Catching up!

So… I think Kristin left off with the second day at Dehradun. I’ll try to get everyone up to speed with what’s going on after I recap some funny stuff.

When we ate lunch on the way to Dehradun… Kristin didn’t mention that I am a cow charmer. There was a baby calf that was extremely scared of people. It wouldn’t let anyone come near it. I boasted that I could calm the calf’s nerves. I walked over to it and sure enough it sat calmly and let me approach. It even approached me! Needless to say, I boasted about my unique cow charming abilities.

Kristin also forgot to mention my favorite part of the first few days at Dehradun… the actual farming. We made a home of the big gazebo. From the gazebo, there is a great view of the fields that are arranged a lot like rice paddies. There is a slight slope at the farm, sothat the water flows down a series of plateaus.

It monsooned overnight and in the early morning, so the conditions were perfect for “tilling” of the paddies. A farmer would have two cows pull him along on his till as he uprooted the wet soil. He would go back and forth in a pattern for many minutes until he’d stirred up all the soil. I kept telling Kristin that I wanted to ride on the till and smack the cows with the whip, but we both decided that it probably wouldn’t happen.

While the tilling happened, orange headed egrets (I think, I haven’t identified the species for certain yet) would wait for the cows to go by and then eat from the “wake.” This phenomenon is common in other parts of the world as well. Birds will form relationships with large grazing animals where they wait until a food source has been uncovered and then swoop in for an easy meal. The egrets had a competition with the crows for the best food, but the sheer numbers of egrets kept the crows at bay. Anyways, the semi-ecological interaction kept me amused for hours on end.

Then, as Kristin said, Dr. Shiva gave a brief talk about the farm, while making everyone sit on the floor as she taught haha.

After this, the great mango cookoff began. Sami (sp) is a cook from Kerala (a state in the south of India) who can make about 9 or 10 fabulous dishes out of mango. He came to Bija Vidyapeeth (the name of the farm) with Manu. Manu is also from Kerala. Anyways, Sami started cooking for the Italians and it was amazing. Kristin and I hovered around the counter tasting different foods for about two hours. Manu was busy helping prepare the food so Kristin started spoon feeding him samples.

After this extravaganza, everyone sort of wandered off to go see the orchard. We talked to one of the Italian students, Till, who turned out to be a German, about his gastronomical sciences program. After he described it, both Kristin and I decided that we too would become gastronomical scientists some day. It’s a costly program at about 20,000 euros a year, but they are constantly taking trips and learning about the food history and culture of the world. Later, another Italian student Filipo, told us about Italy. Till and Filipo argued about the World Cup much to my amusement. We talked to a lot of people throughout the night and made some friends. I got to spout off about political affairs within the United States and a lot of the Europeans were happy to hear an American being so cynical. We all agreed that Americans would get a better picture of the world if we traveled around more often instead of walling ourselves in.

The next morning, we got up and ate some yummy organic cereal. For the rest of the morning, we just rested in the gazebo and read while farming activities went on around us. In the afternoon, a crazy mango “expert” came to give a lecture on everything there is to know about the Indian mango. His wife sat next to him and looked pissed off the whole time. He constantly trashed her throughout his speech and told us how mean she was and how she never let him do anything. She sat there through the entire talk looking angry and never spoke a word.

After the talk, it was time for the mango tasting! Someone had arranged for a ton of different mangos to be delivered to the farm. The farm employees cut them up and we tasted for an hour or so. Kristin and I also managed to smuggle out some samples of full mangos to bring back to Tasnim in Delhi.

Kristin made some friends before the mango tasting and after she went to spend more time with them. A few young girls, who worked at the farm, had Kristin take pictures of them for a long time. She said that one of the girls was really aggressive and would push the others out of the way and hog the camera space. That girl looked like my friend Rigo, from Concordia, and he loved attention too, so I rationalized that they must be similar in nature.

At night there was a test about spices. Then we ate a yummy dinner. After dinner we spoke with Kathryn, an Austrian studying at the Italian school. She told us about great places to go in Italy and we got really excited. Later at night, we watched Gandhi.

Looking back, there isn’t a lot to report on over the last few days at the farm. It was refreshing to sort of do nothing and hang out with some westerners. We were temporarily free of tension and the awkward stares. The employees at the farm took great care of us and made tea whenever we needed it. The air was clean and smelled great. It rained a lot of the time we were there so the climate was mild. It was a great mini-vacation to break up time in Delhi…

We left the morning of the 15th in a car with Reetha to go back to Delhi. Along the way we drove through a beautiful subtropical forest. Although it was protected, people still lived inside of it and trash was abundant. We did get to see some sweet looking monkeys along the side of the road. Every few miles we’d see another group of monkeys, but we never stopped to look closely. Kristin and I tried to sleep along the journey, but it was really uncomfortable. We stopped and had lunch, but otherwise, it was a continuous car ride for 7 hours or so.

When we got close to Delhi, it monsooned with an intensity that I have never seen. In a matter of minutes, people were up to their knees in water on the side of the street. It rained so much that even ~15 degree inclines in the road were flooded with many inches of water. The city seemed to come to a standstill as people took refuge under bridges, but the event lasted only a few minutes. Within a few hours, it had already dried and there were few puddles.

After we got home, we saw Manu and he told that he and Sami were off to Dilli Haat for another cooking demonstration. We ran some errands and went to watch, but it got cancelled. So we did a bit of shopping and went back to Tasnim’s for din din. It was as good as it always is…

Over the last few days, we have just gone into the office. Nothing too exciting. Raja never showed up, so it looks like we won’t be going to Hyderabad and working on the farmer suicides. That kind of put a hitch in our getalong. Seizing on the opportunity, Dr. Shiva unloaded a gigantic assignment on us which I don’t think we can finish in two weeks time. I haven’t told her that yet… but we’ll try our best. If anyone is an expert on international wheat statistics, get a hold of me! I’ll need your help. I can’t wait to get back to more legal work!!!

Random thoughts about life in India:

Life in Delhi is tough. It’s fucking hot here… well over a hundred degrees and it doesn’t cool down at night. Our bed is hard and we have no mattress, so we both sleep only a few hours a night. I sleep mostly in the morning… but Kristin usually wakes me up because she gets lonely. Then she yells at me because she does all the chores in the morning… oops!

Today I ordered a suit for Jeff. The tailors were confused about some of the measurements so hopefully it turns out well! He’s going to need some sweet threads after he dominates the bar in a few weeks!

Right now someone is burning garbage outside so it smells terribly in the apartment.

I feel gross because I haven’t worked out in like two weeks. We get a little bit of exercise, but only from walking around so much. During the day, it’s hard to even consider working out because the heat is so intense. And at night, all our energy has been drained by the heat, so exercise doesn’t feel like an option. However, since we plan on living with out shirts off when we get to Italy (Kristin will probably wear a bikini top) we are now motivated to work out a bit more. Luckily for me, I don’t gain fat… I just lose muscle, so I just look like a wimp. I’ve probably lost ten or fifteen pounds since we’ve been here. When we get to Germany, I will gain it back in sausages! (If Kristin’s relatives in Germany are reading this, get in touch with us!!!!!!! My email is nick.caleb@gmail.com and Kristin’s is kris.gunderson@gmail.com. We need to speak directly with you!!!)

I have been hitting my head on everything and tripping over every bump in the road haha. When I’m sleep deprived, my motor functions are the first thing to go.

This post sounds a bit whiney at the end, so let me qualify it a bit. Kristin and I have thoroughly enjoyed our time in India and we will make the best out of the rest of our trip. It wouldn’t be honest to give a flowery account of our daily life, though. Something like finding computer access is a task and a half. I still have not found a wireless hub in the entire city of Delhi. We are definitely spoiled westerners, but even correcting for that, this place wears on you.

Anyways… we’re out do dinner for the time being. Tomorrow we go to the Taj Mahal so that will be great!!!! We’ll let you know how it goes!