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!