Coffee flowers

the coffee plants flower once a year here after the first rains or even after the mist is thick enough in the mornings to provide enough moisture. the flowers fill the air with scents that to me are reminiscent of jasmine and honeysuckle. the flowers are here for only 3 days and you have to be very careful not to damage them because they are part of the growth cycle of the coffee berry.

the next picture is of some of the pepper picker's children that were taken with the camera trap. the laborers are part of the lowest caste, which used to be called the “untouchables.” they work in the farms picking coffee, pepper, harvesting rice or on the roadways repairing holes in the roads with tar and sweat or collecting garbage or cleaning toilets. castes determine the social and economic status of a person and are hereditary, meaning you are born into your caste and there is nothing that you can do to change it. although the system was outlawed by the government, it is still deeply ingrained in the culture. there is a type of affirmative action here where certain quotas must be filled for schools and government jobs with people from the lower castes.

this is my elementary understanding of the caste system– basically there are 3 religions here – hindu, muslim, and christian. each of these religions is subdivided into caste where the cultures are completely different – how they practice religion, how they dress, what they eat, what occupations they can have. the ruling caste has always been the hindu brahmins – they are strict vegetarians, no eggs, or alcohol. they will not even eat at restaurants that prepare non-vegetarian food. my advisor told a story about a woman from an upper caste falling off the step of a train who turned away from the helping hand of an “untouchable” because she would rather hit the ground than touch his hand. ghandi renamed the untouchables harijans which means “children of god,” but they most commonly refer to themselves as dalits which means “oppressed” or “broken into pieces.” ambedkar, the principal author of india’s 1950 constitution and the first “untouchable” to be educated abroad, called the caste system “an ascending scale of hatred and a descending scale of contempt” (quote taken from this great book that i have started reading called in spite of the gods, the strange rise of modern india). this issue of the caste system is further compounded by the philosophy of karma or reincarnation which does more to oppress the lower castes - many believe that the people are poor and in this place in life because of wrongdoings in their past lives.

i’ve had some frank discussions with a couple of my field assistants about the caste system and some of them feel like it is one of the main things within this society that is holding it back and that it continues to make the government ineffective. all of my field assistants are hindu and are of similar level castes. one of my field assistants is in the highest caste, brahmin – she said if she eats meat that “my family will not tell of me.” i am assuming that means when they die they will not acknowledge her…i’m not sure. she has rebelled though and not married a man that her parents picked out for her in an arranged marriage, but instead has a “love marriage” to a christian nonetheless. so not even a hindu that is below her caste, but someone of a completely different religion. her family is not happy about it, but has not disowned her. so now she says she doesn’t know what caste she is in. the other people in my field team chide love marriages in front of her, saying that parents do not approve of love marriages because most of them do not work out and that is why they get angry. i told them that all marriages in the states are love marriages (but i didn’t admit that about 50% of them end in divorce).

and for the research updates – this week we completed our third site and had the highest number of animals caught yet! we caught 2 rats (who are actually kind of cute, i am still trying to tell myself), 1 squirrel, and 7 shrews. also – in an unforeseen hazard, we also caught 3 of the farmer’s chickens in the sherman traps and one got killed. i guess they see some of the seeds and stick their heads in the trap and then peck right on the spring board and door closes on their neck…not good.

and in other bad news – henry is dead and i think i killed him. i had a little gecko that stayed with me in my room, i named him henry. he was only 1.5 inches from nose to tail. he would walk across the floor and stayed in the corner where i threw my dirty closes – i think it was cool there. so yesterday, when i was putting up my laundry, i think he was under a towel and i stepped on him…

this week i am working from home and not going out to the field. it is a much needed break. i arrived in bangalore on a thursday at the end of january and started field work on that monday. my body needs the rest. my old sports injuries are coming back – my right ankle that i’ve sprained several times in tennis and then most recently when walking across the street in brooklyn and my right knee that i injured in track are both acting up – and i’m assuming they will continue to do so for the duration of my field work here. i think i am starting to feel my 34 years here on this earth!

well i’m off to do prepare for my meeting with the field team tomorrow - this week has been a nice break from them too :) - do some shopping in the neighboring town, and grab lunch with one of the other researchers this afternoon.

Research training...

sunday is my day off from the field. i got up and did some yoga. it felt great! i really wish that i had time to do it during the week, but with 10-12 hour days in the field, my body is too exhausted. i cleaned the apartment and did my laundry. i don't know if its best to keep wearing one set of field clothes until they are all brown and stained, then switch to another pair - or just slowly wear them all out at the same time. i try to get them clean, but it seems like most of the time is spent picking off all the little sticky seeds. i try to imitate a washing machine and swirl my clothes around in the bucket after soaking them, but the dirt just doesn't seem to be coming off. i think we should have a moment of appreciation for whoever invented the washing machine!



this second week started off a little rough. we wanted to go to a coffee farm that had predominately native trees because we had the mammal expert here with us this week. we asked the farmer over the phone if they were done harvesting the coffee which they were, but we didn't ask if they were done picking pepper. so when we got there, there were pepper climbers, as they are called, all over the site we wanted to use. pepper (black pepper) is grown in clusters on vines that wrap around the tall straight trees. here, they put tiny ladders up the tree, tie bags around their waist, and pick the pepper. on one farm, we saw 2 young boys stepping on the pepper clusters with their bare feet to separate out the pepper corns it kind of reminded me of squishing grapes. after the pepper is dried, you have the black pepper corns.



ok, back to the research, so then had to collect and pack up all of the equipment, relocate to another site, and set up there. it was almost dark by the time that we were done. sanjay and his wife, who have been conducting small mammal surveys in this area for the past 6 years joined us this week to teach us how to do set up the traps correctly, how much bait to use, and how to handle the animals. but as luck would have it...we only caught 1 squirrel in the afternoon that they weren't there. regardless, it was so great to have them here. they were both a tremendous help. they said that they did not find a lot of small mammals in coffee farms and if pesticides or herbicides were applied- a lot of the times they found nothing. they said they witnessed birds falling straight out of the trees after pesticide applications. i only have 1 site right now that is native trees and organic, so i am going to add 2 more to see the effects of pesticides vs organic. sanjay and payal both work in wildlife conservation and sanjay's wife, payal, had the chance to go to the bronx zoo with the wildlife conservation society to do some training on their international research. small world, huh?

this week, i did get a picture of an indian palm civet with the infrared camera!!! i am super excited that it actually works. hopefully, i will be able to get more pictures of medium sized animals. (ignore the date and time...apparently, it needs to be reset every time you put in new batteries...)

on saturdays, we have to check the traps in the morning and then we collect them all to move to the next site. in between though, we have to wash all of them...this is a picture of us washing the 144 traps in a stream that people use to bath in and wash their clothes. it didn't smell so great because cows use it too, but it is probably clean enough for the rodents :)

we are still working to get the apartment set up. march and april is summer here in this region and it is getting hotter. right now it is in the 70s in the mornings and evenings and gets up in the 90s during the day with the humidity at about 75%. so my roommate and i have been discussing whether to get ceiling fans which are about 1200 rupees (about $30) or stand up fans which cost about the same. we also went to buy curtains for the windows - finally...we still have sheets up right now. we went to the fabric store and they only had 3 colors for curtains - cream (but they only had 1 for a door), bright yellow, or pea green. so we picked out some fabric in colors that we liked to have the curtains made. the fabric for the 3 sets of windows was 460 rupees (about $10), then the girl took us upstairs to where the tailors work. it was like a balcony with a roof the looked over the street with about 6 sewing machines and a man sewing away at each. we told the tailor what we wanted and he said it would be about 90 rupees and we should have them in a couple of days...we'll see what we get.

well, i'm off to make some mac and cheese. we only have bread, pasta, and cheese in the house right now. i'll bribe the field team with ice cream to let me stop and buy some vegetables on the way home tomorrow :)

ps - i revised the comment settings have been changed, they were on some restricted setting before - so feel free to comment if you would like!

Cows Eat Garbage and Shrews Stink

today started out with me putting on my boots that had sticky, velcro like seed things all over them from the field this week; gathering all my equipment for the field and bait which have to make homemade peanut butter for these little creatures almost every night; walking down the street to the junction where the jeep picks me up at 7am; and then promptly falling on my face. i don't know what happened, the velcro things on the left boot's shoe lace got stuck to the right boot shoe lace and then with all my bags i couldn't regain my balance and just fell in the dirt. i didn't do any fancy dives into the dirt like my friend lisa, just fell. there was a man walking towards me and i know he saw the whole thing, but he didn't even laugh. i would have laughed - if they weren't hurt.

there is no garbage collection that i can tell of. my field team throws garbage everywhere and says someone will clean it up. its very strange. there are concrete receptacles on the side of the road to put your garbage (or so i've been told) and i think then the garbage gets burned. most of the time, you can see dogs and cows eating out of them though. both of which just roam freely down the streets. the dogs can be menacing and you are supposed to throw rocks at them if they are being aggressive towards you. the cows i guess are harmless, but i still cross over to the other side of the street if they are there.

so this was the first official week of the mammal study and i am exhausted...only 26 more sites to go! these past couple of weeks have been a little rough on me with the logistics for the research and trying to figure out how i am supposed to teach the field team how to do it, when i actually don't know myself. all very nerve-wracking.

while sitting alone in the field one day jumping at every sound, i came up with the top 10 reasons (and made a list) why this whole trip may have been a bad idea :)

1 - i don't like spicy food

2 - i don't know how to do this research even though i'm supposed to lead a team (already mentioned that one)

3 - i don't like being the forest alone

4 - i think i'm afraid of animals

5 - i like showers

6 - i don't like people telling me what to do and being ordered around

7 - i like having some time to myself

8 - i don't like not understanding what people are saying, especially when they are talking about me

9 - i like to wear shorts and a tank top when its hot out

10 - i don't even really drink coffee

i obviously had/have a bad attitude right now :)

so at the first site, we have already caught 2 shrews that smell really musky (one died when we were measuring it and trying to handle it this morning. i feel really bad about that), 1 rat that was actually kind of cute and bouncy with big ears that escaped, and then 2 tiny little mice. i have proven to be useless when it comes to handling the animals and tagging them. i really just want to see what they are and then let them go. i have left most of the handling to the brave ones in the group. in this picture, i am putting the trap with the animal in it, in the bag - that's the only thing that i know how to do.

the other day while doing field work, an elephant and 3 men were walking down the street. apparently, these men train the elephants. kiran and i took a quick picture with them. my sweat shirt is no longer oatmeal color, but more of a brown shade. actually it doesn't look that dirty there - but i am soaking it right now to see if i can get it a little cleaner. the sweatshirt with the hood has been really useful though because there are these big ants along the coffee branches that get on you when you passing by (or in my case crashing into) the branches and their bite feels like a stink. i almost striped down one time when i had like 10 on me. so i put up the hood when i am going through the coffee farms. crouching down under these branches is quite difficult for me. my knees (and head) do not like it. i have also started soaking my feet when i get home like an old lady. i am trying to stay healthy and get rest so that i can survive the remaining 15.5 weeks - yes i counted :)

my mantra "i am like bear grylls. i am like bear grylls." hasn't been helping as much as i would have hoped. maybe i'm not putting enough feeling into it. i'll try harder. at least i don't have to eat a raw frog or pee into a snake skin and drink it - i really saw an episode where he did that. nasty.

well i am off to dinner at the indian/swiss guys house with the other european researchers. he is the one with an oven and he has made bread!

A Day in the Life...

i wake up around 6:30am just as the sun is beginning to rise and the neighborhood begins to awaken. it is not yet hot and sometimes a dense fog hangs in the cool morning air. i go to the kitchen, fill a pot with water from the filter, light the gas stove with a lighter and a fast hand to boil water for my tea. tea bags are not common, so the tea comes in a powder almost that you put in a sieve and pour hot water through into your cup. i put milk that comes in a plastic bag purchased at the bakery into my tea along with sugar. most mornings i have yogurt that i make the day before by warming milk, adding 3 teaspoons of good yogurt from bangalore, and then setting out in the sun in a glass container for the day. i add in oats, almonds, milk, bananas, and coorg honey. the coorg region is known for its honey, although it is much lighter tasting than most of the honeys in the states. there are 3 different sizes of bananas. the little ones are about 2-3 inches long and sweet - i like them best. if i have time, i do some yoga. the roof top is beautiful in the mornings for yoga, but the roof is slanted and i am afraid i will roll off into the field next door that is a make-shift sewer pit.

to take a bath, i put 2 pots of water on to boil in the kitchen. i mix that hot water with the water from the tap to have warm water for a bucket bath. i am getting more used to them, i think - i learning how much water i can use to wash my hair and still have some left over to rinse. the bathroom has a drain in the corner and the floors are sloped. there is no flush for the toilet, you just fill up the bucket with water and poor it down the hole. laundry is done by putting your clothes in a bucket with some detergent and letting them soak and washing them by hand. you can pay someone to do your laundry for you which entails beating your clothes on a rock, but so far i have done it myself. i hang them out to dry along the railing of our second floor apartment. it only takes a couple of hours for the clothes to dry because it is about 90 degrees here in the afternoons.

the rent for the apartment is only about $60 a month, so $30 each for my roomate and i. the electricity goes out every day from 7:30-8:30pm to conserve energy - so we have flash lights and candles ready at that time and often cook and eat dinner by candle light, which is actually quite nice. in reality though, the power is off most of the day which can be annoying especially when you are working on a computer and watching the battery life dwindle or when you have just bought milk and the refrigerator is off for most of the day. the apartment itself is simple, but nice. we are at the end of the road on the second floor. the landlady lives downstairs and doesn't speak any english and we don't speak any kannada, so we just smile at each other awkwardly. when she has something she needs to tell us, she brings her grandson. today, she brought 4 women to tour our apartment...not sure what that was about. i am adapting to this temporary life here and starting to learn the ropes; appreciating the little things - the power being on, hot water, learning that one of your friends has an oven, a shower...finding nutella in a local store!! :)

Traveling in India

traveling through india, i'm learning, is no easy feat. i have a friend, lynda, visiting for a week. it has been nice to see a familiar face - and have someone to share in the staring. she came right in time for shiva's birthday which was on feb. 12th. it is the day that shiva sleeps, so everyone else has to stay awake all night to watch the world. the neighbor kids downstairs invited us to come down and watch "dance practice". apparently, that night there were about 50 dance performances mainly by kids for the festival. we watched them learn their - what i would classify as bollywood - dance routine - with the dance teacher (an teenage boy) sitting behind them with a wooden ruler ready to punish and give instruction when they messed up. we were very lucky to be able to see them perform that night out of all the acts. it was a strange celebration - almost more like a talent show with most of kids performing under the age of 10.

the next day (my birthday) - lynda and i traveled to mysore - which is a fairly large city about 2 hours from ponnampet. the bus ride there was great. we sat by the window and watched the scenery. the lady sitting next to us gave us some cookies. it was a nice start to the day...but it only went downhill from there. in mysore, we walked around with our bags trying to find the right bus to take to calicut which is on the coast. the bus systems here are very confusing. there doesn't seem to be a schedule that is really followed. you ask how long the bus ride is and they say 5 hours, then you say ok, 5 hours? and they say 7 hours, then you ask for clarification and they say 5 hours -- then the bus ride is actually 9 hours. i don't get it. you just have to have a lot of patience and a sense of humor. but we had a birthday great meal before getting on the bus at the place called tiger trail in a fancy hotel called metropole. we sat in an outdoor garden with lights around the trees and lanterns hanging down. it was very nice.

so after a long bus ride, we arrived in calicut and took a car to our beach resort in kappad beach. the resort had a pool, hot water, shower, a restaurant and bar - all of which was very nice. it was a little pricey though about $70 a night which isn't horrible, but if you consider that our rent for the apartment is $60 a month...but it was nice to have a beach vacation nonetheless. showing your shoulders and your legs is considered indecent...so i wore my yoga pants and a t-shirt when i was on the beach. it does make you feel a bit restricted, especially coming from the states where we can wear just about anything we want. i did get a chance to wear my swimsuit and swim in the pool because it was private and no one was around that would be offended. one of the mornings, we went on a boat ride to a bird sanctuary where this picture was taken.

one night lynda and i sat out on the beach and watched the sunset with a lot of other indian tourist. i think we might have been the first white people that many of them have seen. one young couple came up to us and asked for a picture. we thought they wanted us to take their picture - but no, they wanted to take our picture with them. everyone asked where we are from and if we are married...then another family came up and asked if i would take their baby -- sure, i'll take one of those. so then we had a photo shoot with the family and the baby. then another family was queuing up to take pictures of the white people...very strange.

the bus ride back to ponnampet was much shorter than the first one - luckily -- because the roads are horrible. the window next to me wouldn't close and it was quite chilly with all the wind. it seemed like the bus would take corners on 2 wheels as it climbed up the mountain side - making me feel like i might fall out. at one point, we hit a bump and we all must have jumped about 2 feet out of our seats, lynda yelled out and everyone turned around. she said laughing, this is nuts and looked at me and started laughing harder because i had on 2 shirts - a loose indian one and a tight one (of course the tighter one of top) and a skirt over my head (they were the the first things i had managed to grab out of my bag between bumps and curves to try to keep warm and shield myself from the wind). we couldn't stop laughing out of tiredness and the ridiculousness of the situation. we were very thankful to sleep in beds that night.

i don't think i'll be taking any more long buses anytime soon. monday, feb 22nd begins my first week of formal field research. wish me luck! i'll need it.

Civet coffee anyone?

so i am entering into my second week of field research - still working on selecting the sites. 27 sites is going to be a lot, but i think i can do it. this picture is of the coffee berries in the drying area of one of the farmer's houses.

when i was planning the research, i measured the distance from one end of the watershed to other as 25 miles - so i though that i would be staying at my apartment in ponnampet and doing the field research during the day...apparently that is not the case. it is 25 miles across as the crow flies, but in reality, the terrain is quite hilly and the roads are full of potholes and barely one lane, if that --so it can take over 2 hours to reach some of the sites. therefore, the field team and i will be staying at farmer's houses or in other accommodations for the week of research.

this is one of the farmers that was showing us his farm - i call him the pirate farmer - i wouldn't mess with him. he showed us around on his farm and pointed out where a group of flying foxes settled. i think i counted about 27 of them!

for the research, we leaving very early on monday morning and getting back on saturday late afternoon...i have a feeling that i am going to be wiped out by the time this research is done. i have been mentally saving all the really difficult, steep, or densely vegetated sites for my advisor and the undergraduate group when they come mid-may :)

i have been watching the process of repairing the roadways in this area. a group of laborers are hired for repairs who stay in tents at clearings along the roadway if there are any - or in lines along the roadway themselves. the entire family stays there during the work. tar is melted by putting a clump of tar at the end of a stick the size of a small tree by placing it over a fire in between 2 huge metal drums. i guess once the tar is melted, they spread it over gravel in the potholes. the only piece of equipment though that i have seen is a small roller. i have seen some of them bathing and washing clothes in small streams - which i'm sure that most are contaminated.

i have been thinking about the issue of water a lot lately - as i am trying to be very careful to only drink filtered or bottled water and not eat raw vegetables that have been washed with unfiltered water. i have probably insulted a couple of farmers by not drinking the juice mixed with water that they have been so nice to give us, but i do not want to get sick. water is a resource that is given to us freely, pure, and uncontaminated. and then we pollute it with chemicals and waste. so it has to be treated with more chemicals and processes so that we can drink it with it out getting sick. it just seems like a senseless cycle - couldn't we just not pollute it in the first place? we might be far beyond that point. ok - that's all for my hippy thoughts for the day. anyway, in my new apartment (pictures to come soon), i found out by asking around that all the waste water -- from the sinks and toilet (or hole in the bathroom floor) -- is washed directly into the rice paddy field next door. nice. i was a little jealous of the next door neighbors that they had a view of the open fields and trees, but not so much anymore...

speaking of waste...here is a picture of civet coffee. it goes for a high premium and is known for its "earthy and musky flavor". basically, civet cats eat coffee berries and the seeds are fermented during the internal digestion process. then after the coffee is...done being processed - it is harvested by people who them clean it (obviously), roast it, and sell it...it is definitely not on my list of things to try anytime in the near future :)

Have you had your breakfast?

this week i started field research. right now i am looking at the 27 study sites with people from the college of forestry that will be on my field team. the first 3 days there were 5 of us and yesterday 7 - 2 females too which is nice. we stopped off at a waterfall and took a picture with some of the team members. the bunny ears are a nice touch :)

winding around through all these narrow roads in itself is an adventure. the only word that i know in kannada - the local language - is "neduna!" which means "slow down!" they look at me in the car and periodically ask if i am scared. we listen to indian music from a portable radio with speakers. yesterday, they were excited to play me that song from slumdog millionaire - we listened to that a couple of times...

it is a strange feeling being the only white person for miles - and i am white for a white person - so mostly i get stared at. no smiles, no waves - just stares, like what in the world is that? one of the farmers asked me, "what continent are you from?"

each morning at least one person asks, "did you have your breakfast?" i guess its kind of a greeting and inquiry in one. then they want to know what i've had - toast, jam, yogurt, and tea is usually the answer. then they look at each other and smile. i have been trying to learn to eat with my hands - or right hand only to be more exact. the left hand is for... um, bathroom stuff, so only the right hand can be used for eating and shaking and exchanging money. (don't worry i bring a packet of tissues with me) but i am ok eating with my right hand if some kind of bread is involved, although it does take me a while - but with rice, i am horrible. here they have a method of almost making little balls of rice and neatly putting it in their mouth - me, i try to do it, but most of the time rice is falling from my mouth back onto the plate. yesterday, i was using a hard tortilla like bread to scoop up the rice. asha said - you are using it as a spoon. we used to do that when were kids. then they all wanted to see my plate because someone had alerted them that i mixed all my food together... recently, i have been feeling like a monkey in a zoo :) we are all watching each other and interested in the differences in our culture.

the questions that i get asked are very direct -- are you married? will your parents select your husband? are your earrings silver? pure silver? how do you like working with us, be frank? how much money do you make? how old are you? how efficient is your work? one farmer asked - are you a bachelor? i said no, i am a phd student. he meant are you married :) -- also i get ordered around a lot -- come. sit. wait. go. -- all said nicely, just no please and thank you the majority of the time. i am chucking it up to language differences, but after poornika had told me to "sit" for the 15th time that day. i replied "yes, ma'am!" and they all laughed.

for all my dance and yoga training, you would think that i would be a little more graceful. but put a pair of hiking boots on me and my legs turn into lead - i stomp around like the bride of frankenstein (as a tennis coach once called me in my awkward jangly preteen stage). hopefully, i will get more used to the terrain and be able to balance better. i think this week is the most strenuous (i keep telling myself) because we are hiking all over the place, seeing 4-7 sites a day - but once the research starts we will be only 2 sites per week.

the coffee farms are beautiful. there are 2 types of coffee - robusta and arabica. americans drink arabica coffee. here it is mainly robusta trees which are taller (about 5-8 feet tall). coffee berries are grown on the trees and then harvested. right now, there are a lot of laborers in the farms harvesting the berries. the berries are then laid out on a flat sunny surface to dry and brown. the coffee beans are inside of the berries. i don't know the processing after that yet. the coffee farmers are pretty well off if they have medium to large farms. the laborers on the other hand are not. they usually have a row of concrete rooms where the entire family stays. the poor little kids are dirty and obviously not in school, but at least they are with their families i guess.

i am moving into the apartment this afternoon. it will be great to finally unpack my bags!

well i have written a short novel for this entry, so i'll sign off now.