The other day I saw a man on the back of a motorcycle holding a goat in his lap. I have seen 4 (maybe even 5) people on a motorcyle, but never a goat.

Last night we had freshly made pakoras, cooked in our own kitchen, as we waited for our curry. Since we have no gluten in our kitchen, I can be sure everything that comes out is gluten free. I think that ultimately the cook will be a money-saver, because there will be much fewer (no?) nights where we say "lets go out to eat - I'm too tired to cook".

Malaria season is just starting. We sleep in a mosquito net with a "mosquito machine" plugged into the outlet, which as best I can tell works like a Glade plugin, but with pesticide instead of air freshener.

We went to the mill to have rice ground into rice flour. It cost 4 rupees for 3 kg. The mill is right next to JSS, and is attached to a traditionally-styled house, the first I have been to. It is living space for an extended family with a private courtyard in the center, with the businesses (the mill and a small store) attached to the front corners. It is a very charming layout, and a very homey way to have a home.

We have found a cook, or are at least trying one out. She is the wife of the building watchman, and we had her over to talk to her yesterday, and she ended up cooking us dinner. It was good, and we didn't have to do anything. She was very quick at cutting and peeling, and made dinner quickly even with a child in her arms.

Her daughter is always running around the building laughing, and one morning followed Dolly into the guest house, called her "Mom" and then Dolly fed her toast. We have heard of her running into other houses as well. The laughing stopped when she saw me, and she mostly clung to her mother's legs and arms in the kitchen, occasionally forgetting about me and running out laughing, only to go running back in once she saw me again. Oddly, she's only afraid of me in our apartment, and out in the halls she runs right by me.

I also played some music yesterday at my soon to be Tabla teacher's house. His wife gives singing lessons, and I brought me guitar and attempted to play with their singing (I ended up just strumming a D chord). I then played with their son, who played harmonium and showed me some classical Indian chord groupings (played in Western style). If you are interested they were: Am-E-Dm-E-Am (with some changes in voicings) and G-F-C-G, which if you shake the order around is 80% of rock music.

The other night we were invited over to one of the doctor's houses, and when we arrived, the place was swarming with children. It was a birthday party, much like a suburban American birthday party. Children from the neighborhood ran around, ate cake and drank soda, while the parents stayed in their part of the house.

The biggest differences were that they clapped during "Happy Birthday" and added another verse ("May god bless you") and that the food included idli sambhar and dahi. This is, of course, an upper-middle class community and so they have adopted certain Western customs, especially ones that appeal to the younger generation. (They have the Disney Channel in Hindi here, so you can see High School Musical and Zach and Cody dubbed, with certain English phrases, especially slang, still intact)

The day before, we had walked down to the Ganiyari market, and as we were hopping the fence by the gate (this gate is always locked, and it is much quicker just to climb over than to go all the way to the other gate) we were joined by a young boy who is the son of one of the farm workers. He didn't know his age, but we guessed about 6. He had said that he was going to look for other small children to play with (he specifically said "small"). He followed us around the market for a little bit, and we bought him an apple, then sent him on his way to find his friends.

It was initially surprising that such a young person would be allowed to wander so far unsupervised, but there's really no dangers for him. He won't get lost, and he probably knows and is known by 80% of the people he passes. This is a small rural community, so children are more independent and the environment is safer. The biggest danger is probably older bullies.

The other thing about the children here is that they are naked a substantial amount of time. The littlest don't wear diapers, and always have their little baby bottoms hanging out. I would be very wary to hold one. They are also naked in the mornings, when we drive into work. They are somewhere in the process of bathing, which will usually require a trip to the communal water source. I imagine that like children everywhere bath time is a process that involves them running around and trying to not to actually bathe, and so in the morning times there are little naked children running everywhere

Our new apartment!

Before coming here, I was in a band. We played out a few times in the month before I left. Download a live show and our "studio" album here: http://www.sethheidkamp.com/music/Saturday/

Yesterday we went to Raipur with Jacob for a conference on ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in Agriculture. He had been invited the day before to come as a speaker, and they had agreed to pay for taxi fare, so he took us with him to meet some people at SIND (State Institute of Rural Development) where the conference was being held.

Its about a 3 hour ride to go around 120km, so we left before 7AM, and took Chattisgargh's main highway, which reminds me of a rural county that has not been maintained. Trucks rumble along slowly, and there is enough room to pass them if no one is coming the other way, so its a game of zooming around the trucks and then swerving back into your lane when a truck or car is coming the other way.


When we got to Raipur, we could feel that it was a bigger city than Bilaspur. The buildings were a little bigger and little fancier. The streets were a little wider and more bustling. The stores were trendier and less run down. It was a reminder, after being away from Hyderbad for almost 10 weeks and Boston for 3 months, of the appeals of the city. We also saw an elephant and camel being led down the street.

We had breakfast at the Indian Coffee House, which I had thought was a generic name for the countless places which serve coffee and simple snacks, but which I now realize is the proper name for a chain of restaurants. The restaurants are a cooperative, owned by the employees, and I think this is the reason Jacob frequents them.

The meeting was about information and communication technology, but Jacob had been invited on very short notice, and only had a presentation we had prepared for him that was intended to be used to advocate SRI to the state government. However, this audience was only interested in the use of IT to promote agriculture, and there were no slides on that topic, and really, it boils down to "there's some stuff on the Web, and some booklets, maybe some videos". Jacob was also introduced as "Dr. Jacob" and then he explained that he is not a PhD, and is in fact a University drop-out.

We met that afternoon with the director of SIND, who has some interest in producing an SRI video, which Dolly and I are looking to work on. We then left and went to the Pradan Raipur office to meet their head. The office was very nice, on the third floor of a new building in an rapidly developing upper-middle class neighborhood. The stairs were marble, and the furniture was all new. The chairs were still wrapped in plastic. Pradan is working with 10,000 farmers in Chattisgargh to promote SRI, and also partnering with other organizations to promote it further. So despite the swankiness of the offices, they appear to have a high ratio of usefulness to expense, and have been very effective in the Orissa/Jharkund/Chattisgargh area.

Jacob stayed behind for a meeting with the Agricultural Minster the next day. He met his friend who was arranging the meeting at (again) the Indian Coffee House.

On the way home, we stopped at a "dhaba" which basically means "roadhouse", and is meant for a place for traveler's to stop and eat. This was a "dhaba" and not a proper dhaba, the way there are "diners" and diners in the us. At a "diner", you get served by a college student and pay $7.99 for eggs, hash browns, and bacon (coffee extra). At a diner, you get served by an older woman and/or meth addict who calls you "hon" and you pay $3.99 for you breakfast, including the coffee. I would call this a "dhaba" because it was just outside of Bilaspur, had a landscaped garden in the back, generally appeared clean, and the prices were normal for a decent Bilaspur restaurant. A dhaba might feature a tarp roof and/or dirt floor, running water optional. I trusted it enough to try the chicken masala, which was nice and spicy, and so far has not made me sick. (The kitchen was also an open kitchen, so you can see them make your food, which is usually a good indicator of cleanliness and general hygiene).

A month or two ago, they set up a volleyball net in the field at JSS, and playing has become one of Dolly's favorite things to do. I enjoy playing, too, but Dolly is almost fanatical about it. She's pretty good, and likes to win, but her favorite thing to do is laugh at the other players. Sometimes she laughs so hard that she is unable to hit the ball on the next serve because she is still laughing.
Some of the players are pretty funny. One apologizes to his supervisor everytime his mis-hits, whether the are on the same team or not. We figured out that he is apologizing for the general inconvienience and disrupting the flow of the game. Once he even apologized for one of my bad shots. Other people won't move even a single step to hit the ball, and some just move funny. So, Dolly spends as much time laughing as actually playing.

She also makes very funny faces when she hits the ball. The volleyball is pretty hard, and especially when we first started, we would get bruises on our arms. Dolly hasn't gotten the overhead hit down, so she is dependent on the more painful arm hit, and she makes a face of anguish and pain as she prepares for the shot. She also makes an angry face if she is going to hit the ball, but its not as funny.

She's also the only girl who plays. The other women are certainly allowed to play, but it seems not to be culturally acceptable for them to participate.