Dear friends and family,
A warm congratulations to my lanky cousin Lars Negstad and my new cousin-in-law Melissa Townsend on their new life together! I wish I could have been there for the wedding.
My time at Mudumalai is coming to an end! It’s hard to believe it – the clouds and the hills and even the elephants all give this place a feeling of timelessness. But sure enough, my five weeks here have gone by in a flash. We’re actually getting out just as the northeast monsoon envelops us in water. This is one area in India that gets both monsoons, and from the feel of it I will never be dry again until I leave here. But it’s actually nice – back in Chennai I was mostly wet with my own sweat whereas here I know it’s from the rain.
My project is wrapping up nicely and I’m trying to read as much as I can from the PhD theses here relating to my project. There’s a sad urban legend about a new PhD putting a twenty dollar bill in his thesis in the library and coming back ten years later to find it still there. Unfortunately the same thing is true for the guy who wrote the thesis I’m reading right now. Not only is it in pristine condition, but there’s no way I’ll be able to find a copy of it when I get back to the US to write my research paper, so I’m trying to absorb as much as I can!
The past few days have been relaxing. On Satuday we watched dozens of winged termites emerge from a hole in the ground one by one and then be snatched out of the air by the waiting birds. It was a massacre – good fun! Later that day we took a bus up to Ooty, the “Queen of Field Stations,” and bought lots of homemade Ooty chocolate, and I even found dental floss! My adviser was confused and horrified when he first saw me flossing, making me think I would never find another roll in India.
I just watched the Sun light up the tips of the Nilgiris (“Blue Hills”) across the small valley and realized how much I’ll miss it all – the funny people, the hills, and especially Boma, my tracker! But soon it’s on to see still more of this country. Here’s what’s next for me: a couple more days here in Mudumalai, then off to Bangalore for a couple of days in the Institute’s Library for research, then it’s a two-week travel break! Agra, Mumbai, Kochi, and Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. Then, it’s the second and last five-week research project in Pondicherry, where two others and I will be in a mosquito (disease) control lab. Then, off to the beaches of Goa for just a couple of days, and then back home to the US!
Nandri (thanks) to everyone who is reading or responding to my emails. I’m still enthralled with India but it’s nice to know I have my people back home.
Thanks again – from smelly, damp and ever your loving
Isaac H.
pseudoisaac 