Goodbye, Himalaya!

After two weeks in the mountains, I'm saying goodbye and beginning the journey back to Delhi today. It's not a quick trip: 2 - 3 hours to the train station and then an 8 hour overnight train to Delhi. My last overnight train experience was unpleasant. Every time I woke up (about every five minutes), I opened my eyes to find an army officer staring at me over his machine gun. Cam and I upgraded our tickets this time, so we'll be traveling 2nd Class AC. This means that instead of three bunks stacked on each wall, there are only two bunks. There's also a door that separates the car from the main entrance AND the bunks have sheets and pillows. Oy, luxury!
I'm excited to get back to Delhi, see the Taj Mahal, drink a beer, and diversify my diet (potatoes and dahl have started to get old). However, I'm really sad to leave the Himalayas. Obviously, it's incredibly beautiful here - I feel lucky to have seen the high Himalayas on numerous occasions. In addition to that, it's also incredibly peaceful and quiet, the people are friendly, the air is clean and, truthfully, I just prefer the mountains to other places. I keep scheming up ways to come back, all of which involve tricking Ritchie into coming, as well.

Next time I come, I'll have Ritchie with me and we'll be prepared to take full advantage. I'm thinking about a safari through Corbett Tiger Reserve, a trek on the Tibetan border, and a week relaxing in the garden at Sonapani (http://www.sonapani.com/). while Chaiwallas bring us tea. But, for now, it's back to the big city and then school and work. The real world is coming for me.

I hike, but not always by choice.

The villages here are about 2 - 5 kilometers apart. As I don't have a car, my preferred method of transportation is my legs. 2 - 5 kilometers sounds really nice, but I think that this is measured with a ruler from village to village. In actuality, every village is around one million curves as the road follows mountain sides, goes up steep inclines, and down again. Getting lost on a daily basis doesn't help. Sometimes I'll find that I've walked ten minutes in the wrong direction, which usually means that I've either walked too far downhill and have to go back up (sorrow!), or too far up (wasted sorrow!) and have to go back down.

Today, Cam and I headed out of Sitla for a visit at Sonapani (http://www.himalayanvillage.com/) with the famed Ashish and our newly found friends, Nathan and Jen from Seattle. The walk was meant to take 45 minutes - down the hill, past the village shops, through the blue Ashram gate, past the Ashrams, and turn off after the stone path turns into dirt. It took more like 4 hours, as we walked too far on the dirt path. Our hike led us past farm houses and through orchards. At one point, we came across two little boys playing cricket in an isolated field. A little girl in the forest nearby bounced on a branch while she watched a herd of goats mill about the scant underbrush.

We finally made it to Sonapani, just in time for an awesome Kumaoni meal. After hang-out with Ashish, Nathan, and Jen, we began our hike back. Unfortunately, this led straight-up the side of the hill. As Cam and I puffed along, four little boys ran behind with no breathing problems to speak of. I have been humbled by the hills and the little boys who disgrace me with their seeming excellent lung capacity every day, but at least I'll leave here with tight quads.

The project is all wrong! (But I still love it)

Today was my second day in the Himalayas. I don't know if it's the altitude, the sunshine, the hiking to and fro, or the work. It's probably all of the above, but I suspect that the work is weighing most heavily on me. My project partner, Cam, and I spent weeks preparing for our trip here. The goal was to have everything we needed prepared, so that we could hit the ground running. We did background research and prepared survey tools. We arranged meetings with agricultural economists in Delhi. We bought plane tickets.

Yesterday, we spent a large part of the day meeting with the Agricultural Marketing team, who outlined what they wanted us to do: figure out what inputs Chirag could provide to farmers to improve their livelihoods. This is exactly what we had prepared for. Unfortunately, the organization's director had different ideas. During our meeting with him today, he laid out three specific questions that Cam and I were largely unprepared for. We stared wide eyes. Then we ate lunch and tried to talk it out, though inwardly my brain was exploding. This is impossible! We don't have enough time! We don't have the necessary skills!

After sitting on the project for a few hours, I feel better equipped to take it on. Starting tomorrow, we're going to spend three looooooong days in the field, conducting surveys and interviews with farmers and village workers. Then, we'll reassess what we've gathered, decide what else we need, and do it again. As previously mentioned, I'm exhausted.

On the positive side, this project is fun and challenging. I'm not sitting in a computer lab (I am right now, but you know . . .) doing internet research for hours on end, which pleases me greatly. Also, the views! I love waking up to the Himalayas and the smell of pine trees. And, while dahl for breakfast is a bit much for my stomach, every other meal is superb.

So, in the end, I feel very lucky to be here and working on this project, despite the previous wasted hours. And the utter exhaustion.

Humayun's Tomb: Pictures from Delhi

India: First Impressions

I arrived in Delhi early yesterday morning and, after eating breakfast fell on my hotel bed and slept for five hours. Afterward, I gathered my courage and went to explore. Delhi is . . . kind of a mess. It's noisy and smoggy and people are shouting and horns are honking and men are trying to pull you into shops and beggars are waving their stumps in your face and it's all incredibly overwhelming. After walking dazedly down the street, a British Indian man stopped me and introduced himself. Mr. Singh was from Birmingham and he was kind enough to show me to the internet cafe and warn me against touts.

Here I am with monkeys on the street. Not touts, but equally as scary. I'll never forget the time in Malaysia when a monkey almost attacked Ritchie with its gnarly yellow teeth bared. Anyway, after taking this picture, I went home for another nap, ate dinner, then fell asleep again at 11 p.m. I think I was tired.

I met Cam over breakfast this morning and we made our way through the city via auto-rickshaw (enclosed three-wheeled mopeds). We met with Ms. Suhrabi Mittal, author of a paper on inclusive development in Uttarakhand, and found her incredibly warm and helpful. Afterward, we went to Humayun's Tomb (have to fit in the sightseeing!), a 16th century park that inspired the Taj Mahal. I'd post pictures, but I don't have my cord here.

Right now I'm feeling tired, but pleased to be getting the hang of the city. I've been pretty good at haggling with taxi drivers, ignoring touts, and wavings away beggars. I might get fewer points in my next life for that, but as my friend Mr. Singh told me, "If you give it away, you'll have nothing left to live on." That's true, especially as the beggars here are endless.

We catch the night train to Uttarakhand tonight. I'm looking forward to fresh air and mountains, as well as really getting into the project. Updates with pictures to follow.

Pictures from England (captions to follow)

I had a quick trip in England. Ritchie and I visited family, went to a beer festival, visited more family, and slept in. I only had two days, so that was about all we could fit in together. Below are a few pictures from my excursion.

Here we have an old building with a humorous name in Hitchin, where we visited Ritchie's brother, Martin, and sister-in-law, Deborah.
Ritchie, Martin (why the ridiculous hat, Martin?), and me at the beer festival. Apparently, only bearded men with top hats and pipes support real ale. I can't attest to this fact. The one unifying characteristic that I noted was drunkenness.Beer festival! Apparently "real ales" are dying out. Here, I sample a real ale and show my support through a beer festival t-shirt (circa 2007). The beers were delicious, though some smelled of farts.
Ritchie, me, and Lorraine (Ritchie's sister-in-law) out for dinner for Ritchie's birthday. We continued our real ale drinking at the pub, which caused me to pass out at 10 p.m. when I went upstairs to put on my pajamas. Oops. Pat and Diane. Can you see Ritchie in them?

Martin, Tilly, and Liam share a hug. They're so cute when they're smiling!

It was a great, if short trip and I can't wait to go back. I'm already planning for summer or fall of 2009, though Ritchie gave me the side-eye when I mentioned it. Perhaps I'll have to win the lottery first.

Laying over in England

Ritchie and I got into England this afternoon and now we're hanging out with the soon-to-be-in-laws. I love visiting England because there are delightful things here (aside from the soon-to-be-in-laws, of course). A few of my favorites: Tetley tea, Scotch eggs, biscuits with more chocolate on it than cookie, and Branston's Pickle. Last time we were here, Ritchie told me that if we lived in the UK I'd get very fat. This is probably true. However, we don't live here, so I will continue to stuff my face with meat pies and other goodies over the course of my short stay.

I'm off for a walk in the park to combat the jet lag. Of course, I want to sleep and sleep and sleepandsleepandsleep, but I'm going to gather my willpower and stay away until at least 9 p.m. tonight.

Update: After writing this post, I gave in to temptation and slept for two hours. Crawling into bed was like being in a sweet, warm embrace of angels (or something equally as pleasant). I stand in the face of all who say that one must stay up all day after arriving and disagree. It was AWESOME! And I slept all night. So there.

Getting Ready (aka Avoiding Diarrhea)

On Wednesday, I leave for my first trip to India. I'm going to the Central Himalaya for three weeks to help an NGO in Uttarakhand develop a three-year business plan for their Agricultural Marketing initiative. I'm really excited about this opportunity; however, I'm a little apprehensive overall. As usual, I'm a preoccupied with food and intestinal ailments.

While I am fully prepared to eat vegetarian food for three weeks, I am less prepared for the giardhia, amoebic dysentery, and food poisoning that are waiting for me (I can imagine them holding tryouts to see who gets to infect the next foreign host). Food poisoning in Tajikistan was the horrors and I want to avoid another experience like that; so, today I bought all kinds of gear. First, a SteriPen, which supposedly kills anything that will give you diarrhea with UV rays. I like the way that sounds! Next, a carbon filter for my water bottle. This will take out all the visible floating bits (like leaves and poo). I'm feeling a bit more prepared, though I'm still nervous about getting sick. I'll only be there for three weeks and I have a lot of work to do, so I can't waste days laid-up in bed.

Anyway, I'll try to update regularly, as I know everyone who reads this is deeply concerned about my intestinal health. I might even include pictures and stories about other stuff, but we all know what's most important.

Today's Intestinal Health: Excellent