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.