to looks like nebulas. For a sf-fan like me an amazing sight. The dorm-room was ok, and I had a relatively good night. I`ve got an own toilet (Although it does not flush authomatically). This morning they started to wake people up at 6am. Seems Cecoedecon, my ngo, has set-up a campus/school for tribal-girls, who fell out of the government-eductional-system. Those girls were just singing a moment ago in the courtyard. A great sound to wake up with.
The next day…..
Well, we’re on the second day now and up till now these place really suites me. I`ll defeinitely would like to return here, especially after my friends in Jaipur have left. It is a nice compound. It houses a school for girls, a training office, an official office and a sleeping quarters with appropriate sanitation.
The first day we went to 3 villages.
The first one was pretty smalle and very, very dry. Immediately the local kids went to the car to see who was in there: A pink-skin? We were there to inspect the activities of my company, and to inspect the local forest protection committee. Seems there were two in this village. There seem to be so many people in the village who wanted to become a member, that the forest department (the government) decided to make two of them. Both are now defunct. Woohoo!
The next village was a bit larger, and a larger crowed soon gathered around us. A lot of faces were staring at me as we entered a building and sat on some improvised beds. At the moment of writing this sentence I`m getting some comments on me being a left-handed writer. Continuing with the story, my unit head, Dr. Tiwari, held a speech and he asked me to ask some basic questions to the local population. Is there a forest protection committee here? No? Why not? Ah yes..no forest (anymore). After that visit we went to visit a farm of a local farmer, who with the help of my NGO, created a pretty nice place for himself.
The farmer himself was also a pretty nice character; All dressed in white, a little beard, getting grey hair here and there and best of all, I was wearing some sunglases that looked like those old airplane-pilot glasses from World war II. A pretty funny character, but a good guy. I noticed that although the people living in the country might have a bit more primitive excistence, there is something in their faces that most city-folk miss – honesty and pureness. Especially at the village of the scheduled tribe (formerly known simply as dalits, or untouchables by indians) I noticed that what you see is what you get. These people don`t have any secrets that they keep from you. My boss, mr. Tiwari called them “simple folk” at one point..while I was more thinking about honest and pure. Not yet spoiled by the smell of money and the ambition of getting more, more and even more of it.
The next day we went to visit the local forest department office. It was pretty small, with some old guards standing out in front of it. While we were waiting in the office for the local leader to arrive, I did not expect it to be a woman. But there she came, speaking perfect english and nicely dressed. I wonder if she was forced into this job, as a kind of side-step to climb the governmental job-ladder. Running a regional forest department office in the middle of nowhere in rajasthan did not seem such an exciting job for any person, especially for a woman who still seemed to be pretty young. The meeting was nice though, and she explained me some things in general, and I again asked some initial questions. After this we went to one of the forest enclosures, or parks, where the forest is being protected from grazing cattle and wood-chopping humans. It was a very nice place, late in the afternoon, and we talking a bit with the two men who guard the area. They do this by circleing the 50ha area with their bikes, keeping the people and cattle on the other side of the 1.20m high stone wall.
All in all these 3 days where a very interesting experience, and I certainly will go back in the near future. But first I have to wave goodbye to some friends I made in my first weeks in Jaipur.
