Hmmm food

pizza blueberries raspberries
lattes orange juice hoagies
calzone pad thai veggie burgers lasagna
foccacia baguettes wine peach cobbler
salads fish cheese
croissants dark beer bagels

i haven’t been letting myself think about the foods i miss until recently - now that i can count the remaining weeks on one hand. hmmm…

so this past week was my last week of rest and data entry…i did about 30 hours of data entry and am all caught up for the sites that we have done to date. only 3 more sites to go! one morning the little neighborhoods were waiting outside my window. they call me “acca” (i have no idea how to spell it) which means older sister and is used as a sign of respect. “can you open the door, acca?” then they all came running in, wandering around the apartment, touching everything. i kept my eye the bag that has the dead squirrel in formaldehyde to make sure they didn’t go near that…then i had to usher them out when i was leaving to go to the college to check to make sure all the equipment was ready for this next week of field research.

thursday, i spent 3 hours on the back of a motorcycle. that was rough. we had to go to a town that is about 1.5 hours away to pick up some plastic bags that are needed for the research. we just went there and then turned around and came back. the other option would have been to take a city bus, but we would have had to take 2 buses and it could have taken 3 hours one way – so the bike was the better option. but after i got off, my knee had stiffened up, my hip flexer was sore, my lower back and hands were almost bruised from bouncing up and down over the half paved roads and holding onto the metal for dear life. my research assistant did share his ear phones with me on the way back, so we had a little motorcycle dance party which was fun :)

on friday, i left for bangalore with one of the project drivers to pick up the 4 undergrad students from the airport which is about a 6 hour drive from ponnampet. on the way, we saw a group of langur monkeys right next to the road that cuts through a national park. they were beautiful! that is the type of monkey that i did my behavior study on at the bronx zoo, but i have never seen them in the wild before. unfortunately, i couldn't find my camera in time to take but one picture. can you find the monkey in the bamboo? he’s there, you just can’t really see him. the students were supposed to get in a little after midnight, but the flight was an hour delayed and i think they were the last ones to get off the flight because we didn’t leave the airport until close to 3am. then we had to get up at 8am to get breakfast, run some errands, and drive them to coorg. poor things didn’t know if they were coming or going – but actually stayed awake for the most part, so that was pretty impressive. on the way home, we saw wild elephants - a first for me. it was amazing. it was dark out, so we couldn’t see them in detail, but they were close. we passed about 5 or 6, then stopped by the side of the road to look at another one that was a couple of meters further down the road, it started flapping its ears which is one of the first levels of threats if i remember my animal planet correctly : ) then started walking towards us which i think is the second, so we drove on. then there was another right on the side of the road, our driver warned a motorcyclist who was coming that way because elephants can be very dangerous. it was a great way to welcome to students to the area for sure.

tomorrow my advisor will be out in the field with us to see what i have been doing for the past couple of months. i hope that i have been doing everything right – i’ve been kind of winging it, but i think that’s part of it. we shall see… then tonight one of the students is staying with me at my apartment. she will help get the equipment organized and set up… help me make peanut butter!! it will be nice to have students here to help out for these last 2 weeks of field research. hopefully they won’t be too tired from the jet lag and all the travel…

Lillyputs?

last night, i fell asleep listening to drumming, chanting, and singing. i’m not sure where it was coming from – it could have been the laborers who are taking down the field hockey stands are camping out near the fields while doing the work or the house down the street that is set up right now for some type of pooja. whatever the source, it was soothing, but eerie as the faint sounds broke though the peace of the night.

then after i feel asleep my mosquito net fell on me. i jumped out of bed searching for my flash light and glasses both of which i keep next to my pillow in the dark. my first thought was that a bat had crashed into the net. a couple of weeks ago, i woke up to find myself sitting up, fighting with the mosquito net trying to push it aside. i was dreaming that i was in the field pushing my way through a cobweb as i do most mornings when checking the traps.

this past week completed my 4 weeks of field work in a row. it went pretty smoothly after a rocky start on monday morning. we traveled to the sites each morning from our apartments which meant that we were always late – let me rephrase that – the driver was always late and therefore we were all late. here is a picture of some little kids filling water buckets at the end of my street that i was watching as i waited for the jeep. we had about a 45 minute bumpy drive to the sites each way. mondays are long because we have to figure out how to fit the grids in the sites, measure, then set up the grids with the traps, and then bait all the traps. of course, none of the guys eat breakfast before they leave the house in the morning, so they want to stop for breakfast along the way. it’s a battle that i have completely given up on. the women manage to feed themselves before work, but the men do not. there are things that they could have, but they don’t – so anyway, on top of being late already, we have to stop for breakfast. and then they can’t agree on a place to eat, so they want to stop twice…it was a mess, but we finally made it to the field and got everything set up.

this week there was one site that was native and one that was mixed vegetation both in the same rainfall zone. the farmer at the native site applied a chemical fertilizer to all the coffee trees on monday afternoon (even though we called before to make sure he wasn’t going to do any type of applications that week), so we caught 0 animals at that site – although we did get a picture of a civet cat running through the site. in the mixed site, we only caught 3 rats this week.

tuesdays and wednesdays are really busy long days. we get to the sites in the mornings, check the traps to see if there is anything in there, then do vegetation analysis (basically measuring all the trees in the grids) for the rest of the day with an hour lunch, before baiting the traps again before we leave. we have gotten pretty efficient at all of this, but it is still hard work especially in the hot sun. by thursday afternoon, we are finished with the vegetation, so we have time to relax a bit before baiting the traps. we stopped and got some tea one afternoon. there was a coffee scale where we took turns weighing ourselves. i have lost a couple of pounds with the change in diet, the physical activity, and the constant sweating :) i am looking forward to putting the weight back on when i get home!

one of the research assistants was schooled in an ashram. he learned yoga, mantras, and all religious teachings. when he’s not talking nonsense like telling me there are little people about a foot high called “lillyputs” that live is tiny houses in the arctic or that in the deep oceans there are half human-half fish beings – he is a wealth of information and great to talk to. he explained to me the teachings in his ashram are taken from five major religions – hindu, buddism, islam, jainism, and christianity. hindu represents satya - truth. buddism is dharma – the rules what we follow or moral codes of life. jainism is peace. christianity is prema – love. and islam is ihimsha – non-violence.

jainism is a religion that is not that well known in the west. i know very little about it other than the followers do not cause harm to any living being. they give up all their worldly possessions and walk the earth. they do not walk in the grass in case they could step on an insect, they even carry a feather to sweep the ground in the front of them, they cover their nose and mouths with gauze to not accidently inhale any organisms. they are obviously vegetarians but also do not eat root vegetables (would harm the bugs and earthworms) or yogurt (would kill the bacteria).

my research assistant drew me the symbol that is a combination of each of the 5 individual symbols (like om for hindu, the cross for christianity). the short form of the symbol is the swastika which is the symbol of the universe. this is the symbol that hitler modified slightly for his use which i think most of us in the west now associate with racism and evil – but here in india the swastika is continues to be a sign of peace.

well this is my last week of data entry before my advisor gets here on thursday. i have about 20 hours left to do…i am going to pick up the students from bangalore this friday. this day has been so far away for the past couple of months – i am glad that it’s finally here. i am excited to have some new recruits to help with the last 2 weeks of field research!

Banana leaves

last week was our final week at the coffee board. we planned to stay there this week as well, but one of the farmers did not want us to do the mammal study on his farm without him there. luckily we had another site that could replace it. the site is closer to ponnampet than the coffee board, so we will get to stay at our apartments this week! it feels nice not to have to pack up again today after just arriving yesterday. the only problem is getting everyone to leave on time in the mornings. we’ll see how it goes.

so this week’s field sites were a bit challenging. both of them were arabica plantations rather than the robusta ones that we have been working on. the arabica plants are smaller and more densely planted. for our coffee row height and girth measurements, we usually measure 330 plants per grid. these sites put us up to over 700 plants per grid. on top of that, we were short staffed this week. the field assistants are starting to skip work because the projects are coming to an end. it makes it hard on the ones that are coming and doing their job because they have twice the work and they feel resentful. we had a couple of 12 hour field days this week and are all pretty worn out. additionally, one of the sites had a pretty steep slope that kept getting steeper as you went higher. by the third grid, you were climbing at a 45 degree angle. and it had viper snakes which are poisonous. one of them was actually stuck to the sticky paper in the track plate. (i only saw pictures because i was at the other site.) it had gone in after a rat i guess it got stuck. the two people that found it set it loose with a stick. so on my track plate i have rat prints with snake scales which is kind of neat. the other site had wasps - 3 people in my field team got stung. at that site, we got another picture of a small indian civet with the infrared camera and photos of some rats and squirrels with the flash camera.

a squirrel was found dead in one of the traps, so asha and i had to perform surgery again…injecting it with formaldehyde and cutting its ear for a tissue sample (well, asha did it, i just assisted). this time it went a little smoother than last time. i hope that is it for the dead animal preservation. and apparently, we don’t know where the tissue sample from the last one is…that is going to be a shock for whoever finds the little white container and opens it up…nasty.

one of the sites had laborers picking pepper. they use bamboo poles to climb all the way up the trees and pick the pepper from the vine. the picture is above. i don't know how they do it. i was amazed watching them. one of the women that was pruning the plants brought over the nest (at the top of the page) to show me. i don’t know what type of bird it is, but the eggs are beautiful.

here is a picture of us eating lunch one day. some of the restaurants serve the meals on banana leaves. they give you water that you wash it off with and then they put food on it. it works well for biodegradable plates. i am still not comfortable eating rice with my hands. i can’t seem to get it all in my mouth and probably look like a 2 year old. i do think that my tolerance level for spice has increased though. oh and i found out that dosas are made from soaking rice in water for 4 hours and then grinding the rice into a powder. this is then mixed with water and the batter fried like a pancake. i had dosas for breakfast every morning this week with ghee and sugar and coffee. it was good.

in sad news for this week, the crazy driver ran over a dog. we were all in the jeep and there was a dog in the road. he honked and it didn’t move – it looked a little shocked – and the driver didn’t really slow down, just ran it over. it was horrible. we were all silent. he didn’t even stop. then 4 days later, i was in the front seat and i screamed because i thought were going to hit another dog (i guess we didn’t really come close)…but every one in the car found it quite amusing.

in one of the towns, they are widening the roadway – so all of the homes and shops that were along the road are being demolished. it looks like a war zone. the trees that are probably decades old are also not spared. this picture is one of about 10 huge old trees that we passed within a 2 mile stretch of the road. they said that they will be doing this along all major roads including the town where we are all living right now.

so we are doing 2 sites next week and then finally a week of no field! i need the rest. my advisor and the students will be here soon – they couldn’t get here fast enough – i think we are all running on fumes at this point… it will be good to travel to and from my apartment though this week so i don’t have to carry all the equipment with me and i can cook for myself - although i will miss some of the cook’s dishes at the coffee board. i am thinking of working out a site schedule when my advisor is here so we can stop there for lunch :)

Indian summer

i was trying to do a post week but somehow along the way, i got a week behind so this week i am playing catch-up…last saturday night, the project director called me and asked if i would like to go to a coorgi wedding with him and his mom on sunday morning. this area is called coorg and the people coorgi – i think they are their own caste…i still can’t keep all that straight. so on sunday morning i put on my long kurta and new Indian style pants – which are kind of like clown pants or hammer pants – really baggy in the seat and legs and then cinched at the bottom. they are really light weight cotton and good for the heat here. the weddings are 2 days at least, so i went on the morning of the second day. the bride and groom are separate until the afternoon of the 2nd day. traditionally the coorgis were warriors, so for the weddings, they wear the clothes of the warrior and have swords. the ceremony involves the groom’s men chopping 5 or 6 banana stalks after walking around them 3 times, then they are feed tea and little food from the bride’s family symbolizing that they have made it successfully to meet the bride at her house after their journey. this took place outside for this wedding. the second part took place inside on a stage. it was set up to look like a room in a house and the groom went to the stage and sat down in one of the chairs and then the bride came out and sat down in a chair next to him – this i’m assuming is meant to be the inside of the bride’s house. afterwards a procession of people waited to make their way through the room to congratulate the new couple. i’m really glad that i had a chance to see the wedding. i tried to sneak some quick pictures, but people kept encouraging me to go up in the front and take pictures, meet the groom, take pictures of him…this is a picture of the groom and his best man.

then one of my field assistants is playing in a field hockey tournament that has been taking place here for the last month, so i went to see his game. it was fun, but really hot at 2pm in the indian summer – even under the shade. when i got back to my apartment, my neighbor who doesn’t speak english saw me in my indian clothes and smiled really big and said “super!” it was really sweet.

this week for research we did one native trees and coffee site and one exotic trees and coffee site in the low rainfall zone. it was exhausting as the dry heat seems to drain all the energy and moisture out of your body. the native site is near to the forest and the farmer said elephants come through the farm regularly, but we didn’t see any unfortunately. the exotic site had pigs…50 of them. the farmer said that he keeps them put up during the day, so my advisor said go ahead and use the site since the small mammals are nocturnal – but it was a bad idea. the pigs ran through the grids during the day, eating all the bait, kicking the traps around which shuts the door on them. so by the time we baited in the afternoons, the pigs probably shut a good number of the traps reducing our chances of getting any captures. i’m not sure if i will be able to use that site in the analysis - we shall see. this is a picture of the laborer's daughters who are so cute!

we stayed at the coffee board again this week – but had a different room that had a shower with hot water!!! it was my first shower in months!! i had to share a room with both of the female research assistants who not speaking to each other, so that was a bit of a pain but we survived :) next week, one of them will be gone most of the week, so that should be better.

we did some site seeing during our lunch break 2 days this week. one day we went to a tibetan buddist temple, called golden temple. it was so peaceful. i wish that i had more time to spend there. i heard the monks chanting and playing the instrument that looks like a 2 foot long horn. it was beautiful.

then the other day, we went to a national park where you could ride elephants and see deer and monkeys. here is a picture of a bonnet macaque trying to get water from the water fountain. the elephants were with their trainers and the deer in a fence, but the monkeys were just hanging out wherever – which was kind of cool, but kind of unnerving because i know this type has fangs and can be aggressive. but they were fine.

originally, i had thought that we were going to be able to do 1 site instead of 2 for 2 weeks, but i found out that we can do them at the same time - which shaves a week off of my field research!! that means that i have 3 more weeks left. two more weeks, then a one week break, then we will do the last week with my advisor and the undergraduate students. that will leave 2 weeks for bat netting and showing the students some of the sites, and then i may actually get to travel to see Hampi which i have heard is a must if you are here. so that will be nice to see.

my roommate is leaving tomorrow…i must admit that i am jealous - i am tired and ready to go home too (and craving so many foods!!!). if i can make it through these next 2 weeks, i'll be in the clear :) we clean the traps in the rivers on saturday mornings and yesterday had the help of 4 little ones. they actually thought we were making a movie because i was taking pictures - and one of the field assistants played along with the story telling them which of us were the villians and which were the good guys. finally someone told them the truth - i gave them some chocolates for helping us out - after making them wash their hands with sanitizer of course.

Coffee Board

the first week back in the field after my week of rest actually went pretty well. we stayed at the coffee board of india which is a government agency that is part of the cafnet project. there is a research substation that has guest houses where the employees stay, labs, coffee farms, a temple, and even a nursery school. the women stayed in the main guest house and the guys stayed in a guest house down the road. the women definitely got the better end of the deal on that one. the rooms have beds and there is running water and even hot water! also, there is a cook who makes really good food. indian food 3 times a day though is a little much for me – especially spicy food with chilis at 6:15 in the morning…the cook though takes out a portion of the meal and only adds about 3 chilis for me and then adds probably 20 more for the rest of the meal. breakfast is usually a coconut chutney with red chili and dosas or idly. dosas are kind of like sour dough pan cakes and idly (which i’m probably spelling wrong) are disk shaped balls of rice basically. i eat them with honey and ghee (which is clarified butter) both of which are served in tiny portions though. or else she’ll make a “rice item” as they say which means rice with vegetables and curry. it is a little heavy for me for breakfast. my favorite breakfast that she makes is a potato curry with poori which is kind of like a quickly fried rice tortilla.

i had some interesting conversations with the coffee farmers at the sites where we worked this week. one site was native trees and coffee, next to a native forest and we caught by far the most number of animals to date, as well as wild boars and civet cat in the camera trap. the farmer’s wife is a journalist and asked my opinion about a story she is writing. there is to be a trash cleanup in their village where the community members will walk and collect all the trash and debris along the roads. she wanted to know if it was better that they burn or bury the trash. this is something that i actually studied for my masters so i was able to comment intelligently on it, but there is no answer…neither of them are very good options. if you burn it, you will be burning plastics and releasing toxins into the air – unless you have some sort of air filter or scrubber which even then does not remove all the pollutants. if you bury it, there are a lot of things that are not biodegradable (including plastics) and as the rainwater filters through the soil through the garbage, it picks up pollutants from the trash (the liquid is called leachate) and it seeps into the groundwater and drinking water. it was an interesting conversation that basically concluded with how do we start the process to ban plastics.

i also spoke with the farmer’s wife at the second site about the socioeconomic issues with the government and laborers. the farmers that i am working with are wealthy and the laborers are like slaves almost. the wife was telling me how it used to be that there was a bondage between the “master” and laborer. the master provided the food and clothing and housing and took care of their laborers, but now the government has stepped in and severed that bond, they provided housing and gave them rice and now the men spend all their salaries on alcohol and leave the women and children to fend for themselves. they no longer live on the same property and there is lawlessness in the villages where the laborers live. it was an interesting conversation. it may be true that the laborers are drinking away their money – i don’t know, but they are their own people too. the woman was making it sound like they were children or property. i think using the word "master" made me feel weird.

one of the rats that got trapped tried to escape through the back and died, so it was half out-half in the trap when we got there in the morning. it had to be injected with formaldehyde and then preserved in a jar the formaldehyde solution ...and we had to cut off its ear as a tissue sample and put in alcohol. me, i had to do this. luckily, asha stepped up to the plate and did the medical procedures and just mixed the solutions. the rat was floating though in the jar and we couldn’t get it to go down and then gecko squeaked and we both looked at the jar and thought the rat had come back to life. we couldn’t stop laughing after that. hopefully that will be the last dead animal we have to deal with.

only one of the women was working for the most part this week, so there were no fights which was nice. there were only 4 of us staying at the guest house so we went to see some of the sites in the area after work a couple of nights. we went to abbi falls (a water fall), a hindu temple that had really nice paintings of some of the hindu gods, and rajaseat which is where one of the kings used to sit to watch the sunsets. at rajaseat there was a fountain light and music show where music was blared through speakers and the water in the fountain made to dance to the music with lights shining underneath. it was kind of like a disney world or six flags show. there were tons of tourists at each of these places, but i was the only white person and felt like i was part of the tourist attraction as people pointed and stared. i still haven’t gotten used to that. it was a good week though and gave me a chance to be with some of the field team not in the work environment. i learned that i am the first white female that they have worked with and when i first arrived they thought that i looked pretty, but had a skin disease (which i had to explain was actually freckles)…