Bye toilet, hello world!

After spending more time on the toilet than ever before, I`m finally cured from my "buikgriep"..or Gastroenteritis in English.

Monday it started with a throat-ache and a heavy head. That night I had a dinner with two colleges, so I decided just to go. After the dinner, which felt very bad in my stomach, I collapsed mentally. My head was on fire, my stomach felt noxious, and I felt like I really needed some sleep. So I lay myself in bed 1,5 hours later. I`m sure that my head never felt so hot as it did then. It was glowing. The next morning I still had the fever, and a stomach going mad. Seems something had to leave my body. In the Netherlands everything would just go out in one go, but in India, in India, things take time, including the disposing food out of your body. Massive amounts of air, combined with little waste, were produced by my stomach...in the following days. Really..the sounds that I sometimes made..unbelievable.
From friday on the fever was gone, my stomach however needed another 3 days to get back to its normal self. Even now I occasionaly have small pains..but not so serious that I have to run to the toilet to decrease the (air) pressure.

All in all..I`m happy that my body made itself healthy again.

To be a tourist, or not to be a tourist?

I`m facing an ethical dilemma..for the last two weekends.
Of course, I want to see sights in India..but do I want to go to the all too obvious major tourist sights..and cramp this sightseeing in a mere weekend?

The answer is a yes..maybe..no...maybe..yes..no..maybe.

I would love to go to Udiapur this weekend, but the train-trip takes 12 hours, this would mean that I have to leave at Friday night, would arrive at Saturday morning, would spend one night there, and would have to go back on Sunday-afternoon to be back in time to go to work on monday. Of course, I could skip work, but that would cut in my 3 free days a month supply. Maybe I should not care for my NGO or work so much, but damnit..I do. I care for my work, want to make it as good as possible, and want to follow the rules of the game that are stipulated out for me. And even if I stayed until monday afternoon..would it honour the place? I don`t want to run through the sights; running from monument to monument, and always having to check the time when the last train leaves. Besides that..on monday or tuesday I would be completely exhausted..and since my current state (fever, sore throat, headache) isn`t that good, it might not be the best thing to do.

And then again, what are sights? Another temple? Another palace? Another lake? Up till now, the things I have seen are nice..but do they make India? I think that life itself, and the people involved in it, in Jaipur and Shahabad, is what makes my stay in India special. Life in India is eating chapattis, playing real-life Frogger when crossing roads (I`m already at level 56 and still not game over!). It is negotiating with rickshaw-drivers over a mere 10 rupees. It is experiencing 25 degrees Celsius at an early morning in April. It is cricket everywhere..even in the streets of the Pink City Jaipur. It is seeing birds of prey flying right over your head while they are hunting for small birds or rats. It is enjoying a late night beer on the roof-terrace. It is seeing a 10-man marching band being cramped into a little rickshaw. It is experiencing the dozens of near crash situations while riding the state buses. It is seeing the house-servants being completely obsessed by strange India soap-operas. It is having a shower (or bath) with just a large bucket of water and a small bucket to poor it over you. It is having to flush your toilet manually. It is walking on the straight railway and seeing the light of the train in the distance. It is passing by enormous bulls when you walk along the street in your neighbourhood. It is hearing a spoiled cow moaning because she wants her food now, while she is crashing in into the gate of the house where she is normally fed. It is seeing a small squirrel challenging a much larger bird over its territory. It is getting some coconut peaces from some children and having a small cow sneakishly eat it from your left hand.

People sometimes tend to forget that normal life itself here is already very special by itself..it is the people you meet everyday that create the atmosphere and the character of a country named India. You don`t have to travel hundreds of kilometers to see it, you just have to step out of your door.

Of course..I would love to see some sights..but in general I am trying to avoid the bigger touristy places..because a moment of rest while on the streets is almost impossible there. And rest is what I need. I`m also actually planning to go to Udaipur in my three week trip..so maybe it is better for me to stay in Jaipur...or do something else.

So this weekend I might be going to Bharatpur (it all depends on how I feel)..it is a small city, about 4,5 hours by bus from Jaipur (much better than 10-12 hours!). It should have a nice fort..and a bird-sanctuary. The bird-sanctuary however suffered enormously thanks to horrible government policy (and bureaucratics) and is only a shadow of what it used to be. It`ll still be nice to see some other wildlife there..and I can actually drive around on a bike in the park. The place will at least not be that crowded..and hopefully peaceful. And it will again be a great lesson in how India's government is destroying the last few natural beauties that are left.

I also want to go to Bundi. Bundi is a town, about 5 hours from Jaipur by bus. According to my guide-book it is a beautiful and again peaceful place to visit..with a mountain castle and a very historic city centre. Maybe that is also one of the reasons why I am always in doubt about going to far away and bigger destinations; I am looking for rest and clean air..while bigger places often lack these two things.

Shahabad report

At Shahabad I wrote some nice stories in the dark evenings and early mornings, here is a nice overview of them!

Day 1: Arrived with Martine at Shahabad for my three week stay. I’m hoping that I will get some work done in these three weeks, and I believe that the initial signs are good. The questions I have are good, ordered and rated. Since a lot of them are closed it will be no problem in my opinion to have a decently successful interview. Translation however will remain a major issue, and I’ll have to see if somebody can arrange it today.

Day 2: Here I am, 2 p.m.. waiting for the two people who can help me on my assignment. Don’t know where they are or what they are doing, so I am bored. In my opinion I finished all what I can do now, so there is nothing left. There is no computer free (and also no Acrobat Reader) which means that working on my introduction is also impossible.
Great.

Day 4: …And still no significant business done. Seem mr Tiwari was right; It is going to be difficult. Maybe I should see this as an ultimate test of “things take time in India”. I would love to start screaming and pounding on doors and walls to speed things up. But deep inside I know it would not make any difference and would only agitate the poor Indians who do not know any better. It is a clash of cultures…but still…
I would at least like to do something. Today we went to the FD office only to encounter a closed door: Nobody was home. Well…at least I had a relaxing ride on the back of a motorcycle. And so now it is 5 p.m. and the place is deserted. I kind of miss the people in Jaipur, but not yet seriously. I’ll now for sure that I’ll be hugging them a lot when I go back on the 10th of April (and that date IS fixed).
One thing that irritates me is the lack of English here. I thought that because it was an English colony, most educated Indians would speak a decent word of English. I was wrong. I have no idea why, but only 1 or 2 people here know a decent word of English. And so I constantly get it thrown at my feet that I do not know Hindi. Well…YOU DO NOT KNOW ENGLISH!. English is not my native language but still I managed to master it. Maybe it was just a wave of Indian Nationalism that destroyed English education…or maybe they are just too ***damn lazy. And yes..I know that Florine (a former trainee) knew Hindi, but I wonder how and when she learned the language. I am not Florine, I am Paul. somebody who knows that learning a language for 5 months is a pure waste of time (although temporarily rewarding), since 95% leaves your brain after two months back in your home country. If only this world would learn English…

Day 7:

The wind is blowing
The night is growing
The sun is falling
And the moon is calling
Waking up nights’ creatures
Who, with barely visible features
Are crawling towards you
And hide themselves in your shoe
So that, when you wake up in the morning
Your feet will soon be soaring
But don’t worry, the pain will go
Until the next morning or so…

Day 10:

I’m in the field, waiting for the forest department officers and some members of the Shahpuri FPC. Seems they went together to the field. And it seems that we are again left waiting. As usual.

Day 11:

Yesterday was the day I had my first interview with a member of a FPC, or any other forest related person. It was located at a forest rangers office near the village of Shahpur. We had to wait a long time, but finally the officials showed up and they brought in the locals, the people of the village of Shahpur, the Sahariya. So here I was sitting, the sun going down, against about 10 tribal people, together with my interpreter mr. Choudhary. It was getting darker and there was almost no light, but the interview was going good. We were sitting at the table, and it all went black. The answers and the atmosphere were good. I felt a bit lost as a foreigner, but again this was a very special experience…perhaps one in a life time. Beautiful and perfect that I’m in India…the 1.5 weeks of waiting are over..HOORAY!

The day of April the fifth

From Monday onwards it has been very busy. Village visits, 8 of them, in a relatively short time. I’ve been to small and large villages, nearby and distant, secluded and easy accessible. I’ve met people from the Sahariya and Bhill tribes, have been in their houses, and interviewed them. The people here are very friendly to foreigners. Although they probably don’t have enough money for anything, there has been no begging. The people are proud, strong and pure (What you see is what you get). Yesterday I was in some Sankalp villages where I interviewed women FPC members for the first time. One interview was even with a whole group of women. Without a loud man in sight they can be quite rowdy, despite their timid outward look. They have opinions about things and express them freely. I was also in a village of the Sahariya tribe and interviewed a man called Ramchid, very nice, but during the interview he looked messy and unorganised. When I asked him after the interview for a photograph, he asked my with a smile if his wife could be included in the picture, and he went back “to prepare” himself. Ten minutes later his hair was combed, he was wearing his best shirt, and he had his powerful looking wife beside him. A beautiful picture was the result. I also had a dinner with the local forest department Marshall. With him I discussed issues like the forests in the Netherlands, the landscape, and a bit about terrorism. He said that western people have a different vision, because they have not yet been close to it. A valid point. I am close to Afghanistan and Pakistan..very close. We drank some hard liquor and we had a very good non-veg dinner. A very good time indeed. Although it will of course not influence my reporting later…hehehe…

Greetings

Paul

April the 9th. My stay up till now.

What can I say? 2 months passed pretty quickly, although it feels like I have been here for ages. India is a country that makes you very, very tired. At the moment of typing this message I am sitting at my work with a splendid headache and a sore throat. No idea what I have got, but it could be a pay-back of my body to me, after yesterdays intensive hike to the monkey temple. Since I don`t like the rickshaws here, I decided to walk from Ajmeri gate, all the way to Galtha, a 2 hour walk. Along the way however I got stopped by no less than 3 indians who wanted to talk to me. One was an art student, one owned a medical shop and one worked at a jewelry manufacturer. Since I am pretty polite, I just went through the complete conversation and did not walk away halfway, or cut them off very suddenly. A 2 hours walk to the temple thus became a lot longer. At the temple I saw humans splashing in water, and monkeys doing exactly the same. Quite an amusing sight, and again you notice that monkeys and humans are alike. After enjoying the piece and quiet of the temple, and enjoying the view of monkeys swimming, I went back to the Pink City. Once there, I again was stopped twice by a person I met earlier that day, and some kind of guy that wanted to let me write a letter in dutch to a loved one in the Netherlands. And so I did write the dutch letter to him, and he wanted to do something in return: He brought me to “a very cheap” jewelry shop or manufacturer. In retrospect they were not that cheap, and even with my own untrained jewelry eyes I could still see that some were damaged and not worth a rupee. So I said politely that I was very tired (which I was) and that I was in no mood to buy anything today..I just wanted to go home. So they let me go, and I said goodbye to the man for whom I wrote the letter.