Thunder Storm Awakedness

Phew! I’m alive. It’s ok mom and dad…….. I haven’t written for good reason…I’ve been in Indian jail.

Anyways, it’s been awfully rainy here during the past few nights. So rainy in fact, that the electricity has been on and off and back on and then off again but, then on again and then off again. What I am trying to say here is that it’s been a little difficult to get much done lately.

As a side note…..for those who know me, they know that I have inherited from my father, the great skill of being able to fall asleep anytime and anywhere. In addition to that, I can sleep through anything; rain, a marching band playing, being shaken (ask Ellyn for details)…… well, two nights ago, I couldn’t sleep between 2 and 3:30 in the morning because of a thunderstorm that was going on. I was a serious storm. Following that, I couldn’t sleep because tons of mosquitoes, probably malaria infested ones, entered my room immediately following the storm. Yeah. So, that’s what’s been going on with my sleeping patterns.

My first day doing research in the village of Kullapalayam went great, although at the end of the day we realized that some of the questions on the survey didn’t work so well. Needless to say, we changed the survey a bit. As I learned in my qualitative research class that I took in the spring, part of doing research is hanging out. So, on Monday, I hung out in the village a bit. I smoked beedies (tobacco and other stuff wrapped in tobacco leaves) with old men, drank tea with women, and drank fresh lime juice with some teenaged kids. It was all unsanitary but very enjoyable. In addition to that, I took some photos and a little bit of video. Since Monday I haven’t done any more research because I had to go into Pondi to get 150 copies of the survey made, which took a full day, and I had to learn to carve stone…more to come about that.

Here are some photos from the village……..

Tuesday I altered the survey, had a samosa and chai for lunch, and returned to the stone carving workshop where I had visited last week. Last week, Suresh, the guy in charge of teaching and overseeing the stone carving invited me to come back and hang out, so of course I did. I perused the different carvings that they had made there, deciphered in my head how they had carved the stone, and then took a stone and some tools and went at it…..attempting to carve a face into stone. My carving wasn’t half bad and the kids at the shop were quite impressed. The down side of the afternoon: I managed to slice my finger with one of the carving tools. What a rookie mistake. I will probably go into finish the carving on Saturday.

Yesterday (Wednesday), I went with Sashi (the woman who is helping me with my research) to Pondi to make the 150 copies of the survey. When we got to Pondi at 11am, we learned that the Xerox shop had no electricity and wouldn’t be able to complete our project until 3pm. So, Sashi and I walked around a bit, had a big south Indian lunch (which I ate too much of and ended up vomiting up some, actually vurping (vomit-burping)). We then go Chai from a street vendor and I bought an instrumental CD for 20 Rupees, or 45 cents. Go me! I tried to buy some other Indian musik but the dude in the stall kept trying to sell me English musik……he didn’t understand that I was trying to immerse myself in India. Lastly, before going to pick up the photocopies we wen to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. It is where Sri Aurobindo and “The Mother” are buried. It is an important place for many south Indians and Hindus and is a place where meditation is done and respects paid. I meditated for about 10 minutes, listened to the birds chirp, and watched the devotees come and go…..it was very relaxing.

OK off to Kullapalayam to do more research………..

PS- Neil, you are partially incorrect. While there is plenty of cow dung in the streets in the villages and in Pondi, and in other cities for that matter, there is also plenty of human dung. I know this because I seen it. I also know this because I am interviewing people about their toilet practices and they told me that they shit in the streets because the public toilets are too dirty and smelly. Interesting rationale……..