My summer vacation... (part 1)

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March 17- April 25

Hello long-awaiting fans!
Yes, the updates are getting further between. Sorry.
This is due to the lack of fun, exciting and interesting things, since I quit at Revelation and Verité. It is also due to an unexpected mishap: my power supply for the laptop stopped functioning. I could check email at the internet access at the La Terrace that I frequent, but since my files were on the laptop with a near-dead battery, I was sort of hobbled.
Luckily, my camera (a Kodak point-and-shoot digital, z760 I think) has video capabilities- that means audio! So, I’ve been setting the camera up pointing at a random bit of scenery, and just recording away. It’s working ok, so far. Since then, I have found an authorized Apple reseller (I was worried about spending a lot of rupees on a fake- which could possibly mess up my computer) and dropped a lot of money- almost a month’s rent- to get the new one.
It works great. Thus, we have updates!

It’s been a pretty mellow couple months, with me arranging at least three interviews a week and me injuring myself in the woods in mid-March. So, currently I am taking time off from the hard labor (which is slowing down anyhow due to the increased heat) to focus a bit more on socializing and recruiting for interviews. Also, to fill out this summary first paragraph- B is staying in the states for at least a month more, and possibly longer. Things up in WI are complicated and she was trying to do what is best for her mom and her whole family. Since the last update, her mother recovered, a little, but then sent for B in the late evening. She passed that night, gently, in her sleep with B and a nurse there.
Since that point B has been trying to help the family arrange all the arrangements that take place when these things happen. I miss her, but I’m glad she is strong and reliable enough to do the right thing for her family.
So, on to the highlights (its still going to be a long update: sorry):

Every Monday through Wednesday I had been working at Revelation Forest. The past few weeks have been a flurry of hard labor: we have been chopping and clearing space in the forest- removing non-native trees and thorn trees- reminds me: I learned some new Tamil words! It went like this: I had gotten some more embedded moulou in various parts of my flesh- mostly feet and hands, and learned the words for ‘tick’ and a particular thorny tree: ooni and mouloualamaram, respectively (literally for the latter, the words for ‘thorn’ and ‘tree’). Bloated ticks were clustered in the joints of the ox, looking like misplaced nipples. They are pale, dimpled creatures when full, and this poor ox had at least a dozen in each joint between the leg and body. My co-worker explained in broken English that the ox needed a bath, and to be treated with a spray for the ticks but they hadn’t had time to do so yet. Now, he told me, the ox gets weak. I’m certain he’ll fix that soon; he looked genuinely concerned and is a good animal keeper around the farm.
The thorn tree is a gruesome feature of these woods- It can grow from a few inches thick to several (if people let it grow that long), and the thorns on it are in random clusters with some thick, woody thorns growing up to 3cm long. Fans of fantasy fiction would have no trouble recognizing this tree as one that would be used by an ogre or some beast like that! When we chop down a mouloualamaram if the thickness is about 5cm or less we leave the thorns on, so it can be used in fencing the property. If the branch or trunk is bigger we must take a chopper and hack the thorns off so that it can be handled with all the other wood. I have a long and deep scar on my right calf from a mouloualamaram that I thought had been trimmed- it had been, mostly. There was a couple-inch long thorn sticking out of the bottom portion that I didn’t see, and it gouged me when it brushed against my leg. The scar is smaller now, but it was almost as long as my pinky finger, and swollen, for a couple days.

This week past I had told R, the unit leader, that I was going to cut back on work and start looking for another volunteer outfit: they are going into maintenance season, just watering and fence tending, and I need to get some other units’ perspectives too. I took care of that this week though buy hurting my back a bit- it’s not severe, but I have no intention of exacerbating it by continuing to do physical labor. Four of us were transporting a thick hardwood log, and in shifting it to load onto the ox cart (vundi) I had to hold it in a less than ideal position for a couple seconds (the phrase “vundipuli!” means “hold the cart!”- I learned too late). That afternoon, well, I discovered that I had strained it a bit. I can still do stretches (which help) and yoga, but I am determined to not hurt myself more. Stay tuned for more info and new units to be discovered here at AV!
I took the opportunity to turn down an offer from Verité to ‘head up’ their garden while the garden leader is away. At first I thought I might take it, but the politics of local/AV worker rights is complicated, to say the least, and I don’t need to get that kind of data! Also, I was working with these people, and it feels wrong to suddenly, the new guy and part-time volunteer, to “be in charge.” Also again, taking it easy and getting interviews.

I discovered I had a small rat infestation in my lovely cottage roof (the joys of living in the forest!) and so, reluctantly, I set out some traps. I managed to keep it a small infestation by killing the mom first. The males had been already chased off, it seems, so it was her and her litter of barely able to crawl babies. I assumed nature would finish off the babies. Perhaps it did, some, but one day I came home to find a baby rat, still with eyes shut, squirming on my floor in the cottage. Well. The rats had been living in the roof, so it probably squirmed its way out following gravity. I tossed it over the fence, reasoning that it would become mongoose food. The next day, the trap turned up a squirrel- confirming that I had gotten the rats (since they had been defending the turf up in the outdoor rafters). That went over the fence too. Later in the afternoon, I returned to find kitty waiting at my door. She bolted in before I could stop her –I don’t like her to be in there because she eats my bug-eating geckoes- and started eating another baby rat! Well.
She then went over the fence, brought back the squirrel, and ate that, then found the other baby rat (I don’t know where the mongoose were during this whole time: they missed a banquet) and then fell asleep in the sun. Lucky day for kitty… Also lucky for the final baby rat- somehow, one managed to survive to a self-propelled little creature. I discovered this when I looked over to see what was making a chewing noise, to find a mouse-sized rat chewing my coffee spoon right next to me on the porch!
I gave chase with a fruit spread jar, finally cornering and catching it- after a brief time in the frog pond. By the time I caught the little guy (it was a guy) I had anthropomorphized him enough by talking to him as I pursued him, that I couldn’t just kill the little guy like I did his mom and siblings. Yes, a relationship- no matter how brief- can do that to me. Plus I have a soft spot for animals in general. Anyhow, after a lot of time I decided that I couldn’t let him live: he would grow up to be a pest, and possibly troublesome (fleas, disease, etc), so I tightened the jar lid, figuring at least he could die painlessly.
I couldn’t do it. Instead I gave up, as he was staggering around drunkenly in his jar-cum-prison, and took him off in the wood where I dumped him into one of the many gullies. He’d probably not survive anyhow, but I’d rather he died or survived as part of the ecosystem. Yeah, it’s not really any more logical than killing him and feeding him to the kitty or mongoose, but, whatever.

Part of my fieldwork experience has been attending various low-key functions that occur in the off-season. One of these is the weekly potluck at Fertile. Fertile is a farm/forest in the Green Belt, with extensive and mingled banyan trees. So, I have taken to climbing them (being careful with my back). We even did an interview in one! Someday I may post pics of me in the tree with a friend from AV here… other things of note: the comedy troupe “Genious Brothers” an endorsed (or at least enthusiastically tolerated) satirical theatre/media performance group has put on some shows. They are great, and as is usual, satire is a great way to learn about what is important to a culture, let me tell you….
Also, Earth Day was a week-long thing out here, but because it is off season, not too much participation, except on the weekends when the busses of tourists come in from Pondi and Chennai.
I have maintained my daily Yoga practice, and meet with the private teacher (it’s more like a private class, as there are between 2-4 of us, plus him) once or twice a week. It has really helped my back, actually, and I am certainly more flexible. Also helping with this is the Watsu session I was gifted with. Watsu is a type of nurturing, kinda intimate (close body contact) massage done with the receiver floating in water. It involves a lot of trust, since they are pretty much floating you, but it also was a really relaxing experience. I’d like to do it again, but my friend who gifted me has left AV, and the session without patronage is upwards of 1700-2000Rs. Too much for a student on loans…
Semi-finally, I submitted a paper proposal just in the nick of time to the AAA meeting in Montreal. If I’ve done ok with the abstract, and I get accepted, I’ll post the title.
Finally, B is due back (after a third delay) at the end of May. Our friend KN is due to land a week before B, so I’ll have some company for a little bit, before B gets home. Thanks again to everyone who has given, or still is giving, support to B.

Peace,
Stacey

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