This and That

Sorry for the long silence. The internet has not been kind to me lately. But I think I'm finally caught up.

I finally finished uploaded my pictures from my village trips. You can check them out here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vickirwilliams/Raila

http://picasaweb.google.com/vickirwilliams/Harinagar

http://picasaweb.google.com/vickirwilliams/OnTheWayToLehsidi
http://picasaweb.google.com/vickirwilliams/Lehsidi

OK- to be honest- as I'm writing, I haven't quite finished the Lehsidi album yet. But I expect to be done by the time any of you wake up. Hopefully those won't be famous last words - like last time when I said to keep an eye out because I would be posting these over the next few days. That was what- two weeks ago?

There has been a fair in town. I went to check out it - nothing much to see though: three small rides and some stalls selling dollar store style stuff. This week is a cultural festival that should be interesting. And then next weekend I'm heading up to the himalayas. I'm very excited about that. It looks like it might actually not be hot there. They have a totally different idea about what it hot. IT is cooling off now (meaning ) but still what I would consider hot. I've started seeing people in sweat shirts and jackets. So weird.

I've also posted some more animal pictures in the Around BITS album. There are these green parot like birds. They may be parots for all I know. It is hard to get a good picture of them because then blend in with the trees. But I finally got some decent shots. I have also loaded some monkey pictures.

Dog Tails

The other day I was walking along and this guy came up and enthusiastically said, "Doggie!" I said, "Dog?" He said "FD one!" (which means faculty division one- which is one of the building on campus.) I said, "Yes, there are dogs at FD one." (As there are everywhere.) Then he said, "biscuit! eat!" So then I realized that he was trying to tell me that he had seen me feeding the dogs by FD one. I nodded, smiled and said, "yes" and went on my way.

Here is a link to some truly pitiful begging. I've named this one Scout.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=716129924033915623&hl=en

Most of the dogs still run away from me (as they do with anyone who looks at them) but those that haven't have learned that I hand out cookies. So, it isn't unusual for me to be followed around. One day I was going to visit Mallika and the guard to the women's hostel stopped me. This was unexpected since Mallika has told them I can come see her any time and even without that - the guards generally only keep men out. I was about to ask what was wrong when he sternly said, "no dogs." I turned around and there was this little dog standing right behind me looking up expectantly.

Apparently the women's hostel has a "problem" with dogs. They have discovered a broken bit of fencing and now they know how to get in. There is a mess hall in the complex, and for obvious reasons, but dogs like to hang out there now. People here are usually afraid of dogs. (-and other animals as well. I've seen a grown man jump away in fright when a little lizard went by.) So, Mallika has been getting calls in the middle of the night from girls needing to go to the bathroom, but they can't get out of their room because there is a dog outside. Mallika seems to share their sense of danger, which I don't really get. I asked her, "Are they bad dog?" She says, "Oh, yes! They are street dogs!" I said, "I know, but are they biting people or even growling at them?" She says, "They are street dogs!" Last week there was a "terrifying" incident where a girl had some sort of plans early in the morning so she went for breakfast early. Coming out of the mess hall, there was no out around and she saw five dogs. She screamed. Another girl came out and saw what was going on and went to get the guards. Since the guards were out numbered by the dogs, they were afraid to get involved. So the two girls threw rocks at the dogs to get them to run away. Mallika was telling me about how horrible this was. I asked, "But were the dogs doing anything threatening?" Mallika says, "There were FIVE dogs and only ONE girl!" It is amazing she lived to tell the tale.

October 2nd

This is what I would have posted on the second if I had had internet access.

Today (Oct 2nd) is Gandhi's birthday. There is a statue of Gandhi on the campus and I correctly surmised that it would be decorated. So I went over and took some pictures.

There was a parade this morning that I figured had something to do with Gandhi, but Mallika says it was a marriage procession. I took this video from the roof of the hostel.

Pigeon Tails

In an attempt to keep the hostel clean, they try keep the birds out. There is chicken wire over the opening at the top of the courtyard. But every now and then one gets in. One got in the other day. I'm guessing it came in through a door to the roof which was left open. This MIGHT have been my fault. Ok, ok - I totally left the door open - but see- I went out on the roof the other day and the door was already open. I didn't see anyone up there, but I hated in shut it (which would involve latching it) in case someone was hiding because they had been sun bathing nude or something.

Anyway, by means that I really don't think I should be help responsible for - a pigeon got into the building. He was hanging out in the courtyard and seemed ok so I wasn't too worried about him. Then, the cleaning guys went through the rooms upstairs and they had left all the doors open. (This is typical after mopping so the floors can dry.) The pigeon started flying in and out of the rooms. I went to check on him and he was hanging out on top of the air conditioning unit in one rooms. They often roost around the air conditioners outside. I think it is cozy or something. I figured he wanted to go back home. So, I opened the window, crumbled up a cookie on the outside sill, shut the door to the room so his only exit would be the window, and opened the curtains onto the courtyard so I could look in and check on him.

I checked on him a few times and he was still chillin on top of the air conditioner. Then, I went and he was on one of the beds. So I went in to try to shoo him towards the window, which actually worked. But then as I got near the window, this other pigeon (or maybe this was the first one) swooped down from a ledge near the ceiling and scared me. But then he went out the window too which was good. So I shut the window and looked over to the bed and saw the bird poop.

I went to tell the cleaning guys. I left out the part where I shut a bird up in a room to have its way with the freshly made beds. I just explained that a bird got into the room and I opened the window to let him out.


Oh look, bird shit.

To anyone who has ever kicked an animal that was simply minding its own buisness: Your mother eats beef!

I was walking along a road today and there was this cute little white kitten off to the side. Dogs are everywhere, but I have only seen a handful of cats. I was going to go up and take its picture when this guy coming the other way kicked it as he walked past. I pretended to rush him, shooing him away with the facial expression that was intended to suggest that he reminded me of a raw sewage pit. He seemed to find this hilarious - which wasn't quite what I was going for.

This is actually a bit of a problem for me. I don't know how to express disdain here. Glares usually earn me smiles. While I usually am quite happy to be nice to the people around me, there have been a few instances (all involving men come to think of it) where I have wished I knew how to say something like "up yours." So- to all my Indian friends out there- any suggestions on how to express disdain (in a non-entertaining way) without going so far as to incite an international incident?

The saga of the package

I mentioned before that Michael would be sending me a new(er) computer that he bought on eBay for me. Well, it is still not here. I forget how long it has been now - but it is well past four times the 6-10 days that we were told. A few weeks ago I got a letter written in Hindi. Since I haven't quite mastered Hindi yet (in other words, I have only learned how to say Thank you, OK, and names of some Indian foods) I took my letter to the front desk. The guy there told me that there was a package for me in Jaipur (state capital) and that I had to give notice for it to be sent to me. I asked how I should go about that and he pointed at the letter and said - well it says right here. I explained that I couldn't actually read the letter and so he told me to go to the post office.

At the post office they said that the package wasn't there. I asked how I could have it sent here and they seemed very confused and took the letter and several of them had a little conference in the back, huddled around my Hindi letter. One guy came back to me and said, "Come tomorrow." I asked what time and he said, "10 o'clock." Then another guy came from behind the counter and said, "Come two three days." I said, "um... ok?" Then the guy in the cage (I don't know why but they keep one guy in a cage.) yelled out, "Come tomorrow." I decided two out of three wins and came back the next day. They told me that the package wasn't there and to "come two three days." I asked why the letter had been sent. It didn't seem likely that they had sent me a letter to inform me that I would be receiving a package. So they called Jaipur and handed me the phone. The guy on the phone told me that they needed to inspect the package but before they could open it- I had to give permission. I said, "Ok, you have my permission." He said he needed it in writing. I asked what the letter needed to say but he didn't understand me and so he hung up. I had one of the guys at the post office call him back and asked them to write the letter for me. They agreed, I signed, and they said, "Come two three days." After a couple weeks of me checking in every two or three days, I asked them to call Jaipur again. The people in Jaipur said they were still inspecting it and that I should (you guessed it) "Come two three days." This was around the 30 day mark from when Michael sent the package - which was the point at which he could file a claim for the insurance we took out on the package. So, we have officially given up and learned our lesson. Don't send electronics to India.

Q&A

I've realized that I haven't done a very good job of answering questions posted in the comment section. Some - like "What's up with Mike's job search?" have been answered -but a couple of other's haven't and I wanted to cover those.

Q. How hot is it there?

A. It isn't as bad as it could be. I understand that in the height of summer it gets into the 120's. For the time I've been here -the high has almost never been below 100 and over 110 isn't unusual - but I don't think it has been over 120. What I really wasn't expecting for an "arid" region is the incredible humidity. The heat index is rarely below 120. The monsoon isn't quite what I was expecting. Elsewhere in India it rains. We just get waves of humid air. I can count the number of times it has rained while I was here on one hand. After a rain it is wonderfully cool (high nineties) for maybe a day and then the temp goes back up and the humidity is even worse. Mike's blog actually has a rather good description of the heat for those interested in his take. It is supposed to be cooling off now and next week it looks like the highs will all be in the high nineties with heat indices below 110. It is very exciting!

Q. How is Mike holding up without you?

A. As I'm sure many of you suspect - he is utterly devastated. He has been crying himself to sleep every night. (But don't tell him I told you so.)

I've been busy lately with village trips. I'm working on uploading pictures now. Currently I'm adding to the Raila album and then I'll start on new albums so keep an eye on my Picasa page over the next several days. (Link on the right hand side.) What with the slow / intermittent internet connection and my old computer- this could take a while...