Snakes, leaches and rice beer….
I had my first leach! I’m quite proud that I survived it without getting worked up. Well, it was only on me for a moment, wiggling around, before I noticed and asked it to leave. We started our field work at 5am yesterday morning, in the pouring rain (the umbrella made absolutely no difference), surveying trees along the side of a wildlife corridor….hence the leaches. The other boys were sat comfortably in the Jeep whilst my master tree-man, Gokul, and I, were out bonding with the trees, all bravely withstanding the driving rain! The butterflies and birds were still in bed (like all sensible human beings). It was a character-building experience! …and I don’t think Gokul hates me…yet.
Otherwise, today I survived a snake. I’m not sure which one it was but there was enough palava. We were halfway through one of our social surveys when it came, and I jumped up on a chair. Error! I was completely taken the mikey out of! The whole interview was so bizarre (for me anyway, I’m not sure it was quite as fun for poor Nekib, our main man out here, who was doing the question asking): first of all the guy was talking for about 10 minutes about the history of Kaziranga National Park, then wouldn’t really answer questions appropriately (we were a bit suspicious when he said that 150 elephants visit his crops every night during harvest – he also said the number ranges from 1-150, maybe not so good for our error bars in the analysis) and gave us different answers for the same question, then some local teachers came to join in and spent most of it laughing at sweaty me, and then we had the snake incident (several times), a cockroach intruder, a big wasp making her underground nest in the middle of the floor, and at one point about 5 different people all trying to answer the same question, simultaneously. No wonder Nekib felt a bit ill afterwards. We’re obviously all working too hard, as well!
Last night I had another first: home-brewed rice wine/beer (nothing to do with Nekib not feeling so good!). It was quite potent but pretty tasty, especially the 2nd class! One of Maan’s lovely friends invited us to his house to try some, after we’d been to a temple to watch one of the annual village plays/musicals/theatrical performances/dance shows/religious ceremonies…it was quite an experience. Man, this country! Amazing.
We’re getting there with the data collection, now on our 18th village, so nearly 2/3rds through. I’m having such a great time, I’m not wanting it to end quite yet, although it’ll be good to come back to the cool again. It is so hot here sometimes. I couldn’t stop sweating a few days ago – I thought I might be coming down with something, but Bjorn was right, nothing more than probably too much heat and sun and too little water. Diarolytes are incredible. I’ve vowed not to be Lyd-the-hyperchondriac again.
Bed time for bozoes and I have to escape the mosquitoes. I hope you’re all enjoying amazing adventures wherever you are. Much love and bugs.
Otherwise, today I survived a snake. I’m not sure which one it was but there was enough palava. We were halfway through one of our social surveys when it came, and I jumped up on a chair. Error! I was completely taken the mikey out of! The whole interview was so bizarre (for me anyway, I’m not sure it was quite as fun for poor Nekib, our main man out here, who was doing the question asking): first of all the guy was talking for about 10 minutes about the history of Kaziranga National Park, then wouldn’t really answer questions appropriately (we were a bit suspicious when he said that 150 elephants visit his crops every night during harvest – he also said the number ranges from 1-150, maybe not so good for our error bars in the analysis) and gave us different answers for the same question, then some local teachers came to join in and spent most of it laughing at sweaty me, and then we had the snake incident (several times), a cockroach intruder, a big wasp making her underground nest in the middle of the floor, and at one point about 5 different people all trying to answer the same question, simultaneously. No wonder Nekib felt a bit ill afterwards. We’re obviously all working too hard, as well!
Last night I had another first: home-brewed rice wine/beer (nothing to do with Nekib not feeling so good!). It was quite potent but pretty tasty, especially the 2nd class! One of Maan’s lovely friends invited us to his house to try some, after we’d been to a temple to watch one of the annual village plays/musicals/theatrical performances/dance shows/religious ceremonies…it was quite an experience. Man, this country! Amazing.
We’re getting there with the data collection, now on our 18th village, so nearly 2/3rds through. I’m having such a great time, I’m not wanting it to end quite yet, although it’ll be good to come back to the cool again. It is so hot here sometimes. I couldn’t stop sweating a few days ago – I thought I might be coming down with something, but Bjorn was right, nothing more than probably too much heat and sun and too little water. Diarolytes are incredible. I’ve vowed not to be Lyd-the-hyperchondriac again.
Bed time for bozoes and I have to escape the mosquitoes. I hope you’re all enjoying amazing adventures wherever you are. Much love and bugs.
posted by Lydia Cole at
00:08
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home