Advertisement
Published: July 18th 2006
Edit Blog Post
I always feel like somebody's watching meeee...
check out the top right corner. (This was on the train to Kollam) I’ve been keeping track of how long I have left here by the number of Malaria pills I still have to take. At last count I have 3 left… so I’ll be here for about 3 more weeks, but then it’s Wednesday today and in L.A. Wednesday is the new Friday so this week is practically over…
Not much has happened since the last blog, we’ve just been visiting more colonies etc. This last weekend we were in Kollam where we visited the “Talachira” colony. So far this colony has been my favorite. What I’ve gotten so far is that every colony is different in the sense that each colony has different problems that it is trying to overcome. I guess the easiest way to explain it is each colony has its own vibe…
We arrived at Talachira and everyone came out to greet us, everyone was so nice. They told us that before we began doing our work we had to go see the sacred Cobra which appeared in the village. (Apparently someone found a king cobra and since snakes are worshiped here and since it’s not everyday that you find a KING COBRA, the village considered this a
blessing and built kind of like a shrine around where the snake was.) Now it’s not that I don’t like snakes, I mean, I’m not against snakes but when people are telling you that they want you to go visit the king cobra, ummm, well, I just started thinking about that dude on the discovery channel that catches humongous snakes and how sometimes the snakes jump out at you … Yes, I have some safety issues…so anyway, we finally get to the “king cobra site” and it was the size of an EARTHWORM!!!!! Man, all that stress for a baby, tiny, king cobra...
I thought, in my imagination, that has been infiltrated by years of Disney cartoons that I was gonna see a really big snake and some guy playing a flute or something(...hahaaha…)!!! Anyway, after all that we went back and started our work, well Caryn and Mili (our research assistant) started the work…I went to go play with the kids. I took tons of pictures of them because they’re sooooooooo cute and because they get a kick out of seeing themselves on my digital camera, check it out:
Awwwwwwwww, the children…
Oh
yeah…our picture was in the newspaper! After visiting that colony, our connection in Kollam asked us to come to his office where unbeknownst to us he had scheduled a press photographer and some other guy from a local newspaper came and asked us about our research…I said a total of one sentence to the guy and some how that turned into a whole story on American scholars finding fault in the land reforms that have taken place in Kerala…ahhhhhh, the media…we ended up having to write a statement refuting the article (since we were misquoted or whatever you call it when you say your name and “huh? Sorry, uhhhh, I don’t speak Malayalam…” and it turns into a news story…)
My friend Noemi is coming on Thursday and then Caryn’s friends arrive a few days later, we CAN’T WAIT till they all get here! After they get adjusted to being a day ahead
( isn’t it weird how for you guys, technically, I’m in the future right now…I’m a day ahead…time zones trip me out) we’ll be packing up our stuff and going to Kollam to hang out on a houseboat and float along the Keralan backwaters for 2
days. Then we’re going to Cochin for a few days and then we’ll be going to Wynad which is where the rainforest is. In Wynad we’ll collect our last bit of data. We’re going to be interviewing members of what are called the scheduled tribes, i.e. the indigenous people or tribal communities of Kerala. We’re also gonna see if we can go to a wildlife sanctuary…I’m determined to see more elephants! Sooooo it should be really cool…except for the fact that the road to Wynad is one of those 3 hour long curvy roads …I’m not looking forward to that (since I get car sick driving on the 101 fwy). I’m sure it’s gonna be loads of fun being on a bus for 3 hours on the curviest roads in Kerala!!
Anyway, after all that we’ll come back to the city and I leave 3 days later.
Soooooooooo, if you don’t hear from me before then, I leave Kerala on August 8th. I should be home by the 9th or something like that…
See you all soon!!!!!!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.045s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0226s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
kandath
Krishnakumar Sreekandath
Kozhikode here!
Hi Linda, Touching blog indeed. Those children of the colony were wonderful. We have similar colonies here in Kozhikode and had a few U.S. students spending a few days here with us learning more about peace and ghandhiyan ideals. If you have time drop me a few lines. There a lot to share and teach each other. I wish you well. Take care and God Bless! Cheers, Kris Kandath