Village Walk

Doing the dishes.

Misbehaved cow?

Rice paddies.

Termite mound.

Local farmer who recognized Nico.

How do they carry that on their head?

Laundry day.

Baby protests getting bathed.

Tuesday, April 3^rd.

This morning after breakfast Niranjan took us for a three hour walk visiting the neighbouring Mahali and Kondh tribal villages. We walked through the farms and rice paddies to get to them. I loved the landscapes and the vistas as we walked. The air was clear and the sun was warm, but not excessively hot. The people in the villages were curious about us and would stare, until we smiled which broke the ice. Then they would smile back or greet us with namaste. I asked Niranjan how often they see foreign people and he said about once a month. I feel very privileged to be able to walk around these villages and be accepted. Everywhere we went we saw animals and children.

We stopped and visited a local government sponsored childcare that didn’t have too many children as their parents were probably exhausted from last’s activities. The centre also provides some basic health care and provides contraceptives and condoms. 5000 rupees are given to women who give birth in a hospital rather than at home, probably for statistical reasons; but the women don’t want to go because they know no one there and the hospital people don’t care about the woman who come. Niranjan also explained a sign written in Sanskrit on the wall of a house that explained that money was given to the poor family in order to build a cement house. The houses last longer but they are quite different from the traditional stick, mud and thatched homes.

We walked past forests of young eucalyptus trees that are being grown for the pulp and paper industry and for poles for scaffolding. His comment was they are being grown as a cash crop and are a short-sighted idea for farming. There is little work involved in growing them and they bring good money, but they are not native to India and Niranjan said they are bad for the country as they soak up all the moisture and deplete the minerals of the soils.

Several times as we were walking a local man would say that he recognized Nico from the festival last night. The walk ended in our village at a local pottery makers house. The town is renowned for pottery making, but nothing was being made while we were there, because everyone was at the festival. Nico and Liz bought a couple of items, but I could not as they would not survive my bag for another four months.

When we got back, we chilled for a bit before having lunch.

After lunch I sat and had a talk with our new guide, Pulak. Rather I had a listen to him. I asked him a couple of clarification questions about this morning’s walking tour and he told me about lots of issues relating to India. The one that affects this area in particular is the mineral wealth of the hills. There are billions of dollars of bauxite here. Bauxite is used to make aluminium. Therefore, the government doesn’t want to give the indigenous people land rights, in fact they want to move them off the land. Sound familiar?

Later I went for one last walk into the village. I set off on the road that leads out of town past the volleyball net, where no one was playing. I walked for about two kilometres along a thin paved road until I came to the edge of a valley. I enjoyed the solitude and being by myself. I love the rural areas and this one reminds me, because of the rolling hills, of the atmosphere of the area of Buchan in Australia. I took my time and walked back watching the sheep, and cows and a few people. When I got to town I just parked myself on the step in the square where I watched last night’s festivities and observed the goings on of the village. A young man came and sat beside me and tried to strike up a conversation. They always want to know where you are from, are you married, do you have children and the like, but because of the language gap and the huge difference in our lives, that’s about as far as it goes. But they seem content to try.

Back at the guest house I read a bit before having a short nap before our dinner. Leon has a wood burning pizza oven and he served that with some home-made pasta and another apple pie.

The electricity kept going off as a storm was coming and it made eating in the dark, interesting. Actually, the electricity was intermittent here the whole time and there is no wi-fi at all. During dinner Pulak and Leon told us about the horrors and carnage on the roads because of lack of ‘common sense’ and driver training. There was lightning and it rained for a little while, but luckily didn’t wash out the festival.

Then at 8:45 it was off to a dark room to type and sleep. Liz is feeling poorly and didn’t join us for dinner.