Kandhamal

Just got back at 5am this morning. Had a crappy night bus to Phulbani in Kandhamal on Tuesday night, arriving at around 5.45am. It's only just over 200kms but takes six hours because of the shitty roads, and there's not even mountains to negotiate. We got an auto to an office in town and they put down some flattened cardboard boxes, a plastic mat and a sheet on the concrete floor and Sujata and I had a few more hours sleep. Then woke up, bathed and had some breakfast and hit the road. We had to ride motorbikes to a town about 45kms away where the NGO we were visiting is based. Did a couple of case studies in nearby villages, had a thali lunch at a hotel and then had to ride another 30kms to meet the head of the NGO to get a case study from him. He was in a meeting in Balliguda to talk about flood relief so we had to visit him there. On the way the road was blocked by a recovery vehicle pulling a bus out of a ravine, apparently the accident happened three days before. We managed to get the bikes around and kept going. On the way back there was a motorbike accident, luckily I didn't see it happen but Sujata was on the other bike and they saw the whole thing. The rider was drunk and veered off the road over some dirt mounds, became airborne and crashed. He was just laying there drunk and a bit abusive but his pillion was not drunk and had blood all over his face and looked a bit in shock. (No one wears helmets here except the rider only in Bhubaneswar.) We waited around for almost an hour 'til help came for them. The drunk guy's mum arrived in an auto and started shouting at him then some other friends came in a 4x4 and packed them all in and took them back to town and we were on our way. I had to do one more case study then we could go back the other 45kms to Phulbani. Just when we left the rain started so we had to stop under a shop awning for about half an hour or so until it passed. Luckily I had a raincoat but Sujata forgot hers. We finally headed off again, by now about 7.00pm and there was more rain on the way but we had to keep going. There were so many fireflies in the trees and it was just beautiful. Then we got back to Phulbani about 8pm and went to a friend of Sujata's for dinner. They started preparing it when we arrived so ate at about 9.45pm by which time I was not hungry so had to beg for only a small portion as it is not cool to leave food on your plate here. I really shouldn't have eaten anything because I then had indigestion and was so uncomfortable on the bus. I just have to listen to my ipod the whole time and drift in and out of sleep. We got back about 5am and Sujata's husband met us with his motorbike and they dropped me home. I had a few more hours sleep but had to get up and do some work and today I'm just in a daze really. I'll go to Puri  tomorrow for Jane's 27th birthday party on Saturday so hopefully I've recovered by then. Then I have to do back to back night buses on Monday again to visit Kalahandi. Oh the volunteers life.

The lazy blogger

I know I've become very lazy in blogging. India has become my home now and it seems slightly strange to write updates of my daily life, while different to what my life has been in the past, they have become my new normal.

I am now used to mud and noise and car horns and people shitting and pissing and spitting in the street or whereever is convenient. I'm used to everything being shut just when I want to go and buy something, everything shuts from about midday until the evening. I'm used to the soaking monsoon rains. I'm used to eating curry at every meal, craving it even. I'm used to zoning out when people are speaking in Oriya around me. I'm used to being stared at. I'm used to kids yelling out hello when I walk past. I'm used to having no work to do for long periods and then being dragged around the countryside to do some really interesting work. I'm used to riding on motorbikes through remote jungle villages. I'm used to sitting in the homes of very poor people while they tell me their stories. I'm used to getting three or four share auto rickshaws across town to see someone about something then be told it is not possible today. I'm used to waiting. I'm used to things not happening as they should. I'm used to Indian generosity and friendliness. I'm used to wearing Indian dress. I'm used to being asked what I ate today, or yesterday.

So what is there left to share when I've become used to all of this.

The next series of entries will be exerpts from emails to my dear friend Clara describing some of my experiences to her over recent weeks.

Waiting

All is good in India, I had a massive dummy spit last week because I haven't worked in three weeks and no-one seems to give a shit. All my colleagues were involved with the Anna Hazare hunger strike stuff to pass an anti-corruption bill in parliament - not sure if you heard about it but it was a pretty big story. Anyway so I sat around waiting for them to organise something for me. I've spent a fair bit of time in Puri. In fact just came back from there this morning. There's big floods here in Orissa at the moment so we rode up to some of the affected areas on Sunday and it is such a mess, thousands of villages have been inundated and washed away. Just got a call today from the Australian High Commission to see if I'm okay so I gave them the flood update. Yesterday was full moon so today the water is flowing back into the sea and relieving the situation. Got my hair permanently straightened last week - 99% humidity every fucking day was killing me. Now I'm getting everyone staring at me. When Pintu and I rode through a village on Sunday, I'm not joking the whole street stopped and stared and watched us go by, turning their heads and all. I told him they must like his new sunglasses.

There's some more french people in town as of last week I think so there's now five or so here. Simon one of the older ones had a french night in his apartment on Saturday which was good. He had fois gras, pate, crepes, etc which was pretty good. I left early because I was a bit crook and also wanted to get up early to go to Puri next day. I missed out on the nightclub so I'll get the goss from my flatmate tonight. All I know so far is that someone lost their zippo lighter. So I spend the next two nights on night buses going to and from Kandhamal to interview some more people about their RTI stories. It is a troubled part of the state and I was meant to go there a few weeks ago but wasn't allowed due to Naxalite activity (local terrorists) but I believe it has settled down a bit. I'm really not concerned about the naxalites and i'm pretty sure they're not concerned about me either. After that I come back for a night then off to Puri again on Friday. All the expats are going for someone's birthday and someone's farewell. Then Monday night I'm on another bus to Kalahandi and probably a night bus back again. All quite exhausting really!


So that's the general update from India. I hope you're getting a sense of the wackiness of this place. Problem is for me that I'm losing relativity and not sure what is normal anymore.

Technology in India

India is where it is all meant to be happening with IT and in my experience it is, just not the right way.

In the first week here my Mac laptop charger blew up. Since then, my two external hard drives have broken, my touchpad has stopped working, my SD card reader doesn't read my SD card and my screen is pixelating and going strange.

I've also broken the replacement Mac laptop charger.

I am not enjoying technology in India and that could be why my blog is a bit neglected...

Kuilipuda, Sambalpur

Today, I was sitting in someone's house as they were preparing tea for me before telling me their RTI story. I decided to record random observations as I was waiting, just for something to do.

Jungle, humid air, smoke filled. Men in gamacha collecting rice and staples on their bicycles. Women collecting water from communal pump in the village. Cows and dogs roaming. Women in brightly coloured saris harvesting rice. Air thick with humidity and cow shit and smoke. Small children looking after smaller children. Eyes smeared in kajol and black circle on forehead to make child ugly so spirits won't take them. Flies, sweat, smoke. Women making chai. Young boy playing with a toy bow and arrow. On the wall hangs an old adidas bag that says Sydney, maybe something from the Olympics 11 years ago. I sit in a courtyard, mud and puddles in the centre. The home is made from mud with a straw thatch roof.

Dhenkanal RTI Master Training

Well my weekend was a blast! After having dinner and drinking too much wine with my flatmate on Friday night, I was up before 5am to meet Sujata to get a train at 6am that turned out to be at 6.45am. We then went to Dhenkanal which is a couple of hours away for a Master Trainer Program on RTI. What these guys do it train up people in the different villages to use the Right to Information Act and help their communities so they attend this two day course. Basically we sit around on the floor in a big circle (women on one side, men on the other) in a dusty decaying building and it is all spoken in Oriya. I was completely nodding off less than an hour into it so Sujata asked if I wanted to take rest and I said yes, after lunch. So after lunch I spent the entire afternoon lying on a sheet on a concrete floor in another room of this building reading Holy Cow and dozing. Sujata came in a couple of times to lay down and she curled up next to me and spooned. At other times people would come into the room and have meetings while I was sleeping. This is all quite normal for me now. We hung around in the evening to eat dinner at about 9pm then went back to the "office" where we all slept on the concrete floor. I did get a thin foam yoga mat to sleep on and had a pillow but no sheet over me this time. Sunday was a bit the same. I got up and went to Anu's sister in law's house where I could use the bathroom to shower and clean up. There they gave me some mango, pomegranite and biscuits then we headed to the hall for breakfast and it was the same all over again except that we didn't get back to the office until about 10.30pm last night then I had to talk to some guy for a while about his organisation but at 11pm I just couldn't do it any more. At 5.30am this morning Sujata woke me to tell me I need to get moving. I went to Anu's sister in law's house again but their water wasn't working so I went back to the hall to use the bathroom. At 7am we got the slow train that took three hours and I finally made it back to my apartment by about 10.45am where I could finally have a cigarette and be in my own space. So that was my weekend, how was yours?

A bit of mountain air

With work getting a little busy, I decided to take Pintu up on his offer and head down to the southern part of Orissa for a few days for a change of scenery.

The air is so much cooler and fresher down there and the scenery, lush mountains and hills and rice fields, it was a stunning vista all around (except for a few steel mills and the obligatory industrial sites that are a huge point of conflict in this state).

The plan was an overnight train down to Koraput, collect motorbike on arrival and cruise around the countryside for four days. That is exactly what we did, each day visiting different tribal markets. The markets were very much for the locals and some don't see any foreigners so there's not many trinkets to buy but the experience is wonderful and fascinating.

Each market visit started with a drink of local brew with the ladies who sell it in big silver pots. Unlike most other places in India, these women were quite amused by the foreigner having a little tipple, even encouraging it. Then we'd wander around, see what was on offer, maybe chat to a few people. If you leave it too late there are many drunks around, this is the weekly event of course and that local brew does pack a bit of a punch.

There's nothing quite like cruising around unknown lands on the back of a Honda Hero with a trusted friend as a guide. It was a very nice and relaxing few days and I can't wait to head back down there and go to some of the tribal villages next time.