On Saturday we woke up early to get our flight from Delhi to Bhubaneswar, Orissa. It started off just like any other travel day; go to airport, wait, eat processed food, queue up for the plane, and get into the plane. It was interesting that, upon entering the plane, we noticed a fog filling the whole plane. More of a mist, really. We looked at each other worryingly, until a stewardess came over to let us know that it was from the humidity outside affecting the air conditioning. I slept most of the flight, off and on.
We got into Orissa and noticed that it was yes super humid but also very aromatic. Delhi smelled like burned food and rotten organic matter. Orissa was smelling like fresh organic matter, burning wood, and the tropical smells you would normally imagine for anyplace remote to urbanity. Thick, fragrant air was warmly welcomed by us after our travels in Delhi.
The driver was waiting for us with a car that normally government officials in India use. He drove us to where we could each get cellphones (according the NYUWagner policy, we must all have a phone while we are on our Capstone travels). We had previously decided to go for AirTel because of its extended availability in Orissa.
So, first thing to note was that it is very bizarre how the roads are dirty and lined with cesspools yet there were cellphone boutiques on every corner. Granted, most of them were probably bootlegs, but it was still an odd idea to think that people had cells but not running water in their houses. Also, white people in this area seem to gravitate towards each other. While in the middle of our phone negotiation, we spotted 2 white people on the street, and they stood outside our phone hut and waved to us. They were Spanish tourists, and were happy to see some white people, it seemed. We talked briefly about nothing of importance.
Another thing to note was that there seems to be some discrepancy with work hours here. We entered our final cellphone hut and there were about 8 men in there. How many people actually worked in this small one-room store and how many were just there for hanging out, we are not sure. We just know that one of the most helpful guys with this whole ordeal, towards the end, shook Maulin's hand and told him that he "has to go to work now". Then what was he doing there in the hut doing more of the job than the other guys? I wonder.
The cellphone fiasco took roughly 2 hours, where by the end of the transaction we were all tired and hungry and pretty grumpy. First, we haggled with some guy about the price of phones. Then we haggled about which phone service we were going to sign up for. Then we had to argue some about Maulin's phone and coverage with them for some time. Mind you, things were slower due to language barriers, cultural barriers, and the extreme congestion in the room. Anyways, we started getting a bit angrier when they told us we not only needed to give them photocopies of our passports, but they needed passport pictures of us. The helpful guy brought us to a copy center, where they took their time and took our photos and xeroxes. We had to pay for that, along with the phone, and the service, so our tabs were running up rather quickly. When we got back to the hut, they wanted more photocopies of other things, like Gram Vikas's business card, and we put up a fight so they did it themselves free of charge. They didn't believe us that we were not staying in a hotel, and they wanted a hotel bill. "NO, we're going to see a friend in Berhampur." And so on. FINALLY we were able to walk out with charged phones each. With Oriya (the Orissan language) keys.
Our driver drove us to a local restaurant where we ate dosas and some coconut uttapams, which was actually really really good, and about US$1 per person.
Then we drove. And drove. For 4 hours. With our luggage on our laps and under our legs. The cars in India honk constantly, and the back of cars actually ENCOURAGE constant honking with painted signs on the trunks saying "horn please" and "blow horn". I guess it could be considered just a declaration of arrival, since most cars lack mirrors.
We tried napping, but mostly we were just uncomfortable and a bit thirsty. We did stop on the trip at a gas station and picked up bottled water. We were stared at intensely.
The scenery in Orissa is absolutely stunning, though! The landscape is lush and green, with tropical trees all over the place, and irrigated crop fields. Did I mention that there are mountains spotting the backdrop here? Rolling mountains. Not too large, but rolling. It is almost a bit like British mountain/hills, almost. The main road that we took the entire way there was overall a straight shot, and incredibly rural. We drove through little towns that had markets all over the place, and people lined the streets and the huts were all different shapes and colors.
And cows, lots and lots of cows, stood/mewed/walked steadily across all roads. We might have hit as many stops due to cows as we had with cars and trucks.
There are these people that walk up and down the roads for long distances barefoot wearing bright orange/yellow/red outfits. They carry poles with bells and 2 hanging items (and a lot of varying fluorescent bits and bobs) that bob up and down while they walk. We've been told they're pilgrims, and that they walk a lot, but other than that we have no real clue as to who they are. When I have reliable internet, I'll do some research on it. Something about Kanwar? We like them, though, and we try to see where it is that they are going. We haven't found it, yet.
And then we finally reached Berhampur & Gram Vikas. It was a glorious moment that almost brought us all to tears.
Gram Vikas is a closed compound, mostly made of trees & assorted vegetation. It is kind of like living literally in a jungle. We have been told there are scorpions and snakes a plenty on the compound, so we are trying to manage our footing carefully. The frequent ant hills here are more like metropolises. They can be taller than any of us, and kind of look like a larger version of the Grand Canyon.
The driver pulls over in front of a little house. Our house. Gram Vikas gave our team an entire 1-story house while we visit. That's pretty awesome. It is a concrete house, with some dust on the floor (because India is all dust) and a few concrete shelving units. We have screens on all of the windows, and fans to keep us cool. The building has minimal furniture, with a table and beds as the main furnishings, so a few rooms are vacant. We have 2 western toilets, and 1 standing toilet. Maulin has his own room in the front of the house, and us girls share 3 beds in the back of the place. We were given mosquito nets, but we don't know how to install them yet.
We also have a terrace on the top of the house.
But the electricity goes out every hour or so, or many every few hours, but it has been at least 6 or 7 times within the first 21 hours. So sometimes we end up in pitch blackness. We have a lamp, and a few flashlights for these instances. Also, we have a lot of little friends in our house. Ants are the main co-inhabitants, which isn't too surprising. But we also have some beetles and iguanas. And frogs, methinks.
We went to dinner early (so we met no one), and a Sir Jacob came to meet us. He explained to us the rules of the mess hall, which are basically to come on time, clean up before and after yourself, and don't take more than you will eat. Doable. Also, the mess hall will serve us 3 times a day: 8:30am for breakfast, 1pm for lunch, and 8:30pm for dinner; no more, no less. The food was actually very very good, and we ate enough rice to make us all stuffed.
And here I thought I would starve to death. Though, Jacob did promise that we will lose weight while we stay here. He even weighed us, which made us pretty uncomfortable actually, and I did not appreciate his insistence on taking our weights to prove his success at weight loss, and his reaction to our weights. I'm going to try to chalk up this to a cultural difference or insensitivity.
We all called our families on our new phones and went to bed at 10pm, exhausted.
We woke up today at 6am to go for jogs, FINALLY! Sadly, us girls got lost on a "trail" and we all rolled our ankles at the beginning of our jogs. Note to self: use main roads.
So Sunday at Gram Vikas means rest. We ate breakfast, met the 2 French interns staying here (because I am never anywhere without at least one french within a 1-mile radius), and came back to our house and slept. It's been raining all day (monsoon season indeed), and everyone is out it seems, so we have been sans internet or research meetings. We read and nap, rinse repeat. Sometimes we talk. We also play card games on occasion.
It is a little odd to me, however, that we are here to do research, but are unable to do research right now. It feels more like camp, to be honest. Chilling out on the weekend, without much motivation to even leave the house. And with the limited access to electricity (and essentially no internet) our lives have become very slow.
Today is Monday for us already, and we woke up with so much rain outside that there are ponds forming in our yard. I resorted to yoga in our empty room, while the ants from our bathroom sought refuge directly under/next to my bed (because I am next to the toilets). Thank goodness I have a raincoat and rainboots, eh?
I am finding that we are eating a lot less in the mess halls than we were the last few days, which means that our "diets" are under way.
We finally have found access to the Gram Vikas office, and have met up with some workers in the compound to talk about our project and actually start our research! This is exciting indeed! We have scheduled a meeting with some staffers to see what exactly we are doing here, and what we should be expecting in our agenda. Will we be actually doing fieldwork, or will we be stuck in the office for the next few weeks?
Sadly, we also found that internet is only accessible in the office, and one must pay 20 Rs. per hour of use. Translation, expect my updates to be in bulk and infrequent.
Tune in next time to hear about "Our Capstone Project in Question".
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