Dear friends and family,
India is still surprising me. Back in Chennai, the surprises were along the lines of near-death experiences in rickshaws, contorted beggars, and poo-rivers. Here at Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary it’s the wildlife that continually offers something new. Just last night we stopped to wash off the jeep in a stream after the field work was done, and suddenly we saw an elephant crashing around in the bamboo 80 feet or so away from us. And the Malabar squirrels, the langurs (monkeys), and of course the birds are completely new. That’s to say nothing of the bugs! The rain of the past few days has seen a proliferation of bugs, including these tiny winged ants that have invaded my room. Luckily they are very easy to kill, though not so for the cockroaches. It’s been a real slaughter for the past couple of nights. Oh, and the leeches! When we go out in the morning it’s still so damp that they actually crawl about on the ground. I’ve only had one blood-sucker so far, though. And no ticks yet.
The people provide surprises, too. Last week the village kids came to my door when I was reading and yelled “Isaac. Isaac. Isaac!” until I finally went out. I never should have showed them where I live… For some reason they had collected four baby chicks that had fallen out of a nest, and they wanted me to take them. They’re now under the care of Gita and have taken to rice and sugar-water. The kids are funny – every time I see them they demand that I give them pens, which makes me wonder whether some unscrupulous St Olaf student in the past gave the kids a lot of pens and ruined it for the rest of us. But maybe not – Boma, my tracker, also shows a keen interest in my writing utensils.
Where the people and wildlife overlap there are surprises of the more dismaying kind. The other day, on a morning survery, I saw a brahminy myna, and two minutes later – no joke – a pariah kite. Apparently the caste system rules in the bird world, too!
I have to mention my project! The bird survey went very well – field work is finally over! Yesterday we finished up the final transect in the scrub forest in the coffee plantation nearby. So now it’s a little relaxation during today’s holiday of Dussehra, and then on to putting together all the data. It’s hard to believe that next week I’ll be leaving this place! We’ll spend a couple of days in Bangalore in the Intitute’s library before heading off on travel break.
In other news, I’ve finally found a way of making this little part of India my own. For the past two weeks I’ve been getting up before sunrise for a little run in the chill morning air. It’s so nice – there’s no one out at that time except for a few people walking mysteriously in the bushes or collecting cow dung dropped during the night. It’s nice because exercising outside at any other time makes you a huge spectacle for the hundreds and hundreds of people that are always about. Even when we drive by in a jeep, people drop everything they are doing and watch us until we’re out of sight.
Sorry for not updating in a while – it’s extremely hard for me to get computer time here. You can bet on a flood of excited emails once travel break begins!
Isaac H.
pseudoisaac 