There has been a lot going on here so I have been slacking on the blog a little bit. I am starting to feel like I actually live in Pune. I saw my host mom’s friend at the gym today. We waved and said hi, which made me feel like this is actually my neighborhood!
We have been going on lots of weekend trips a few hours outside of Pune. Two weekends ago the Environment class went to Mahabaleshwar, a hill station known for its amazing, no-chemicals strawberries. We mostly traipsed around seeing random things like a bee farm that sells its own honey and some pretty waterfalls. The coolest part of that weekend was when we stopped at an organic farm owned by an older couple. They had lemon trees, which I had never seen before, and medicinal herbs and vegetables growing on their land. In their backyard they had a homemade solar panel, which lit up a small light bulb when you switched it on.
We just got back yesterday from a visit to a few tribal villages. The 6 hour bus ride both ways was kind of brutal in the heat, but it was so worth it. We stayed a retreat center run by one of the tribes. We got to visit a primary health center that is responsible for serving about 35,000 tribal people. The services were actually pretty impressive. They pack child vaccines up in these little ice coolers, which women employed by the government walk over to villages to make sure new babies get vaccinated. The next day we visited over to another village and talked (with translators) to the people living there. In a small group I went into the cow dung house of one family. We spoke with a young man who is attending college in a neighboring town. His family grows rice on their farm land, but only enough to feed themselves.
We waved to the little kids in their school classroom, which probably caused a huge disturbance. I tried to talk to one little girl who was standing with her mom, but she got really scared. Apparently there is a rumor going around that people are coming into villages and stealing children to harvest their organs. The little girl looked terrified of me- so sad!
I also peeked in the center for children under age 6 that the government has established for a supplemental nutrition program. It’s a national program put in place in most villages. In the middle of the room there was a scale hanging from the ceiling to weigh the kids, which was kind of weird, but I guess makes sense.
It was interesting to hear what everyone thought about the village. What I first saw was an urgent need to bring the living conditions of the tribal people up to my level of comfort. But I talked with other people on the program that left the village wondering why we are spending our time the way we are. If these people are happy living life so simply, why are we running around making ourselves crazy? Every time I walk out the door in this country I feel like I learn something and come home with big questions that Viveka and I try to answer as we get ready for bed.
I’ve started buying an orange everyday from the little stand underneath our apartment building. We definitely live in the best location. Viveka and I are good friends with the guys who man the ice cream section of the Tasty Corner underneath our building. The oranges from that stand are the BEST oranges I have ever eaten. They are so sweet and delicious. Preeti says they are actually a type of lime, but I'm not so sure.
Our other new friend is the pigeon that comes up to visit at the open kitchen window. We’ll be sitting in the other room having our tea and all of a sudden we’ll hear a racket in the kitchen. Today after shooing the birds outside, Preeti ran back in and told us, “The pigeons were trying to make romance in our kitchen!”
