Sun, Seeds, and Chai

Because India is not all hospitals and poverty, and because worried roomies like the one and only Miss. Kathryn Beck among others have launched into "Manda what the hell are you doing" mother mode, I thought it time for “a day in the life.” Just about two weeks into my three month stint, this is what the days in Ramgarh village tend to look like... sun, seeds, and Chai. 

Sun up, Manda up: Around 5:30 the sun comes up, the crows begin squawking (their piercing screeches actually make me miss roosters), and the farmers take to the fields while singing in their eerily beautiful Indian tones. I wake up, push away my mosquito net,  and head to the Forest for a morning run. 

By 7:00 the sun has begun exerting a fraction of its daily force, and the the air grows slightly heavy at about 80 degrees, more than a enough to make a cold bucket bath a welcome part of the morning ritual. 

8:00 the breakfast bell chimes, and the farmers, interns, researchers stumble in for chai tea and a banana, or couscous, or sometimes if we are especially lucky, an indian pancake but always, chai...milky, sugary, delectable chai. 

9:00 I head to the library to do more background research on climate change in the Himalayas, format my interviews and surveys and revamp my questions so that they translate better into Hindi, and of course I shamelessly Skype and gchat if the internet is steady for more than an hour.

The rest of morning is usually marked by me doing whatever activities the farmers and cooks are doing so that I can stealthily make them indulge my research. Whether that is sorting seeds, peeling mangos, riding a rickshaw plow, or simply helping the office write an English announcement for their website, I lure my translator to whatever activity I think will lead me to good interviews, and together we fumble through climate change questions with people who have never heard of this thing called, "climate change”.

 

1:00 Lunch Bell

This is an all vegetarian, very nearly vegan establishment (they don’t allow any eggs but they love milk??? so confusing) so lunch is nearly always chapati ( a whole wheat tortilla type thing), rice and beans, and some kind of spicy vegetable.

By this point the sun has reached its full heinous potential... it is inevitably between 115 and 120 degrees ( I wish I was exaggerating) and the power has likely failed so there is no respite other than to hide in a shady place with nothing but boiling hot water to drink. I’ve tried the bucket bath at this point, but the water is hot, and there’s no point. Most of us just try to go unconscious until the worst is over, but sleep is usually impossible laying in our own pools if sweat with not even a breeze to blow some of the suffocatingly heavy air. 

By 3:00 we’re usually safe from the worst of the sun, and I go back into the field with my translator to get some more data. The work day culminates in the ritual cow milking with this guy... I think his name is Tayluck but I call him milkman and he laughs so I’m stickin to it. We bring the milk back to the kitchen and they make the afternoon chai to hold us over until the 8:00 dinner.







Shortly thereafter, I am spent, some journal writing and reading is all that is left before I’m passed out by 10 pm and tucked under my mosquito net content and ready to do it all over again.